[DavidXJ]

Hello folks,

I have a question born of curiosity more than desperation (though I'll admit that the problem outlined does leave me feeling desperate at times!): for those of you who run a Spotify premium account and operate it through the on-screen app, have you experienced any inconsistencies in terms of loading it up and accessing your library? For months now, mine has been on and off. It'll work fine for a few weeks before then randomly asking me to sign in again by scanning the QR code, which then sometimes doesn't work when I go through the log in process on my iPhone, leaving me essentially locked out for a period (manually logging in via the iDrive doesn't work either in that situation). Today it suddenly all came back, without me having to log in, a resuscitation that's happened before and which prompted me to air this inquiry with you guys to see if you've had similar experiences of the iDrive Spotify app behaving in this way of its own accord. Any insights you might have on how to keep it consistently in operation (or any explanations for its abrupt interruptions!) would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
David

[Stevie_B]

Mine has been playing up since the day I picked up the car a few months ago, but the issues are mostly different to yours and also very intermittent.

Mine seems to work for 10 mins then everything greys out and you can't select any of the content. Trying to move to other playlists I'm met with "Online Content Not Available". Only way to resolve is to go onto radio and seemingly let it sort itself out then go back to it.

What a laugh on such a new car 😩

[DavidXJ]

Originally Posted by Stevie_B

Yep, mine has been playing up since the day I picked up the car a few months ago, but the issues are mostly different to yours and also very intermittent.

Mine seems to work for 10 mins then everything greys out and you can't select any of the content. Trying to move to other playlists I'm met with "Online Content Not Available". Only way to resolve is to go onto radio and seemingly let it sort itself out then go back to it.

What a laugh on such a new car 😩

Yes, I have the greying out issue too... I'll try your tactic for rectifying it--thanks for the suggestion! D

[ScottC25]

Apple Music hasn't given me this kind of hassle so far.....

[4monks]

With Spotify premium (individual), you can only stream on one device at a time. It could be that it's being used by someone else and clashing - e.g. partner / family member / your own phone / home device - Sonos etc. I used to get cut out all the time until I realised my son was using my Spotify ID. The family plan allows for concurrent streaming for 6 IDs. The duo plan allows concurrent streaming for 2 IDs. It's worth noting that no matter what account you have, each ID can only stream on one device at a time. You can play offline on more devices concurrently per ID (three I think) but I don't think the Spotify on the BMW supports offline playback. Typically offline is for phones / tablets when travelling. Hope this helps.

[nil98]

I only have one problem with it. The search facility flicks back to what u were playing before. And I have to search a second time, at which point my search appears in the list and the search is successful second time. Only started doing this recently.

The greying out thing is the data signal has dropped and u need to keep driving until it can reconnect.

Ocassionally I will get in the car and it just cannot connect - again that is the data signal.

Overall I like the Spotify integration.
N

[DavidXJ]

Thanks for all your comments here, guys. I have a funny suspicion that my own iPhone has been in competition with the iDrive app, since I don't have a dual/family account. That's partly my fault, as I had read on a Spotify help forum somewhere (now outdated, clearly) that Spotify no longer supported BM's system but would still obviously allow you to play albums from your phone's app instead when in the car. I have a feeling that my resorting to that whenever the iDrive's own Spotify app happens to be playing up or slow to connect has been interrupting its on-screen functionality--which, since my post here, has in fact been working fine (though let's not tempt fate). Anyway, thanks for the helpful input! D

[Franko666]

Originally Posted by DavidXJ

Hello folks,

I have a question born of curiosity more than desperation (though I'll admit that the problem outlined does leave me feeling desperate at times!): for those of you who run a Spotify premium account and operate it through the on-screen app, have you experienced any inconsistencies in terms of loading it up and accessing your library? For months now, mine has been on and off. It'll work fine for a few weeks before then randomly asking me to sign in again by scanning the QR code, which then sometimes doesn't work when I go through the log in process on my iPhone, leaving me essentially locked out for a period (manually logging in via the iDrive doesn't work either in that situation). Today it suddenly all came back, without me having to log in, a resuscitation that's happened before and which prompted me to air this inquiry with you guys to see if you've had similar experiences of the iDrive Spotify app behaving in this way of its own accord. Any insights you might have on how to keep it consistently in operation (or any explanations for its abrupt interruptions!) would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
David

Disable CarPlay and Spotify will work properly.

[Stevie_B]

My Spotify 'grey out' woes seem to be getting worse, it's now at the point that sometimes the screen will grey out at start up before I can even try select a song, and won't sort itself out until I've restarted the system.

I notice there's an ECU software update to 07/2021 (I'm showing as on 03/2021). Has anyone had their software updated and noticed an improvement in their Spotify experience?

[TikiTourer]

interesting..in my part of the world, the Spotify App no longer functions at all..
I got a message from BMW Connected Drive somtime last year saying it was being discontinued and to access Spotify by Car Play or Android Auto.
I have AA and a Pixel 5 with a Spotify premium account. It works far better on AA and with Voice Control than it did on the I-Drive App

[BennyDunks]

I can't say I've used it, I just use Spotify through CarPlay - what's the benefit?

