Password Reset Due To "Suspicious Activity"

[WareNetwork2000]

Plan

Free

Country

America

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Today, I was forced to reset my password by Spotify. They logged me out of my account and they sent me my E-Mail.

"To protect your Spotify account, we've reset your password due to detected suspicious activity."

What suspicious activity? There has been no suspicious activity on my account. They didn't even explain exactly what I did. They were just vague about it. When I went to change my password, Spotify wouldn't let me change it back to my old password, so I have to get used to a new password.

Has this happened to any of you? Is there any way to get Spotify to change my password back to my original password or do I have to create a new account to use my old password?

[WareNetwork2000]

Hey @JasonPotter,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community.

We can confirm that VPNs can cause issues such as the one you had experienced. They can mask the real IP address and device that is being used to access your account. Usually a VPN also switches between multiple IPs from different locations.

A lot of sites and services will either block known VPN IPs or can be a reason to trigger security protocols based on location and device access. In other words, using a VPN can make the security system think that your account is being accessed by multiple unknown locations, which in turn would trigger an automated password reset to your account.

Spotify does not currently block VPN usage, but we also do not support it and we can't guarantee that the service would work as expected when using one.

In case you're encountering account issues with changing your details, you can reach out to our support folks backstage and they'll take a look at things for you. Hope this helps!

[Risingson]

Getting several forced password resets because though I live and work in London my work network is detected to be in Ireland (because location detection based on IP is absolutely worthless).

Can you confirm if this is expected behaviour? If it is, I will be forced to end my 10 year subscription to your services.

Regards

[powerracing]

I have the same problem twice in a week.

What causes the issue ?? 

At least let us me where the problem came from

[DubC]

Cancelling my premium subscription and switching. I was logged on my PC and phone not using the VPN. Since Spotify refuses to be clear on what suspicious activity is, I will tell you all.  1 - Using third party apps that allows you to login using your Spotify account. 2 - Using a VPN for sure. 3 - Being human and playing your favorite songs daily and/or using repeat will flag your account as suspicious.  Just remove the repeat feature if it's causing a big deal! Oh they think that we're bots and being flagged.  I wouldn't blame folks who do use bots because they sure do. Why not pay artists for their hard work that they put their all into. This is totally absurd!!!

[AnnoyedScotsman]

I'm now in a similar position. Twice now in as many weeks after years of use with no issues.

My money is going on this being financially motivated - multiple locations, same account seems to trigger it, especially if you have the cheek to have your mobile (using mobile data) and a fixed decice on wifi connected at once.

I will jump through the hoops again this time but once more and I will take the full-fat family sybscription I've been paying for since it became available and shift it to Tidal or even Amazon.

I will not be pestered for legitimately using what they sell me!

[dodoroti]

This is the 3rd time that I was forced to reset my password. Nothing new happened in my listening habits or anything. So that's pretty annoying.... Hope it stops.

[Maxxxx73]

I had to reset my password on Spotify today. They logged me out of my account and sent me an email. This is the fourth time this has happened in the past four months.

They claim, 'To protect your Spotify account, we've reset your password due to detected suspicious activity.' However, each time, Spotify wouldn't allow me to revert to my old password. Consequently, I'm compelled to adapt to a new password and reset it, along with logging in again on every device I use.

Does anyone know if there's a way to communicate to Spotify: 'Please, stop attempting to over-protect me!'

I believe a better approach would involve them asking for my approval or notifying me whenever they detect something suspicious. This would allow me to decide whether the situation warrants action. I want to retain control over these decisions.

Curiously, I've only encountered this issue with Spotify, no other apps, service providers, or even banks have implemented anything similar. It's genuinely quite exasperating.

[BcnPhil]

Yep, same here, I work through a VPN with ALL of my services too and gave up with Deezer because they don't support the use of a VPN and now, whether Spotify is connected through my VPN or not, I'm being advised of the same thing, 'To protect your Spotify account, we've reset your password due to detected suspicious activity.' There is no 'suspicious activity' and I'm sick of resetting passwords on all of my devices; I simply give up: I won't be renewing!

[dasa_orso]

got the same issue, listening to the spotify using VPN sometimes and I was forced to change my password maaaany times already, it's been a **bleep**, i don't know what password to put anymore....

please, take action, take our old good Microsoft as an example.. would appreciate it

[Markoman]

Exactly. Where is the 2FA, Spotify? You'd better get used to people using VPNs, especially with Canada, the UK, Australia, putting in Orwellian censorship laws trying to control what their citizens are allowed to listen to.

[TimothyCrentist]

The problem is that Spotify actually doesn't give a rat's ass about security. If it did - they'd offered 2FA (authentication app or hardware key) and supported the VPN users.

But no. They just lamely send a generic email because "suspicious activity". So if you're traveling or just using VPN you're **bleep**.

I'm paying customer for years now and I'm using the DUO plan for me and my partner. That is also the reason I'm staying so far, but my patience is running out. If I were the only user - I would be out already.

[nicofla]

Same situation here, I live in Perth, Western Australia but work 100% remote and have to VPN to a network in a different State.

I am getting my password reset/logged off from all my devices pretty much daily now, ridiculous annoying!

