topic Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes in Android

Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

Squashua — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 00:34:09 GMT

Premium/UK/Galaxy A50

Hi All,

I have been using Spotify on my phone for many years. I also use my phone to play personal audio files (i.e music I'm working on and have saved in my downloads).

Recently none of my downloaded audio files (excluding files recorded directly into a voice note app) are opening, and instead Spotify attempts to open them, and fails, sometimes crashing Spotify in the process.

Normally after selecting an audio file, the in-built audio player would open up, a simple play/pause button and timestamp. Now the Spotify logo appears, the app opens on the main screen, and nothing else happens (except sometimes it crashes).

I have reinstalled & cleared the cache. I don't allow Spotify to access my local files.

Any ideas?

Thanks, J

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

Jaxcey — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 10:00:32 GMT

I've been having the same issue since yesterday. It never happened before and only deletion of Spotify helps.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

AndrewVDG — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 22:50:23 GMT

I'm also having this problem 😥

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

schwantizzmo — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 20:53:05 GMT

I'm also having this issue, following!

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

Chillmaw — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 23:24:40 GMT

I have this problem too and as a musician who can't open his own files it is pretty annoying.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

RoyLudford — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 11:35:43 GMT

I have exactly the same issue - I was trying to play MP3 audio files which were sent to me via email (recorder practice room sessions). I found that I had to give permission for Spotify to access my personal files and then download the mp3 files - which stores them in a local files folder in my Spotify library. Up until the most recent android systems update the files would open in an internal media player type window. Pretty poor that you now don't even get the option to select which program or app to open the files with, just automatically sends them to open in Spotify (which as above, then doesn't work)

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

JerpDerp — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 11:51:42 GMT

This started happening to me yesterday and it's becoming infuriating. I did not pay for this service to start interrupting my activity outside the app. If there isn't a solution by end of week, I'm canceling my subscription, deleting the app, and taking my business elsewhere.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

Jimothee — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 16:22:31 GMT

As a TEMPORARY Solution, I have found that downloading "File Manager - XFolder" by InShot Inc. from the Google play store allows me to open my files without spotify deciding it deserves to open them. It's fairly similar to the standard 'My Files' app and for me, at least, has a better audio player as well. After installing it you can still use the My Files app as well, but when opening audio files it'll ask you to choose to open with Spotify or XFolder, so the 'My Files' file player still doesn't show up. I'm starting to think that this is an issue with Samsung/Android as opposed to one with Spotify, because a while back I had the same problem with VLC media player. The way the native file player is handled is just weird, and I think apps recognized as audio players mess with it. I think maybe an update to either Spotify or Android exposed the flawed system. Anyways hopefully it gets fixed soon.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

dimitreze — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 00:28:43 GMT

it's also happening to me

fiiiix it

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

Squashua — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 01:59:24 GMT

It's funny how this post is like a lightning rod for all us frustrated musicians 😄

Thanks for the suggestion, will try this out.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

ChasingTrees — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 21:13:21 GMT

What is happening!?? I can't even play my own recordings without having Spotify take over AND CRASH!?? FIX THISS NOWWWW!!!!....please 😊

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

Kiril — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 14:15:42 GMT

Hey there folks,

Thanks for reaching out on the Community! Apologies for the delayed response, but we just came across this thread.

First of all, thank you all for reporting this happening, however we're not able to reproduce this behavior of the mobile app. We'd need some more context info so we can advise you better.

The default application used for specific actions, including music playback is controlled by the OS of your device and you should have settings which app to handle which file types. Usually, the OS asks which app should be used and if that should happen only once or always.

Keeping in mind the above, it's worthwhile to revisit your phones' settings and make changes if needed. Most commonly the settings are under Settings > Apps & Notifications > Default apps, but this can vary between phone models and ROMs.

Something else that might help is to try installing a different, dedicated music player app, rather than a streaming app, and see if you'd get prompted to choose it as the default application to handle your music files.

Hope any of this helps. Let us know how you get on.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

ksn2632 — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 07:02:53 GMT

This was happening to me too and the solution I found was to install a new music playing app. I think the issue was that Spotify was the only app on my phone that was capable of playing audio files so no matter what it would be the default, whereas in the past I believe I had Google Music but since it was discontinued Spotify became the new default.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

Mihail — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 13:29:32 GMT

Hey @ksn2632 ,

Thanks for getting back to us with your report.

What you're describing seem in line with the explanation @Kiril provided above and makes perfect sense. If there isn't any other music player app installed on the the device, it would make sense for the OS make Spotify the default app to play audio files.

Keep us posted if there are any new developments!

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

FurSealed — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 05:40:12 GMT

Do you know if there is a way to get the old default player back? Installing a second app allows me to pick between the two, but not what I used to use. It doesn't seem to be in the default apps list either.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

Leen73 — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 08:46:07 GMT

This is a scandalous bug: Spotify opens my PERSONAL CONTENT without me giving them permission.

If you want to get a claim, you are on the right path.

This HAS to be fixed now.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

mellow_yellow — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 22:40:32 GMT

This is NOT fixed! Don't say it's solved because it is absolutely not.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

mellow_yellow — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 22:41:46 GMT

Google Music has been discontinued for over a year. This issue is a few weeks old. It's not the reason.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

mellow_yellow — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 22:48:10 GMT

This is not an acceptable solution. I've never had a separated music player app on my phone, and I shouldn't have to install anything extra to make Spotify stay out of my private mp3 files. This is an issue since the app updated around the new year. I've not had any Android system update that could have caused this either. Don't try and pass the buck when it's an issue with Spotify.

Re: Personal Audio Files always opened by Spotify (w/out Permission) & Crashes

Leen73 — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 08:52:08 GMT

Very true. It makes me very very angry and upset.

They are really just automatically opening up my personal content when I said explicitely NO. I dont even get the question "do you want to change your settings and permission for Spotify", it just opens up, UN-believable and SCANDALOUS.

Fix it, or we have to make a claim, I am for real.