Streaming of Spotify is broken in the latest version of watchOS (9)

Apple’s newest wearable operating system, watchOS 9, was introduced on September 24. This was released to Apple Watches with Series 4 and later hardware, but there appears to be an issue.

Because of a glitch introduced in the upgrade, Spotify cannot be streamed. This week, the service has been actively notifying its subscribers through email of the problem, with the following message from the company:

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.

Multiple users have reported that after updating to the newest version of their watch, Spotify streaming no longer works, even though the progress meter keeps on moving as if playback had continued. Both Wi-Fi and cellular networks have experienced the issue.

In other words, if you use Spotify on your Apple Watch frequently, you should hold off on buying the device until the next software update is released. As a matter of fact, Apple has already seeded the first beta of the forthcoming watchOS 9.1 update to developers, and this is likely to be available to everyone over the next few weeks, so just stay tight.