Disable Ford Applink with spotify

[xartic1]

Is there anyway to disable spotify from having my Microsoft Sync in my Ford from being solely controlled through the car? It's entirely bothersome to try and navigate through my car to get to a different artist or playlist when I could just do it easily through my phone.

On my end, my mustang has no nav, and I cannot find any way to disable Sync from completely controlling my phone's spotify app. All it shows is the spotify logo with an arrow to a Ford logo. Super annoying.

[Jaush]

Tossing in another "I hate this, get rid of it or get rid of me" comment.

This is was a terrible idea, Spotify.  Especially without so much as a notification to let users know exactly what the f*** just happened to their app.  Annoying for most apps, but downright dangerous for an app that you KNOW is used in the car.  How many of us were getting ready to go about our normal day just to get bushwhacked by this thing and have to figure it out?

[Kanman85]

This update sucks and it is still not solved.

[MLBurke]

2015 Ford Fusion SE, no touch screens, just a Galaxy S4 and Bluetooth connection. Can verify this issue is not solved and that Ford SYNC is not user-friendly. The voice commands are complicated and practically unusable. I'm distracted from driving far longer just trying to figure out the voice commands than I am by looking briefly at my phone.

The first time I saw the lock screen, I thought it was just loading to bring me to a new screen. It took several restarts of my phone for me to realize that it wasn't freezing, but that getting locked out of using Spotify was a new and annoyingly unnanounced feature. So, yeah, thanks for telling us.

If I forget to turn off Bluetooth on my phone before I turn on the radio, I get the lock screen. I then have to go through the tedious process of turning my radio off, opening my phone's task manager to end all my tasks, then turning off Bluetooth, and finally opening Spotify to choose a playlist. After that, I turn the radio on, then turn on my phone's Bluetooth, after which the lock screen immediately pops up. I'm stuck listening to one playlist until I can pull over to change it, which would require me to repeat the aforementioned process, because even after you turn your car off, the lock screen still shows up. Not a positive change for someone like me who drives cross-state every other weekend.

I'm 99% sure no one suggested or asked for this update, Spotify. If you're worried about liability, follow Waze's example and force the user to verify they're not the driver. If you're is just interested in being irritating and inconvenient, you're doing a great job.

[sonnikaz]

On a 2013 Mustang with the touch/navigation, the Spotify App update as works as designed about 30% of the time.  (Excluding the Spotify/Ford logos being stuck on exit).

However, it is very fickle - and it may be a matter of 1) cycling the ignition on my car in case "AppLink" chooses not to work that particular ignition sequence, 2) a fresh boot on my Galaxy S7. 

I have seen the following issues:

1) The playlist randomly selects two tracks, and two tracks only (out of several dozen available tracks).  I am stuck that way until my next ignition cycle.

2) AppLink does not provide Spotify-Specific controls, period.  It may work under bluetooth stereo streaming, but I have to hope that I've selected the correct playlist prior to starting the Spotify App on my phone.

3) "Mobile Applications" does not find Spotify, despite the process running.

If it's for safety, I get it.  However, I'm finding myself trying to kill the spotify process at a stoplight (my location has no mobile device bans while driving yet) or something to get the app recycled to a usable state, thus defeating any intention of safety.

[NasuTek]

Sadly, I canceled my Spotify Premium for this exact reason. The darn thing is bugged to all **bleep** and I'm not gonna downgrade just to get to use my phone again. And its obvious Spotify isnt doing anything about it, Not everyone has the Touch features and its so tedious to use the dash.

Also suggesting me to login my friends into my Spotify just to control the app in the passenger seat is just plain dumb. Yeah let them cut my music off cause they start playing their own music out of my car!

To say its for safty is just freaking lame. If I wanna control with my phone cause its less of a darn hazard cause I dont have to navigate through a tedious interface on Ford Sync then let me!

Well least Google Play Music dont lock me out of the phone user interface when I'm in my car.

[fastnoid]

This is happening in my 2014 Ford Focus SE. I opted for the non-touch Sync system, so all of the touch features and many of the voice commands don't work for me. This has rendered the app useless for me. It seems if I force close the app a few times it might revert to normal behavior, but it's not consistent. I'm majorly disappointed by Spotify's response to this. Their support team responds with links to their post earlier in this thread, or formulaic "Thank you for the feedback, we've sent it to the right people" responses. I have managed a support department - until I hear actual ETAs on a real response they are just blowing us off. I have a feeling they aren't going to do anything about this because they don't care about losing a few customers.

https://twitter.com/SpotifyCares/status/744463131582291968

[pisymbol]

Again, I can not fathom that Spotify engineering does not think this is a bug. If you disable Mobile Apps, then it should be disabled.

My guess is the recent update had some regression in it that was not seen by QA. Furthermore, I think Spotify support doesn't know how to support Spotify on Ford (honeslty, given all of their cookie cutter responses my guess is unless a support engineer happens to own a Ford they have no idea what you are talking about).

I suspect if it has been escalated within engineering it wil be fixed soon.

