Spotify investigating blank 'Now playing' screen bug on iPads

Spotify has confirmed it is actively investigating a bug that causes the Now Playing view on iPads to go completely black when users switch away from the app and return. The issue has been marked “Under Investigation” on Spotify’s community forum, with moderator Yordan posting the status update roughly a week ago.

The bug is pretty disruptive in practice. According to multiple users in the thread, the Now Playing panel vanishes entirely after backgrounding the app, and the only workaround anyone has found is physically rotating the iPad to force a redraw. One commenter said that it’s “totally unusable at present.”

A separate thread on r/truespotify surfaced the same complaint, with user andrewsmacbookair confirming the rotate trick and adding they were “hoping they fix it soon.” The OP on Reddit, meanwhile, noted the issue started appearing after switching away to another app, and wondered whether being on iPadOS 18 was a factor.

The forum thread stretches back about a month, with users trying everything Spotify’s support team suggested: double log-outs, full reinstalls following specific steps, and even checking a different device. Nothing stuck. A user said they followed every instruction, and the sidebar was still disappearing reliably every time they returned to the app, even after an iOS update to 18.7.7.

Some users are reporting additional glitches alongside the blank screen. One commenter noted that composer names had stopped appearing on playlist tracks and said online help implied the fault was their iPad. “Like others,” they wrote, “I’m seriously considering moving to another service.” Another user went and cancelled their subscription entirely and said they were not going to pay for the broken version.

That said, a few others are also commenting on the refreshed UI for tablets that Spotify rolled out earlier, which, by itself, also triggered a lot of discussions with users split into two camps. Some love it, others don’t.

Spotify has not given a fix timeline. The community thread remains open, and moderators are directing users to subscribe for updates. For now, rotating your iPad is about as good as it gets.

Featured image credit: User 12130647605 / Spotify Community

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