Spotify Experiences Global 'App Crash' Outage... Forced Shutdown When Playing Podcasts

The world's largest music streaming service Spotify faced significant disruptions in service on November 18 (local time) due to a large-scale app crash issue globally. The main problem was that the app would forcibly shut down when attempting to play podcasts, leading to numerous user complaints.

Podcast Playback is the Core Issue

According to the outage detection site Downdetector, on this day, there were up to 950 reports of outages in the United States and 419 reports in the United Kingdom, indicating a global issue.

Most users reported that the app shuts down on both Android and iOS devices when attempting to play podcasts, regardless of the specific podcast. A user on Reddit noted, "Podcasts crash the app, but music plays normally," pinpointing the core of the issue.

However, some users reported that they were unable to run the app at all, or that it would forcibly shut down as soon as they opened it, experiencing overall app instability. Notably, TechRadar's tests found a peculiar phenomenon where Spotify on Windows PC would automatically close when playing podcasts on iOS devices.

Spotify Addresses the Issue and Provides Solutions

Spotify officially stated through its forum that "this issue has now been resolved" and provided users with the following solutions.

• "If restarting Spotify does not help, consider a clean reinstall."

• "This will also help in checking for the latest app version."

Spotify also added that there are no issues when using mobile data, and access through desktop web browsers works normally. However, despite attempts at app reinstallation, cache clearing, and device restarting, some users reported that they still faced issues.

Occurred Amid a Series of Technical Problems

This large-scale outage is the most significant among a series of technical problems that Spotify has faced in recent months. In November alone, issues such as app instability on the Android version, shutdown immediately after launch, and increased battery consumption were reported, and various outage reports regarding beta version instability, app freezing on specific Wi-Fi connections, and unresponsive search functions continue to be posted in the Spotify community.

Industry experts analyze that this large-scale outage is likely related to a recent app update, emphasizing the urgent need for rapid technical patch deployment given that it is the world's largest streaming service with over 600 million users.