watchOS 9 Breaks Spotify Streaming, Apple Watch Users Urged Not to Update

Apple Watch owners who stream music from Spotify have been urged not to update their devices to watchOS 9 because of a bug that causes streaming on the watch to stop working.

spotify offline playback apple watch
Spotify has been sending its users emails warning of the problem, which began to emerge soon after Apple released watchOS 9 to the public on Monday. The message from the company reads:

Apple WatchOS 9 introduced a bug that causes Spotify streaming on the Apple Watch to stop working. We urge Spotify Apple Watch users not to install the WatchOS 9 update until Apple has implemented a fix for the issue. Users who are already affected can instead download their content to their Apple Watch and listen offline or stream from their phones.

According to user reports, streaming on Apple Watch stops working within the first minute, and yet the track progress bar continues to move, just minus audio. The problem occurs on both Wi-Fi and cellular connection, but there is no issue with Spotify media downloaded to Apple Watch.

Apple seeded the first beta of watchOS 9.1 to developers on Wednesday, and there are unverified reports that the point release fixes the Spotify streaming problem. However, Apple does not mention the issue in its release notes so users won't know for sure until Apple rolls out the next Apple Watch update to the public.

(Thanks, Henrik!)

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 11
Tag: Spotify
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)

Popular Stories

M5 MacBook Pro

Apple Announces New 14-Inch MacBook Pro With M5 Chip

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:07 am PDT by
Apple today updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, which is also available in updated iPad Pro and Vision Pro models. In addition, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro can now be configured with up to 4TB of storage on Apple's online store, whereas the previous model maxed out at 2TB. However, the maximum amount of unified RAM available for this model remains 32GB. Like...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

Apple Debuts New iPad Pro With M5 Chip, Faster Charging, and More

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple today announced the next-generation iPad Pro, featuring the custom-designed M5, C1X, and N1 chips. The M5 chip has up to a 10-core CPU, with four performance cores and six efficiency cores. It features a next-generation GPU with Neural Accelerator in each core, allowing the new iPad Pro to deliver up to 3.5x the AI performance than the previous model, and a third-generation ray-tracing ...
maxresdefault

Here's Everything Apple Announced Today

Wednesday October 15, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We didn't get a second fall event this year, but Apple did unveil updated products with a series of press releases that went out today. The M5 chip made an appearance in new MacBook Pro, Vision Pro, and iPad Pro models. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up our coverage and highlighted the main feature changes for each device below. MacBook Pro M5...
iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
Vision Pro M5 Announcement

Apple Updates Vision Pro With M5 Chip, Dual Knit Band, and 120Hz Support

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:14 am PDT by
Apple today updated the Vision Pro headset with its next-generation M5 chip for faster performance, and a more comfortable Dual Knit Band. The M5 chip has a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, and a 16-core Neural Engine, and we have confirmed the Vision Pro still has 16GB of RAM. With the M5 chip, the Vision Pro offers faster performance and longer battery life compared...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New 14-Inch MacBook Pro Has Two Key Upgrades Beyond the M5 Chip

Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump. First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...
MacBook Pro M5 Screen

New MacBook Pro Does Not Include a Charger in the Box in Europe

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:59 am PDT by
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 chip does not include a charger in the box in European countries, including the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and others, according to Apple's online store. In the U.S. and all other countries outside of Europe, the new MacBook Pro comes with Apple's 70W USB-C Power Adapter, but European customers miss out....
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2: Everything We Know So Far

Tuesday October 14, 2025 8:43 am PDT by
Apple's AirPods Max have now been available for almost five years, so what do we know about the second-generation version? According to Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new AirPods Max will be lighter than the current ones, but exactly how much is as yet known. The current AirPods Max weigh 0.85 pounds (386.2 grams), excluding the charging case, making it one of the heavier...
macbook pro blue

Apple's M5 MacBook Pro Imminent: What to Expect

Tuesday October 14, 2025 4:35 pm PDT by
Apple is going to launch a new version of the MacBook Pro as soon as tomorrow, so we thought we'd go over what to expect from Apple's upcoming Mac. M5 Chip The MacBook Pro will be one of the first new devices to use the next-generation M5 chip, which will replace the M4 chip. The M5 is built on TSMC's more advanced 3-nanometer process, and it will bring speed and efficiency improvements. ...

Top Rated Comments

ffej207 Avatar
40 months ago
I've been a loyal Spotify user for years now, and there is no evidence that Apple is doing anything "to them." They want to cry and complain about Apple keeping them from innovating, but when Apple gives them the keys, they just screw stuff up. Spotify has NEVER worked exactly right on Apple products, and rather than hiring a competent development team, they just cry to the press about Apple keeping them down. It's incredibly frustrating.

As someone mentioned above.. there's been months of betas available. Did they not do any internal testing?
Score: 44 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djcerla Avatar
40 months ago
Because the beta wasn’t available at all.
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Feek Avatar
40 months ago
Corrected headline:

[HEADING=2]Spotify have not updated their software to work with watchOS 9[/HEADING]
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JUiCEJamie Avatar
40 months ago
So Spotify haven’t fixed the bug since Watch OS 9 beta came out in JUNE?!

Now they want to cry wolf? Please
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
stocklen Avatar
40 months ago
For goodness sake.... Spotify has had access to the betas right from the start and had over 3 months to test and fix this... just like every other apple 3rd party developer.

Why do nothing, and then blame apple and tell customers to not update their watches?

They've had more than enough time. Blame them not apple
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
neuropsychguy Avatar
40 months ago

How does Apple with all of it’s resources & beta testers not catch this before the final public release?
You mean how does Spotify with all of its resources and beta testers not catch this and tell people a couple weeks ago not to upgrade because of issues? This is more of a Spotify issue than an Apple issue, although Apple is likely at least partially to blame.

Edit: Why I say it's not fully Apple's fault. Here's an example. I use Bluetooth to connect my iPhone to my car's audio system. If I'm listening to an audiobook in Audible at a speed faster than 1X, everything works well. If I listen to an audiobook at faster than 1X using another app, the material plays but there is no sound until I put the playback speed back to 1X (Libby also works but any others that I've tried do not). I've contacted the devs of these other apps and they didn't want to try and fix the issue because my experience is possibly just an outlier (although it doesn't affect only my phone but does all other phones that connect to my car), although it's not just my car because I've tried this with other cars including various rental cars over the years and they all have the same issue. Audible and Libby can play books back at more than 1X but other apps cannot.

Is that the car manufacturer's fault? Not really, because it works for some apps. It's primarily the developers' faults for the other apps. This is like the Spotify situation, although again, Apple is at least partially to blame.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)