Spotify massive battery drain on samsung phones

[Oscarndiez]

So recently I got a Samsung Galaxy S21 ultra, and the first 2 weeks or so were absolutely fine, with screen on time per charge of around 7-8 hours, but then 1 week ago or maybe a bit more I noticed that my battery suddenly didn't last as long as it did, only getting around 3-4 hours of screen on time, which for a phone that has a 5,000 mah battery is absolutely terrible. So I looked at the apps that were consuming the most battery and would you look at that, spotify drains around 28% of my battery per charge (as seen on the first screenshot). I remembered that my dad owns a galaxy s20 ultra (also with a 5,000 mah battery, but he got it when it came out so it may have degraded a little by now) , and that he also uses spotify to listen to his music, so I decided to have a look at his screen on time and the apps that use the most battery per charge, and I was surprised to see that spotify was also draining a lot of his battery, but in his case, it was even worse, spotify for him drained 35% per charge, which is unacceptable. 

Since I discovered this I've tried the following:

- Reinstalling spotify.

- Wiping its cache

- Changing my password

- Disabling background search for other devices

- Disabling Canvas 

- Downloading my music and listening in offline mode

- Limiting background usage on my phone's settings (this creates an issue because whenever I'm listening to my downloaded or streamed music with this on, the music will stop for 2 or 3 seconds and then resume, as I said, it happened with both downloaded music, and streamed music, and it happened once or twice per song.)

I have run out of ideas so I'm switching to amazon music to try it out until this issue is fixed, if it isn't, I will cancel my plan and tell my dad to do the same thing, this battery drain is absolutely unacceptable and needs to be fixed ASAP, I can't imagine the battery that spotify must consume with older or smaller phones like the regular s21 or even the s10 or s9, 60% of their batteries per charge?? ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE SPOTIFY!!!!

[Oscarndiez]

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 more detail what is exactly happening on your side. So, we'll need you to send us:

• The make/model of the affected device
• The current OS version running on your device
• The exact Spotify version you're running
• Some screenshots of this behavior
• If you noticed that this started to happen after some specific event, such as an OS update
• All the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far

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 the current OS versions of your devices and Spotify 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!

[Pirate507]

Weirdness: Removed widget, added it back. I've only had one more instance of this drain but that's it. I wouldn't call this resolved, per se since I've still had one more instance of it occur, but trying some testing around the widget to repro.

Funnily enough even after clearing cache and app data I'm _still_ experiencing the map crash: Google maps is still reporting the same crashed Spotify data. I thought that was related but it's likely yet another red herring here. 

Oh, and everything is up to date :+1:

[hawk7]

Can there be an update given on the issue.

The lite version of spotify for android is not released in all countries.

Will the lite app be available for the netherlands as well ?

[MVDB1]

Hallo 

I have a Samsung S8

With also these problems.

Big drain and gets very hot!

Mobile Factory reset:

Solved for now the heating problem the drain is still there!

Solve this problem please!

[JustCallBen]

S22+ here. I haven't seen the issues with regular Spotify. I installed Spotify Live a couple of days ago to catch a show by Annie Letterman and noticed the next morning that my phone had charged 100% but was down to 60% within 2 hours.

I continued the charge the phone off and on throughout the day and got home with 44% charge remaining.

Opening the settings and looking at the battery usage, Spotify Live had been responsible for 26% of total power usage.

I uninstalled Spotify Live and do not have any battery usage problems.

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

Thanks for sharing this info.

We've forwarded it to the relevant team here at Spotify for further review. For anyone else experiencing this, who hasn't posted in the thread, please do so and share the info requested by @Vasil a few posts back.

Cheers!

[Towery_S]

I'm on Galaxy S22+, At&t USA

Android 13

One UI 5

Spotify 8.7.82.94

I noticed my battery was severely drained way earlier in the day than normal and looked at the usage stats, saw Spotify was the culprit (see screenshot). I had wifi on and was not listening to anything saved locally. The drain mostly happened while the screen was off. I have the Spotify widget on my home screen. 

[OscarNunez1]

Hello, so I've been pretty active in this discussion and I've tried all of the options given to us in the attempt to fix this issue, and none of them helped, I had given up and deleted the app and disabled my account but after a month or so I re enabled my account and reinstalled the app, and after re downloading all saved songs it seems my issue has been resolved, at least for now, the battery is still draining just a bit faster than normal, but it's still leagues better than previously and my phone doesn't feel like it's going to burst into flames anymore either.  I'm not holding out hope it will stay this way but we'll see. 

[molenaar2]

Is there any update to this issue? I'm using Spotify on a Samsung Android tablet, and Spotify is just draining the battery, while I'm not using it. It uses about 10% of battery charge in about 6 hours.

