[Connect] Disable automatic switching between devices

[HidalgoF]

Spotify Connect is great but the automatic switching is not for everyone.

Please allow us to disable automatic switching between devices. I understand Spotify doesn't like user to play in more than one device and I am happy with that, but the application shouldn't switch devices if the user does not want to do this. It clearly creates frustration amongst users.

In my particular case I work from home listening to music on my computer. I find really annoying when I plug my headphones in my phone to take a call and suddenly the music starts playing in my headphones.

This is what happens step by step:

• Spotify is in my mobile running in the back.
• Spotify is playing in my computer.
• My phone rings.
• I take the call at the same time that I get my headphones on me.
• I listed to a combination of my client/colleague and the music that I was playing in my computer, usually very loudly.
• I stop the music.
• I comment with my client/colleague how bad is Spotify.
• I finish my call.
• I go to my computer, change the playing device on Spotify to my computer and play again.
• I do this a couple of times until I get fed up of Spotify and I play music from somewhere else.

This problem has been already described here: LINK  but it has incorrectly tagged as repeated (the problems and solutions suggested are different).

[HidalgoF]

Hey @50lwjk_-htbts!

Thank you for reaching out on the Community and sorry for the delayed reply.

It sounds like the playback of the music is changed back to the device connected to your phone via Bluetooth, which is expected at this point.

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback. We recommend leaving a +Vote on this idea if you'd like to see this changed.

If you're interested in how ideas work and how your feedback reaches the right teams here, check this page out.
 
Let us know if there's anything else we can do for you. We'd be happy to help.

[Jkmld]

I very deeply hate this and curse spotify pretty much daily for**bleep**.

[jamchi1804]

Spotify - this has not been resolved and is a Spotify issue.  When exiting the car it now continues playing on the phone.  This never happened before.  Seeing as my phone is wirelessly connected to the car it is not something you notice until you hear a noise coming from your pocket when it is quiet.  Please put in an option to disable this new Seamless feature which Spotify has added.

[Juli0vx]

I found this thread because I’m experiencing the exact same behavior in 2026. Spotify still starts playing automatically due to Bluetooth events, device switching, car controls or Android Auto — without me pressing play.

Seeing that this discussion goes back to 2020 and still has no solution is honestly discouraging. This affects daily use and breaks the basic expectation that audio should only start when explicitly requested.

After five years, it’s clear this is a persistent issue that many users consider a major UX problem. Please acknowledge that this is still happening and give users an option to disable this behavior.

[gormster]

I’m going to cancel my premium subscription over this. Honestly. Can you imagine a company giving less**bleep** about its users? Literally thousands of people who want behaviour that is so trivial to implement it would take an engineer an hour, tops. But six years later there’s not even a peep from someone official. And that’s just the ones who have posted in this thread! I’m guessing the vast majority of users don’t want this behaviour. Millions of people are irritated by this every day. It would literally require less code.

Spotify has become unbearable to use. Every other platform has this solved. Every other platform seems to be designed by people who actually listen to music. No one at all ever actually wants this behaviour. No one wants the music at a party to suddenly stop because they put their headphones in before going on a run to the bottleo. No one wants their queue wiped out - and the song everyone was dancing to interrupted - because their fingers brushed the wrong part of their phone screen. It’s genuinely like no one at Spotify ever goes to parties, and if they do, they certainly don’t use Spotify to play music at them.

[Bowl4ut]

Can someone at Spotify please remedy this mess?? 

I get irrationally angry when the music switches from my house speakers to my headphones when I ended a call or when someone in my house tries to use the house speaker for a different app but it automatically switches off in my car and starts playing my music on the house speaker. What in the world?!? Why can't there be a simple "are you sure you want to switch devices?" Pop up to accept or decline before making a change?? 

I am very close to switching to a new music platform because of this nonsense. 

[mikaelweiss]

PLEASE FIX THIS.

For me:
I go to my computer to start working, open spotify (in the web 'cause the desktop app requires too many permissions and takes up too much memory), start some music and it instantly plays on my phone. Like what the heck?? Why??

When I specifically opened spotify on my computer I think it's pretty obvious that I want the music to play on my computer.

I have to force quit the app on my phone if I want it to play on my computer or it'll switch back to my phone a few minutes later. AND EVEN THEN, it STILL sometimes switches to my phone! Like what the heck??

Why even have a desktop app/website if I can't even play music from the dang thing?

I also only want to play from one device at a time. I just want to be able to choose that device myself instead of spotify deciding which speaker it thinks I want to use.

This is especially embarrassing if I start music on my mac connected to my airpods, and then all of a sudden my music starts playing out loud on my iPhone and it takes me a minute to realize where the heck the sound is coming from.

As said before, PLEASE FIX

[HidalgoF]

Hi Elena,

Sorry, this is not the expected behaviour. 3 years later and this annoying feature is still there.

I am listening Spotify in my Alexa, I connect my headphones to my phone to listen to a WhatsApp message and Alexa stops playing Spotify. This is plainly annoying.

I moved to Dezzer for few years as this annoying feature is a deal breaker for me but their playlist alghoritm is not as good as Spotify.

I wanted to come back to Spotify so I gave it a try but I can see that this issue has not been fixed 3 years later!

I will keep looking until I find a decent music streaming platform.

All the best!

[jj101]

Hi, 

if you do find, please share. I don't have much holding me at spotify and this is indeed annoying.

Thanks

[azalou]

Well I guess that means I will stop paying for spotify and find an alternative

[11143811421]

I've had a car with android auto for HALF a YEAR already and this issue has still not been addressed? Good thing I switched to youtube music (UX over audio quality in this case), but still getting new alerts about this thread being active from time to time. This just goes to show how little they care about paying customers.

[Jazzman180]

4 years later and this still hasn't been resolved. If you want people to have a good impression of Spotify, maybe this jankey behavior should be fixed 

[bergmanman]

It's now 2026 and this is still a problem. Why is it that you are so incapable at fixing issues? 

[bergmanman]

They're to busy implementing messaging in the music app instead of basic music functionality. Absolute circus. 

[jelmerjelmerjelmer]

Als ik gebeld word en mijn koptelefoon disconnect wil ik niet dat de muziek dan het beklen op luidspreeker gaat afspelen!!!

[Semjasa]

Plan

Individual 

Country

DE

Device

Galaxy S25 Ultra

My Question or Issue

I haven’t been able to find a setting yet that stops the devices from switching playlists.

For example, if I’m playing something for the kids via my laptop using Bluetooth and then put my earbuds (paired with my smartphone) in my ear to make a call, the stream switches over to me. Every time, I have to run back to the laptop. 

The next day it’s the same – no matter where I am, the last playlist in the car is immediately interrupted so it can take over the one from the night before. 

So my preferred playlist in the car is gone and, for example, the children’s playlist from the night before is playing. 

Surely Spotify can’t fail to remember the playlists for just a few devices? Amazon and Apple Music manage it too.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)