Spotify Starts Playing Random Playlists When I Open the App When Connected to Car Bluetooth.

[XDanW]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Samsung Galaxy S22

Operating System

Android 14 (One UI 6.0)

My Question or Issue

This issue started happening about a month ago, after an update.

Whenever Spotify is connected to my car's bluetooth, everytime I open the app or switch back to the app, Spotify will start playing a random playlist from my library. 

For example, I load up my que, start my car, connect to bluetooth, open the app to hit play, then Spotify will automatically switch to another random playlist from my library and clear the que I've just made.

OR I will be listening to a playlist I've chosen, momentarily switch to another app to watch a short video, then switch back to Spotify when I'm done to resume what I was listening to. But Spotify will again take control and switch to ANOTHER playlist instead of letting me resume the one I was just listening to not even two minutes before.

This issue is driving me absolutely crazy and I've been searching the web trying to find a solution.

I've tried looking through the app settings, changing autoplay settings in Android Auto clearing my cache, deleting and reinstalling the app, I've even tried renaming my car's bluetooth hoping Spotify would think it's a regular speaker, but nothing works.

Please help! It's honesty ruining my enjoyment of the app.

[XDanW]

Hi there folks,

Thanks for the replies. We're looking deeper into this and in order to investigate the issue, we'll need some more specific info about your setups, similar to how @XDanW has provided. Could you please provide us the following:

• Is this on all devices or only on specific one(s)?
• When did this start happening?
• The exact makes, models and OS/Firmware versions of all your affected devices
• The exact Spotify Versions you use.
• The type of content that's being played (playlists/albums/individual songs) and whether it's something from your Recently played section.
• A video of the behavior. 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.

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

Keep us posted.

[AlejaR]

Hey @XDanW,

Thanks for posting in the Community and welcome.

In this case, would you mind connecting a different mobile device to your car to see if you can replicate this behavior? You can ask for the mobile device of a relative or a friend, to open your account there and check.

On another note, and just to confirm, is this happening if you connect your device via AUX cable? If not sure, it'd be awesome if you could check. Please send us in your next reply the exact Spotify version you're running on your mobile device.

Lastly, if possible, you can also send us a video recording of what's happening on your side. You can attach the video in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload it to YouTube or Google Drive and make it public, so we can visualize it.

Keep us in the loop!

[Jmt79]

I'm having the exact same issue and it's maddening! I have an Android phone and I only notice this in the car with my Bluetooth player. My Bluetooth headphones do not do this. I can pause songs without it jumping to my study jazz playlist. It's always the study jazz playlist that I listen to on my work laptop and never the phone which is connected via Bluetooth in the car. I'll see the song I was listening to prior greyed in background for 2 seconds and then it jumps to that playlist. Please fix this bug. 

[rtr1421]

PLAN: PREMIUM

COUNTRY: USA

DEVICE: Samsung S22+; Android 14 (OneUI 6.0)

App config: Car mode is disabled. Vehicle connecting to predates Android auto.

Same issue here. This started happening around a month ago. App will autoplay a random song when it is opened if I am connected to my car's bluetooth. I also can't prevent the app from responding to the car's signal to play media. There used to be an option to prevent bluetooth devices from autoplaying music. This issue is different though because the app will autoplay music the moment it is opened. 

Example:

-Phone connects to car's bluetooth. This is an older vehicle - predating android auto.

-Spotify responds to car's signal to autoplay media. Spotify plays song.

 -I pause spotify and go to home screen. (app is still running in background)

-I open spotify app and a new song will begin playing. ( I can repeat indefinetly as long as connected to bluetooth)

-I can replicate issue even if I close or force stop spotify app.

Troubleshooting:

-Force stop and clear cache

-Log out and delete; reinstall and log back in

-Misc settings like disabling "autoplay next song" - not related to this setting

-Rename car's bluetooth to something like "Speaker" in Android settings - Spotify can still see bluetooth device's true name

I am open to any other suggestions. It almost seems like this is a built in feature without the option to disable it. If that is the case, I will be closing my subscription and deleting the app. 

[Joan]

Hi there @rtr1421,

Thanks for the detailed reply. We understand the frustration and would like to try and clarify the behaviour.

The behaviour of this feature varies from device to device, some such as headphones and speakers often won't trigger the app on connection, while others like car audio systems will. When using Android Auto, you can go to the settings and disable Automatically resume media. However, since you said that you're not using it, currently there isn't a toggleable setting for this for regular Bluetooth devices, but you can check out this idea about implementing a similar feature and show your support by giving it a thumbs up and sharing your feedback. 