To Spotify PM: This should be a hot fix release as its impact is far and wide and preventing paying customers from enjoying their service in their Ford vehicle. I also think a statement should be made in this forum of "We're working on it. Sorry for the inconvenience. Hang tight."

That would end this thread almost immediately.

[jbx272]

This has become too inconvenient and I will be cancelling my spotify subscription and moving to a different service if it is not mended soon. 

[fastnoid]

I got a direct response from Spotify this morning: 

"Thanks for sending that over. We understand your frustration in being unable to use the app as before, but those changes were made to ensure user safety while on the road. Currently, we're looking on ways to improve this functionality. We highly appreciate your patience and understanding as we look into this matter /NQ"

I'm not sure they understand that there are different versions of sync with various levels of functionality. This also has nothing to do with safety - my wife can't use the app either now when we are driving.

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[pisymbol]

I'm out then if this is their final decision. If they are really going to enable AppLink even when I disabled it in my truck, that is just plain wrong on every level.

So let me get this straight, if I drive a Honda I can use Bluetooth audio but if I drive a Ford I MUST use AppLink.

Are you friggin kidding me?

[Singlekorn]

Thanks for posting their response fastnoid.  I was just starting to go through the support procedure and supply them with the 1,000 things they are asking for.

So what is everyone else switching to?  I'm starting to compare libraries with Google Play Music and it is looking good for me sofar.

[rob_bennett85]

I went to GPM as well they give you YouTube red with it.

[pisymbol]

I can't believe I am saying this: But I am for the first time going to look at Tidal more seriously. I'm not that interested in lossless streaming but as long as I can play music in my vehicle the WAY I WANT TO then I'm good with that.

I can not believe Spotify is really OK with this change. It is INSANE to force people into this workflow. I am just in disbelief of the PM decisions being made here.

What I find fascinating is that they are only doing this for Ford owners....if you have a third-party bluetooth stereo system, you can use Spotify the way you want it just like you have been doing for the past uptine years....I mean **bleep**!?

[fastnoid]

I've been a premium member since the US launch in 2011 and I'm considering dropping the service for the first time. I was willing to put up with some of their weird UI changes, removing stars, removing the ability to see who has followed a playlist, etc., but I'm not willing to pay for something that doesn't work half the time I use it. 

Maybe they should lock you out of the interface when you are walking in the city, too. It's dangerous to look at your phone and not where you are walking.

[pisymbol]

The only sane explanation for this change was that the request for this lock out feature was on the behest of Ford not Spotify. I can see Ford doing something dumb like this and then calling it a safety feature or something of that ilk as a way to market AppLink.

But I am having a hard time believing that the PMs within Spotify really believes its up to them to dictate safety standards to some of their users that happen to drive Ford vehicles and moreover, to override the subscriber's prefernce when Mobile Apps are disabled.

That is INSANE in the MEMBRANE. (queue Cypress Hill)

[danefinnesand]

I'm convinced that Spotify doesn't really understand the problem.  I downgraded to an older version (5.5.0.653) and the app locks itself until I close it and then reopen.  After the restart, the Spotify app works fine.  This is clearly a glitch in the previous versions that has not been addressed and has now evolved into complete software failure.  I understand that Applink connecting to Spotify will lock the app (has always been that way) but it is ridiculous/unnecessary/inconvenient to lock the app when Applink is disabled in your vehicle. All that i want is the audio to come throught the speakers but I imagine that they think we want to disable the logo lock screen when Applink is connected. Goodbye Spotify FYI: Google Music has a free 30 day trial. 

[fastnoid]

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@danefinnesand wrote:

I'm convinced that Spotify doesn't really understand the problem.  I downgraded to an older version (5.5.0.653) and the app locks itself until I close it and then reopen.  After the restart, the Spotify app works fine.  This is clearly a glitch in the previous versions that has not been addressed and has now evolved into complete software failure.  I understand that Applink connecting to Spotify will lock the app (has always been that way) but it is ridiculous/unnecessary/inconvenient to lock the app when Applink is disabled in your vehicle. All that i want is the audio to come throught the speakers but I imagine that they think we want to disable the logo lock screen when Applink is connected. Goodbye Spotify FYI: Google Music has a free 30 day trial. 

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I 100% agree with you. I keep trying to explain I only want to use bluetooth audio without applink but I think you are right.

[xartic1]

I still can't fathom their response stating it is a safety feature. They can't seem to answer my question of why the passenger of the vehicle has no control of their app while hooked up to sync. The only thing I can understand is that they had no idea really what they were doing and had no means of testing it in a sync equipped Ford.

The premium spotify app is completely uninstalled on my phone now. Well at least I got a free chromecast when I signed into a new account for 3 months and $10 from the play store.

I now completely recommend people not to use spotify anymore since they can't even take care of their customers.

[meximills]

Same boat here. Customer for as long as I can remember. But now the app is totally unusable

[gfacundo91]

fix this plz, at least give an official answer, I do not want to cancel my subscription to spotify for this