Excessive background battery drain on Samsung (Accelerometer Wakelock)

[PaulNeuberger]

Plan

Premium Duo

Country

Germany

Device

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Operating System

Andri

My Question or Issue

Hi everyone,

​I'm experiencing a strange issue on my Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (Android / One UI) regarding Spotify's background activity.

​After noticing a very high battery drain reported by the built-in Samsung Device Care app (sometimes up to 20% just for Spotify), I decided to investigate the wakelocks using GSam Battery Monitor.

​It turns out that Spotify continuously polls the motion sensors (lsm6dsv_0 Accelerometer and linear_acceleration) for over 2 hours in the background, even if I only listened to music for a short time. I have already completely disabled "Canvas" and "Car View" in the app settings, but the sensors are still being kept awake constantly.

​Because the app holds onto this sensor wakelock for so long, the strict Samsung OS calculates a massive false battery penalty for Spotify. The physical battery is fine, but the app's background behavior breaks the system's statistics.

​Is this a known issue? Could the dev team check why the app doesn't release the accelerometer when running in the background? I have detailed log screenshots from my battery monitor available and can upload them if a moderator or developer needs them to reproduce the bug.

​Thanks for any help!

[Paula_Vi]

Hey there @PaulNeuberger, 

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the Spotify Community!

Could you let us know which troubleshooting steps you've already tried? That way we can avoid repeating any steps. 

If you haven't tried it yet, we recommend using different internet connections (another Wi-Fi network you haven't used, mobile data or even a mobile hotspot) to see if it makes a difference. 

Also, just to confirm, is this happening when you're streaming or is it happening when you're listening to your downloaded content in offline mode as well? If the issue persists, send us the screenshots you've mentioned so we can take a closer look.

We'll be on the lookout for your reply!

[PaulNeuberger]

​Hi there,
​Thank you for getting back to me!
​To answer your questions directly:
​1. Troubleshooting steps already tried:
I have completely disabled the "Canvas" feature and all "Car View / Auto-Mode" settings. Additionally, I have already cleared the app cache multiple times and completely uninstalled and reinstalled the Spotify app. Unfortunately, the app still keeps polling the motion sensors.
​2. Internet Connection & Offline Mode:
I do not have any downloaded songs, so I am exclusively streaming. This specific bug is unrelated to the network connection (it happens on Wi-Fi and Mobile Data alike), as it is purely a hardware sensor wakelock issue.
​3. The core issue & Screenshots:
The problem is that the Spotify app refuses to release the device's motion sensors. For a 1-hour music session, Spotify kept the lsm6dsv_0 Accelerometer and linear_acceleration sensors awake for over 2 hours in the background.
​Because of this continuous sensor polling, the strict Samsung One UI battery manager calculates a massive "fake" battery drain for Spotify (sometimes up to 20%), even though the physical battery drain is minimal.
​I have attached the GSam Battery Monitor logs showing the exact sensor wakelocks. Could you please forward these screenshots and the sensor names to the Android development team so they can look into why the app isn't releasing the accelerometer in the background?
​Thank you for your help!

[Paula_Vi]

Hi again, @PaulNeuberger 

Thanks for keeping in contact and thanks for all the info you've given us!

We haven't received the screenshots yet, if you have any issues attaching them to your response, let us know. Besides that, to pass all this info to the correct team and investigate further, send us the following details:

• The affected device (make/model) and its OS version.
• The exact Spotify app version you’re currently running.
• Since when is this happening? Did it start after an app's update or some other specific situation?

Keep us posted!

[PaulNeuberger]

Hi again,​I have attached the GSam Battery Monitor screenshots to this message again. Please let me know if they came through successfully this time!​Here are the requested details so you can pass this on to the development team:​1. Affected device: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra2. ​OS version: Andriod 16 One UI 8.53. ​Exact Spotify app version: 9.1.52.13944. ​Since when is this happening: I started noticing this recently after checking the Samsung Device Care battery statistics, which reported an unusually high background drain (up to 20%) for Spotify. This led me to investigate the wakelocks. It seems to happen consistently during and after regular background playback. It doesn't appear to be tied to a single specific event, but rather a persistent behavior where the app simply doesn't release the accelerometer when running in the background.​Thank you for escalating this to the correct team! Let me know if the developers need any more logs.

[Vasil]

Hey @PaulNeuberger,

Thank you for sending the requested details!

Unfortunately though, the screenshots don't seem to have been successfully attached.

You can try using this field to either browse for images or you can drag & drop them in the highlighted area:

In case you receive error messages or the screenshots are not getting saved to the reply, you can upload them to e.g. Google Drive and share the link with us here 🙂
Just make sure the privacy is set to "anyone with the link". 

Many thanks! We'll be on the lookout.

[PaulNeuberger]

Hi Vasil,
​Thank you for the tip! Since the email attachments are failing, I have uploaded the GSam Battery Monitor screenshots to Google Drive as requested. The privacy is set to "anyone with the link".
​Here are the direct links to the log screenshots:

​Screen 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ffkhw15bxxmZXl1b9XCcqsX387tPz0YT/view?usp=drivesdk
​Screen 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QN595u-PR_nmhcO8lTc5yGIhi5hiPx3k/view?usp=drivesdk
​Screen 3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/114-N03vF4J6NcrJ7qjcweOHhQ3JihvhZ/view?usp=drivesdk
​Screen 4: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ra818ybTo9wRaLGq4iDAWWNQ06w0zdUB/view?usp=drivesdk

​These logs clearly display the persistent lsm6dsv_0 Accelerometer and linear_acceleration sensor wakelocks.
​The development team should now have everything they need to investigate why the app keeps polling the motion hardware in the background.
​Thanks again for your great help in escalating this case!

[Vasil]

Hey again @PaulNeuberger,

Thank you for the links! We have all the screenshots now 🙂
We've forwarded the information to our folks backstage who are going to take a look. We can't immediately give you a precise timeframe in which this is going to get addressed, but rest assured it is on our radar.

In the meantime, if there's anything else, don't hesitate to reach back to us. We'd be happy to help!