
"I recently purchased some AirPods, and have run into some trouble when using them with Spotify. Whenever I start Spotify and connect the AirPods, the App freezes for up to 10 seconds and I cannot play any music and have to wait for it to unfreeze. This is super annoying when I just want to listen to music. I haven't really found a solution to solve it."
As a perfectly respectable pair of true wireless earbuds, AirPods gets popular among people. All users can have AirPods with decent sound quality and seamless devices pairing, even more features. But what if you are a Spotify user, how to play Spotify Music with AirPods and sometimes the unexpected issues?
Part 1. How to Play Spotify Music with AirPods
To play Spotify Music on Bluetooth like AirPods, there're some minimum requirements.
- 1. The Spotify app on a device that supports Bluetooth.
- 2. An audio device that supports Bluetooth.
You should meet with these minimum requirements, so now please pick up both the devices for how to set up your AirPods with your iPhone, Mac or other non-Apple devices to listen to Spotify Music.
How to use AirPods with your iOS device
1. On your iOS device, go to the Home Screen.
2. With your AirPods in the charging cace, open the charging case, and hold it next to your iPhone.
3. Tap Connect when a setup animation appears on your iPhone.
If you're using AirPods Pro (1st or 2nd generation) or AirPods (2nd or 3rd generation), make sure you have set up "Hey Siri" on your iPhone, then "Hey Siri" is ready to use with your AirPods to play Spotify Music.
4. Follow the guide to set up "Hey Siri" or go to Settings > Siri & Search > Listen for "Hey Siri".
5. Tap Done.
How to use AirPods with your Mac
If you’re using AirPods (2nd generation), make sure that your Mac has macOS Mojave 10.14.4 or later. Then you could perform the following steps to pair your AirPods with your Mac:
1. On your Mac, choose System Preferences from the Apple menu, then click Bluetooth.
2. Make sure that Bluetooth is on.
3. Put both AirPods in the charging case and open the lid.
4. Press and hold the setup button on the back of the case until the status light flashes white.
5. Select your AirPods in the Devices list, then click Connect.
How to use AirPods with a non-Apple device
You can use AirPods as a Bluetooth headset with a non-Apple device. To set up your AirPods with an Android phone or other non-Apple device, follow these steps:
1. On your non-Apple device, go to the settings for Bluetooth and make sure that Bluetooth is on. If you have an Android device, go to Settings > Connections > Bluetooth.
2. With your AirPods in the charging case, open the lid.
3. Press and hold the setup button on the back of the case until you see the status light flash white.
4. When your AirPods appear in the list of Bluetooth devices, select them.
When the connection is successful, open Spotify standard app and play. The sound now comes from your chosen device.
Part 2. How to Fix Spotify not Working with AirPods
Some Airpods users have reported running into some issue when connecting to AirPods and listening to Spotify. Here are the checklists and fixes for each identified issues.
2.1 Fix: AirPods Not Playing Spotify
- 1. Check for the issue with other streaming music services apps (for example: Apple Music).
- 2. Check for the issue with other Spotify platforms (Spotify standard apps for desktop and mobile, Spotify web player).
- 3. Check for the issue with the device volume control.
- 4. Check for an update on the Spotify app.
- 5. Check for a clean reinstall of the Spotify app.
- 6. Check for the issue with Spotify Connect.
- For Windows & Mac: open the Spotify app > Now Playing > Spotify Connect button. Make sure the connected device with the AirPods is consuming the Spotify contents.
- For iOS & Android: open the Spotify app > Now Playing > Spotify Connect button. Select your connected device to enable Spotify Connect.
To Set AirPods as Audio Devices:
In our test, the default Windows audio device in use can be one possible cause of the Spotify sound issue when connected to AirPods. If users haven't set the AirPords as the audio devices, the Spotify app has a blank value for them.
To Forget All Devices:
Please try to forget the AirPods on all devices and make sure they're not connected to other devices such as iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Apple Watch. Sometimes when connected to another near-by device, AirPods won't have the sound for the device not consuming Spotify contents.
If you've found the issues are on Spotify's ends, please also check this post to find more:
2.2 Fix: AirPods Keeps Disconnecting from Spotify
- 1. Check for the Bluetooth signal.
- 2. Check for an update of the device OS.
- 3. Check for both the devices have sufficient power.
- 4. Check for both the devices are in range, within 1 meter (3ft) of each other.
- 5. Check for the dirt and dust in the AirPods.
- 6. Check for the issue with other streaming music services apps (for example: Apple Music).
- 7. Check for the issue with other Spotify platforms (Spotify standard apps for desktop and mobile, Spotify web player).
To Reestablish the Connection:
If there're one issues with the things above, please try to reestablish the connection in the device.
To Shut Down the Device:
You should try shutting down the device and see if that helps reconnect the AirPods without interruptions.
To Forget All Devices:
Sine AirPods only let you have one connection at a time. Please try forget all devices:
Part 3. Best Method to Listen to Spotify Music with AirPods
Maybe you’re tired of tackling that issue, and you don’t want to close all of your running applications and then restart the device for listening to Spotify music from AirPods again. The best method is to download Spotify music and turn on the offline mode. Except for subscribing to Premium Plan on Spotify, you could also start the offline playback with the help of a third-party tool.
ViWizard Spotify Music Converter is a professional and powerful music converter for all Spotify users. It can enable all Spotify users to download music from Spotify and convert Spotify music to plain audios. Then you’re allow to listen Spotify music from AirPods offline or any other devices even though the Spotify app is not installed on your devices.

Key Features of ViWizard Spotify Music Downloader
- Download tracks and playlists from Spotify without premium subscription
- Remove DRM protection from Spotify podcasts, tracks, albums or playlist
- Convert Spotify podcasts, songs, album, and playlist to plain audio formats
- Work at 5× faster speed and preserve original audio quality and ID3 tags
- Support the offline Spotify on any devices like home video game consoles
1Drag Spotify Music to ViWizard
Launch ViWizard on your computer and wait for the automatic opening of Spotify. Log into your Spotify account for entering your library and add your required Spotify music to ViWizard by drag-and-drop.
2Set the output music format
Then you can click on Menu > Preference to change the output audio format. From several audio formats available, you could set the output audio format as MP3. In addition, you could adjust the bit rate, channel, and sample rate.
3Begin to download Spotify music
Once all the setting is completed, you could click Convert and ViWizard will extract music from Spotify to your computer. After downloading, you could go to browse all the converted Spotify music files by going to Converted > Search.
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Adam Gorden is an experienced writer of ViWizard who is obessing about tech, movie and software.