Cannot play songs from search

[danixsand]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

Device

iPhone 11 Pro

Operating System

iOS 14.2

My Question or Issue

When I search a song, I cannot play it or add it to the queue. Tapping to play makes nothing happen—the song bar at the bottom doesn’t show up. Adding to queue shows no error message but inside the queue there is no song. I can only like to add the song to Liked Songs and play it from there. I’ve had this on/off for months. I haven’t uploaded any screenshots bc it would just look like a normal song search.

[Ivan]

Hey there @danixsand, 

Thanks for reaching out to us about this - we'll be glad to help you out here.

First thing you can try in such a case is logging out and back in to your Spotify account to make sure you refresh your account data. If this persists, you might want to try a clean reinstall as well. 

Another step we recommend is disabling any power saving or data cleaning settings on your mobile device. Alternatively, you can try authorizing Spotify to run without restrictions despite the mentioned settings being enabled. Make sure you try this since such features can often prevent the app from operating at full capacity.

Keep us posted! We'll be happy to lend a hand if you need more help.

[aronmc94]

Hi, I’m also having the same issue on iOS 14.2, iPhone XS, premium. When I search for a song, tapping on any song won’t invoke any action. It’s like the tap is ignored. No play bar shows and nothing plays. If I tap an artist or category, it loads as expected. This also occurs with repeated searches, although it doesn’t happen all the time. It has been occurring intermittently for quite a few weeks now, but more recently in the last few days it occurs more often than not - very frustrating.

I will try the steps mentioned, but what do you mean when you refer to ‘authorizing Spotify to run without restrictions’? 

Aron

[danixsand]

I've tried these steps multiple times (over the course of months, I should add) to no avail. I have no restrictions running on my device. The problem still comes and goes at random. The ONLY way I can get a song to play from search, when the problem comes, is to like the song. This is the only trigger that will get the song to play.

[Jeremy]

Hey there @aronmc94 and @danixsand,

Thank you for your replies in this thread.

If the clean reinstall doesn't do the trick - can you try the following:

• Soft reset of the device
• Ensure the operating system is up-to-date
• Ensure device has enough storage space
• Log in with another account - such as a friend's or a family member's to see if the issue persist

It would also be great if you can let us know which version of the app you have?

Also - does this occur on one specific device or multiple devices?

We'll keep an eye out for your replies.

Cheers!

[danixsand]

I'm on iOS 14.3, was on 14.2 at time of writing I believe (have auto-install). Spotify iOS version 8.5.86 but have had this issue across versions. I get this problem on my computer as well, though more rarely, so I'm guessing it's a bug that's distributed to certain accounts?

[Eni]

Hey @danixsand, 

Thanks for getting back in touch. 

Could you let us know if this happens over 3G/4G, WiFi, or both? Can you try using a different connection to see if that makes a difference?

On another note, we suggest that you log in with a friend's account on your phone to check if the issue persists. 

We'll keep an eye out for your reply 🙂

[danixsand]

Both. I understand that you need to troubleshoot all of the settings etc. but it really just seems like a UI bug or smth? Bc as soon as I like the song (by pressing the "…" on the song then adding to Liked Songs) it starts playing. And I can open albums from search (when I click on the album the corresponding action happens), but within the album, I can only play data that I've already liked/saved. (I don't know which parameter matters in this case, since all my liked songs are downloaded offline, but it seems it would be related to the like since as soon as I like the song it starts playing before it's even been downloaded).

[Mihail]

Hey @danixsand,

Thanks for getting back to us.

We'd appreciate it if you log in with a friend or family members account and see if the issue comes up there as well. That way we can narrow down the root cause either to the account or device. If it works properly with another account we suggest that you create a new one with a different email here. If you wish, you can then transfer your music collection using the steps in this guide. 

Keep us posted! We'll be happy to lend a hand if you need more help.