Songs occasionally won't start in mobile

[CallMeCal1987]

(Edits in bold)

Description

When listening to a playlist, every so often when a song finishes, the next song won't start. It happens regardless of what playlist I'm listening to, whether I am on or offline, and whether the file is streaming or local.* Pressing pause and play does nothing, skipping back and then forward does nothing. Strangely though, skipping forward and then backward fixes the problem, and the song plays just fine. This only happens on mobile, never on the computer.

*The problem occurs specifically when transitioning from a local file synced from my computer to a file in Spotify's library.

I have restarted the app, restarted the phone, and even completely deleted and reinstalled the app, to no avail.

Enabling crossfade in the "Playback" options drastically lowered the frequency of this problem, but it still happens on occasion

A more detailed description, using numbered steps

1. I am listening to a playlist.

2. One song A synced local file ends, the next song from Spotify's library loads, but does not play.

3. I wait several minutes, the song does not play.

4. I press pause and then play, nothing changes.

5. I skip backward and then forward, nothing changes.

6. I skip forward and then backward, and the song plays as normal.

What I expected to happen

I expected the song to play when it was loaded by the playlist.

What actually happened

The song froze at the beginning as though paused, but the app was in "play" mode, not "pause".

My iPad/iPhone model

iPhone 4S

Device’s Operating System

iOS 7.1.2

Is your device jailbroken?

No

Approximately how many playlists do you have?

>50

My mobile Spotify version

1.4.1.4

My provider and country

AT&T USA

My username

1240526758

[blake]

Thanks for the very detailed description! I haven't encountered this issue. Does this happen with any specific songs or playlists, or does it seem to occur randomly? If it does coincide with particular songs, can you copy and paste the Spotify URI by right clicking it and selecting 'Copy Spotify URI'?

[CallMeCal1987]

Okay, in doing that I made a discovery: It occurs when transitioning from a local file synced from my computer to an online file streaming (or synced) from Spotify. In light of that, the specific song URIs probably don't make a difference. I will edit my original post to reflect this discovery.

[user-removed]

Hey Cal,

I'm not able to reproduce the issue on my iPhone 5s. This might seem like an odd idea, but can you try going into Settings and setting the app to crossfade between tracks under "Playback". This causes tracks in the queue to start playing a set number of seconds before the previous song ends as it fades out. I'm curious to see if the issue persists with a crossfade.

Also, do you not have any issues playing local files on after the other or songs in Spotify's catalog one after another?

[CallMeCal1987]

Adding a crossfade does seem to have solved the problem! Thank you for the suggestion!

And you were correct; transistioning from a local file to another local file, from a spotify file to another spotify file, or from a spotify file to a local file all worked just fine. The problem only happened when transitioning from a local file to a spotify file. But now that I've enabled crossfade, the problem has stopped happening entirely!

[user-removed]

I'm really glad I was able to help! Still strange that you had that issue in the first place.

[CallMeCal1987]

I may have spoken too soon. In most situations the problem has stopped happening, but on occassion it will still freeze just like before. Very strange. Still, it used to happen 100% of the time, and now it only happens on occassion, so, the crossfade was helpful, but not really a full solution.

[user-removed]

I see. The fact that this is only happening on your device leads me to believe it's not necessarily a problem with the Spotify app. Try logging in and out of the app a couple of times and restarting your phone by holding the home and power buttons simultaneously for a couple of seconds.

[CallMeCal1987]

I have already done all of those things; I even performed a clean reinstall of Spotify before posting this issue. The problem persisted regardless.

[Patthesplat]

Hi,

I am having a IOS problem where spotify will stop playing tracks in the middle of a playlist.  This only seems to happen when the playlist is a mixed playlist which includes local tracks and Spotify offline tracks.

Playlist have about 1400 songs on it which are a mixture of local tracks from Itunes, and Spotify tracks.  Probably about 80% of the tracks are local tracks.

When shuffling (or just playing) the list, it plays fine until there is a spotify track which comes after a local track.  When this happens, playback stops and the counter is at 0.00.  If I use the little circle to manually move the track forward a couple of seconds, it then restarts play no problem.  Also, if I rewind back to 0.00 again it then carries on, so the track is working and is not corrupted.

