[Connect] Disable automatic switching between devices

[HidalgoF]

Spotify Connect is great but the automatic switching is not for everyone.

Please allow us to disable automatic switching between devices. I understand Spotify doesn't like user to play in more than one device and I am happy with that, but the application shouldn't switch devices if the user does not want to do this. It clearly creates frustration amongst users.

In my particular case I work from home listening to music on my computer. I find really annoying when I plug my headphones in my phone to take a call and suddenly the music starts playing in my headphones.

This is what happens step by step:

• Spotify is in my mobile running in the back.
• Spotify is playing in my computer.
• My phone rings.
• I take the call at the same time that I get my headphones on me.
• I listed to a combination of my client/colleague and the music that I was playing in my computer, usually very loudly.
• I stop the music.
• I comment with my client/colleague how bad is Spotify.
• I finish my call.
• I go to my computer, change the playing device on Spotify to my computer and play again.
• I do this a couple of times until I get fed up of Spotify and I play music from somewhere else.

This problem has been already described here: LINK  but it has incorrectly tagged as repeated (the problems and solutions suggested are different).

[user-removed]

> The intent here is to allow for seamless transition to listening from one device to the other.

That's so silly. It's never going to be "seamless". The sync, and thus the vibe, are always off. What on earth makes you think people want to have their music jump around??

This is so, so wrong from a product perspective. I simply cannot have the music in my house cut out EVERY TIME I ACCIDENTALLY TOUCH MY AIRPODS CASE!

I think I'm going to cancel my account now. You had one job: don't f*** up the vibe.

[ahvzren]

I'm going to echo the previous sentiments. This is not a welcome feature - in fact, it's an annoyance every time I get a call or use my headphones. Making sure Spotify is force-quit every time I want to use my headphones is not a solution. Luckily, the solution posted by manolson works for me. If Spotify does NOTHING else, I hope at least they leave that workaround working for the foreseeable future. 

Also, and I really shouldn't have to say this, but people purchase your service because they like the features offered. A half-hearted "sorry that you're not able to use Spotify the way you want to" looks more insulting than anything else. Go ahead and just say you don't care enough about our use case to continue supporting it - a little honesty goes a long way.

[Scott69]

The multiple replies from users, as well as the mod replies show a severe disconnect between the people who actually use Spotify and the dev team.

If we're already playing music through Spotify on a separate device (ex. PC), but using our phone to read lyrics, browse songs, or anything else in Spotify. Connecting earbuds to the phone should NOT automatically switch where my music is playing. 99/100 times, people will want the music to persist where it's already playing. But then there's that one person that works at Spotify, that thinks we want to have an awful user experience, so they built it into the app.

Listen to the users commenting here: let us turn off this setting. It's bad, and you never did usability testing. Or you just refuse to listen? Weird replies from the mods here... 

[Scott69]

Completely slipped my mind, but this whole bug was half implemented anyway, so you definitely need to consider fixing it.

First bug is outlined above multiple times (even if you can't comprehend, it's still pretty basic). However if I let Spotify switch to my phone/ear buds, then switch back to the PC as the device to play music out of, then disconnect or otherwise remove the buds, Spotify with switch back to my phone.

This is a bug because yes, you think the first switch is a good user experience. Whatever, I connect ear buds, and deal with the bug. But if I remove the buds to charge or something else, why does Spotify switch back to my phone again?

This is the root of the issue Spotify seems to be ignoring. I chose to play music on a separate device. You think I want to play it on my phone because I turned on ear buds, so I switch it back to the other device, because that's still what I want. Turn off the buds, the bug is repeated. So I need to swap devices again. Spotify and different devices aren't what I'd call a strong suit.

It can eventually work, but I wouldn't call these steps user friendly. 6+ button taps at a minimum, when I expected 0 button taps. 

[jamieren]

I have an old phone that's used exclusively for playing music in my shop.  The problem is I also have a phone I use personally as a cell, and when I connect headphones thru bluetooth it switches to my cell automatically, both turning off the music in the shop and sometimes blasting music in my ears while I try to answer a call.  I used to be able to resolve this by closing the app, but now it automatically opens on my cell every time the screen is turned on.  Suggestions?

[OscarDC]

Hey @jamieren,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

When a bluetooth device gets connected to your phone, it sends an "audio check" or an outright audio playback command via Bluetooth to make sure that the connection is properly paired. Some devices take that check signal to start playing audio. As Spotify could be recognized as the primary audio app, this may redirect the playback to the phone that just started the Bluetooth connection with your headphones.

In addition to this, the Android Auto function resumes playback as soon as a connection has been established. First we'd recommend disabling it under your phone's settings (mine was under Connected devices) > Android Auto > Automatically start media. Make sure it's toggled off, then reboot your phone.

