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CarPlay and Spotify...a match made in HELL

CarPlay and Spotify...a match made in HELL

Apple's CarPlay has been out for awhile now, but Spotify hasn't seemed to address any of the major issues I and I'm sure many of you have encountered.  I primarily use Spotify in my car to replace using the builtin music player. I purchased my AVH-4000NEX for the sole purpose of CarPlay and the Spotify integration. Unfortunately in it's current form these 2 don't seem to play well with each other at all, and the experience is often frustrating and borders on being unusable at times. I currently am running the latest firmware update from Pioneer (1.0.8) I believe, and have that paired with an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.1.3.

 

Here are the problems I've encountered. Feel free to add yours and let's see if Spotify reads these boards and will do something about it

 

1. Trying to open Spotify from CarPlay results in app freezing (happens fairly frequently)

 

2. Selecting playlists and tracks from CarPlay results in huge lag or becomes completely unresponsive (happens fairly frequently)

 

3. Music shows as playing but no sound is output. Have to close app on phone and restart. Sometimes that works, or have to shut down phone completely and restart (happens every once in awhile)

 

4. Most annoying and most common problem: Almost every time Spotify connects with CarPlay, it randomly starts playing music from the YourMusic playlist, instead of continuing to play from where it left off. This is beyond annoying as re-selecting the desired playlist results in many songs playing over and over again. Just make it continue playing where it left off. (Occurs 99% of the time Spotify connects with CarPlay)

 

5. Lastly sometimes the app just flat out crashes in the middle of tracks, and restarts the phone.

 

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I have the same issue in my honda civic 2016. I open spotify on carplay and click play on my playlist butbit takes me to the screen showing the play sign without it actually playing. If this isnt fixed soon i am considering moving to apple music.

iOS 9.2.1 and spotify version 5.1.0.1019

As well as Spotify crashing constantly using the App on my iPhone I'm also having the same issues connecting Spotify to my Car music system (even if directly connecting rather than Bluetooth). I get 2-3 tracks playing ok then Spotify abruptly crashes & diverts to Apple Music. No-one at Spotify seems to want to take ownership since this last update (maybe they've been fired the gigantic rooster-up). Seems we're all about to migrate to the competitors. I will certainly be moving by the end of the month if it's not sorted as frankly a month of Spotify crashing constantly is unbearable & downright dangerous in the car.

Hi @cittauk, I've replied to you in a separate thread, however just advising that any issues you have with Spotify on CarPlay will be to do with the app crashing on your phone as well.

Fix this crap. I can't believe we have a thread of 41 pages for months to years and Spotify still hasn't fixed this.

Time to register a domain fixspotify.com

This is beyond bs!

I've happily moved to Apple Music for this reason... It's 2016, people want to use what they pay for!

same issue for me. bought a new Honda Accord 2016 and Spotify is completely useless. Opens up to a screen that shows the play button but no music plays out the speakers. I have to disconnect my phone, close out the Spotify app, and then open it back up before plugging it back in. I switched to Apple Music as well but i really miss discover weekly... please fix this...

Www.spotifydoesntworkwithcarplay.com

These Spotify employees are out to lunch. Smh

Just got a 2016 civic, same problems as reported here. IPhone 6 running 9.3.1, latest Spotify app. 5.4.0.1011. When I try to launch the Spotify app, it comes up to a screen with a track screen, then freezes, or else it crashes the Audio app completely. Today the car said,"Audio not responding, do you want to force close the app?"

It would do nothing until I actually shut the Car off and restarted it. Cycling the audio power did nothing. Couldn't even switch to another audio source, the icons appeared but nothing would play.

Same problem. Spotify open, plug into car play (car running, radio on) carplay opens, displays a track from spotify play button is available, pressing it changes to a pause button but no sound is played.

 

The only way to get sound again is to dig out my phone, unlock it, kill spotify, restart spotify, navigate to a playlist, hit play. I didn't have a similar problem with apple music when I tried it. 

 

In fairness to spotify, I don't *usually* have any similar problems with bluetooth in my mustang (ford sync) or challenger (uconnect). Of course, those systems don't let me change playlists either. And it does still happen from time to time. 😕

 

Device details:

iPhone 5S & 6 (iOS 9.3.3)

Spotify 5.7.0.1055

Pioneer AVIC-5100NEX

I've had the same issue. I've figured out that if my phone is "open" the sound works. As soon as I shut the screen off on my phone the sound goes away.

