iPhone App Will NOT Play Music

[laura_jane0]

Hi Spotify Community,

I'm now at my wits end. I have downloaded the mobile App - and deleted and redownloaded it MANY times (plus have restarted my phone, and all the other nonsense solutions that techies generally suggest) - but music just will NOT play on my Spotify App on my iPhone. I am based in Taiwan. The App worked great for the first week (trial period) but now I just absolutely cannot get it to work. I even deleted the app off my Macbook so there it is only active on 1 device - my phone (despite what I have read seeming to indicate that it's okay to run it across 3 devices in the free version, but hey! I'm just trying anything!) I had serious issues just even trying to log in to the App, and thought once I succeeded with that, I'd be on the home straight. But nope - no music! With this many issues just trying to use the free version, I am very skeptical about throwing money at it and upgrading to Premium. Any advice on how to get music to play!? Thanks!

[Hubo]

Hey Laura_Jane0! Thanks for reaching out!

Sounds weird! Playing music with Spotify Free is a bit different than with Premium. On Spotify Free you'll have to tap the big Shuffle Play button to play music. 

Let me know when this issue happens again and I can take a look backstage. 🙂

Have a nice day and keep rockin'! 😄

[laura_jane0]

Hi Huib, thanks for your reply! Still can't play any music this morning. I have been using the shuffle play button, as I know selecting a specific song is part of the premium package. Here's 2 screen shots after I hit shuffle play and tap into the song (number 1: you can see there's no song time showing up, and nothing plays, just seems like it's paused; number 2: if I hit play again, the song just blacks out like this. Super confused and frustrated! App been working just fine on computer. I can even use my phone to control computer playback. But no music when I try using the app on my phone... Would be so happy if you can offer any advice. Thanks!

[Swanny]

Hey @laura_jane0, are you on mobile data or wifi when trying to stream on your phone?

[Simonftw]

I have the same problem, both wifi and 3G do not work... Frustrating

[laura_jane0]

Hi Swanny, I've tried it out on both wifi and data (4G) but cannot get it to work. If I click on "devices" and select to switch from computer App to phone, I get a message about it being a premium service?! That doesn't seem right, especially as I set up the phone App first and only tried on the computer because I was having such hassles. If you've got any suggestions, I'd be really pleased to hear them 🙂 Thanks for taking time to reply!

[laura_jane0]

Sorry to hear you're also having this problem, Simonftw. It's so, so aggravating! If anyone send me some possible fixes, I'll let you know, too. Fingers crossed!

[Swanny]

Hey @laura_jane0, I've escalated this one up, as it's a strange one! What version of iOS are you running?

[Simonftw]

Fyi I just updated my phone to IOS10 and still does not work...

I think it might be the same problem as laura_jane0

[laura_jane0]

Thanks very much, Swanny. I'm running IOS 10.

[laura_jane0]

Also on IOS 10, Simonftw, and our problem looks exactly the same. Happy to know it looks like a legitimate glitch and not just me being a dumb-**bleep**, ha! 🙂

[Swanny]

Hey guys, are you in Taiwan by any chance? If not, can you please advise what country you're in? Thanks!

[Simonftw]

I am in Taiwan yes, read two other complains elsewhere on the internet that were also similar and also from taiwan. Could this me the problem? What I do not understand then is it working on my computer and not my phone..

[laura_jane0]

Hi Swanny, yes, I'm in Taiwan. Is there a problem with the App in that App store?!

[Swanny · Accepted solution]

So the bad news is Spotify free streaming on mobile doesn't appear to be available for Taiwan users at this point in time. Apologies about that! If you do go premium, you shouldn't have any issues with streaming though, so hopefully won't discourage you from joining!

[Simonftw]

I did not see any other answer to this problem..

Thank you very much for your time and effort in helping us 🙂

[laura_jane0]

Swanny, sincere apologies... NY's cleaning out inbox and I see that I didn't ever respond to your final message, sorry! Thanks for looking into the issue for us. Perhaps it is just an iPhone issue in Taiwan for the free streaming as I have a friend on Android who is able to free stream on his phone. Anyway, here's hoping the issue might get fixed this year 🙂 Even if not, really appreciate your efforts of looking into the matter! Thank you so much! And happy 2017!

[Simonftw]

People of 2017, I found a possible solution to play free spotify music on your Iphone.

The problem is that spotify free is only available for 14 days in Taiwan (as for any country when traveling).
But then in Taiwan there is one more restriction, even if you are a resident (in other word also have Taiwan as country of origin in your spotify setting) you will not be able to play free music.

These are the steps to undertake:

1. Spotify settings: something else than Taiwan. Can be USA for example.

2. Download an application that makes you connect to a VPN (ArkVPN for example works fine for me)

3. Connect every 14 days to the vpn connection in America.

4. Enjoy good music

[laura_jane0]

Thanks for the suggestion!