Getting very low bitrate version of songs

I have been a Deezer subscriber for a few years, and we have had the Family plan for the past year. Normally I love Deezer. A week ago, I noticed most of the songs playing on my profile do not sound good. They sound shallow and like there is steel sharpening in the background. I heard this quality before I subscribed to Deezer, but it was fine after I subscribed.

To test this, I switched to my son’s account on my phone and listened to the same songs, and they sound great using his profile. Switching back to my profile, they sound horrible.

I checked the audio settings on both profiles, and they are the same - High Quality (HQ) and ‘Better’ (best audio quality available).

I listen to Deezer many times every day, and it is extremely frustrating to hear this poor quality while knowing I pay for premium.

Is there a way to fix this, or could there be a glitch in my profile?

Hello @Mariedaisy, thanks a lot for your support during this years and for this feedback as well. Could you try this: Change to the lower quality, check if you notice any difference, and back to the better quality. Let me know how it goes, as well as which devices you own and the version of the Deezer app.

Have a great day

same here, the problem is with some songs, not all.

no way to fix the issue, maybe an update of the android app ???

Seems to me there is a bug in the last version of Android app. Try to downgrade it to 6.2.4.98 version and check.

I just reverted back to the version D’ArtX mentioned by manually installing that APK, and lo and behold… The music sounds fine again :)

So hopefully there is new version with a bugfix for this soon. ‘Till then, I guess I’ll keep using this older version.

It confirms my thoughts about this problem.

Same problem

Hi guys, thanks all for the feedback, I’m investigating on our side, I’ll let you know once I have more news.

Hi Geoffrey,

I was seeing (hearing? ;) ) the issues in the Deezer app version 6.2.5.70 on a Huawei Nova running android 7. Deezer audio quality setting didn’t seem to matter, using ‘balanced’ setting over wifi or compact over wifi both gave the bad quality audio.

Let me know if there is other info you need.

Kind regards,
Dracorius

We found the cause of this!
A recent patch has a side effect of downloading the wrong audio quality on some device.

We are preparing an update to deliver you the fix ASAP.

Thank you for your feedback!

Great news :)

I’ll be looking out for the new app version to test it out.

Kind regards,

Dracorius

@Kevin Deezer I tried that and it did not help. I changed from Standard Quality to High Quality and they sound the same. I am on a Samsung Galaxy S6 using version 6.2.5.70. The issue started early July.

It sounds great if I back out of the latest update, but without the features I want. And every night my phone auto updates it anyways.

thanks dude !! it works !!

It solved in new version of app in GP (I’ve tested on beta). Thanks!

Hello @Mariedaisy, I’ve moved your messages here as the issue is related, it is solved in the upcoming update.

Hello @Carlos.Ignacio and @D'ArtX, thanks a lot for keeping us posted 

Thanks for the feedback  @Dracorius 

I am also using version 6.2.6.83 now and it sounds MUCH better! Thank you! 

That’s great to hear @Mariedaisy! Literally   

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I’m having the same problem on my iOS device.  I’m a HiFi subscriber, and have both WiFi stream and download set to HiFi.  I keep running into random songs that have been downloaded onto my phone and sound like crap - not even remotely close to lossless FLAC!  I’m running 8.29.0.4 of Deezer on my iPhone SE (the new one) running iOS 14.2.  I can’t remember exactly when this first started, but I feel like it was in the last few months of 2020.

Hey @blackmtn 

Thanks for showing up, great to help.

8.30 is available now, so I recommend uninstalling the one you have first, restarting your phone, and reinstalling the Deezer app. That should fix the problem because it also prompts the tracks to be downloaded again. Keep us posted and in the meantime, Happy New Year!

This seems to have worked - forcing the re-download has made the songs I know were really poor sounding to be the better version.  Was it just a glitch that some downloaded like that in the first place?

I believe so @blackmtn but some work had to be done on our side to prevent further issues - glad it's working for you now, keep me posted, please 

Seems the issue is back in the (mac os x) desktop player (version 5.30.350.131)

Some moments, for example now the bitrate of all songs is terrible. Switching the audio quality to lower / high / high fidelity has no impact on the audio quality. On mobile it is good though.

Any way to reset the desktop (mac) app fully?

-- seems that opening the mac sound preferences, and selecting different outputs actually changes it, resulting in improved sound quality.