Shouts to Spotify for fixing this so fast. #sarcasm. Time to claim some charge backs on their crappy product since their support team wants to play this game

Spotify still freezes when on carplay. I Use IoS 10 (happened als on on 9) and Spotify 5.7.0.1055 on a VW Discover Media Carplay system. I use Spotify in offline mode in the Car. When I access Spotify beforehand on my phone (online)  and then get in on carplay it works fine. Carplay will play the offline playlist. But when I later that same day try again on carplay (without accessing Spotify on the phone) it will result in a frozen screen with the play and fast forward Return buttons and no sound.

 

Hope this helps in reproducing the problem!

 

Looking forward for a solution

2016 VW - iPhone 6s - latest software - all of sudden the "Artists" list that appears on the Carplay menu does not match the Artisit list i have on my Spotify app on all other devices.  it's very abbreviated and is missing 90% of the list.  very frustrating - what do we do to fix that?

I am also experiencing this issue.

 

ios 10.1 beta

Spotify premium 6.5.0 app

2016 VW Golf with Discover Media & CArplay

I don't think Spotify will ever fix this pos app for CarPlay. It's not their priority. They want the short term investment instead of the long term.

They would rather cater to the kids using their app instead of the CarPlay crowd which could potentially be the thing that really puts them on the map. Sad. Smh

2016 Honda Civic Coupe Touring. Mine does the same thing ....playlists are there but click on a song and it goes blank. So sad that support doesn't address this issue.

2016 Golf GTI SE, iOS 10.0.2, Discover Pro (I believe the software version is 613 IIRC)

 

All kinds of issues here:

1. Spotify simply not connecting despite strong cell signal strength (kinda happens anywhere, not just in CarPlay, but mostly CarPlay)

 

2. App freezing on connect (fun fact, this lead me to try Apple Music on a whim... more on that briefly)

 

3. SLLLOOOOWWWW loading despite strong cell connection.

 

4. Occasionally, if I get a call while listening to music, the music continues playing through the call. The other party can't seem to hear it, but it's there, distorted as if coming through the phone line, and louder than a conversational voice. This is very, very annoying.

 

5. Spotify will crash unexpectedly out of nowhere, and take CarPlay with it.

 

I thought at first it was just my old iPhone, but even with a new iPhone 7, completely and totally up-to-date, these issues continue.

 

I'm giving it 30 days, otherwise, moving to Apple Music as it's been stellar, no performance issues, no problems connecting/resuming play, and no weird hiccups outside of the car, either.

thx jzakrzeski  - re: your list:

 3 - slow loading - YES

 4 - have the same issue with music continuing to play when receiving a phone call

 i'll give it 30 days too and then move to Apple Music on your "stellar" advise.

 

 

I may have found a way to reproduce the problem on my system (Spotify 6.5, Pioneer SPA-DH120)
 
When I leave the house I notice that sometimes Spotify says it is offline, even though it has Wifi or a 4G signal on the phone (and other apps have no difficulty connecting). 
 
If I plug it into the car while it *thinks* it is offline, CarPlay fails to work; it lists everything as expected (apart from artists where most are missing but that's a different issue) but will not play any music, just showing the blank title with player controls. 
 
If I wait till Spotify thinks it is online before plugging it it, it seems to work OK. 
 
Of course, this means that every time I get into the car I need to start Spotify, then wait till it decides it has a signal (whether the phone has one or not), then start the engine and plug in.

UPDATE: just to clarify it doesn't matter if Spotify is on or offline, if it *thinks* its offline then CarPlay stops working even when Spotify returns online.

I also have to say that Apple Music can be a bit temperamental when the signal is didgy but it seems to recover quickly, whereas I'm getting pretty tired of driving along in silence after spending a load of money on a CarPlay head unit.

Excellent analysis. I've been observing the exact same behavior. Could we have someone at Spotify take this serioulsy? I've been opening 2 support tickets and the only feedback I got was : engineers are working on it. I'm not sure everybody knows that migrating from one streaming platform to another is dead easy using the multiple tools that exist online. Just saying. 

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