spotify start playing automatically

[Madmaus]

Hi,

My phone starts playing spotify at random times in the middle of the night (between 4:00 and 6:00). It may happened after an update of my phone.

Plan

Premium

Country

Netherlands

Device

Samsung Galaxy S9

Operating System

Android 10

My Question or Issue

Hi,

My phone starts playing spotify at random times in the middle of the night (between 4:00 and 6:00). It may happened after an update of my phone.

It this an know issue? How to get rid of it besides deinstall?

[Mario]

Hey @Madmaus,

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community and welcome.
 
If you've come across actions unexpectedly taken with your app, it'd be good to make sure no one is accessing your account in an unauthorized way.
 

For this purpose, it'd be great to bookmark and follow the steps in this support page article as well as this one since they feature some essential info regarding how to keep the safety of your account up-to-date. As a heads-up, make sure you check immediately the steps in the first article under Passwords and Remove access to third-party apps since they'll help you make sure no one is accessing your Spotify through any of your credentials or other online services eventually linked with your account.

Hope you'll find this useful. We'll keep an eye on your reply in case there's anything else we can help with!

[Madmaus]

Hi Mario, 

I now logged out on all devices.

The strange thing was I happened only with my device and not with other devices with the same account. 

To be sure I made an new account and logged in with that to check i get the same problem.

I also set my sound to 0 to not wake up at 0400. 

Hope this will help me problem shooting. 

[Madmaus]

Hi, 

So I changed my password and logged out of all devices. 

Only 2 devices logged in my phone and my girlfriend's phone. 

Last night my girlfriend's phone started playing on its own. 

Any chance you can check server logging why this is happening? 

Clearly something isn't right. 

[Madmaus]

Last night again. 

I muted my phone so I woke up and saw Spotify playing. 

[B_Scotti]

I just upgraded from a Samsung Galaxy S7 Active to a Samsung Galaxy S20+. Now, sometime between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. (at random times, NOT the same time), Spotify self-launches and starts playing songs from a SLEEP playlist, which is not the last-played song list I was listening to. 

I cannot find any settings in Spotify for this issue and I need it to stop.  It wakes me up when I go to bed early, and plays during movies, or whatever--even when my phone is on silent.  It is also costing you money, as it's playing at random times when I am not actively listening on my device.  

[queenalexandrat]

I'm having the exact same issue on my brand new Samsung S21 Ultra. Every day at around midnight Spotify starts playing weird music from the Sleep playlist which I have never listened to in my life. I turn the music off but within a few minutes it is back on again. It appears this is a widespread issue. Spotify please fix this issue as it is making your app unusable.

[Alex]

Hey @queenalexandrat,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

What is most likely happening is that your Spotify is linked to a scheduling app like Bixby. 

Go to settings and search for "Bixby routines", then select "my routines" at the bottom of the page. This will take you to a page with routine options. Most likely the Sleep playlist is added to a routine like Before bed or Going to Sleep etc. Remove that and make sure Spotify is not added to any other routines.

Hope this helps. Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.

[queenalexandrat]

Yes!! Thank you so much this was the exact issue!! I just changed from Apple to Samsung and had no idea about Bixby.

[Alex]

Hey @queenalexandrat,

Thanks for the quick reply!

Glad to hear that everything worked out fine 🙂

It's always a bit of mess when you change systems, but that's why we have forums like this.

Cheers.

[Dolle9]

I got a Samsung Note 20 Ultra and my problem is similiar to these found earlier on this page. For me there isn't any specific time when Spotify starts to play music itself. It's more when I search for an app I want to open, let's say Settings, my phone triggers somehow also the Spotify on so that music starts to play in the background. Is there any similiar issues and how do I fix this? Haven't found any fixes for this annoying problem.

[Alex]

Hey @Dolle9,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

This issue seems a bit different than the OP. Note that this issue might be related to the device itself, so we can't guarantee that we'll find a solution, but we'll do our best 🙂

First of all, try running a clean reinstall, following this Guide exactly. This will clear all old app data and cache.

Afterwards, check Bixby for any scheduling that might involve Spotify and disable that.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

[4w9-xa_0smbi6]

I have tried all the threads about the subject I could find and tried all the suggestions. They do not work and I have had the problem on 2 different phones. 
I have reinstalled spotify many times (solves most problems for a short while) and spend hours on it but the problem keeps coming back. Sometimes it starts pausing on its own. Sometimes it starts playing on its own.

I wish that Spotify acknowledged that this is a software problem and not a user problem. It seems mostly with Samsung devices.

I like Spotify but this makes using it a very bad experience...

[Ver]

Hey @4w9-xa_0smbi6,

Thanks for posting here.

Could you please share with us which troubleshooting steps you've tried so far? That way we'll able to avoid any repeating steps.

Keep us posted.

[4w9-xa_0smbi6]

I just spend more then half an hour explaining my experiences with the Spotify app. At posting the webpage gives an error and all input was lost.

I don't want to spend another half hour so I will skip my past problems and only explain my current problem.

The app starts playing at random moments. This happens day and night. I have experienced it when walking in a store, at home, and it woke me up in the middle of the night when it suddenly started playing.

I have used the option to log out of all devices and changed my password. So I think I can assume I am the only user. I have never shared my spotify credentials with anybody. I have the uninstalled the app and re-installed it.

I now log in and out with every use to prevent it to start playing unasked. This is very annoying. There shoud be an option in the setting to block Spotify from playing automatically in any circumstance except on direct user input.

It also always starts playing when my phone connects to my car even if I wasn't listening to it prior to connecting. This could be caused by the car bluetooth so this is maybe not a problem of Spotify. But the above mentioned option would also be helpful for this problem.

[4w9-xa_0smbi6]

I have now also revoked all apps from connecting to my Spotify account to see if this makes any difference.

[Alex]

Hey @4w9-xa_0smbi6,

Thanks for sharing a detailed report of the troubleshooting you've done.

Sorry to hear that you've gotten an error when trying to post your response. This can sometimes happen if you have the session open for longer period of time.

Can you let us know if playback starts automatically only on your phone or on all devices you use (please list them)? This will help us narrow down what might be causing this issue.

It would also be helpful if you let us know your phone's model, OS version and Spotify version as well.

Looking forward to your reply.

[4w9-xa_0smbi6]

Hi Alex,

It happens only on my mobile phone. I currently have a Samsung Fold 3 5G running Android 11.

Its is reasonably stable at the moment. I had one instance where spotify paused unexpectedly while playing.

I also had one instance where spotify started playing out of nowhere when I opened my app drawer and searched for an app on my mobile. 

I cannot reproduce these at the moment.

[Ver]

Hey @4w9-xa_0smbi6,

Thanks for keeping us posted.

In case the issue occurs again, we can try one more thing. If you're using any battery optimization or power saving apps, you can try deactivating them for Spotify. 

Let us know how it goes. 

[4w9-xa_0smbi6]

I have not used Spotify for 3 days on my phone. Last night I went to the search in the app drawer on my phone and out of nowhere Spotify starts up playing loudly. This is so annoying. I don't want Spotify to start by itself at any time. I have had this now so many times. I have a fresh install, only on 1 device en without any connected apps. 

Last time you asked me for device and OS but you do not respond on that. I have more audio apps on my device and I never had any problem with that. The Spotify app is buggy and has been for a long time. Just search on the web for a while. It is always presented as a user or OS problem. I do not believe that since other apps do not have these problems. Maybe your developer telling you that to cover their own shortcomings.