Songs stop and start when my Google Pixel 7 is locked.

[Zara13]

I am getting increasingly frustrated. Over the last week my songs just start and stop playing randomly when my phone screen is locked or when it times out and locks itself. It entirely defeats the purpose of a music app.

I have unpaired and repaired my bluetooth earphones about 10 times, I have turned on the setting to allow background usage on my phone.

I'm at a loss of what to do at this point

[PJOscheh]

Hey @Yordan, thanks for your response. Since updating to Android 15, things have been looking good. I don't think I have tested the app to confidently say the issue is gone, but so far, it hasn't resurfaced.

I think the issue would usually occur when my battery was under 50%. I did have a chance to use Spotify while my battery was below 50% (around 45%-30%) for a couple hours a few weeks ago, and it worked fine. I also used it a few times at the gym with around 50% battery for an hour, and it worked fine.

Other issues I had (like the music blasting out of the phone speaker briefly while on bluetooth, and another where while listening through the speaker the music would play at full volume regardless of the set volume if I jumped around the track while playing) have also not resurfaced so far.

It does seem that Android 15 has improved the situation, but again, I don't want to firmly say the issue is fixed until I have more time to test it. Additionally, on Android 14, I only had these issues on Spotify; YouTube and YouTube music consistently worked fine for me.

[DaveA1963]

The only way I solved the same problem was as follows...

Stop using Spotify

Use Amazon music instead (works fine) 

😉

[sebasmoralesf]

After two days with Android 15, this works. Hoping it doesn't happen again. Thank you

[Hoser2525]

Can confirm that some informal testing shows that upgrading to Android 15 on my Pixel 7a has resolved this issue for me.

Thanks for nothing, Spotify! Seems that you waited long enough that someone else fixed your problem for you.

[xxWarPigxx]

I am using a Google Pixel 7a, and I am playing Spotify via an aux cable in my car. It seems to go for a while, but then stops. I press to play again and usually after some time it pauses again. The pause between me pressing play and it pausing is pretty random, but it sucks to have to stop the car and press play again. It is not the aux cable, not the internet connection, not an outstanding spotify update

[Dessi]

Hey folks,

Thanks for the patience!

As some of you already mentioned, this seems to be fixed on Android 15, so make sure to update your device's OS if you're still experiencing this. If the issue's still present, don't hesitate to let us know, so that we can investigate this further.

Take care.

[Hoser2525]

With all due respect, there's little (if any) evidence that Spotify has ever "investigated this further" over the past year or so this issue has been reported. Cool that the price went up, though.

Best of luck to those for whom Android 15 isn't supported.

[heroinebond]

You mean the same way you investigated the issue from the beginning?  You guys basically sat around and waited for the problem to solve itself.  Extremely disappointed in the lack of response and support from Spotify.

[sam59580]

Now is happening often then before, when the screen goes dark or lock the music stops and I have to unlock the screen to be able to listen the music.

I followed a lot of the instructions that I found in this community ( from battery settings, to reinstall the app, clear the cache etc etc)but I still have the problem, I noticed that when I am listening the music with the device connected to the car I don't have any problems 

Plan

Premium

Country

Italy

Device

Google Pixel 6a

Operating System

Android 14

[keeghan-t]

Hello I'm here to report the exact and issue as everyone above, tried every recommended fix, nothing is working. I have to restart my phone every 30 mins of listening for it to work for a little while again. 

Am I really seeing that this has been going on since April if this year, and now here in December there's been no fix?? Spotify PLEASE get someone on this. I will sub to YouTube music if I must. 

[sebasmoralesf]

I know Spotify doesn't need a lot of defense, but I gotta make some comments on this. This is entirely a Google Pixel issue. I know Spotify could and should do something about it since we are customers. However, there are major, significant problems with the Pixel's system. These are not the same for everyone, but ever since Android 14, everything stopped working, including calls, Bluetooth, etc. For many reasons, I ended up buying a chap Samsung, and my life has improved. No problems with Spotify, and it seems to be the only Android device with the problem. Can Spotify make it better? Sure, but I bet it is extremely hard when Google keeps changing the system for the worse. My new Samsung is slow and glitchy, but it makes calls and I can play music. 

[Hoser2525]

Nah. I appreciate that you have your experience, but many others are on the same page on this. Further, there's no explanation for why Spotify is the only app on my phone with this issue. My podcast app doesn't have the issue. My NHL app doesn't have this issue streaming audio. Amazon music doesn't have this issue. Only Spotify has this issue...and they ignored it.

[PJOscheh]

Hey Hoser and Keeghan, what Android version are you using? For me at least the issue went away on Android 15 on my Pixel 7.

And I agree on what Sebas said about whose issue this is. I definitely think Google is at the root of this issue; whether it has to do with their customizations on Android or their Tensor chip is another question. That said, it's odd that the issue *only* happens with Spotify.

I imagine that there's *something* Spotify could have done to fix the issue on their end, even if it was just a work around until Google fixed the issue after *checks notes* 1 year.

[Mamtal]

I have Android 15 on my Pixel 9 Pro and have the same issue unfortunately 😔 so Android 15 doesn't (always) resolve this issue. Is there anything else I can try? 

[Maria · Accepted solution]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out in this thread!

Updating the device's OS to Android 15 seems to help with most of the playback issues reported here, so make sure your device OS is up-to-date (if you haven't already).

Should this issue persist while running Android 15, however, it's worth giving the following a try to see if you notice any difference:

• Clear stored cache.
• Update the app.
• Make sure Spotify is allowed to run in the background.
• Switch off any battery optimization or power saving apps.
• Check the display settings (as suggested by @Dragoncake here.)
• Connect to another internet connection.
• Clean reinstall.

Let us know how you get on, cheers!