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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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Pioneer Headunit users:

Pioneer has recently (Jan 22, 2017) released firmware for most of their CarPlay capable decks.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Support/Downloads

In the "Fixes" section, the following notes appear:

- Corrects a virtual keyboard issue related to iOS 9.x.
- Corrects a music display issue related to iOS 8 and later.
- Minor bug fixes

I'm going to apply this to my own deck (AVIC8000-NEX) and see what happens.

I've had many of the same issues people talk about here, the one that seems to happen most is the "no audio" issue that requires a disconnect/reconnect of the phone to resolve.

I'll post back with any changes/improvements I've noticed in a few days.

I am having the same issues as some of the other users here. I select a track or playlist then it bombs me back.
This is not only annoying but dangerous. People will have to then start messing with their phone while they should be driving.
Defeating the whole object of apple CarPlay!!

The update that came down to my iPhone last night appears to have improved matters.  I can now use the Albums & Artists options in the app and select either.

 

So far so good.

So, Amazon Music released an update to their iOS app last night which has now enabled CarPlay.

Sorted me some playlists, jumped in the car this morning and guess what? It just worked. 

I plugged my phone in, opened Amazon music on the in-car display, hit play and low and behold, it just played. Just what I'm after.

 

Sorry Spotify, you've just lost a customer. Don't think by any means i'll be the last either 🙂

I just got a Mercedes E Class. When I use car play on iPhone 7, I ask Siri to play a track and it keeps opening the Apple music app. Is there any way to use Spotify with voice commands? It all works great on Andriod Drive but I can't figure it out on Apple Car Play.

Siri can only control Apple apps. If you want the ability to ask for a song, you will need to switch to Apple Music. 

Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Pandora all work flawlessly with Carplay but Apple Music is the only app Siri can control at this time. 

 

Spotify? Well it just plain dosent work reliably with carplay....

You have lost another customer Spotify, Everyone else gets it, you dont... Its a real bummer too, you have the music figured out and great sound quality but your app is going to continue to drag you down.

Bye!

I just leased a Subaru Impreza 2017. So far the few times I have hooked up CarPlay and Spotify it has worked. However there are some obvious features missing. The Impreza has a very large and wonderful touch screen for playing music and interacting with the media center in the console. But all I am able to do is push Play, Forward, Back, and Pause. I cannot, Save, Favorite, Add to Playlist, nothing. So if I hear a great track from radio or a Weekly playlist compiled by Spotify, while driving, I'm compelled to do other risky behaviors like try to capture a screen cap of the tune to try and remember it later. Please add other menu options other than Play, Pause, Fwd, Back, Up, etc.

I have the newest version of Spotify. I've reinstalled numerous times and it hasn't helped the situation. Please add this issue to the list of problems:

 

SPOTIFY PLAYS SONGS SUPER FAST AND IT HAPPENS APPROXIMATELY 80% OF THE TIME. The only way to correct this is to either manually close and open Spotify directly on the iPhone or unplug the USB cord. Both are dangerous while driving. I will cancel my Spotify account if this continues as it is too annoying.

I've seen that issue a lot as well ; it's been there for a while. The song
plays in accelerated mode until you unplug and plug the USB back. This
happens when starting Spotify. Never happened to me when it's already
working.

At my F70DAB i doesnt change a thing.

I think its an Apple issue.

 

I found a fix myself:

When audio doesnt play, just start Siri with the home button and exit it after that. 

Your music wil start playing then after siri is gone.

 

Its not perfect but its something....

Thanks for letting us know about this issue. We've been trying to reproduce it but it's really a matter of luck and we haven't found a way to do so on the headunits we have. 

If you have a reliable way please let us know and also attach a video if possible. 

 

Thanks all for your support on this. 

 

First of all, its nice to see an actual rep from Spotify take notice, however, I feel your request is simply an attempt at satiation or a stall tactic. These issues are very easy to reproduce IF you test like a real consumer would. Go have any CarPlay unit installed in a test vehicle and just drive it everyday back and forth to the office. Be sure to load several different music apps on the test iPhone because that is how actual consumers act. Listen to NPR on Apple music on your way in, then switch to Spotify on your run to lunch. Use Apple Maps on your way to a new restaurant after work then maybe catch sports news on ESPN (Apple Music.) The next day on the way in, listen to CBS news using their app then, play your favorite playlist on Spotify. Be sure to reboot your phone a few times (because real people have to do that occasionally) and you will quickly see the issues. Can't miss them. BTW, a few updates back Pandora started suffering from the same ills. So now you are not the only one with issues but the brand new Amazon music works amazing- every time, never even glitches.

issues I've had;
- Freezes on a daily basis, app opens but no music will play
- Spinning wheel of death and can't select anything else within Spotify app
- Music playing in fast forward for no apparent reason at 10x normal speed
- Cant see playlists I've recently listened too even though I can see older ones

I can reproduce one of the issues quite reliably.  

 

My car is parked at the front of my house - just at the limit of my Wifi reach.  

 

So when I get in, my phone is normally on Wifi, but after I've started the engine, it's generally lost the connection and starts looking for the 4G.  

 

This seems to be what causes the issue.  Spotify starts up, notices that there is no connection and freezes.  When, a couple of seconds later, the connection is active, Spotify stays frozen and I have to stop the car, kill Spotify on my phone, and restart it - this time Spotify notices the connection is live and works OK.  

Match made in **bleep**...indeed! I think Spotify's CarPlay version is simply poorly designed. In addition to other reported issues, selecting a radio playlist produces essentially a blank screen with reverse/forward arrows and a play/pause button between reverse/forward. And that's it! No indication of what's playing, what's next, and reverse/forward arrows do not work. I realize CarPlay may have something to do with this behavior. However, as a premium customer, I find myself not wanting to use Spotify...at all...in my car or at home or work. Spotify can do better here...much better.

Forgot to add:I'm using mobile Spotify v 8.4.3 on an iPhone 6plus running IOS 10.3.2

I have the exact same behavior. 

 

I can reproduce when leaving work from the underground parking area, where there is no cellular nor wifi connection.

 

Restarting spotify is the only way to resolve it.

I have the same problem with both my iPhone and my wife's iPhone in a 2018 VW Atlas. Major problem that is not only extremely frustrating, but a driving hazard. If this is not resolved shortly, I'm going to be forced into switching to Apple Music. Juding by the durration of this thread, I'm not holding my breath. 

Seeing this thread be 2 years old and problems are still occuring makes for a grim read indeed. I have been a Spotify premium subscriber for many years now and was quite excited when I got my brand new car yesterday with CarPlay. Finally, no more bluetooth speaker sitting in the cup holder! How wrong was I when hooking up Spotify to CarPlay only to find that music refuses to play on my car stereo over CarPlay! I can browse albums, artists, radio and playlists but as soon as you go to listen to something the screen shows the back/forward/play+pause controls and nothing plays!

I am very dissapointed that this doesn't work in my brand new car 😞

Will it be possible to save songs in one of my playlists instead of just choosing between thumbs up/down? Thank you!

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