Playback stops when closing Spotify app after casting to speaker

[andamah]

Plan

Premium

Country

Colombia

Device

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Operating System

Android 14 One UI version 6.1

My Question or Issue

Hi,

I’ve been experiencing an issue when playing music from Spotify on my Alexa speaker. Previously, I could start playback on my phone, select my Alexa speaker as the device, and then close the Spotify app on my phone without any issues—the music would keep playing on Alexa.

However, recently, whenever I close the Spotify app on my phone, the music stops immediately on Alexa. It seems like the playback is not properly transferring to Alexa and is instead still dependent on my phone staying open.

I’ve checked my media output settings on my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and Spotify is set to Cast, not Mirror, so that shouldn’t be the issue. Everything was working fine until a recent update (not sure if it was Spotify or Alexa), and now it’s broken.

I’ve already tried the following troubleshooting steps:

• Restarting my phone
• Restarting my phone while cursing at it
• Restarting my Alexa speaker
• Restarting my Alexa speakwer while cursing at it
• Unlinking and relinking my Spotify account in the Alexa app
• Checking my internet connection
• Making sure both Alexa and Spotify apps are updated

None of these have fixed the issue. This is really annoying. What can I do to make Alexa keep playing music after I close the Spotify app on my phone, like it used to?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Ivelina]

Hello @andamah,

Welcome to the Community and we appreciate the info and steps that you've provided. 

To get a better understanding, it'd be great if you could test the following scenarios:

• Start playback directly from the Alexa speaker with using the command “on Spotify” at the end whilst keeping the app open on your phone and then close it.
• Test streaming on to Alexa from another device such as a PC for example (via Connect) to test if the same behavior would persist when you close the app there.
• Another alternative would be testing streaming between a phone and PC (and vice versa) to see if maybe the issue is Alexa-related.
• Lastly, give this a try in the Web Player as well.

Thanks for the cooperation and we'll be on the lookout for your response.

[justin1999]

I have the same issue as described above. Phone: Samsung Galaxy A71. JBL Link Music, Google Assistant.

[Sdhb]

Me too. Is this a server side issue? How can we get Spotify support to look into this. 

[cdad]

Hello Ivelina. 

My setup is Google Pixel 9 Pro casting to a Sonos speaker, everything updated.

Same is happening to me recently: if I cast from the Spotify android app, the music stops when I close the app; if I cast from the Sonos app or the Spotify web player, it keeps playing after closing the original app.

If I start casting with other apps (e.g. web player) and then later open the Spotify android app, the android app takes over the casting and the music stops if I close it nevertheless.

So it's definitely a bug in the Spotify android app, when closing it. Please fix it fast, it's very annoying since I often closed all my phone apps but I don't want the music to stop

[Joan]

Hi there folks,

Thanks for the replies. We're keeping our eyes on this one.

@cdad Could you please confirm if you've tried the steps suggested in the original post? Consider also performing a clean reinstall of the Android app to see if that resolved this.

Let us know how it goes.

[cdad]

Hi Joan,

Yes I had tried all the equivalent previously mentioned steps. The problem only happens with the android mobile app (although I don't have an iOS device to test it with me RN).

Since you suggested, I just tried the clean reinstall but the problem persists.

I'm pretty sure it's a bug in the app, prossibly when handling onCleared or onDestroy event. Please talk to your android dev teams 🙂

[charisse]

When trying to use the remote play, I set my Spotify to play on my PC but if I close the app on my phone it will stop on the PC as well. How can I fix this

Plan

Premium

Country

Belgium

Device

Android pixel 6a / Microsoft)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue

When trying to use the remote play, I set my Spotify to play on my PC but if I close the app on my phone it will stop on the PC as well. How can I fix this?

[Joan]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the replies.

We'd like to delve deeper and investigate this in more detail. To that end, we'll need some specific details about your setups. 

