Connecting 4GEE wifi to Audio Pro and Spotify connect

[cc1200]

Hi, recently joined EE and set up 4G mobile broadband which has transformed my broadband from old style 1mbps via a traditional line to 25mbps or more.  Very happy as we are in a rural area.  Placing the order and getting set up was a great experience so thank you EE.  The only thing I'm really struggling with is getting my audio pro smart speaker to play music via spotify connect. It worked fine on the old(slow) network and I have reconnected to the new network, on the 2.4ghz band, and it 'says' connected but I just can't get spotify to play.  Done everything I can think of, reset to factory settings on the speaker, checked everything is on the same network, logged in & out, but I just can't make it play.   Just wondered if anyone had experienced a similar issue or had any ideas that might help? Thanks in advance and sorry for the long question.

[Jon_K]

Hi @cc1200.

Welcome to the community.

Could you try going into Spotify, then Settings, and Devices, then could you disable 'Show Local Devices Only'.

Let me know if this helps.

Jon

[cc1200]

Thanks Jon, tried that and no change sadly. It’s something about the network I think, and Spotify connect. Speakers connect successfully but Spotify just won’t connect by wifi.
All ideas welcome.

Sent from my iPhone

[Jon_K]

Thanks @cc1200.

Does it work on mobile data?

Jon

[cc1200]

All devices need to be on wifi so it won’t play on mobile data. The phone acts as the ‘remote’ for the multi room speakers who stream via Spotify connect.

Sent from my iPhone

[Katie_B]

Hi @cc1200. 

Did any error messages occur when trying to play?

Katie.

[cc1200]

Hi Katie,

None appear - on spotify on my phone it says ‘connecting’ and continues to attempt to connect, but doesn’t. The speaker is connected to the wifi, the phone is connected to the wifi, spotify doesn’t seem to want to play. I think I might just start all over again and see what happens. Appreciate the suggestions and questions - all good, thank you.

[Tonybbb]

I have exactly the same problem. Speaker connects to other Internet radio sources OK. Spotify sees speaker and tries to connect but never succeeds - no error message. I have reset speaker, reinstalled both Spotify and Audio Pro apps and still the same. Have tried wired Ethernet connection from speaker to router, and still the same.

I'm guessing it could be to do with how the router handles incoming/outgoing Internet connections.

[cc1200]

Hi Tonybbb, sort of reassuring it's not just me then!  Did you find a solution...I spoke to EE tech support today who didn't have a solution but thought it might be to do with IP addressing on 4G broadband being different from a standard direct line broadband service.  I'm not technical enough to figure out how to solve this unless anyone else has an idea.  

[Tonybbb]

Hi cc1200, No solution I'm afraid, and I fear it may not be possible. I think the issue with IP addressing on 4G broadband is that your external IP address is a shared IP address and therefore cannot accept incoming Internet connections which may be what Spotify Connect is initiating. 

It all hinges on whether the Spotify app is telling the speaker to connect to the Spotify server, or whether the Spotify app is telling the Spotify Server to connect to the speaker. I don't know, but I fear it may be the second, which won't work on 4G Broadband. I think the speaker connects OK to internet radio because it is making an outgoing connection, but the fact that the Audio Pro app hands over to the Spotify app to initiate a connection makes me think Spotify may be doing it the other way round.

If I'm right, the only solution on 4G is a very expensive fixed IP 4G SIM, which looks a non starter for any reasonable amount of data.

We may be stuck with Bluetooth, although I believe multi room can still work with ongoing WiFi connections from the first speaker to others.

I think only someone knowledgeable in Spotify can tell us the answer.

Keep me posted if you find different!