Spotify Users Report Disappearing Now Playing Bar on Android, Local Files Missing on Android 9 Phones

Spotify's official client for streaming music and podcasts on Android phones is reportedly affected by bugs, according to complaints from users. The issues include a disappearing Now Playing bar and notification controls for several users, and local files not appearing on Android 9 smartphones. The appear to be caused by a recent app update, and Spotify has acknowledged the issues, which are being investigated. There is no word on when the company will roll out a fix to resolve these issues.

Over the past few days, users have taken to the company's community forums Twitter, and Reddit, to complain of issues with the app after updated to the latest version. Some users are unable to see the Now Playing bar at the bottom of the Spotify app for playback control, while music or a podcast is being played. The system notification with media controls is also reportedly disappearing during playback, and appears to be affecting users on Android 12 — primarily smartphones from Samsung and Google, according to a report by 9to5Google.

A post from a Spotify community moderator acknowledges the issue of the missing Now Playing bar, stating that it mostly affects Samsung users. The issue is marked as “Under investigation” and has received 1,270 votes at the time of writing. Spotify usually asks community members to vote to indicate that they are also affected by the same bug or issue. Gadgets 360 was unable to reproduce the bug affecting the Now Playing bar on multiple devices.

Meanwhile, users have also been complaining of local music files not appearing on devices running Android 9. Local files that have been imported on Android (a feature offered on the Android client allowing playback of local music) are not showing up on some devices running Android 9. A post by another Spotify moderator states that the service is investigating the issue, which has received 14 votes so far.

While users might be able to install an older version of Spotify in order to resolve the issue with the missing Now Playing bar, Spotify has advised users to ensure that automatic updates have been enabled, presumably to ensure the update is installed as soon as it is available. However, there is no word on when the update containing the fix will be available for affected users.