After the most recent update on Apple TV I’m no longer able to play Spotify in the background while in game on Zwift. I was always able to play Spotify and then swap over to Zwift where the music would continue to play while riding in Zwift.
Anyone else come across this or have a fix?
I have not tried it with ATV, but Spotify will work in the background on IOS with the Companion App still functioning properly.
Same problem here
Really frustrating
Was such a positive when doing workouts
My ATV is connected to the sound system in the room and now can’t play music through it
I open Spotify on my iPhone and then stream it to the ATV. Perhaps this still work?
Same issue herre.
Hey everyone - Shuji at Zwift HQ here. Thanks for the reports, but we can really use a few things clarified to understand what’s happening on your end.
1a. Are you listening to Spotify on your smartphone that’s running the Zwift Companion app?
1b. If yes, are you using an iPhone or an Android?
1c If iOS - have you updated to iOS 18 recently?
OR
2a. Are you listening to Spotify on the Apple TV that’s running the main Zwift app?
2b. Have you updated your Apple TV recently to tvOS 18?
Hi Shuji,
2a. I’m listening to Spotify on the Apple TV that’s running the main Zwift app.
2b. I have updated my Apple TV recently to tvOS 18.
Thanks for looking into it.
Hi @Rachel_Wiltshire_SZR
Thanks for responding - until we hear back from the others in this thread, we’ll have to assume everyone’s running Spotify on tvOS18 like you are.
Can we try the simplest thing first? Please uninstall the Spotify app and re-install. During re-install, it’s possible you may be prompted to give the Spotify app permissions. If that happens - please snap a photo so we can see what the message says.
Historically speaking, Apple’s OS updates tend to reset app permissions to their default (more secure) settings. By uninstalling Spotify and re-installing, you may be prompted to allow whatever permissions were removed. Would you give that a shot?
This sounds like the Spotify app lost permission to continue running in the background while some other app is foregrounded following the tvOS 18 update. This is an Apple article for developers that explains how apps designed to run in the background should be configured. It’s not that useful to end-users of those apps necessarily - I link to it as a possible reason why Spotify stopped working as you’re used to.
Hi Shuji,
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Spotify app. I wasn’t prompted to give any Spotify app permissions.
I have selected Spotify, then selected Zwift again. Still same issue, the Spotify music switches off after a short few seconds, just before it shows my Zwift log in Profile.
@Rachel_Wiltshire_SZR
Thanks for your continued help. So you start Spoitfy first, then foreground to Zwift, please confirm?
Can you take a photo of this? I’m not sure what you mean by “Zwift log in Profile.”
Hi Shuji,
I start spotify first and then click on zwift.
The music cuts out on “Z Ride on”, just before I click on my name, which I referred to as my “Zwift log in profile”.
My husband uses MyWhoosh on apple tv and Spotify plays in the background with no issues.
Hi Rachel
Thanks for posting all this detail
That’s exactly the same for me
Hi The Hammer,
I’m glad it’s not just happening to me .
For me
1a/b yes on an IPhone (and cast Spotify to ATV)
d and Zwift running on ATV
And all is working fine,
Perhaps use this as a temporary workaround?
Sorry for the lag and thank you for the screenshots.
This symptom sounds like Spotify plays music for ~30 seconds or however long before it runs out of buffered data. I know this symptom might seem like the Zwift app is cutting off the Spotify app, but that’s not what’s happening. We don’t interact with the Spotify app in any way.
It still feels like a change in tvOS 18 behavior is constraining Spotify app behavior when it’s running in the background. Has anyone contacted Spotify support to ask if this is a known issue? Please cite the Apple support article as “background execution mode” is what we’re talking about here.
This morning I figured out a work around…I played Spotify on my iPhone and then used Airplay to play music through the Apple TV while Zwifting. Not ideal for sound but it works until we can figure out why Spotify and Zwift wont work together like before.
Hi Shuji and all,
I’ve been playing with the settings on my Apple TV and I’ve managed to get Spotify to play in the background, whilst on Zwift.
This is how I did it:
Settings
Video and Audio
Audio Format - Change Format to “Stereo”
This seems to consistently work for me so far.
Many thanks for your time looking into this issue.
Hey, thanks for sharing this discovery @Rachel_Wiltshire_SZR, we appreciate you!
All - please give this a try and let us know if that solves it for you too?