CarPlay extremely buggy

[technologiq]

Spotify on CarPlay is buggy bordering on unusable.   If I try to play my starred playlist, I just get a 'empty' looking playlist.  Sometimes it will start playing something after 30 or so seconds but most of the time it does nothing.

Spotify will also randomly force close.  Music cuts, screen goes back to the main carplay menu.  

Sometimes it will startup normally but then I get no sound.

This is Spotify running on iOS 8.0.2 via iPhone 6+ on a Pioneer AVH-4000NEX head unit.

Please, please work on CarPlay. 

Edit 1-5-2015: Spotify 2.2.0.2464 on iOS 8.1.2 (12B440) on iPhone 6+ and the issues are still there.

Edit: 6-11-2015: Spotify 3.2.0.1554 on iOS 8.3 (12F70) on iPhone 6+: Recently I've had better luck with Spotify loading correctly and playing correctly. Occassionally I'll have audio break up (not sure if that's the iPhone 6+, Spotify or the head unit).     It should be noted that I like Spotify and don't care for other products out there (for some reason another product was marked as the solution to this thread).  I'm glad to see some positive movement for Spotify and CarPlay.

6-11-15 Update 2:   2 things happen frequently:  Songs play at 2x (skipping every few seconds).  Spotify stops responding for 4-5 seconds.

[happyarthur1979]

Well hopefully the issue is a Pioneer one and not a Spotify one! Will update at some point today and feedback.

[happyarthur1979]

Have updated the system and.... It's still the same! Either Pioneer haven't fixed the issue or it's not their issue to fix!
As I've said previously Spotify are aware of the issue so let's hope they come up with a fix quickly.

[Craig81]

I noticed this morning on my iPhone 6, running IOS 8.02 when I started Spotify in my phone, connected with bluetooth it started playing the radio from a tunein radio app I have that wasn't even open! The track that was playing on the radio station was scrolling across my display in the Spotify app!

[technologiq]

On happyarthur1979's suggestion I contacted @SpotifyCares on Twitter and let them know the problem.

They had me try using Spotify app via CarPlay with Airplane mode ON.    Since several of my playlists are downloaded it wasn't a problem. Sure enough it worked much better.  The gigantic downside was of course, that my phone was in airplane mode which rendered everything but Spotify useless.

That said however, it is progress and it is a sign that the problem appears to be within the Spotify app rather tha the Pioneer hardware. 

[Twist0105]

Oy... It also insists on playing this very annoying song (for a classic rock/80s/90s/comedy album guy) EVERY SINGLE TIME I START SPOTIFY. Since my video above, I have discovered its a "lorde" song, which played on the SPOTIFY radio once when I was exploring radio stations the day I installed the radio last week.

Please, help me make the lorde stop. Where is this song cached? Can you clear the cache? It starts without prompting every time (loud, too).

Maybe the 8.1 ios patch on Monday will help.

[Deuce3030]

Same here - completely unusable in Carplay! I have AVIC-5000NEX head unit.

[user-removed]

Same here. I have the new sph-da120. barely usable if you select tracks from the iphone, its a iphone 6 btw running 8.0.2...you get it playing then it crashes. It also crashes on my home stereo. Come on please sort this out.

[Gait]

Didn't @SpotifyCare tell you this (Airplane Mode ON) was by design? 😉

[user-removed]

had hoped that the update today would help BUT NO......still crashes ;(...also @spotifycares know where airplane mode can go 🙂

[aware]

I concur.  The update this morning seemingly did nothing.  What a fiasco...

[MattSuda]

Hey guys!

I've seen a few reports that CarPlay now works with the new version 1.8.1 along with the new iOS 8.1 update.

It might still be buggy, but hopefully you should see much improvement. Please try it out and post back the results.

Video of Spotify with CarPlay in iOS 8.1:

[user-removed]

I m happy to report that it has improved and as said still a little slow and buggy but much much better. Keep updating and making it better!!

[happyarthur1979]

Unfortunately it's still garbage on iOS 7!!! If this don't improve soon I'm gonna cancel my subs and go back to Deezer Pemium (free with my phone contract) 😔

[user-removed]

Still completley unusbale with latest Spotify update and iOS8.1 update using iPhone 6. Playlists are blank or keep flashing. When selecting a song it wont play or flashes beteween pause and play. Sometimes it even starts playing my iPod music instead of Spotify! When it does work it only plays 4 or 5 songs before the app crashes

[technologiq]

It is *slightly* better - and I'd take that with a big grain of salt.

