topic Re: Phone keeps hijacking session in Desktop (Windows)

Phone keeps hijacking session

Scobee — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 20:39:20 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

HP Laptop, Pixel 9 Pro XL

Operating System

Windows 11, Android Latest

My Question or Issue

I listen to Spotify on my desktop all day. Recently I started having an issue where if I unlock my phone to check a text or whatever, Spotify will immediately and automatically start playing on my phone. Every time I have to switch it back. I don't want it to do this.

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Yri — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 00:02:39 GMT

I'm seeing the same in my Pixel 9. Very annoying

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Dessi — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 11:24:43 GMT

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out!

Can you check if you have any apps linked to Spotify on your account page and remove the ones you're not using? If you use Google Clock or any other app that may have access to your Spotify account I'd recommend disabling them temporarily to see if the issue persists.

I'd also really recommend checking out this mod post from a similar thread, since it includes a lot of helpful troubleshooting steps. Give them a try and let us know if they make a difference.

In case the issue is still present afterwards, it'd be great if you can send us the following details so we can investigate further:

The OS version your device is currently on
The Spotify version you're running. Steps on how to find it here.

Keep us posted.

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Scobee — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 13:46:19 GMT

I removed everything (which was a lot) including "Google", which seemed like the most likely culprit.

If it keeps happening I'm going to be very upset 😞

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Scobee — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 12:30:45 GMT

It's happening again today. I've been at my desk for 20 minutes and it's already happened 4 times. Twice without me even touching my phone. It's infuriating.

Desktop:

Windows 11 24h2 (26100.3476)

Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.59.514.g834e17d4

Phone:

Pixel 9 Pro XL

Spotify 9.0.28.630

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Eni — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 16:07:54 GMT

Hey @Scobee,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Just to confirm, when this happens, have you previously opened the app on your phone (and it's running in the background)?

On another note, could you ask a friend or a relative to log in to their account on your devices and check if they can replicate this behavior with their own account?

Let us know how it goes.

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

WZ3 — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 17:56:10 GMT

I'm experiencing the same: Music is playing in the desktop app. I don't touch my phone. Music stops playing in the desktop app, and starts playing on the phone.

When I turn OFF background access for the Spotify app on my phone and start playing music again in the desktop app, the music will play in the desktop app for less than five seconds before attempting to switch to the phone, again, even though the Spotify app is not running on the phone.

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

OscarDC — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 19:41:54 GMT

Hey @WZ3,

Thank you for joining this conversation.

Just to make sure we covered all the basics, would you mind confirming if you've already tried to perform a clean reinstall of the app on both devices? If not, we'd recommend following the steps mentioned in this article to see if it makes any difference.

Also, in order to keep looking into this further with the relevant team, let us know the make, model and OS version of both devices along with the exact Spotify version you're currently running

Lastly, and if possible; could any of you (including @Scobee and @Yri) record a short video where we can take a better look? You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert Video option in the post editor. You can also upload it to YouTube or Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to see it).

We'll be on the lookout.

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

MildWolfie — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 18:28:31 GMT

Same issue, pixel 6 Pro XL running android 15, kernel 6.1.99-android14-11-gd6f926cfde54-ab12786694, spotify version 9.0.32.624. PC is running Arch Linux with kernel 6.13.6-arch1-1-surface, spotify version 1.2.47.364.gf06e5cee.

Phone randomly takes control of the stream, despite me force stopping the app. Seems the background service spins up and decides it deserves priority.

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Eni — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 19:50:23 GMT

Hey there @MildWolfie,

Thanks for getting in touch about this.

It looks like your devices are not running the latest version of the app, so we recommend that you perform a clean reinstall with the specific steps @OscarDC sent previously.

If the issue persists afterwards, make sure to send us a short video so we can take a closer look. You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert Video option in the post editor. You can also upload it to Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to see it).

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Scobee — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 13:10:07 GMT

Happened again today...

@Eni wrote:
On another note, could you ask a friend or a relative to log in to their account on your devices and check if they can replicate this behavior with their own account?

lol no

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Scobee — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 13:26:21 GMT

Just to confirm, when this happens, have you previously opened the app on your phone (and it's running in the background)?

This morning I rebooted my phone for an update. I listened to Spotify on Android Auto, as I always do. When I got to work the music switched to my phone twice. Once when I unlocked my phone to check a message and again later when I was WALKING THROUGH THE DAMN OFFICE WITH MY PHONE IN MY POCKET. Real professional, music blaring from my ass.

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Scobee — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 13:30:12 GMT

It just did it again while I wasn't even touching my phone. It happened when my phone got a notification from MS Teams.

p.s. Having to do a captcha for EVERY SINGLE comment is really annoying.

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

MihailY — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 14:52:48 GMT

Hey @Scobee,

Thanks for getting back to us. We're sorry to hear about what happened.

Can you check if this behavior persists when you disable these two settings:

Cheers,

Spotify randonly unpauses or starts playing

Saeng13 — Sun, 11 May 2025 08:57:58 GMT

Premium

Country

Usa

Device

Samsung23 plus

Operating System

(Android

My Question or Issue

Spotify will randomly start playing or unpause. Especially when I'm on tiktok, when I scroll it'll unpause and start playing. Notably this started after the Samsung update.

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Scobee — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 13:25:07 GMT

How/why did I get this?

Also, I haven't had this problem in quite a while. 🤞

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

MihailY — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 15:18:12 GMT

Hey @Scobee,

Thanks for your comment.

I've checked with the team and it looks like the message was generated by an old script so you can go ahead and ignore it. Just to double check though, was it just this message or there have been newer ones?

Also, great to hear that the original issue seems to be resolved 🙂

Cheers,

Re: Phone keeps hijacking session

Ernold — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:43:56 GMT

Hi,

My Pixel 9Pro behavior was like these and the culprit was my SmartWatch waking up Spotify in my phone whenI tried to play music in my PC.