Starts playing the second i open

[Sarblast]

My Question or Issue

recently I had to replace my phone due to some component issues, ever since I got my replacement and redownloaded all apps, whenever I open Spotify, it instantly starts playing the song I was last listening to.

I usually use 2-3 music apps so anytime I open Spotify while listening to a song from another app, and Spotify just starts playing and cuts off my song, it's quite irritating, I've tried looking for answers about this issue as this never happened with my previous phone which I had literally less than a few weeks ago and which also had the same version of Spotify.

All other topics about this stuff is about auto play and some other things, I've tried them all but none seem to work, wondering if anyone else has this issue or can provide a solution

[Reasson]

Spotify are in denial about this problem!

Happens to me with multiple BT devices and with other phones I have tried. If you pester them enough they will ask you to send a video of it and then make an excuse

[mmortal03]

Since it only does it with certain Bluetooth receivers or headphones, I bet Spotify devs haven't even tracked down the right Bluetooth devices that reproduce it. It's, of course, still not expected behavior, because Amazon Music doesn't do it, while Spotify does. An example of a receiver with which Spotify has this autoplay bug is this car kit: Aston Innovations SoundTek HD Bluetooth Car Kit with aptX HD AAC: 
https://www.amazon.com/Aston-Innovations-SoundTek-A2-Bluetooth/dp/B07ZHT77P4

[Reasson]

Well. They can reproduce it on Man, Daf and Volvo HGV made after 2015.

Ear studio es100 mk1 and 2.

Pioneer head units.

Mercedes Citan factory fitted stereo.

And the list goes on...

[mmortal03]

Gotta keep this list of devices going. Maybe we'll hit on one that the Spotify devs actually own.

[Ivelina]

Hey folks,

Thanks for posting in this thread!

So we can investigate the matter further, it'd be very helpful if you could send us the following details if you haven't already:

• Device(s) and OS-version this is happening on.
• Spotify-version.
• Are you using Bluetooth?
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far and did any of them make any difference?
• Any other details that you think might be helpful.

Thanks and we'll be on the lookout 🙂

[mmortal03]

Google Pixel 6a
Android version 14 with March 5, 2024 security update
Spotify version 8.9.24.633

When connected to Bluetooth, with certain Bluetooth devices (and only Spotify does this, not Amazon Music or Audible).
An example of a receiver with which Spotify has this autoplay bug is this car kit:
Aston Innovations SoundTek HD Bluetooth Car Kit with aptX HD AAC:
https://www.amazon.com/Aston-Innovations-SoundTek-A2-Bluetooth/dp/B07ZHT77P4

[terioncalling]

• S20FE
• Android 13
• Spotify-version 8.9.24.633
• Are you using Bluetooth? Yes
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far and did any of them make any difference? I have attempted every single solution that has been suggested in these forums (even the ones that I know aren't relevant) and beyond and literally nothing works. I've also connected the phone to other Bluetooth devices like my earbuds (which are cheap Onn brand) and it does not autoplay, so it can't just be the Bluetooth connection.
• Any other details that you think might be helpful. Car is a 2005 model with a Scosche BTFreq Transmitter plugged into the cigarette lighter that is at least a decade old. This issue has only started doing this within the past year or so, before that it was working perfectly fine. Car hasn't changed. Transmitter hasn't changed. So it's either Spotify or the phone.

Can we please get some kind of solution that actually functions? It's a small thing but it is literally driving me crazy to have this happen every time that I start the app in my car. The only solution I've discovered around this is to launch the web player in my browser, which only works so long as I have enough phone signal.

[Laneguy]

Samsung s22 (sm-s901w) 

Android 14

Spotify-version 8.9.24.633

Are you using Bluetooth? Yes

What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far and did any of them make any difference? I have attempted every suggestion on this forum. Resetting, repairing, reinstalling, re-pairing, etc... Nothing has worked.

Any other relevant info: a glance at the various forums seeking to deal with this issue suggests that Spotify does not care to address this problem. Disappointing. Spotify is becoming a dumpster fire. 

