[Critical Bug] Spotify being killed in background

[icamoreira]

Plan

Premium

Country

Brasil

Device

 Samsung M15 5G

Operating System

Android 16 / One UI Core

My Question or Issue

​Hi everyone,

​I’m reaching out because I’m facing a persistent and extremely frustrating issue with Spotify on my Samsung Galaxy M15 5G running Android 16 (One UI Core). The app consistently closes itself whenever it's in the background, sometimes this happens even with the app open and the phone is locked.

​The Symptom:

There is no "App has stopped" notification or error message. The music simply cuts out. When I reopen Spotify, it doesn’t resume from where it stopped; it restarts the song from the very beginning, indicating that the execution cache was completely wiped.

​Hardware vs. Software Context:

I previously used a Samsung Galaxy A50 (considerably older/weaker hardware) and never experienced this. The M15 5G features a MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ which is technically superior, so this isn't a "lack of power" issue. It appears to be a critical optimization failure between Spotify’s background process and Samsung’s aggressive RAM management on the One UI Core.

​Everything I have already tried (Nothing worked):

• Basic stuff as wipe out the app cache and reinstalling.
• ​Battery Optimization: Set to "Unrestricted" for Spotify.
• ​Background Usage Limits: Added Spotify to "Never sleeping apps."
• ​App Locking: Locked Spotify in the "Recents" task switcher.
• ​RAM Plus (Virtual RAM): Tested both ON and OFF (currently OFF to prioritize physical RAM speed).

Developer Options (Advanced):

• ​"Don't keep activities" is DISABLED.
• ​"Background process limit" is set to Standard.
• ​"Suspend execution for cached apps" has been DISABLED (this reduced frequency but didn't solve it).
• ​Logger buffer sizes increased to 4M/8M to handle data spikes.
• ​Spotify Internal Settings: Canvas disabled and Audio Quality reduced to "Normal" to minimize RAM footprint.
• ​Data Usage: "Allow background data usage" and "Allow app while Data saver on" are both ENABLED.
• ​Storage: Running on internal storage (No SD card interference).

​Conclusion:

Even with every possible manual override and "Never Sleep" flag enabled, the OS ignores these exceptions and kills the Spotify process the moment another app requests a RAM spike. This behavior has persisted even after the update to Android 16.

​Is there a known conflict between the current Spotify build and the Dimensity 6100+ chipset? Or is this an issue with how Spotify registers its foreground service on the One UI Core architecture?

​Looking forward to a technical response.

[Maria]

Hey there @icamoreira,

Thanks for reporting this on the Community! Sorry to hear you're having issues with running the app.

Kudos for trying troubleshooting steps on your own and for including it in your post - we appreciate it! We've passed all the info you provided on to the right folks so they can have a closer look as well. While we can't give you a specific timeframe for if or when this will be fixed, we recommend keeping the app up-to-date in the meantime.

We'll be here if anything else appears! Cheers.

[Stephanwright]

Need a phone with more ram; used to happen to my A41 but I upgraded to the s23 plus, one ui has gotten ram intensive within the last 6 years

[bosi]

Plan

Premium

Country

Sweden

Device

Samsung Galaxy S22

Operating System

Android 16

My Question or Issue

While playing on another device, and the phone gets locked, spotify lose connection within 5-10 minutes.

When unlocking the phone, it takes 15-30 seconds for spotify to get current status (currently playing song in the now playing page). During that time, spotify show completely wrong information about currently playing song. It is not clear in the UI that the app is connecting to servers and reading current information.

This problem is maybe 6 months old. It was working fine before. This behaviour is not in line with a premium plan.

If this by any chance is caused by Android, please see to that spotify can be selected as Device care -> Background usage limits -> Never auto sleeping apps as spotify currently is not part of apps that can be added to the list.

[Paula_Vi]

Hi there, @bosi 

Thanks for reaching out and letting us know about this!

First, verify both devices (your mobile and the speaker/other device you're connected to) are using the same Wi-Fi network and try with other internet connections you haven't tried before (like other Wi-Fi, mobile data or a mobile hotspot). 

Also, test with different remote devices to isolate whether it's device-specific or not. 

There are two different battery settings that can affect the app's performance, so it would be helpful to check them: 

• Open your phone Settings > Apps > look for Spotify and tap on it > open the section called Battery > toggle on Without Restrictions or Allow background activity.
• Open your phone Settings > Apps > tap on Spotify > toggle off the option "Pausing app activity if it's not being used".

Let us know how this goes!

[bosi]

This is not a problem with the internet connection. I see the same behaviour whether I am connected to Wifi of 4G.

I am not sure it has to do anything with the app being put in some kind of sleep. After studying this for a while, it seems to be the network, or more likely, spotify servers that sometimes are slow to respond.

But as I said, please see to that spotify can be selected as Device care -> Background usage limits -> Never auto sleeping apps as spotify currently is not part of apps that can be added to the list. It may help to keep the app awake.

I have already set the other settings you point to.

And, please fix the bug where spotify show the wrong information while it is trying to get the proper information from your servers. What I see on the screen must be correct. If you cannot show the correct information, blank out the screen or make it clear that spotify is not ready.

[Vasil]

Hey again @bosi,

Thank you for the additional details. We've gathered all similar reports in one thread to keep things tidy, hope you don't mind.

We've passed down the information to the right folks and we'll keep you posted. 

If anyone else is experiencing this issue, make sure to let us know the following details:

• Your device:
• Its OS version:
• Your current Spotify app version:

Much appreciated.