Spotify Abruptly Stops Playing on Sonos

  • 5 November 2023
  • 6 replies
  • 1770 views

Userlevel 1
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I have a really strange issue when streaming from the Spotify App on iPhone 13, and from the Desktop version of Spotify on iMac (Catalina) to my Sonos system. I have a Premium Spotify account.

When streaming to a Play 3 (connected via wifi) or Connect (connected via Ethernet hard wired), every song listed at 14-song intervals (e.g., the 14th, 28th, 42nd, 56th, etc.) in whatever playlist or album currently playing always stops abruptly 10 seconds before the end. It still shows as playing on the Spotify Connect App, but isn't playing on the speaker, once the track appears to finish on the app screen the next song starts to play as expected. This isn’t a time issue as the length of each playlist varies, plus I made a short playlist of songs less than a minute, and it still stops exactly 10 seconds before the 14th track. This only happens with the Spotify Connect app on iPhone and desktop app, I don't have this issue when using the Sonos App to play Spotify. 

This has been a problem for a few months now, so not sure if it started after a Sonos or Spotify update. Seems bizarre? I contacted Sonos support and they identified an issue in the diagnostics. Initially, they suspected interference as the cause, and asked me to move my speakers which I did, but the consistent repetition of the error every 14th song, along with subsequent 14th songs, suggests that there might be another issue within the Spotify app communicating with Sonos.

I've powered down all devices, reset the modem, factory-reset my Sonos devices, logged out of all accounts, removed the Sonos & Spotify apps from my phone/desktop, reinstalled them again, cleared queues and cache, but the issue continues to persist.

Any help in identifying whats wrong will help.


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6 replies

Are you using crossfade? Crossfade starts 10 seconds prior to track end. I don’t have a guess about the 14 track “heartbeat”.

Userlevel 1
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No cross fade. That’s set to 0s.

Userlevel 7
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Maybe make a diagnostic after this happens and call Sonos?

Userlevel 1
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Yes, did that. They thought it was interference. Seemed odd it was happening at precise track points. Obviously something up with Spotify I guess. 

What's the problem while my app is still completely normal when listening to them, maybe you should redownload a new version

Userlevel 2
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I have exactly the same problem!

What I notice is that a track is cut off, after a few seconds the next starts, and with each track I have to wait for longer until the next track is not played at all.

If I check both the Spotify and Sonos app they show the tracks as actively playing. But there is no sound. If I hit ‘Pause’ and then ‘Play’ the track it says it’s playing will suddenly become audible.

This started yesterday. It’s very frustrating. And it happens in each and every playlist, my own or the Spotify generated ones.