[FrustratedCustomer]

Your system has reset my password multiple times now and I don't have any explanation as to why. You don't answer phone calls so I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING WITH MY ACCOUNT.

[Dpan]

Can someone help me with this problem? I have reset my password almost 20 times already. It happens every week- eerily consistent 7-8 day gaps. I don’t do anything no vpn no traveling. I am convinced Spotify doesn’t gaf.

[IanVdk]

I keep getting emails about suspicious acivity and needing to reset my password. It's happened two times every week for way too long. It immediately logs me out of all devices and I'm not allowed to ever use the same password. I'm like 20 passwords deep and there's only so many I can remember.

All I do is listen to music at home and at work, this is really annoying.

There's no way to prevent this or have the option to disable this function?

[Dingbat1991]

Also adding my name to this issue. I have to change my password every two weeks and it's annoying. I already had to talk to someone in the past over this, and after doing something, nothing appears to have changed since this issue still surfaces. I don't even use a VPN, I just work from two computers.

Spotify, get with the times and implement a two-factor authentication already and get rid of this archaic tripwire.

[TONZAMUSIC]

**bleep** yes this is such nonsense. Also why does Spotify have that stupid Loop button if it's so forbidden to listen to your fave songs from your favorite artists and bands on playlists or algorithmic lists for hours on loop? Terrible platforms, also by the way no one talks about this but these platforms keep trying to exploit small selfmade hard working indie artists on purpose because they love these fake untalented big artists like Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo to get their success but they often are so manifactured that it is difficult to listen to their music without cringing at all lol ridiculous. Also like I said, I wish people would stop being so shy to admit they keep screwing smaller artists who use Discovery Mode and such by flagging them and blackmailing secretly or whatever and not everyone even does anything wrong smh, this is disgusting and I hope there will be a music revolution that will stop the exploitation of hard working indie artists. Also this logging off and change your password due to ”suspicious activity” BS is so annoying I had to change my password to my Spotify account it didnt even get that damn silly email but I guess Spotify hates VPN so much so I had to turn it off again. Hard to enjoy their platform when it's barely working well and being far from user friendly. Also we should get actual full screen album cover mode back + Spotify MUST bring HiFi lossless for everyone with the regular Premium subscription! How can we use their services if we keep getting logged out because of nonexistent ”suspicious activity” huh? Just remove the Loop button and playlists altogether if it's so damn illegal lol. Ridiculous.

[Danielleknowsbest]

Two factor Authentication is definitely needed. Spotify generate "suspicious activity" too often. Many times even trying to reset the password doesn't work, you never get the email. Luckily I found their support chat service and after being told by the chat bot to do what I had done already I actually get through to a human and they say 'oh your account has been locked because of suspicious activity. I asked them what suspicious activity and they don't know, it is not even listed. But at least they do unlock the account but yes have to reset the password. And the folk you chat to are decent so if you use the service don't rant at them. They are not to blame. But dear god if they used 2FA then it would be bulletproof. 

As others here have said I am certain it's because they want you to go premium. Plus their social media stance is such that they must be nervous of bots constant streaming an artist or playlist but then remove the loop function if that's the issue. I have a playlist that's over 500 songs long. I just add songs when I hear them. Why shouldn't I be able to play the whole playlist without getting the reset password flag. It can only be about keeping the small artists down. No one is going to make royalty money out of Spotify except the big hitters. Why shouldn't we be able to listen to what we want when we want. At the end of the day Spotify are still the winners. They either get ad revenue or subscription revenue so why should they care. Their AI is probably from Meta. I actually checked to see if they are owned by Meta because their AI seems to work exactly the same.

[Vilk]

I would love to see Spotify remembering devices I logged to it with. Right now I feel like I'm actively being punished only because I own both windows and mac - god forbid I log on one the same day/few hrs later I logged on the other one... BOOM, "Suspicious activity" email incoming.

Could you stop?

Send a verification email instead, like everyone else? What is the logic behind it? it's doesn't not trigger when I log on my phone? Or thru VPN? Or from a different country? Why does it only trigger between macOS and windows connected to the same network???? Could you maybe at least save a cookie on both machines that would say "not a suspicious machine, let her live"????

Like so many other things with this service, it's ridiculous and outdated behaviour.

btw. I'm a paying customer since 2015. And I have to actively fight the service I'm paying for, I feel like a loser now lol. 

[Sparky7]

Exactly. I use a VPN for my school laptop because I connect to wireless networks all the time. My phone uses its own 5G connection so I don't require a VPN. 2FA is the way to go for safety, not knee jerking everytime something sus happens and then forcing a password reset. Apple Music is fine with me using a VPN because my storefront is locked to Singapore, so I only get content available here. Spotify should lock my region to whatever my actual region is (like... the one on my address) instead of just thinking i'm flying around the world every second just because my IP changes. 

[tedyoung]

I just started having the same issues recently. I use a VPN for all of my personal devices except my work phone due to work policies. Never had an issue with Spotify until this week. Changed my password 5 times in an hour because I couldn't log in with the correct password on my work phone. This issue doesn't occur with other apps or websites and i've had this setup for 2 years so it's smells like something on spotify's end. May have to cancel family account after 10+ years if this isn't resolved. Spotify customer service suggest not using VPN but we use it to avoid censors and government monitoring.