Cannot play albums or artists

[goatgeese]

Plan

Free

Country

UK 

Device

iPhone SE

My Question or Issue

Whenever i try and play an album or artist, nothing will start playing but the play button will turn into the pause button. I’m able to play playlists, i just can’t with anything else.

i’ve deleted then downloaded the app  and that worked, until the problem began all over again. it keeps happening. 

[Elena]

Hey @goatgeese,

Welcome to the Community and thanks for reaching out about this. 

We'd first recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app, as this can be very helpful for clearing the cache that might be causing this issue and it's different than simply reinstalling. 

If you're still experiencing the issue after reinstalling, let us know if you can replicate it when you log into your account using a different device. We'd also recommend making sure that your device has enough storage space available.

Keep us posted!

[Vultureback]

I had the same problem and the clean reinstall worked! Thank you!

The clean reinstall was only a temporary fix, I am only able to play from playlists again.

[goatgeese]

Hi thank you for replying!

I did try a clean reinstalling, the problem happened again. It seemed to be working for a while, but it stopped again. I think the problem happens when i close the app because ads start playing.

i tried listening on web player on my phone and i was able to play that. There isn’t another device i could really use. I also freed up as much space i could on my phone, but the problem is still happening. 😞

[Mihail]

Hey @goatgeese,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Since a clean reinstall solved the issue temporarily and it works with your web player, it would seem that something is interfering with the apps cache. Could you please make sure that adaptive battery is off and that the app has all necessary permissions? It's also a good idea to check for possible iOS updates. Afterwards run a clean reinstall once more keep us posted on how it goes. Also - make sure to restart your device before the fresh install. This is a very effective, but often overlooked step. If you have the option to test it with another account and see if the issue comes up there as well, that would be really useful. 

We'll be keeping an eye out for your reply 🙂

[justlie]

I have the same problem with playing on Artist page. iPhone 8, iOS 13.3.1, Spotify last update 8.5.86. When I press Play button at Artist (it doesn’t depends on what Artist I’m trying to listen to) nothing goes on, only the button icon changes to Pause. I reinstalled the app, this bug disappeared, but after 2 successful listenings I reproduced this critical bug again. Clearing cash in the app and app closing doesn’t fix it! Now I must reinstall my app again for not having this bug for a moment. I’m confident that I will reproduce it again easily. Please, fix it. It is my first day with Spotify and Spotify app, so I’m very disappointed.

[Jeremy]

Hey there @justlie,

Thank you for your reply in this thread. We're really sorry to hear that you experience this.

Can you confirm if you performed a clean reinstall and followed all of the troubleshooting steps that @Mihail provided?

It can also be good to try with another internet connection to see if the issue persists.

Does this occur on one specific device or multiple devices?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Cheers!  

[aportesi]

I followed all the directions on this thread and the same problem keeps happening. The problem is fixed for a little bit but then it goes back to the same bug that doesn’t allow me to play albums or artist profiles. The bug is happening on my phone and my computer (both apple ios products). I checked on my family members phones because they are on the same family plan as I am and it seems to be working fine on one family members device and not on the other. I was playing around with it and it seems like the green shuffle button on the top of albums and artists profiles doesn’t work but if you go into an album and actually press on one of the songs it plays the album just fine.

[xMythStarx]

I’ve also been having the same issues but only with my phone, I’ve tried all the things listed here and the issue keeps happening, I have an iPhone 7, I over 8GB of storage left, both my Spotify and iOS are on the latest updates and I’ve tried over 4 different wifi networks and my cellular data, yet I still have this issue, I can shuffle play with playlists just fine but can’t shuffle play artists or albums. Like I tried literally everything listed there^^ and got the same results as the others. It only gave a temporary fix and shortly after the problem happened again.

[goatgeese]

Adaptive battery is off. App permissions are all on. App cache is clear and i did another clean reinstall but the problem still happened. no matter how many times i reinstall it keeps having the problem. i restarted and left it off. Everything is up to date. and now it starts closing the app and stopping my music. Spotify is just bugging out 😞 

[Alex]

Hi there folks,

Thanks for your info.

Can you try asking a friend or family member to log in with their Spotify account on your device or to create a new free account with another email address, and see whether you can play music normally with the other account?

Another thing we need to test is if the app works normally when you're connected to another network.

We'll be on the lookout for your replies.

Cheers.