If the issue persists, would you mind checking if it happens when connecting a different bluetooth device to your phone? This will give us a better look at the issue.

Lastly, to keep investigating; include in your next response the make, model and OS version of both devices, along with the Spotify version you're currently running.

We'll be on the lookout. 

[Katz]

One more use-case : I'm happily listening to Spotify at work while I code. My wife at home will get into the car (Tesla). Suddenly my music stops on my work computer and starts in the car. This is very annoying. I would be happy to have an option to "block other devices while I'm listening to my music", so Spotify doesn't switch automatically to another device while it is playing. I understand some people need it, but for me, it is getting very annoying. It's good my wife doesn't take the car too often !

It would be ok to have an error message, something like "impossible to listen as you are already listening to music on another device". The best would be if it only happened when the music is actively playing, so I wouldn't have to force quit the spotify app on whichever devices I am if I want to switch to another device.

[Curel]

You do know that one of the purpose of Connect is to control the app from the phone even when it's playing on another device.  So your solution beat the purpose of using Connect.

[tigaaa]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

S22 U

Operating System

Android 12

My Question or Issue

I recently bought new headphones and a quite annoying problem occured. Imagine listening to music via Spotify Connect /Google Chromecast on your tv's soundbar (wich you didn't even start via the phone but via your laptop) and you connect your BT-HP to your Android device to place a call. All of a sudden the music from your speaker stops and the music switches to your BT HP.
Is there something I can do about it? Connecting your heaphones shouldn't lead to this behaviour....

[pmotor]

I agree with your suggestion tigaaa, but you need to make a new comment so we can all upvote it.

The issue is very annoying.

[SkaerFdeep]

I have the same issue and find this terribly annoying.

[wavyfisher]

Has Spotify done anything to fix this bug? The only solution was user suggested and only works for android, not iOS. Agree with everyone here, this is a real problem.

[NeonRT]

That behavior is not wanted and is incredibly annoying. Come on mods, reply with some more of your BS... Let us disable autoconnect for specific devices, its so easy. But I guess the money changes things, you don't care about the individual user anymore. Time to find another music app, and if that's unfeasible, Imma predict pirating becoming an issue again. Thanks Spotify! We all hate this intended in-customizable behavior that's always active, but only useful in very specific circumstances. 

[bhagavantu]

Same problem here. When listening via spotify connect I connect my headphones music switches to playing on the phone via headphones. No Bluetooth is used, cable headset, Spotify Connect controlled via wifi or internet.

[Ricketstar]

Have to chime in and agree this feature drives me nuts. I have a set of Bluetooth headphones I use for meetings at work and to answer phone calls. I’ll have music on my google home and it’ll cut off randomly and switch to the headphones. I don’t want to have to constantly put it back and I’m not forgetting the device as I need it. Let me have the option to enable to disable auto switching of devices.

[Mim_mi]

I have this problem as well. I have my work phone which is attached to my Jabra headset for phone calls. The same headset is also connected via Jabra dongle to my computer for using Teams. This is the maximum amount of bluetooth connections my phone, computer, headset and dongle can handle together (add one more bluetooth device and nothing works correctly). So this is why I have another phone, my old work phone, connected only to my bluetooth speaker so that I can listen to music while I work. 

And for some reason Spotify keeps swithing from the old work phone to my actual phone ALL THE TIME. So annoying.

[MamaMinions]

In order to get it to stop auto connecting to my Sony WF-XB700 earbuds, I had to turn off permissions on my earbuds on my phone, and only connect for phone calls and not audio.

[walkermm]

This is a lazy response. All that needs to be done is removing the auto transition rule in your coding. Your "seamless transitioning" is driving everyone nuts. Its not the OS, its your app. Figure it out because a lot of your loyal customers are getting frustrated with something so simple and can easily be fixed.

[probble]

Thank you for this, @mansolson! It works for me and saves me a lot of frustration.

Autoplay options should absolutely be configurable within media playing apps, Spotify included. If a user *wants* "to allow for seamless transition to listening from one device to the other," great, but obviously many of us don't.

[Pjwcc2000]

I am adding my voice to those calling for a fix, plus an additional use case that has not yet been mentioned. Tonight I was playing Spotify on my phone while grocery shopping. The app kept switching to a desktop at home that was not actively playing anything on the desktop app.

Somehow the phone app kept switching to the desktop app every time I tried to switch it back. This happened within seconds, on its own without any trigger of a new headset being connected, car being turned on, etc. The only solution that worked for me was to remotely log into the desktop and shut down Spotify there.

Obviously that is not what one would expect as a positive user experience.

Thank you to all who documented this well.

Spotify, it seems you have gone dark. Please do the right thing.