I cannot be sure that this is happening every single time it switches from local to spotity track, but that's the pattern I've noticed, and every time it stops, it's always on a spotify track and the last one was a local file.

This happens whether or not I am in offline mode.

It happens exactly the same symptoms on an old Iphone 3GS, and an Iphone 5S.

I have tried on one of the Iphones, uninstalling spotify completely, reinstalling,  and reloading the whole playlist, but it's still the same.

I am using "Extreme" as the quality.

This same playlist was working fine up until a few weeks ago.  I suspect, though I can't prove, that this started happening when the last Spotify update, or possibly the one before that, was rolled out.  I also wonder if there is a limit to the number of tracks in a shared playlist like this, as I regularly add a few tracks to this list.

I'm starting to think this is a bug in the app, especially as it's happening the same on two different phones, so has anyone else seen this and how do I report it?

cheers

Patrick.

[Patthesplat]

Guys - I can report that this is not only an issue from one person.  I have exactly the same issue on both of my IOS devices (one Iphone 3GS and one Iphone 5S).  

I posted a separate request about this just this morning, but I have now spotted this thread which appears to describe exactly the same issue, and I came to exactly the same conclusion that this is happening only when a local track is played, and the next track is a Spotify track.  I have also tried deleting the spotify app completely and reloading from scratch.

I also believe that this may only be happening when playing through the USB/Lightning connector.  It doesn't seem to happen when playing through the headphone socket.  I am not 100% sure of this but becoming more sure as I conduct further tests.  I don't remember this ever happening when I am listening on headphones.  I think it possibly does do it when listening through Bluetooth - it's frozen in this way at least once in the car whilst on Bluetooth.

UPDATE: More recent tests show that this does happen on headphones, but only when a charge cable is also connected.  When on battery power, the freeze does not happen.

UPDATE2: I have also tested this using Bluetooth playback.. The result is the same - Bluetooth playback freezes on track 7 (see below) but only when a charge cable is connected.  If running on battery only, playback does not freeze.

CallmeCal1987 - are you listening through a speaker through the lightning port when this happens and is it happening through headphones as well?

Just today I set up a test playlist consisting of

- 2 Tracks which I own but are also in the spotify library

- Track 3 is a spotify track

- Tracks 4, 5, and 6 are truly local track (not in Spotify Catalog).

- Track 7 is a Spotify track.

The first time I played this playlist, it froze on track 7.

If I then start the playlist from track 4, 5, or 6, track 7 does not freeze.

However if I play it from the beginning, it always freezes on track 7.  Starting from track 1, it was repeatable 3 times in a row that track 7 froze.

UPDATE:  I made a second test playlist with 7 totally different tracks, but with the same combination of track types, and got exactly the same result - freeze on track 7 but only when a charger cable or speakerdock are connected.

Therefore it seems that this issue depends on the combination and number of tracks that are played before the spotify track, but the common factor being that it's always when switching from a local to a spotify track that it freezes.  It seems there have to be quite a few tracks played before the one that freezes, but I haven't been able to pin down the exact combination or number of them.

Also note that you cannot recreate this problem by fast forward through the playlist, as if you use the fast forward button it always works fine - it's only when play is continuing normally that the issue occurs, so you have to wait through some songs for it to happen. Therefore testing this issue to find a repeatable pattern is pretty time consuming - don't pick rubbish songs to test this 🙂

One other detail I can add is that when it freezes, if you are actually watching the screen at that moment, the track appears to start playing and counts up to about 10 seconds (but only with silence), and then flips back to 0.00.  Also, if you then move the little circle slider by a couple of seconds forward, the track starts playing.

I have not tested whether this happens when the playlist is not downloaded and is only in streaming mode, but I can confirm that it still happens whether or not spotify overall is in offline mode.  However I guess for local songs you have to download them unless you have your PC switched on (?) so you would normally always download offline.

The main playlist that this is happening with, was working fine a few weeks ago.  I'm pretty sure this started happening after that last app update, or possibly the one before (I think there were 2 updates rolled out in the last few weeks).  I didn't report it at the time because I thought that when I got around to uninstall and reload everything it would fix the issue.  I have also had it happen on other playlists that I created recently.

By the way I have my quality settings on extreme.  No idea whether that is relevant to the issue, but interesting to compare with anyone else with this issue.

