Spotify users have been dealing with a frustrating problem over the last few days. The app crashes every time they try to play a podcast. The issue has hit both Android and iOS devices, with reports spiking around 3 a.m. EST on November 18th and continuing since then.
While music playback and podcast browsing work fine, actually playing an episode triggers an immediate crash. Spotify has acknowledged the problem and rolled out a fix, though many users are still experiencing issues. If your app is still acting up, there are some straightforward steps you can take to get your Spotify working properly.
1. Restart the Spotify app
Close Spotify completely on your device and reopen it. A spokesperson on Spotify's Community forums confirmed this as the first troubleshooting step for users still experiencing crashes.
On iOS, swipe up from the bottom of your screen to access recent apps, then swipe Spotify up and away. On Android, open your recent apps menu and close Spotify from there. Wait a few seconds before reopening the app to ensure it fully restarts.
2. Perform a clean reinstall
If restarting doesn't solve the problem, Spotify recommends performing a clean reinstall to ensure you're running the latest app version. Delete the Spotify app completely from your device.
Head to either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and download a fresh copy of Spotify. This process clears out any corrupted files that might be causing the crash and gives you the updated version with the fix included.
3. Check Spotify's status page for updates
Spotify should be back to normal after either of the fixes previously mentioned. If you're still experiencing issues, though, make sure to visit Spotify's status page to see if they've posted any new information about the outage.
The status page will tell you whether the issue is fully resolved or if engineers are still working on it. This will help you understand whether you need to wait a bit longer or if additional troubleshooting is required.
Be aware of related issues...
This podcast crash wasn't the only problem affecting Spotify users. Some people reported trouble subscribing to the service, while others couldn't load playlists on Spotify's car infotainment systems.
Spotify says the subscription issue has been resolved and is currently investigating the infotainment errors. These problems coincided with a Cloudflare outage that took down numerous web services, including X, DoorDash, ChatGPT, and Anthropic's Claude.
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