How to prevent Spotify from running on phone when in use on PC

[SpotifyCookieCo]

I think used to be called Spotify connect.  How to disable this useless and unnecessary feature that causes Spotify to run on our phone when using Spotify on a PC?

Obviously I've already read countless forms and Googled everywhere for an answer.  Being told to put my phone in "offline mode" is not a solution.  Obviously I could also turn off my wifi to accomplish the same.

This is an issue because its messing with other apps and draining resources.

* Running brand new Android Galaxy S21 Ultra

[SpotifyCookieCo]

If you have a newer Samsung S(#), then you can pull the notification tab down 2 times.  You should see a button that says "Media Output".  Click it, then click the arrow at the top right of the screen.  Next, deselect Spotify as one of the options to play.  That should stop it from playing on your phone while listening on PC.  Hope this helps!
(I just figured it out while reading this thread.)

[bennybeerme]

Not only is this an ongoing issue but it seems to be getting worse. I can't shut the damn app off from running in the background, even when I kill it, a few minutes later it shows up. 

Now, occasionally I will put my Bluetooth earbuds in when I'm getting ready for a meeting and music will start playing through them. 

The app is not running anywhere on my PC, cellphone, vehicle...yet somehow there's music playing in my earbuds. 

Why is this a thing?

[Poster5245462]

On the spotify settings on my phone app, I disabled the setting "Spotify Connect in background" (under the "Devices" heading). Now when I manually close the Spotify app on my Pixel 6 Pro, my PC no longer communicates to my phone. But when I haven't closed my Spotify app, the PC and phone communicate with eachother again. This seems to be a partial solution depending on if you're the kind of person to manually close apps or not.

[agarwalkrish26]

I came across this thread almost after 2 years and I still face the same issue. The Spotify App on my phone pushes a non-removable notification about what song is being played on my laptop. I have to open the app and then remove it from recent tabs just to remove the stupid notification. 

[SpotifyCookieCo]

Yep. There are no solutions.  We are out-numbered and Spotify doesn't have to care.  They'd rather have suckers and fools for customers, . . . . most businesses would.

The amount of time and screenshots I had to spend explaining what was happening tells all I need to know.  "We were unable to recreate the issue you are having."  Really, that's funny, everyone else (us non-coders / techies) here seems to be able to.

[cmil1024]

My work PC is not on Wifi, it is a wired connection. My phone app still turns on as soon as I hit play. This is a new computer and this never happened with the old one. When I look at available devices on my PC app, my phone is not even listed. Spotify is just eating up my battery and it's a PITA to have to force close the phone app every single day. It's frustrating enough that I am looking into other music streaming options and I've use Spotify for years. What ever you did with Spotify Connect, you ruined my streaming experience. Such a shame. I've read several things on how to stop it and none work other than the Force Stop on my phone app. I'm fed up.

[apps_that_invade]

Try "deep sleeping apps" which is another option...says to never allow background operations. Sleeping apps still allows occasional access. Seems there was probably pressure to have two levels of sleeping as apps didn't want to go to sleep.

[hndvf]

took a while to find a solution. i had to go to phone settings and turn off "Nearby devices" permission for spotify.

[GravyMonster]

It's ridiculous this is still an issue. Clearly Spotify do not want to resolve it.

It's incredibly annoying as I have multiple playlists, some I listen to in the car using my phone, others while working at my PC. I NEVER, EVER want them to connect to each other.

[SpotifyCookieCo]

Same.  For reals, it's just so dumb. I hop in my car with a friend last week and the audiobook I was listening to over the weekend begins playing without being prompted.

Thank god it was not something too controversial or self-revealing of a title lol.

[Kaiylw0lf]

I love how I found this thread...and it's obvious spotify still doesn't care to properly disable this or give users their independence. Why on Earth does spotify even control the volume of my computer at all? I want this to be turned off. I don't want my devices "talking" to each other in that way, through an app that should just be playing music.

[Mackenziethedog]

Go to your Spotify settings and turn off "Spotify Connect in background".
I use Samsung S23 Ultra and it worked for me.

[Kaiylw0lf]

I've had that setting off, the entire history of me using this application. 

[bennybeerme]

Same here. It's actually worse than ever for me. If there was a Spotify alternative, I'd already be on it.

Yesterday, I was standing in the kitchen listening to music. Music cuts out, I can hear it faintly somewhere else in the house. It decided to jump to another device in the house. 

Still stays playing on my phone but the sound is coming from somewhere else.

[SpotifyCookieCo]

I'll try that again.  When this post was made that option had been taken away, or wasn't effective.  You still had to force close to get it to truly not continue to display what you last listened to on the home screen.  Nothing like getting in the car to head to work on a Monday just to hear some random Yacht rock tune listened to Friday night start playing automatically.

[SpotifyCookieCo]

This exact thing happened to me when I restarted a laptop.  Can you imagine if adult-content sites did that?  haha

[iamnotaginger]

November 2024 and I encounter this issue 5 days a week when listening from the desktop app on my work computer.  This is the first different solution I've come across, so I'm trying it.  
All of the other solutions seem to disconnect my phone from connecting to all other devices.  When I PLUG MY PHONE into my car for Android Auto, I would like my car to connect to the app on my phone.  But that is literally like plugging my phone into an external speaker.  When I'm using spotify from my laptop and hardwired into the network connection, there's no reason spotify should open on my phone on its own and try to control my desktop app from my phone.  and then I answer a call on my phone and suddenly music is coming out of my phone.  this is so ridiculous.  I hope this "Nearby devices" permission thing works. 
Thanks.

[tr1anglessk]

The solution for me seems to be to turn off Bluetooth on my phone when I am listening to Spotify on my PC. Otherwise, it also plays the media overlay on my phone and drains my battery. When I turn off Bluetooth on my phone, then Spotify seems to be only playing on my PC and my phone battery does not die as quickly. 

[SppotifyBlows]

Super annoying, and wth would anyone want this feature?  What is the intended purpose?  Why would I click play on my PC and want the music to NOT come out of my beautiful rich full sound PC speakers and instead come of a crappy $0.10 phone speaker?

[Shameonyouspot]

Is anything being done about it? I've tried all the options suggested here, and none of them work. The funny thing is that the problem should stop once I turn off the Bluetooth on my phone, but it still plays in the background. SHAME ON YOU SPOTIFY FOR NOT LISTENING AND HELPING THE USERS OF THIS APP.

[Justinf760]

Amazing that this is still an issue for people with no solution (myself included, it's driving me insane). Doesn't matter what you disable or turn off, the mobile app is just extremely invasive.