Spotify causes significant battery drain on Pixel 8 Pro

[Jimbobler]

Pixel 8 Pro, Android 14, Spotify Premium build 8.8.76.667, Sweden.

Brand new phone and first day of use, and installed the app earlier today.  Spotify has somehow managed to drain 38% (!) of battery with 4 minutes screen time and 4h 44 mins background activity: https://ibb.co/TrG4jW6. I'm unsure about the length of background activity, too, since I've only been listening to podcasts and some music for two hours tops before completely closing the app. No downloads of playlists or music, either. 

The phone was warm to the touch for several hours after installation. The temperature dropped immediately after disabling Spotify from being able to perform background tasks. 

In the "View by systems" tab in Systems > Battery > Battery usage, it's clear that the CPU has drained a majority of the battery (33% vs 13% for screen) since it was fully charged, even though I haven't been doing any CPU intensive tasks for any length of time. 

Super weird, and it's the only time this has happened on any of the smartphones I've had Spotify installed on over the years. 

[Mininova]

Same Problem. My Battery drain so fast after Listening Music. Now unistalled the App and No more Problems.

The Phone also gets very hot.

[Tsikos]

Problem still exist please fix it 

[Jimbobler]

Since the problem hasn't been resolved since October, I'm cancelling my Spotify Premium subscription after over a decade. This weird battery drain from barely any use is definitely decreasing the longevity of the battery. 

[ktstellar123]

I have a brand new Pixel 8 which I’ve had for a couple weeks now. I hadn’t used Spotify yet until last week, installed from switching over from my Pixel 3 (RIP). I started getting really frustrated with the battery life because I was so surprised at how poor it was - definitely goes against everything I know about Google phones! 

Lo and behold, with 4 mins of active time and 9 mins of background time, Spotify had used 38% of my battery life. I was truly shaken and stirred.

I didn’t read the uninstall directions closely enough, so I accidentally did a quick uninstall, and this time around, Spotify drained 21% of my battery with 37 mins background time. A bit better, but even with my thoroughly abused Pixel 3 I could go to sleep with a 10% battery knowing full well that alarm will go off. Not so anymore! That good god damned Spotify app drained the last heaving breaths out of my battery in the middle of the night.

I have now done a proper clean uninstall and will report back with my findings. Let us hope I’m not back here for a week because it’s worked so well.

I really hope this godforsaken Spotify app hasn’t ruined my new phone’s battery for life. Shame on you, Spotify, for letting such a problem persist for 7 months now! This is unacceptable.

[ROB1N21806]

Same issue on Pixel 8 Pro. Going to clean reinstall the app today report the results within the week. Hopefully it helps since, as of now, the brand-new phone cannot last for a day if Spotify is used x_x

[LSam]

Even if I have switched off background activity, Spotify will drain a massive battery portion in background. The problem was limited to when Spotify background activity was allowed. Now even if not allowed the problem persist. It is very annoing and harmful for the phone. I've tried restarting the phone, clearing App data and re-installing the App several times. I'm considering suing for damage to my phone and to get back  subscription money for the last year, we could do a class action about this behaviour of the firm.

[Milan123]

Same issue; battery drain of ±40-50% despite the app not being active and not being used on the Pixel 8 

[cydoemos]

Yup, I cancelled my Spotify subscription & switched to a different service & my battery now easily survives the day. The blasé response from Spotify and the fact that this can't even be escalated to a "known issue," much less committing to a timeline for resolution, has thoroughly turned me off the platform. This thread and this issue have been completely abandoned by staff. 🤷

[itsthemungus]

Chiming in to slightly level out the blame here.  I'm not trying to defend Spotify, especially after seeing the lack of any urgency, meaningful response or any fix via an app update, but ...

I'm on an older device (2019), Samsung S10.  The issue began with Samsung Android 12 Security Update in August 2023 (just prior to the release of Pixel 8.)  Android internally dates it to March 2023.  Thus, it's not an Android 14 issue (or Pixel specific) but some internal security patch or other vulnerability / stability fix that took affect at that time.  I do see the changelog mentions Media Codecs and Bluetooth (qualcomm) vulnerabilities being resolved.  Maybe that's causing hardware acceleration to be borked?

Who knows.  Sucks to consider cancelling Spotify after so many years.

[ktstellar123]

I gave it a few days and a new fresh battery and downloaded it again this evening when my battery was at 49%. I listening to a downloaded podcast for about 40mins and then streamed a playlist for 10 mins. With no other apps in use, that activity drained the batter a further 28%. I've uninstalled it and won't be reinstalling until Spotify do something to fix this. I'm really **bleep** because we pay for a family plan.

[ktstellar123]

What service did you switch to? How are you finding the variety of content available?

[ktstellar123]

There's a Pixel update. I'm loath to be burnt again by the Spotify app, so wondering if anyone else has given it a try to see if it's any better?

[orestescm76]

Pixel 8a user here, brand new phone

i noticed over the weekend 18% with 1day 20h of background usage

i find this quite abussive

version 8.9.40.509

[ROB1N21806]

So I clean-reinstalled Spotify (Version 8.9.40.509) after updating to the latest available Android version (build number: AP1A.240505.00, Pixel 8 Pro).

Unfortunately, for now I can't tell whether that helped or not. In defense of the service I can say that either my device or Pixel's battery usage is not tracking battery data accurately. Here, as an example, I can assure you that I hadn't been using Spotify for less than a minute (it was at least 1.5 hours) that day.

To share more accurate data on current usage, I will have to avoid YouTube for a day and manually track the listening time, which I will try doing eventually. But based on how it feels from subjective experience, the battery usage became less egregious after reinstallation.

[AlejaR]

Hey folks,

Thanks for all your replies and for the info shared.

In this case, in order for us to forward all this important info onto the right team, we'll need to gather some very specific details. That way, they can check in thoroughly what is exactly happening on your side. So, we'll need you to send us:

• The make/model and OS of the affected device
• The exact Spotify version you're running there.
• Some screenshots of this behavior and your device's battery usage analytics.
• If you noticed that this started to happen after some specific event, such as an OS update, please clarify.
• All the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far. Make sure to be as specific as possible.

Be aware that we'll need all this info in order for our tech team to continue investigating further. If you've already sent us some of these details, keep in mind we'll need update info of your devices and Spotify versions you're running as of today.

We understand where you're coming from, so we'll work on this together.

Keep us in the loop!

[LSam]

Hi, it is happening on my Google Pixel 8 since I bought it in October 2023, and it never stopped. I weekly check updates for all my Apps and my OS so you can consider all latest version of Android and Spotify avaiable in Italy since October 2023 untill now for sure.

[b00t3r]

What did it for me is disable the "Spotify Connect in background" that can be found under Settings > Devices.

I'm on a Pixel 8 Pro and found this suggestion on Reddit.

[claudiu_t]

Same here, disabling Spotify Connect in background seems to solve the drain when not using Spotify on Google Pixel 8.

BUT still, Spotify uses a lot of power while running and listening to content.

[JensDoe]

I disabled "Spotify Connect in background" as suggested above and started a podcast for two seconds, stopped it and closed the app. This is what Spotify was reported in battery usage. I don't know, what's going on in the background.

I'm running Android 15 B2.2 on a Pixel 8 Pro with Spotify version 8.9.46.426.
And I've tried so many things to resolve. Disabled and enabled may things, tried the latest beta. Sometimes there was no background activity I couldn't explain, sometimes, it's like yesterday.

[lornesqirinxhi]

Pixel 8 pro, Spotify version 8.9.48.575. A huge amount of battery is consumed when listening in background!