I haven't tried the crossfade trick.  I will try that, but even if that works it isn't really a solution as I don't really like listening with crossfade.

cheers

Patrick.

[Patthesplat]

Update:

- It seems that this happens only when a charge cable, or speakerdock, is connected.  The freeze happens always in the test playlist that I outlined earlier, always at song 7, except if I am running on headphones / battery combination and no charge cable is plugged in.  Then it works fine.

- Also can confirm it happens on both of my IOS devices.

[teamcooperuk]

I've reported this to the Spotify Cares Twitter account, but my experience is that it DOES happen through headphones.

The Crossfade trick makes no difference for me at all. I'm using a 4S.

It's actually made the app pretty unusable as I have so many local files synced. Incredibly annoying.

[Patthesplat]

"I've reported this to the Spotify Cares Twitter account, but my experience is that it DOES happen through headphones. "

OK well I've just done a couple more tests and you are right, except that what I'm finding is that it does happen through headphones but only if a charging cable is plugged in.  If I unplug and run only on battery power, the freezing does not happen.  

I also confirmed that the freeze does happen on Bluetooth, but I had a charge cable plugged in, so I am now testing on bluetooth / battery combination.

UPDATE: When playing through Bluetooth, the freeze on track 7 happens only when a charge cable is plugged into the device.  No charge cable, no freeze.  Can you please check if it's the same for you.

"The Crossfade trick makes no difference for me at all. I'm using a 4S. "

I suspect the Crossfade may be a red herring and that it's more the other factors causing the results, but I have not tried the crossfade option.

[teamcooperuk]

Happens for me regardless of whether I'm charging or not.

Sure we can agree that there is a significant problem here that is in urgent need of fixing.

[user-removed]

I really can't seem to replicate this issue on my iPhone 5s. I think your guys's best bet right now is to maintain contact with the Spotify support team until they release an update that squashes this annoying bug. Hope you guys resolve the issue!

[Patthesplat]

Actually it's a lot easier to recreate this issue than I previously posted.  Create a playlist with:

Track 1 = A spotify only track

Track 2 = A local track (doesn't matter whether it's matched or not).

Track 3 = A spotify track.

It seems actually to be on the second played spotify track and after a local track that the freeze occurs.  First spotify track in the list plays fine.

Playback will freeze on track 3.  I repeated this many times now with many combinations, and this seems the simplest way to reproduce it.

Further, I can now shed further light on the headphones / no headphones issue.  It's nothing to do with headphones, and it is not whether a charging cable is connected or not, but whether the screen is on or off, that causes this.  If you are listening on battery power with headphones, chances are the screen will turn itself off by the time it reaches the second spotify track.  Then it plays on normally.  However, if the screen is on, that's when it freezes.  I have just checked this by forcing the screen off whilst the phone was charging, and the freeze doesn't happen any more.  By default if the phone is charging, the screen stays on all the time whilst playing spotify.  Teamcooperuk - is your screen on or off when this is happening?  Likewise if I play on battery, but keep using the phone so that the screen stays on (whether within the spotify app or on another app or screen), the freeze does occur.

Additionally you need to make sure the available offline button is clicked on.  I don't think this issue occurs if the available offline button is not on, but in any case you would not be able to play local files without them being available offline (or your PC switched on on the same network I guess).

If anyone else can confirm that this exact pattern is consistently repeatable on their device it will probably get more attention on the issue.

To recap, the issue is when you play a spotify playlist with offline button on, with  a spotify track, followed by 1 or more local tracks, followed by a second spotify track, AND the screen is on.  Playback will freeze on the second spotify track.  (This gives the appearance of random freezing of tracks if you have long mixed playlists and shuffle them).

Reminder - you cannot skip forward to reproduce this issue - you have to let the tracks play themselves out.

cheers

Patrick.

[Patthesplat]

Victor - can you try to recreate it using the exact process I describe in my post just now?

[user-removed]

I did exactly as your described and playback was perfectly fine. Looking like an issue for the iPhone 4s and iPad maybe?

[Patthesplat]

Hi Victor,

No, I am on an Iphone 5S also, and I'm seeing the same thing on an Iphone 3GS as well.  

Do you have the available offline button switched on?

cheers

Patrick.