Garmin working on fix for bug where music control widget isn't updating the song or artist information

While looking into emerging bugs and issues on smartphones and other gadgets, I noticed a growing number of reports from users who are facing a rather annoying bug on their Garmin watches. Many Garmin users have been reporting a bug with the music control widget on their devices. The widget, which allows you to control music playback directly from your Garmin watch, isn’t updating the song name or artist information when you skip tracks. This can be a real pain, especially if you’re out for a run and can’t identify the song that’s pumping you up.

Reports of the bug have surfaced on Garmin’s forums for various devices, including the Forerunner, Fenix, and Epix series. Users have described the music controls as working fine for basic functions like play/pause and volume, but the song information remains stuck on the first track played. If it’s not showing the details of the first track, it sometimes just remains blank. Another thing I noticed in the complaints is that the problem appears to pop-up when playing music with the Spotify app with the Garmin Connect app.

Here are a couple of reports for reference:

I have a problem with music control on my Fenix 7X. I have version 17.12 installed and i use my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra with One UI 6.1. When i start music on my phone, the song title on the watch appears normally. But when I skip the song or play another, the title gets stuck and does not update. Sometimes the title disappears completely and i have to restart spotify on my phone. (Source)

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The music control widget on my Vivoactive 4S stopped working recently (after last Garmin connect update, I think). I do not want to save playlists to my watch, only control what is playing on Spotify on my phone. I’ve tried reinstalling Connect and Connect IQ. Resetting the watch to factory settings. Reinstalling Spotify on my phone and on the watch. I’ve checked permissions. I have an active Spotify premium account. (Source)

The good news is that Garmin is aware of the issue and is working on a fix. In several forum threads, moderators have acknowledged the bug and confirmed that a fix is in the works. While there’s no official word on when the fix will be released, it’s encouraging to see Garmin actively addressing the problem.

We are aware and plan to release a fix in a future Connect app update.

In the meantime, there’s no known workaround for the bug itself. However, some users have reported success with logging out from their Spotify account and signing in again. This is only a temporary solution though, as a few others note that the bug comes back after a while. Another user reportedly got it to work normally again after downgrading to an older version of the Garmin Connect app.

I’ll continue to monitor the situation and update this article as soon as there’s more information about the fix. Until then, hold tight. Hopefully, you won’t have to rely on Shazam every time you want to identify a song during your workout. Since the update might arrive any minute now, feel free to drop a comment to let me know if the bug was fixed on your Garmin watch.