watchOS 9 Breaks Spotify Streaming, Apple Watch Users Urged Not to Update

[MacRumors]

Apple Watch owners who stream music from Spotify have been urged not to update their devices to watchOS 9 because of a bug that causes streaming on the watch to stop working.

Spotify has been sending its users emails warning of the problem, which began to emerge soon after Apple released watchOS 9 to the public on Monday. The message from the company reads:

Apple WatchOS 9 introduced a bug that causes Spotify streaming on the Apple Watch to stop working. We urge Spotify Apple Watch users not to install the WatchOS 9 update until Apple has implemented a fix for the issue. Users who are already affected can instead download their content to their Apple Watch and listen offline or stream from their phones.

According to user reports, streaming on Apple Watch stops working within the first minute, and yet the track progress bar continues to move, just minus audio. The problem occurs on both Wi-Fi and cellular connection, but there is no issue with Spotify media downloaded to Apple Watch.

Apple seeded the first beta of watchOS 9.1 to developers on Wednesday, and there are unverified reports that the point release fixes the Spotify streaming problem. However, Apple does not mention the issue in its release notes so users won't know for sure until Apple rolls out the next Apple Watch update to the public.

(Thanks, Henrik!)

Article Link: watchOS 9 Breaks Spotify Streaming, Apple Watch Users Urged Not to Update

 

[sorgo †]

Apple giveth, and
Apple taketh away.

 

[Fraserh02]

Conspiracy theorists incoming

 

[djcerla]

Because the beta wasn’t available at all.

 

[ffej207]

I've been a loyal Spotify user for years now, and there is no evidence that Apple is doing anything "to them." They want to cry and complain about Apple keeping them from innovating, but when Apple gives them the keys, they just screw stuff up. Spotify has NEVER worked exactly right on Apple products, and rather than hiring a competent development team, they just cry to the press about Apple keeping them down. It's incredibly frustrating.

As someone mentioned above.. there's been months of betas available. Did they not do any internal testing?

 

[beanbaguk]

They had how long to sort this????

Broken Apple Watch support (when they had months)
No HomePod support because of a silly playground spat

Pretty poor "high-quality" audio.

I'm at my wits end with Spotify. Their interface is far superior to Apple, but you can't fault Apple with audio quality and their integration (even with 3rd party hardware these days - Echo, Sonos, HomePod, etc....)

 

[JUiCEJamie]

So Spotify haven’t fixed the bug since Watch OS 9 beta came out in JUNE?!

Now they want to cry wolf? Please

 

[stocklen]

For goodness sake.... Spotify has had access to the betas right from the start and had over 3 months to test and fix this... just like every other apple 3rd party developer.

Why do nothing, and then blame apple and tell customers to not update their watches?

They've had more than enough time. Blame them not apple

 

[AppleTheorist]

Really weird... It's almost like Spotify didn't test it on the beta at all and they are refusing to update their app to fix it. So weird.

 

[codq]

I've also found that Overcast on my Apple Watch is no longer syncing new podcasts to my watch on watchOS 9.

I'd been using the beta, and the last round of podcasts on my watch are from 9/4. Literally no new podcasts on the watch since then. Very frustrating.

 

[Feek]

Corrected headline:

Spotify have not updated their software to work with watchOS 9​

 

[contacos]

If only Spotify would spend half as much time on feature support, as they do on moving UI elements to different positions for no reason in the App, they wouldn’t have those problems

 

[senttoschool]

Work from home quality (Spotify is remote now)

 

[sorgo †]

Because the beta wasn’t available at all.

You can’t blame them, they were really busy not paying artists 🙁

 

[fakestrawberryflavor]

What is the point of all those beta's then? No one does anything with them apparently.

 

[infinitejest]

I've been a loyal Spotify user for years now, and there is no evidence that Apple is doing anything "to them." They want to cry and complain about Apple keeping them from innovating, but when Apple gives them the keys, they just screw stuff up. Spotify has NEVER worked exactly right on Apple products, and rather than hiring a competent development team, they just cry to the press about Apple keeping them down. It's incredibly frustrating.

As someone mentioned above.. there's been months of betas available. Did they not do any internal testing?

While I agree, the Apple Music app never worked exactly right either, to be fair. My list of problems I have with the app (on both - iOS and macOS) gets longer and longer every new major software release.

 

[CheffyDude]

Apple: "OOPSY"

 

[MacsRgr8]

Has anyone played with any beta of WatchOS 9 and Spotify?
Maybe Spotify became complacent because with a previous beta it might have worked as expected..?
Playing devil's advocate here...

 

[spartan1967]

How does Apple with all of it’s resources & beta testers not catch this before the final public release?

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

Or you could, you know, use a service that actually pays artists.

 

[beanbaguk]

How does Apple with all of it’s resources & beta testers not catch this before the final public release?

Because it's not up to Apple to find software issues with individual apps. It's up to the app developer to ensure it works on the OS.

 

[neuropsychguy]

How does Apple with all of it’s resources & beta testers not catch this before the final public release?

You mean how does Spotify with all of its resources and beta testers not catch this and tell people a couple weeks ago not to upgrade because of issues? This is more of a Spotify issue than an Apple issue, although Apple is likely at least partially to blame.

Edit: Why I say it's not fully Apple's fault. Here's an example. I use Bluetooth to connect my iPhone to my car's audio system. If I'm listening to an audiobook in Audible at a speed faster than 1X, everything works well. If I listen to an audiobook at faster than 1X using another app, the material plays but there is no sound until I put the playback speed back to 1X (Libby also works but any others that I've tried do not). I've contacted the devs of these other apps and they didn't want to try and fix the issue because my experience is possibly just an outlier (although it doesn't affect only my phone but does all other phones that connect to my car), although it's not just my car because I've tried this with other cars including various rental cars over the years and they all have the same issue. Audible and Libby can play books back at more than 1X but other apps cannot.

Is that the car manufacturer's fault? Not really, because it works for some apps. It's primarily the developers' faults for the other apps. This is like the Spotify situation, although again, Apple is at least partially to blame.

 

[spartan1967]

Then why are there reports 9.1 fixes this?

 

[ffej207]

Has anyone played with any beta of WatchOS 9 and Spotify?
Maybe Spotify became complacent because with a previous beta it might have worked as expected..?
Playing devil's advocate here...

I tried it onone of the last betas and it worked great until I got to the end of the block and just stopped. I figured it was beta goofiness. Didn't think it'd show up in the RC..

 

[riccinini]

Or, you could update to watchOS 9 and switch to Apple Music for a best-in-class listening experience.