App stops working when USB is plugged in

[BrianStone]

Razr; Android 4.0.4.  I can't get Spotify to work at all when USB is plugged in to charge, which is a bit of a deal-breaker for me since the Razr kinda needs to be charged continously if you expect to walk out of the home or office without a half-dead battery.  Just wondering if anyone else has had, or heard of, this problem before? I don't see any other discussions on the board.  

The app fails in two different ways depending upon if USB is connected prior, or after, starting Spotify. I've listed those two scenarios below:

Scenario #1)

- Unplug the USB cable.

- Clear app data

- Uninstall

- Power cycle the phone (I've also attempted a hard restart with the same results)

- Download and Reinstall

- Run Spotify.

- Log in

- Play lists pop up almost instantly and I'm able to stream any music.

- Plug in USB cable. As soon as the USB cable is plugged in and after the notiiation bar reports "Connected as Mass Storage" the app will stop playing the current track. If you attempt to go into app settings, or just play with the buttons, the app will sometimes timeout and close automatically.

Scenario #2)

- Plug the USB cable in at the start.

- Clear app data.

- Uinstall

- Power cycle

- Download and Reinstall

- Run Spotify  At this point the app will load, but it will be a white screen with the menu button. The GUI is responsive, you can click the menu button, but the menu will be blank. Ocassionally the app will  timeout and close automatically. Sometimes Spotify will attempt to stream the first song in my playlist and the notificaiton bar will be "spammed" with the song title. The song title will transition in and out of the nofication bar periodically at about 1 cycle per second.

I've tried a number of things, including hard reset, disabling developer/debugging options and uninstalling other services which might also use USB. No help, though.

Any thoughts?

[licenced · Accepted solution]

If you mount the phone as a storage device at the same time as charging then Spotify will not be able to access any of its data in SD storage. Hence the problems.

When you plug in USB you should have the option to charge only or mount - sounds like you have selected mount as default. To change this plug it in and then when the notification appears pull down the notification shade and click the USB symbol - you should then be able to change the option to Charge Only and hopefully also set this as the default

[BrianStone]

That did the trick.  I switched the USB transfer option from "Mass Storage" to "Media device (MTP)" and it works like a charm now.

Thanks much! 🙂

[licenced]

Oh yeah, MTP would do the trick too - wasn't sure you'd have that option on your phone. Glad its working now