[Ivelina]

Thanks for the details folks, we really appreciate the cooperation!

We've passed the info on to the relevant team here and they'll look into it. Whenever we've got any updates, we'll make sure to post them in this thread.

Give us a shout if anything else comes up in the meantime.

Take care 🙂

[Ivelina]

Hey folks, 

Thank you once again for your cooperation! The team is looking into this, but we'll need some additional details.

@Laneguy Could you send us the exact Bluetooth device you're using? Does it happen when you're connected to multiple devices?

@mmortal03 Does the automatic playback happen only when you're using the Car Kit?

Cheers!

[mmortal03]

"Does the automatic playback happen only when you're using the Car Kit?"

It always happens with the car kit, but it has sometimes happened *after* I have disconnected from the car kit (the car kit turns off with car). When that happens, I have restarted the phone, and then it is fixed until connecting to the car kit again. I don't remember if simply force closing the Spotify app was enough to stop it, because restarting the phone was just easier. Keep in mind that no other audio/music app has this issue with the car kit. It is only Spotify.

[ConnRed]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

OnePlus and Sony Car Stereo

Operating System

Android

My Question or Issue

I used to have autoplay set up and linked to the Sony Stereo in my car, but eventually I found it more annoying than helpful (I always want a different playlist it seems), so I turned it off. 

It was off for maybe a couple weeks, but then it started randomly turning back on. I turned it on and off again a couple times, restarted a bunch of times, and Spotify has had at least one update since then, because now the settings have changed to "Car Thing" and there is no longer a way to try turning it on and off again.

It randomly plays (probably 75-80% of the time lately) and I cannot make it stop.

Today it found a new trick though: I parked, turned off my car, switched to my headphones, paused the podcast for a bit, and then restarted the podcast. At the end of that episode, I hit pause and a while later (inside a building and my car still off) I opened the app to play something else but the next episode autoplayed.

I checked and it showed as connected to my car's stereo even though it was playing through my headphones (and again, I am no where near my car which is still 100% off and parked). 

I tried closing and relaunching the app, but it autoplayed again. It only stopped autoplaying after I fully restarted my phone. 

There is still no way to stop autoplay and the feature to play similar is still off in my settings, so it shouldn't even have started that second episode (which was marked as played already anyway).

Is this my future? Random autoplaying and full phone restarts when I am no where near my car? 

Is anyone else having this bug? 

Please tell me there is a fix coming or a way to try turning off the autoplay just buried in the settings now 😞 

[mmortal03]

@ConnRed, what you're talking about is a side issue to the bug described in this thread. I'm also annoyed by it. Like you, I also have "Autoplay similar content" turned off, but Spotify *still* plays similar content after my playlists are finished. That's unrelated to Bluetooth; disabling that option just doesn't work anymore. If you combine that bug with the main bug of this thread, it makes things even worse, because it starts playing content that I didn't explicitly want to listen to in the first place, *and* it wastes data by starting to play content that I haven't already downloaded or wanted to listen to. I think I read somewhere that disabling "Autoplay similar content" no longer works on the free version of Spotify, but even if that's true, it's still a bug, because the setting should be greyed out on free accounts if it's not an available option.

[ConnRed]

• Device(s) and OS-version: OnePlus 8T when connected to my Sony Car Stereo; Android Version 14 (with at least one update since my issue began - auto playing in the car specifically and one recent case of auto playing on launch outside of the car, but Spotify thought it was playing in my car - my thread has been forced into this not quite the same one though).
• Spotify-version: 8.9.26.592
• Are you using Bluetooth? Yes.
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far and did any of them make any difference? I relaunched the app, logged out and back in multiple times then relaunched, fully restarted my phone, and waited out a phone update (which has happened at least twice now). My original issue still happens more often than not (autoplaying as soon as I am connected to the Sony Stereo in my car). A relaunch helped only once and that was when Spotify autoplayed outside of my car, but it showed as playing on my car stereo (even though it was actually playing through my headphones - I could hear it fine); when I restarted my entire phone Spotify realized I was not connected to the car stereo and worked normally. 
• Any other details that you think might be helpful. I had started my own thread originally, but it looks like it may have been merged into this one. I don't really relate to this issue, since it only happens for me when connecting over bluetooth to my car stereo and one time now when Spotify weirdly thought it was still connected to my car an hour after I had parked and switched to headphones. 