[Keith_C]

Originally Posted by BennyDunks

I can't say I've used it, I just use Spotify through CarPlay - what's the benefit?

For me, it's so I don't have to use Android Auto and therefore my phone, much prefer everything through the iDrive.

[Rhino at Work]

Originally Posted by Stevie_B

My Spotify 'grey out' woes seem to be getting worse, it's now at the point that sometimes the screen will grey out at start up before I can even try select a song, and won't sort itself out until I've restarted the system.

I notice there's an ECU software update to 07/2021 (I'm showing as on 03/2021). Has anyone had their software updated and noticed an improvement in their Spotify experience?

My car came with 2021/07 and I've never had a problem with Spotify. I don't use AA so it hasn't had the chance to clash though.

[thescouselander]

Spotify doesnt seen to work very well at all IMO. I was listening to Spotify just today via iDrive when without any intervention from me Android Auto started up and started playing the track from the begining. I've also noticed that the position of the last track played seems to be forgotten and the track always starts from the beginning every time I get back in the car which is a real pain if listening to a podcast.

[a.summers86]

Mines been faultless in the 10 or so months I’ve had the car. I used for probably an hour or so a day on average with some longer sessions if driving to meetings etc.

I don’t ever use CarPlay though so maybe that is part of he issues above?

Currently using with an iPhone 13pro on iOS 15.1. Car is on 03/2021

[Keith_C]

Originally Posted by thescouselander

Spotify doesnt seen to work very well at all IMO. I was listening to Spotify just today via iDrive when without any intervention from me Android Auto started up and started playing the track from the begining. I've also noticed that the position of the last track played seems to be forgotten and the track always starts from the beginning every time I get back in the car which is a real pain if listening to a podcast.

My Spotify has only ever dropped out when in poor signal areas or sometimes when I get in the car it can take a few seconds to sort it out. Some people have noticed that if someone else is using the Spotify account it can clash as it can't play on 2 clients at the same time, but as I'm the only user on my account I've no first hand experience on that.

You'll find it's the interaction between iDrive Spotify and Android Auto, maybe because of the above, phone and iDrive trying to access Spotify at the same time. Personally I never use Android Auto as its integration for Waze or Google Maps looks crap compared to iDrive, especially in HUD and there's nothing in Android Auto I need that the car can't do.

[DavidXJ]

Well, having been enjoying it without a glitch since my OP, the Spotify app has now completely disappeared from my iDrive's menu. I suddenly feel like there's renewed pertinence to my original question, just when I thought it was behaving itself... I can of course still play music from the phone's app; but it's a pain to have to cue up an album that way, and not to be able to access the library via the touchscreen. Anyone else experiencing this vanishing act?

[bmnut]

Originally Posted by DavidXJ

Well, having been enjoying it without a glitch since my OP, the Spotify app has now completely disappeared from my iDrive's menu. I suddenly feel like there's renewed pertinence to my original question, just when I thought it was behaving itself... I can of course still play music from the phone's app; but it's a pain to have to cue up an album that way, and not to be able to access the library via the touchscreen. Anyone else experiencing this vanishing act?

Whilst I never use Spotify the app is still there, could it be a software update that's caused the mischief? Which version software is your car running or have you updated it recently?

[Keith_C]

Originally Posted by DavidXJ

Well, having been enjoying it without a glitch since my OP, the Spotify app has now completely disappeared from my iDrive's menu. I suddenly feel like there's renewed pertinence to my original question, just when I thought it was behaving itself... I can of course still play music from the phone's app; but it's a pain to have to cue up an album that way, and not to be able to access the library via the touchscreen. Anyone else experiencing this vanishing act?

Just try an iDrive reset, should appear again.

[DavidXJ]

You are no doubt right. But I really hope it doesn't require a software update to rectify this, since I confess I'm running quite contentedly an older version with the view to avoiding downloading the latest one that, by all accounts, ruins the exhaust note on the 2020 40i! Rather than risk that, I may just revert to playing stuff from my iPhone! If I had to choose between an operative Spotify app and a decent exhaust burble, I know which one I'd opt for...

[bmnut]

Originally Posted by DavidXJ

You are no doubt right. But I really hope it doesn't require a software update to rectify this, since I confess I'm running quite contentedly an older version with the view to avoiding downloading the latest one that, by all accounts, ruins the exhaust note on the 2020 40i! Rather than risk that, I may just revert to playing stuff from my iPhone! If I had to choose between an operative Spotify app and a decent exhaust burble, I know which one I'd opt for...

The software version on mine is now 07/2021.50 and it doesn't seem to have done much, as per Xenon's post on another thread which I believe his cars running too?
The exhaust sound doesn't seem to have been affected to my 60+ years ears (mind that may be 'an age thing'!), don't know what 'Xenon' thinks about that aspect?
One thing I did notice was after installing the latest update the 'Engine Sound' option in idrive had gone back to the standard setting so I had to change it back to 'Sport' again.

[Cookies]

Just noticed Spotify has disappeared from my idrive too. Will an idrive reset sort this OK?

Thanks

Niall