Hope this clears things up.

[rtr1421]

Hi Joan

I do understand that this behaviour is not effecting every device using the mobile app. Judging off this thread it is at least effecting newer Samsung phones. Not sure why this is even mentioned other than as a way to pass the blame off. 

Also, the main issue isn't that the phone responds to the speakers request to autoplay content on first connection. I understand this is an issue on the Bluetooth device itself. 

The problem is that the app is now autoplaying content everytime it is opened. This is not the Bluetooth device sending a request to play media. This is specific to the Spotify app. It's also relatively new behavior. 

Unfortunately this did not clear things up at all. It seems as though you're not understanding the behavior I'm explaining. I guess I shouldn't expect a fix in that case. 

[XDanW]

@AlejaR ,

Thanks for your reply.

The issue is only happening via Bluetooth connection in my car. It doesn't happen when I use my aux cable.

I connected my old Samsung Galaxy S7, but was not able to replicate the issue.

The version of Spotify my device is running is Version 8.9.12.599

I've recorded two videos. One where I try to resume a song, and one where i try to search before Spotify takes over control.

[XDanW]

Duplicate post

[Joan]

Hi there folks,

Thanks for the replies. We're looking deeper into this and in order to investigate the issue, we'll need some more specific info about your setups, similar to how @XDanW has provided. Could you please provide us the following:

• Is this on all devices or only on specific one(s)?
• When did this start happening?
• The exact makes, models and OS/Firmware versions of all your affected devices
• The exact Spotify Versions you use.
• The type of content that's being played (playlists/albums/individual songs) and whether it's something from your Recently played section.
• A video of the behavior. 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.

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

Keep us posted.

[Ragonni]

Same issue here. It's driving me nuts.

HONOR magic6 Pro

Android 14

When connected to a Bluetooth device (Car or Bluetooth headphones), Spotify randomly starts playing.

Tried several things

- clear cache

- unlink/link bt connection

- uninstall, reinstall of the Spotify App

I've had to uninstall the Spotify App for now because I can't work like this.

[XDanW]

Hi Joan,

Just following up.  Has any headway been made on this issue?  Please let us know.

Thanks so much,

Dan

[Dmchan]

Same exact issue here. 

Only using pixel 7. Android 14 (build AP1A.240405.002.B1)

Began appt 2 months ago, maybe less.  Spotify version 8.9.32.624

[mixwilliam]

Wow everything I just wrote got deleted. 2016 Buick Encore. Had same issue w iPhone 11 now Pixel 8. I've tried everything. Fix it or I'm switching to YouTube which I don't want to do. 

[rtr1421]

I made the switch to YT music. Problem solved immediately. I have yet to find any feature Spotify has that YT music doesn't. They're no longer the only music database service out there. Not to mention I don't have to deal with this stuff anymore. 

[XDanW]

@AlejaR

@Joann

UPDATE: Not only has the problem not been fixed, it's actually gotten worse.

Now if I try to resume my music, even if I have PRESSED PLAY and the song I picked starts playing, the app actually stops my song midplay and changes to whatever playlist it feels like. 

Can we please have an option to turn this 'feature' off? I just want to listen to my own music.

[Officialthain]

9/20 and this happens every time I turn my car on. Plays some random **bleep** rock playlist and it’s getting exhausting. 

2015 Toyota Prius iPhone 15 pro max

about to cancel over this issue 

[AlexHt]

Same issue here. It randomly starts, around 20 seconds after being connected, and even when another song is already played. It just cuts off the current song and plays my liked songs.

[XDanW]

Hi @AlejaR

Just wondering if there is any update to this issues?

Thanks so much

[Dessi]

Hey folks,

Thanks for the information you've provided so far!

Can you confirm if these playlists are from the same band, are saved in Your Library, were played recently or are from your Liked songs, for example? It's expected that Spotify will start playing something when connected to your car, but it shouldn't be a completely random playlist, so that's why we wanted to check exactly what gets played.

Keep us posted.

[XDanW]

Hi @Dessi

Thanks so much for your response.

My experience so far is that it has been random songs, playlists and albums from my listening history.  However, it does not seem to base this on frequency. For example, sometimes Spotify will pick a playlist I listen to frequently, and sometimes it will pick a song that I only listened to once a week ago, or it will play an entire album from a song I listened to one time.

My biggest issue here is that the app is FORCING this, even if I already have something qued and playing, once my car connects it forcibly changes what I'm currently playing to the song/playlist/album it thinks I want.  I just want to disable this feature. 

I hope you can help.

Thanks