[ConnRed]

I am not sure if this is related or not, since it only ever happens in my car and it seems more like the old option (autoplaying when connected to the car) is still turned on.

The one time it did it outside of the car is Spotify showed itself as playing on the car stereo in the app (next to the speaker icon at the bottom it says where it is playing), BUT it was actually playing fine through my headphones and had been for a while. 

I figured me trying to turn this feature off mere days before it was removed from the settings and replaced by the new "Car Thing" might be connected to the issue. 

Unless this bug somehow has a twist on it where it only impacts the old car mode somehow, I suspect it might be its own issue or a major variation on this issue. 

Note: I use bluetooth to play almost constantly and swap between the car's stereo to at least 5 other devices on the regular (a portable bluetooth speaker, one in my house, another speaker inside a light device, headphones I wear all day, and headphones designed for sleeping in), so I know a bluetooth connection is not the trigger. It is specifically my Sony car stereo. That used to trigger autoplay 100% of the time. Originally it did so because it was told to, but after I turned it off it kept doing so. When I tried to turn it off again, the option was gone and replaced by "car thing" thus I cannot try turning it on amd off again..

Also worth noting, I have premium and have had it for over a decade. 

[mmortal03]

"I figured me trying to turn this feature off mere days before it was removed from the settings and replaced by the new "Car Thing" might be connected to the issue. "

Ah, so there used to be a setting called "autoplaying when connected to the car"?  Wasn't aware of that.

"it seems more like the old option (autoplaying when connected to the car) is still turned on."

Ah, I see what you're saying now. I don't think this is the case, because I never enabled such an option on either of my phones, I wasn't having this problem in the past, nor do I have the problem on the other phone. I guess it could be some additional special case.

[ConnRed]

No worries; it was a thing a couple years ago and then they got rid of it maybe a couple months ago. 

But maybe the bug is linked to how it was retired? 

[mmortal03]

That's possible, but keep in mind that it doesn't affect all phones, and the original reports in this thread were from two years ago. That said, new reports started coming in about six months ago, so it could still be related to how that feature was retired.

I only got this phone in September, but I don't think I noticed the bug until November. It wouldn't be that hard for someone to test some older versions of Spotify to see when the buggy behavior began. (This should be the Spotify devs job, of course.) 

[TuneToTheMusic]

Spotify starts playing last played song automatically upon connecting to Bluetooth device, if Bluetooth device is identified as a car by spotify. Spotify continue playing last played song automatically on the phone, upon dis-connecting from said Bluetooth device.

Phone: Xiaomi F2 Poco Pro
Android version: 12SKQ1.2011006.001
Spotify version: 8.9.30.433
When autoplay issue started: About 6 months ago

Bluetooth devices affected:
1. Lexus NX300h 2019 car
2. Belkin Bluetooth Music Receiver model F8Z492 (Spotify think it is a car).

Bluetooth devices not affected:
Jabra Elite 75t

Solutions tried: I have tried all solutions I could find, including a clean install.

[mmortal03]

Yeah, I should mention that Spotify generally shows the car icon for me when this happens, even if I change the "Audio Device Type" to something other than "Car Kit" (like Headphones, or Speaker) in the Bluetooth Device details for my car kit (SoundTek HD): "Aston Innovations SoundTek HD Bluetooth Car Kit with aptX HD AAC":
https://www.amazon.com/Aston-Innovations-SoundTek-A2-Bluetooth/dp/B07ZHT77P4

I don't believe this should be the expected behavior for car kits, btw (it can actually be very distracting for it to automatically start playing something you didn't want, say when a passenger has the phone connected and is working on their playlists). It's also wasteful of data if you didn't want something to play in the first place while you're driving your car and just wanting to select something you *do* want to play.