Issues:

• Add the Ability to disable auto-play last song/playlist on CarPlay startup. This is REALLY obnoxious.
• Spotify will occassionally quit and restart itself.  Weirdly it fades the music out and then auto-starts the music again.
• Spotify will re-spring the device randomly.
• Spotify will kill CarPlay randomly.
• Spotify will play music but give you no way to control it via carplay (control via iPhone OK).
• Screen will flash randomly. Sometimes it's the controls, sometimes it's the album art.

I exhibit these same random issues with:

• Two different iPhone 6+
• Two different iPhone 5S

At least since updating I sometimes (read: sometimes) get it to work great where I get in the car. Hit the icon and it plays music.  This happens maybe 20% of the time and unfortunately if it does work about 50% of the time it crashes within 5 minutes.  When this happens everything is whack and usually requires me to disconnect my phone and restart Spotify on the phone.

If I wasn't paying for Spotify I wouldn't care as much but at this point I question why they released CarPlay support (other than to be first) in such bad shape.   Let's not forget that CarPlay (iOS in the car) is over a year old and has been working since iOS 7.1.     I'd be really irritated if I went and bought a $300,000 Ferrari FF, plugged in my phone, fired up Spotify and get the experience most users have.

Spotify needs to buy a CarPlay compatible head unit and test their own software.  I assume that all they are doing is using the Xcode CarPlay simulator. 

That video posted by Matt makes me LOL since it shows spotify exhibiting the same behaviour it is for other users.

[fiesta]

Well, same for me. NO change on iOS 8.1 with my iPhone 5S and AVIC-F60DAB.

If it doesnt get better within the next three weeks, I'll probably quit my subscription. This is ridicullus.

[user-removed]

oh Dear...i spoke too soon. Its ALL started again. played fine if i start from the phone and sometimes plays if started throught the headunit. Generally though it just crashes or freezes, throws you out. I got a little excited yesterday when all it done was work for 10 mins. TBH it working is the least i expect. I also will cancel the subs if this is not sorted. I believe they should have released it without testing it properly just so they could be one of the first to offer it. Very very short sighted if this is the case.

[Craig81]

Well the Rdio app works fine, tested it out with their free trial yesterday.
My Spotify is still useless iphone 6 with IOS 8.1 and the running Spotify version 1.8.1.8

[azcoyote]

Like others, I'm seeing some improvement with iOS 8.1 and the latest version of the Spotify app, but not enough to make it usable through CarPlay. Still have issues opening playlists and getting music to play trying to control Spotify through Carplay. I find myself having to use my iPhone 6 Plus to browse my Spotify playlists and start playing music. Hopefully the next release of the Spotify app will resolve these issues with CarPlay.

I did come across one other annoying issue with Spotify in CarPlay yesterday. On Tuesday's, I like to browse and listen to new releases on Spotify. When I browse the new releases list through CarPlay interface, Spotify displays a thumbnail of each album and the album name. The artist is missing. It's not always possible to determine the artist through the album cover thumbnail. I would prefer to see "Artist - Album Name" in the new releases list so I'm not having to guess using the thumbnail. Perhaps make it auto-scrolling if it all won't fit in the available space. The biggest issue with new releases is once I did click on an album name to play, it won't load the tracks I have to use the Spotify app on the iPhone to open and play new releases. And I can see the artists, too.

[DevinPitcher]

Hey Spotify, I wanted to provide some feedback about your CarPlay app. First off, let me say I have been loving Spotify. It's the best $10 that I spend every month. Spotify helps me get through my day, everyday. So I would like to say thank you for providing an amazing service.

However, I purchased a Pioneer AVH-400NEX earlier this year in eager anticipation for CarPlay. Now that it's finally here, I was so exicted to use Spotify on my radio. However, my honest opinion about your CarPlay app is that it's complete junk. Your iOS app... amazing. CarPlay... not so much. I can't even use it! So I load up Spotify and I see the menu show up. When I go to my music, I pick a playlist, and then a song. It will play, and then sometimes it'll crash and go back to the home screen, or the background album art will start flashing.

Okay, so I go back to my playlist to pick another song. Now all the album art is flashing... it shows up and disappears really fast, over and over again. Well, if I try to tap on another song to load, it slides to the left and gives me a blank menu instead of my song. I've also noticed that my entire playlist doesn't load. I have some long ones, and going to the bottom to see my most recently added songs doesn't show everything. That only seems to be an issue with large playlists.

There are a few more issues I've had with it, and I was hoping the lastest update I got last night would help, but it didn't. Please fix your app. I would give you any information you need to help getting it fixed. I just really want my Spotify to work right with CarPlay. Since it doesn't, I can't use CarPlay at all since it casues the iOS app to crash sometimes if CarPlay is enabled on my radio.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I look forward to an update to fix these issues soon!