Getting Mono-Audio on Airplay 2 for Apple TV

[fraenko]

Country

Germany 

Device

iPhone 6 (iOS 12 beta 5-8), iPhone 5S (iOS 11.4), Apple TV 4K (tvOS 11.4)

My Question or Issue

I guess since tvOS 11.4 or iOS 11.4 (Airplay 2) I'm getting Mono-Audio when I stream audio from my iOS devices. 

I noticed it because just my center-speaker on my 5.1-system plays audio (using Dolby Pro Logic II). 

When I switch to Apple Music, all speakers are active.

My current workaround is:

1. Start Airplay connection from iOS control center
2. Start song with Spotify (getting mono audio)
3. Switch to Apple Music, start playing a song with Airplay still active (getting stereo)
4. Kill the Spotify app from the multitasking switcher and start it again
5. Spotify plays now in stereo, all speakers are active.

I can always reproduce this issue, but I couldn't find any other thread online. 

I also filed a bug report to Apple.

Can anyone with a similar setup confirm this issue?

Update: I could localize the error better. See my answer below. A better workaround now is to kill the app via App switcher (swipe up). Then connect to Apple TV via control center and start spotify again.

[fraenko]

The issue persists after upgrading from beta to non-beta iOS 12 and tvOS 12... 😞

[Guido]

Hey @fraenko.

Thanks for getting in touch!

Have you tried to reinstall the app thoroughly yet? You can get instructions from here.

Let us know if that didn't work, or if you have a different question.

Have a nice day.

[fraenko]

Hi @Guido, thanks for answering.

I already tried reinstalling. And currently I'm in the Beta-App-Program (via Testflight) and the problem is still there.

In 1-2 weeks I'll try on the iPhone XS with a fresh installed iOS and see if the problem is appearing there, too.

[Katerina]

Hey there @fraenko,

Thanks for getting back in touch with this. 

Just to confirm, have you made sure that the necessary permissions are enabled for Spotify on your devices? To check that, just head to your phone's Settings then scroll until you see Spotify.

Also, make sure Spotify is whitelisted or set as an exception for any battery and memory optimization/saving settings and apps.

Let us know how that goes 🙂

/K

[fraenko]

hi @Katerina,

thanks for replying. I attached my spotify app settings screen. But I dont believe that this matters in my case.

Anyhow I could now reproduce the problem more precisely with two devices, both freshly installed Spotify app instances:

• When I switch to AirPlay WHILE a song is playing over the iPhone's speakers (no matter if from whithin the app or iOS control center) the song is playing in Mono.

• When I switch to AirPlay BEFORE I started playing a song in Spotify, before or after a fresh App start, it's playing in stereo. 

Please test this on iPhone 6 or 5S. Maybe this is an issue because the song is playing over iPhone speakers (mono) before switching to Airplay. Stereo speakers have been introduced with the iPhone 7. Maybe it's not an issue with newer devices since they're playing audio in stereo over their speakers.

[fraenko]

Okay I tried now with an iPhone XS and - as expected - the bug is not present here. 

I strongly believe that this is because of the mono speaker audio being switched to stereo airplay on pre iPhone 7 devices.

[1174160707]

Hi there,

I’m having the same problem here using an iPhone SE IOS 12.1. 

Is that really an issue of the iPhone model? If I airPlay music from Apple Music or Tidal it plays back proper stereo.  Feels it’s more a Spotify bug.  Any help would be highly appreciated. 

[joakimskog]

I'm so happy to see that I'm not alone having this problem!

Earlier today I installed a new DAC between my Samsung TV and a pair of new speakers using optical output from the TV. Audio from Apple TV came through hdmi, so you can imagine I had quite a few possible sources to check out to understand why the audio was in mono. 

However, later today I setup a way much more simple system with just an airport express connected to an amplifier with the exact same mono audio result using Airplay 2 

Shutting down Spotify on my iPhone 6s running latest ios fixed it - mono became stereo. Apple Music worked in stereo all the time using Airplay 2, so there's definitely something going on with Spotify. 

[gmetzker]

same issue is happening to me with and iPhone 7. I’m on iOS version 12.1.4. Spotify 8.4.93.796 

Apple TV (A1842), is 12.1.2

spotify plays only on my center channel in mono when I use airplay.  Apple Music plays in stereo

Any fixes would be awesome

[kiplantt]

I can confirm that this bug is still present in Spotify 8.5.41.669 on an iPhone SE with  iOS 13.3.

I strongly believe that this a race condition in the Spotify app happening when playing music with the loudspeaker of a mono iPhone (before the iPhone 7) and then switching to AirPlay 2. I also think that this is not a problem of iOS, as YouTube and Apple Music do not show this problem.

Spotify's support helped me reproduce the bug with their own test Spotify account and playlist, with "Mono Audio" disabled and "Balance" centered. This can also be tested easily with the song "You Never Can Tell" from Chuck Berry with the piano coming only from the right loudspeaker.