I have no downloaded songs, turned off Spotify Connect, have reinstalled the app, do not let other devices control this Spotify, etc. I'm not sure what else to do.

[Williamd4683]

On days when I see the battery starting to drop, I'll uninstall Spotify for a day (And check out YT music... lol) upon reinstall, it works pretty well for a month usually. It's a pain, but it's been a consistent solution for over a year now

[iosonobenny]

same problem on my Pixel 7 Pro: Spotify app seems to prevent the phone from going into "deep sleep" state. This is normal when it's playing in background, but it happens even when nothing is playing. At the end of the day I see a lot of battery usage due to Spotify (in system battery stats) while AccuBattery stats shows high percentage and usage time with screen off and phone "awake"). Uninstalling the app solved the problem, now I'm gonna try installing again and check.

[disgruntledmutt15]

Also experiencing issues on my Pixel 6A.   Spotify was "Active" for 14 hours on my phone and consumed 41% battery since last charge a day before even though i regularly close the app and maybe was actively listening for 4-5 hours total.  Uninstalled the app recently but it hasnt seemed to help.  Along with clearing cache and all the usual things.   Running my phone in battery saver mode is the only thing that seems to slow it down. 

[ssnow]

hello, i have been looking for a solution to this battery drain problem and have come to study it way deeper than i should have as a consumer, now let me be clear

this is a global problem with ALL android spotify user

this is NOT dependent on the os or the model

this is NOT dependent on the streaming quality, data reception, if offline or not

we do not want steps to turn off spotify connect or whatever, this is not a problem with settings, this is a problem with the app itself, it seems the developpers have followed the minecraft room, they have been pushed to add loads of features and background processes, without having time to optimize them, accumulating small battery drain which results in about 12%/h battery drain when listening offline with screen off (for comparison, thats more than just watching the music video on youtube with screen on). We need spotify to review the battery usage and fix it, its gotten so bad im tempted to either switch to tidal or some other platform or straight up code an optimized player myself...

customers should not worry about that stuff or have to look into it this deep 

[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 more detail what is exactly happening on your side. So, we'll need you to send us:

• The make/model of the affected device
• The current OS version running on your device
• The exact Spotify version you're running
• Some screenshots of this behavior
• If you noticed that this started to happen after some specific event, such as an OS update
• All the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far

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 the current OS versions of your devices and Spotify 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!

[Markmfmasters]

Alright look. None of the above suggestions, or those I have found in sixteen other threads, have presented an effective solution. The reinstall suggestion, I assume, is a joke. This problem persists on Galaxy Watch 3 and 4, across six generations of Galaxy flagship phones. This is the only app that murders my battery ruthlessly, every single time. Meanwhile, the repeated requests for detailed technical data is a ruse, presented to complicate resolution to the point that people give up and go away. It's a pernicious, widely-used dodge found in a lot of forums like this. Fact is, this has been a problem for years, and at this point requesting additional technical data from individual users, circumstances, etc. is just insulting, and transparently deceptive. Or incompetent. Either way, they don't need more data. They know what the problem is, and have clearly decided it's not worth the effort to fix. This is likely because, based on some complex calculations, execs have determined that by the time users discern that Spoitify is murdering their watch battery, they have so many playlists that most will suffer the drain rather than lose access to their precious curations. As long as it is not noticably impacting subscription or drop rates, they have no motivation to invest in a solution for users. This is standard practice in most industries. They have known about this problem for years. It is not isolated to specific phones, settings, configurations, guaranteed. I strongly encourage anyone with this problem to switch platforms, and tell your friends to do the same. Aside from the support oompah loompas who are trained to appear as if they do, no one at Spotify cares that your watch battery is being murdered by their app, as long as it doesn't hurt their bottom line. 

[ssnow]

I made posts about that multiple times, some got deleted, others got replied with "uhm we'll look into it" basically spotify told me to go **bleep** myself.

What other platform would you recommend? I heard tidal is pretty good.

Any platform that doesnt make my battery go from 100% to 85% in the 30mins i take to go to uni should be good (thats 1% every 2mins with the screen off when my phone usually loses 3%/h off and 10%/h on)

[Mjs74]

I've just installed spotify a few days ago and it's eating battery. 30% of my battery went in 22 minutes. Reading through the thread,  it seems like no-one solved the problem, so I'm uninstalling..very disappointing 

[Patrick_Bateman]

 I am having a similar problem and I have not even opened spotify app once today. It's on S22 ultra. And all my apps as well as phone is up to date. This needs to be fixed asap. I'm getting frustrated.