Spotify bugs

[fgaget]

Morning,
I'm Using Spotify on a Galaxy Watch ; clearly beta-level...One of the most annoying things (on top of battery drain warnings) is the was hat offline mode is not working properly > every 2/3/4/5 days (random) I'm logged off automatically. Need to re-login and re-download offline playlists. Really annoying. Others facing same issues ?

 

[whgrell]

Yes, very frustrating trying to use Spotify on the watch. I've given up and that is unlike me.

 

[fgaget]

I think I found the cause of this > On the smarpthone companion app, there's an option to clean the storage of unused files. In fact, doing this seems to delete the offline spotify files...they should be protected against deletion but they're not.

 

[arunma]

The random log off issue is VERY annoying. Since I set up my account with Facebook, it assigned me a random alphanumeric user name which takes forever to enter on the T9 keyboard. So having to re-enter the password every day or two isn't preferable.

Here's an even more serious bug. When you pause music playback and back out of the app, it continues running in the background. When your watch accesses the microphone for any reason (Bixby, voice typing, or even declining a call), the music will resume playback. So if you're in a meeting, you get a call, and you decline it, it'lll start playing music from your watch speaker. Apparently this has been an issue for over a year, so I doubt that Samsung or Spotify will address the matter any time soon.

Ironically, using Galaxy Wearable to clear the offline data is an easy way to prevent random playback from happening. But then we return to the spontaneous log off issues. Oh well.

 

[Greymire]

I hope people keep in mind that app issues are not Samsung fault. I am not saying anyone here does not realize that but I always here this app or that doesn't work. It is the authors issue not the app. Again, just a pet peeve, no one here is blaming Samsung that I can tell unless they hate Tizen.

 

[fgaget]

Sure ! not Samsung fault ; however when you have so few flagship apps (such as spotify) available, you'd better make sure the customer experience is good. Samsung/Tizen teams have certainly a developper program in place to work together on the various issues we're seeing here and there. I love the Galaxy watch, but there's a strong "beta" feel to many of the apps and features available out there

 

[Devhux]

Oh wow - just saw the app hasn't been updated since December 2017!

This was honestly one of the things I would have used my LTE watch for (so I could leave my phone at home sometimes).

 

[arunma]

I hope people keep in mind that app issues are not Samsung fault. I am not saying anyone here does not realize that but I always here this app or that doesn't work. It is the authors issue not the app. Again, just a pet peeve, no one here is blaming Samsung that I can tell unless they hate Tizen.

Yeah, that's what I would have thought. I actually tweeted at Spotify and asked them about this, and they referred me to Samsung. It's possible that the problem isn't with Spotify's app, but with - for example - one of the APIs used to access the watch's microphone. If so, it would be Samsung's issue to fix.

Regardless, like fgaget said, this is one of the flagship apps being advertised with the Galaxy Watch's promotional material. Either Samsung or Spotify should have one of their developers sit down for four hours and debug the dang thing.

 

[Greymire]

Yeah, that's what I would have thought. I actually tweeted at Spotify and asked them about this, and they referred me to Samsung. It's possible that the problem isn't with Spotify's app, but with - for example - one of the APIs used to access the watch's microphone. If so, it would be Samsung's issue to fix.

Regardless, like fgaget said, this is one of the flagship apps being advertised with the Galaxy Watch's promotional material. Either Samsung or Spotify should have one of their developers sit down for four hours and debug the dang thing.

Very true about API. Apple is notorious for refusing to change the API for apps so Samsung could be doing the same thing. And if Spotify refuses to adjust then it's a stalemate. I personally think Spotify quality sucks but I understand people like my son love it.

 

[arunma]

Very true about API. Apple is notorious for refusing to change the API for apps so Samsung could be doing the same thing. And if Spotify refuses to adjust then it's a stalemate. I personally think Spotify quality sucks but I understand people like my son love it.

Yeah I myself prefer Google Play Music. However my wife refuses to give up Spotify, so between the availability of the watch app and the free Google Home offer at the beginning of the month, I finally decided to just get their family plan. Gotta say I'm impressed with their recommendation algorithms. Way better than Google.

I can't say much about the quality though since I'm not much of an audiophile. Guessing you're using "extreme" quality on the phone app?

 

[Greymire]

Yeah I myself prefer Google Play Music. However my wife refuses to give up Spotify, so between the availability of the watch app and the free Google Home offer at the beginning of the month, I finally decided to just get their family plan. Gotta say I'm impressed with their recommendation algorithms. Way better than Google.

I can't say much about the quality though since I'm not much of an audiophile. Guessing you're using "extreme" quality on the phone app?

Yes on extreme. They were supposed to have lossless quality by now but apparently it isn't going well.
As far as I know only Tidal is lossless. It's expensive and it's library is not large enough yet.

 

[Devhux]

After trying to stream with Spotify, now I can't get back to Remote mode to control it with my phone. Even uninstalling the app and reinstalling it doesn't help (now its showing this....

Rebooted the watch, phone, etc and Bluetooth is definitely connected and Spotify is running on the phone.

Sheesh!

 

[Greymire]

After trying to stream with Spotify, now I can't get back to Remote mode to control it with my phone. Even uninstalling the app and reinstalling it doesn't help (now its showing this....

Rebooted the watch, phone, etc and Bluetooth is definitely connected and Spotify is running on the phone.

Sheesh! //uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181125/5a1613c1dc123d67b488b65d10ca2193.jpg

If it doesn't resolve a reset is probably in order. Full reset with buttons recommended over the reset in settings. It's more complete and takes no longer to do. Just back up everything in Galaxy app prior

 

[arunma]

Just to be clear: when you say that Spotify is "running" you mean that it's open, right? Because I get the same message unless Spotify is actually open on my phone.

FWIW, when playing music from your phone you can just use the default music app to act as a remote control. The Spotify watch app is really only useful for streaming music via Wi-Fi and LTE (or downloading it for offline play). I hardly ever use the Spotify remote feature. I've found that when I use it for too long, my watch app logs me out of Spotify, causing me great pains to log back in using the super-long alphanumeric user name that Spotify assigned me.

...which really is all just a testament to how horribly and unprofessionaly this app was built. As someone who programs as part of his job, I feel even a halfway decent software developer could have done better than this. There have been a small number of very serious pain points being reported consistently by users including this remote connection issue, the spontaneous logout, and the spontaneous music playback after the microphone is accessed, and none of it has been addressed by Spotify in over a year. Dang, Google could get a lot of business back if they would just develop a Tizen app for the Galaxy Watch.

 

[Devhux]

Yeah, even had Spotify open in the foreground and playing music on my phone and still got that error. I'm just using the stock music widget now. If I want to change my playlist I'll pull out my phone.

I'll admit it does make me a little less interested in the LTE version I have, but it is what it is I guess.