Mobile Android volume button controls Spotify Connect instead of phone's media volume

[Boekk]

Plan

Premium

Device

Huawei, Samsung, OnePlus

Operating System

Android 10

Spotify version 8.5.74.834

Harman Kardon Towers with Google Assistent and Spotify

My Question or Issue

Normally the volume buttons on my Android phone control the media volume of videos/media that I play on my phone. Lately, however, the volume buttons control Spotify volume when music is playing via the Google Assistant HK Speakers (increasing/decreasing the HK speakers, not my phone). You can see in the screenshot how there's a casting symbol for volume control. I know it is the Spotify app and not Google Home or Chromecast, because when I go offline on Spotify the music keeps on playing on the Google Home HK Speakers, but i can't control the volume via my phone anymore. 

So, how do I set the volume buttons on my phone to control the media from my phone instead of the volume from the Google Home HK Speakers?

[arte_nm]

thanks for your reply but that is not the issue. If its issue with my Account then its again Spotify Problem.

I test software for living. I can reproduce the same bugs on every account.  It is disheartening to see this community being only a ping pong match. We report the issue, mods are reposting with "are you sure its not your fault" kind of thing. 

[world2explore]

I agree with you Arte. I am able to reproduce this over multiple accounts, devices, and installs. This is a billion dollar company that somehow cannot hire good software engineers, both mobile and desktop. This is pure incompetency.

[Eni]

Hi folks, 

Thanks for reaching out about this. 

As @Ver mentioned previously, this is an expected behavior because the volume buttons prioritize the app that is currently playing music, in this case Spotify. 

Even though the app is running in the background of the phone while you're playing music on a different device using the Connect feature, the music will still be streaming from the phone.

On some devices this can be manually changed from the Sound/Notification settings on the phone itself.

Hope this helps clear things up. If you need help with anything else, just let us know.

[coke187]

Is there a way to disable Connect? What a horrible feature that hijacks our devices. If I'm playing music through Spotify on a different device, and Spotify happens to be open in the background of my phone, Spotify takes over the volume controls.

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for your replies and feedback.

As mentioned above - this is expected behavior.

If you think this feature can be better and you think it will appeal to other users you can always create an idea on the relevant idea board. We always take new ideas and feedback into consideration to improve the app. 

Once again - thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it. Let us know if we can help you with anything else. 

Take care!

[JAB2021]

I JUST UNINSTALLED SPOTIFY BECAUSE OF THIS

"TO BE EXPECTED"

EXPECT ME TO STOP USING THE SERVICE AND PAYING FOR IT

[dpat]

How is this expected behavior? If I'm listening to the app on my TV and do not have the app open AT ALL on my phone why in the world would I expect my phone volume buttons to change the volume of my TV? That's a system error, not an expected behavior. If every time I open the app on another device it's going to connect to my phone that's a feature one should have the option of turning off. It's annoying and completely unnecessary to have the app running in two different places. What a waste!

[DJFC]

I hate this so much and I wish there was a fix. Watching a youtube video on my phone, try to turn the volume up, and instead destroy my 1 year old son's eardrums because spotify was playing on my living room speakers. What a terrible bug! Please please work with Samsun / Android for a fix.

[flo-klein]

Extremely frustrated user here with the same problem. Almost killed my Speakers a few times and I'm tempted to cancel my premium subscription because of this.

seriously spotify... this is beyond ridiculous.

I honestly don't know what's more frustrating: the fact that loads of people have to deal with this huge obvious design failure. Or this utterly pointless and useless community.

Hey Mods, can you just stop bullsh*tting for one second?

Instead how about "we understand this is a problem and we will talk to development about it" ?!

Only because something works as expected (by a brainless designer) does not mean that it is good. It's rather a nightmare.

At least let us turn this horror function off!!

[tijmcraft]

I might have found a solution:

disable "Spotify Connect in background"

[user4561]

That option has no effect on my device.

Probably your device is running low memory so OS kills Spotify not allowing it to stay in background. Killing Spotify indeed returns Volume buttons control to the system. But that is not a solution we are looking for

[tijmcraft]

My phone has 6gb of ram. Before i changed this setting i encountered the problem even without spotify running.

This might not be the solution for you @user4561 but others might find it helpful.

[jmabbey]

Old topic but I figured out a fix. Pulldown from the top to see the spotify preview playing the current song. Click it to open the spotify app playing that song, then close the app. That disconnects the volume control. Worked for me on my Galaxy Note 8.

[rodrigogml]

I totally agree. Another year later and there is still no solution, only workarounds. The worst of them was the suggestion to use the cell phone in airplane mode so it doesn't connect to other devices. No comments...

[PlainText87]

Reinstalling HELPED with this issue BUT it still is a pain in the ass!

When the app is running on the phone at all, the default volume controls are set to spotify and not the phone's media.
Reinstalling HELPED FOR 5 MINUTES then it reverted back to having the same problem.

I tested this with spotify running on my PC and android. While the music is coming out of the PC AND the android spotify app is running = Spotify locked volume. If you turn off the spotify app, the default goes back to androids volume.  Nothing stays, all the changes get reverted and none of the changes stay.

This still means that you have to constantly open and relaunch the app if you want to alternate between your phone's default volume rocker controlling spotify and the phone's media.

DONT EVEN BOTHER TELLING ME THIS IS "AS EXPECTED" I know that....I am pointing out that that is GARBAGE. Terrible function should not supercede ease of use. The people have spoken spotify, will you listen?

IM DONE WITH SPOTIFY, LETS ALL GO TO PANDORA

[DubstepNinjaZ]

Just gonna necro this thread. Allmost a year later and this garbage still isnt fixed. Playing spotify from my PC, open youtube, try to adjust volume of video ans rocker button default to cast volume, im not even casting from my phone. Such a dumpster fire of a system.

[Vbarr33]

I'm still having this issue on my Galaxy Flip4. Why is this even a feature? 

[renatijo]

I have the same problem on Xiaomi phone

[Matteroftaste]

It is already 3 years later and this is still not solved. 
e.g. Spotify is running on the PC using the local speakers.

If the spotify app is now also opened on an android phone, its volume button will be hijacked by spotify even if the app is sent to the background. No other app, no matter if it is running in the foreground or background, will be able to use the buttons until the spotify app is being killed. 
Very funny if your using an amp with spotify connect instead of a PC combined with the other issue, where the volume goes up in  steps of 5 instead of 0.5. Touching the volume up button even remotely will wake up the neigbourhood.

Face it, the spotify app is broken and they don't seem to care....

[Brainu]

I just came back to say I switched to YT premium and my problems are gone. Also, I can find stuff that's not available on Spotify.

Good riddance.