• The exact makes, models and Android versions of all your affected devices
• The exact Spotify Versions you use.
• The Alexa/Smart speakers you use that have this issue. 
• If it's possible to make a video showcasing the behaviour, please make on and provide it to us. If the files are too large to attach here in the Community, you can send them to us via Google Drive or as unlisted YouTube videos.
• Make sure to follow the steps provided by @Ivelina and let us know how the behaviour compares.

With this information, we’d be happy to investigate.

Keep us posted.

[cubicupcake]

I have a similar issue but it's not related to Alexa or casting  to anything.

Whenever I play on a device other than my phone (TV, Windows laptop/desktop) I expect to be able to see the current session when opening Spotify on my phone in order to queue other songs, skip the current one, pause etc. I think you call that Spotify connect. Previously you were able to to this without issue and when you closed the Spotify app on the phone, playback would continue uninterrupted on the TV/PC it was playing on. Like the TV acts as a server cause the session started there and the phone briefly connects as a client, sends some request and disconnects without affecting the server.

This is not what is happening now. I can start playing on my TV or PC, do absolutely nothing with my phone but because I was happening to have the Spotify app open on my phone (maybe I was listening yesterday and it was still open in memory, but playback was stopped ages ago and a new session already started on a different device), as soon as I close the Android app playback pauses on an entirely different device. Like the phone hijacks the entire session being master/server and all other devices become clients/slaves, regardless of which device started the playback.

This is incredibly frustrating, please resolve it! The device that started playing should own the session. I only expect it to stop playing if I explicitly go to my phone to hit pause.

I'm using the native app for a Windows 10 PC and a Samsung Smart TV.

The Spotify Android app is version 9.0.24.601
Samsung S10e, Android 12, One UI  4.1

[cdad]

Hi Joan,

• Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Android 15, Build number BP1A.250305.020.A2
• Spotify Version 9.0.26.632
• Speaker Sonos Play:1 (honestly it doesn't matter, since the issue is with the app)
• All steps were followed

[charisse]

Hi there,

- Google pixel 6a , android 15 build number BP1A.250305.019

- Spotify version 9.0.26.632 on mobile app and on pc Microsoft windows (64-bits) 1.2.59.541.g834e17d4

- Samsung speaker without Alexa or Google 

Tried everything ... 

Thanks 🙏 

Charisse 

[Joan]

Hi folks,

Thank you very much for the quick and detailed replies!

We've gone ahead and forwarded everything we have to the relevant team and will begin investigating the issue. The info you've provided will definitely go a long way in helping us get to the bottom of this. We'll share any updates on this matter with you all when we have them.

In the meantime, make sure to keep your apps up-to-date to take advantage of the latest fixes and features.

Cheers!

[justin1999]

It appears to have been fixed, thanks guys!

[charisse]

Hi everyone,

Here also fixed!! Thank you so much !!! 

[charisse]

Pfff... Did the new update , and the problem is back.... 🙈

[cdad]

Same thing here. It was fixed for a couple of days but the bug just regressed after the app was updated.
New Spotify Version: 9.0.28.630.

[justin1999]

Same as above, the bug is back.

Spotify Version: 9.0.28.630

[eyeluhsangels]

• Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

Operating System

Amazon Alexa

My Question or Issue

Ive been using my amazon alexa to listen to spotify for years now. All of a sudden, everytime i close spotify off of my phone, it stops playing on my alexa and makes me keep opening and keeping spotify in the background as it plays on my alexa. It's never done this before, and im confused. Is there a setting i need to change? I dont understand it. It wastes my battery if i keep apps in the background. 

[maccmiles122]

Confirming same issue on my spotify desktop. if my phone so much as comes on the same network and gives me the "you're still connected to your mac" notification, if I dismiss the notification even without having the actual app itself "open", it will kill the stream on my laptop.

Android app v. 9.0.28.630

Mac App Version Spotify for macOS (Intel) 1.2.59.514.g834e17d4

This is to the point where it's a bit unacceptable to be constantly notified i'm listening on my mac and not being able to dismiss the notification on my phone. Very distracting, Can't focus on work without my music, or with random popups on my phone.