Solving playback issues

[byancey]

I managed to fix this.  The solution was to enable IPv6 in my home router.

I posted more details in another thread here on the Roku forums.  Here's that full post:

I've been having the same issue for several weeks now. It has impacted all 5 of the Roku boxes in my home, as well as a single FireTV set top box. In each case, the Spotify app would open to the splash screen logo, but the app would never fully load. The issue did not impact the Spotify app on my mobile, which would open and work regardless of whether I was connected to my home network or my mobile carrier.

While troubleshooting, I actually connected one of my Roku boxes to the Internet via the hotspot feature of my mobile phone, and the Spotify app opened and worked just fine. This pointed to either an issue with my home Internet Service Provider as compared to my Mobile Service Provider, or an issue with my local network configuration.

After several hours of troubleshooting, I was able to isolate the issue to the IPv6 setting in my home router. My mobile phone hotspot has IPv6 enabled by default, whereas I had this setting disabled on my home router. Once I togged the IPv6 setting in my router to enabled, the Spotify app started working on all the devices in my home. If I toggle it off again, Spotify stops loading. Toggle it on again, Spotify works again.

Not sure why this made a difference, as the Roku Box itself appears to be using IPv4, but apparently Spotify recently updated something in their set-top box app that requires IPv6. If you are having similar issues, try enabling IPv6 in your router to see if it helps.

[markmark]

Excellent work. First answer that looks like it could make some sense. I'll try it when I get home!

[Swellsz]

Having all the same issues, and the same problems. Have power cycled everything as you suggested, Spotify refuses to play. Every other app works fine. This is obviously a problem with Spotify, and Spotify should fix it, however it would be amazing if Roku simply reached out to Spotify to solve this issues for their customer. Good old fashioned customer service. Can you imagine if that actually happened? 

[byancey]

@Swellsz Did you try the solution I posted about 2 hours ago (two posts above this one)?  It fixed the problem for me...I'm very interested to know if that solution works for anyone else.

[Big-Ed]

Sounds good until you think about it works on one browser (firefox) but not another (chrome) on the same computer!  I'm glad it worked for you, and I will try it, but I have little hope it will work for me.  If it does fix the issue on ROKU, I'd be totally satisfied... still stumped on the other issues, but as long as my phone, computer and ROKU work, I'd just deal with the rest.

Ed

[markmark]

I lost my entire post because my Roku session timed out and it doesn't save your content in a cookie... ugh, rewriting.

The IPv6 theory looks like it might be true.  My Spotify on Roku works when i connect Roku to a cellular hotspot.  Enabling IPv6 doesn't work for me, even 6 on 4 or spoofing because, get this, my ISP Frontier Fiber doesn't support native IPv6.  I think native IPv6 has protocol support that can make streaming slightly more efficient.

The Spotify app programmers are either foolish for not testing on other networks before releasing, or foolish for not providing a fallback to IPv4, or the company knows and is cynical about not caring about a modest dip in subscriber base.

I could prove the IPv6 theory conclusively by disabling it on my cell phone, or also by utilizing a free public IPv6 tunnel perhaps, but that's a lot of work and we've all spent too much time reverse engineering this issue when Spotify could have easily checked it on their own (or Roku could have asked them about it).

How many of you are on Frontier or one of the networks here that don't have IPv6?

https://stats.labs.apnic.net/ipv6/AS5650?c=US&p=1&v=1&w=30&x=1

[aprc001]

I’m on Frontier, but use my own, faster, more secure router, which doesn’t even do IPv6.

@ROKU needs to demand that Spotify address this issue!

[rcrustx]

My box started working again last night.  I am on Frontier and was on IPv4 on my router.  I changed one setting but don't think that is what fixed it. 

The setting was under System > Advanced System Setup > Control by mobile apps > Network Access and set from Limited to Enabled.  Then Spotify apeared to work.  I then reset back to Limited and Spotify still worked.  So I highly doubt it was this change.

Changed my router to IPv6 from v4 and Spotify still worked.  I compared what I sent to Roku under About and noticed the OS version had gone from 14.09... to 14.10.  This could be the fix.

I had a 2nd Ultra box I tried this morning and the Spotify update box popped up and it is now working.  Another possible fix.

So whether Roku, Spotify, or the IPv switch did it I'm up and running on my 2 Ultra boxes now.  I also tried my Windows laptop which does not use Roku and it's working now. This would be a vote for IPv6.

[markmark]

Great balls of fire, mine is working again today too. 

I changed nothing

I don't have visibility if they updated it recently but my current version is 2.11 build 67

It would be wonderful if they saw my post and implemented the IPv4 fallback. But I highly doubt they could turn around to change that fast lol

Crazy. Thanks to all who helped. I'm honestly so impressed with the intelligence of the people in this forum, especially the guy who started to figure it out the other day kudos!

[rcrustx]

Congrats!  Hard to believe this was first reported on 11/02.  My customers would be marching me out the door if my software didn't work for that long.

Check Settings > System > About)
Device: 4660X - Roku Ultra
Serial Number: YJ0095230352
OS Version: 14.0.4 Build 12221-46

My OS version upgraded to 14.1 from the above.  My Spotify version didn't change from v2.11 build 67.