How to Stop AutoPlay

[Daddify]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G

Operating System

Android 11

My Question or Issue

I listen to the Spotify app on my Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G Android mobile phone. I subscribe to Spotify Premium.

How can I STOP the Spotify app from automatically playing the next song in a playlist?

These are the steps I have tried thus far:

1- These directions in https://community.spotify.com/t5/FAQs/How-do-I-disable-Autoplay/ta-p/1590474

Under the section headlined Mobile: Tap Home > Got Premium? Tap Your Library > Tap Settings ...

There is no selection for Settings in my library.

2- Home > Settings > Automix > Off

3- Home > Settings > Autoplay > Off

4- Uninstalling and reinstalling the app, then repeating the steps above.

Since the ability to prevent autoplay is a deal-breaker for me, I will drop my subscription to Spotify Premium and use a different service if this can't be resolved, so I hope there really is some way to stop the Spotify app from autoplaying.

[MafeG]

Hi @Daddify,

Thank you for posting on the Community!

The AutoPlay feature is meant to prevent songs from playing when you finish all the songs in a playlist. If this is what you're trying to achieve, please do the following.

We understand you already reinstalled the app, could you run a clean reinstall?. This one is more thorough than a regular one and can be helpful to get rid of any cache that might be causing trouble. 

If this doesn't do the trick, please send us a video showing what happens when you finish a playlist, and how the queue looks. This way we can take a better look at the issue. 

Keep us posted.

[Daddify]

"The AutoPlay feature is meant to prevent songs from playing when you finish all the songs in a playlist. If this is what you're trying to achieve ..."

This is not what I am trying to achieve. I will explain what I am trying to achieve:

For example, I may say to a friend "There's a great song that I recently heard. I would like to play it for you."

I open the Spotify app and search for the song that I would like to hear - just that one song. Spotify returns several copies of the song. I pick one copy at random. As it turns out, the copy of the song I chose is part of a playlist that someone created. Many times in Spotify, this is the only way to hear a song - as part of a playlist.

I play the song for my friend. We both enjoy listening. After the song finishes playing, we start to chat about the song. Seconds later, our conversation is interrupted by Spotify playing the next song in the playlist, which has started to play on its own, without me asking it to play.

Embarrassed and annoyed, I go to the Spotify app's settings and confirm that Autoplay is turned OFF. I note the description of AutoPlay in the app:  Keep on listening to similar tracks when your music ends. (Emphasis is mine.) This setting is turned OFF, thus I have a reasonable expectation that Spotify will not keep on playing tracks when my music ends.

If I had chosen to play the playlist, it would be completely logical for Spotify to continue to play the songs in the playlist. But in this case I did not ask Spotify to play the playlist - I asked it to play one song.

Since my friends and I are music enthusiasts, we like to have the opportunity, from time to time, to discuss the music we are listening to together. As you probably know, other streaming music services permit users to play one song at a time. So now I am asking Spotify:

Will Spotify allow me to play one song, that I specifically select to play, without continuing to play other songs 'when my music ends?'

[MafeG · Accepted solution]

Hi @Daddify,

Thank you for your swift reply and clarification.

In this case, the AutoPlay feature is not designed exactly for what you want to achieve. It will only keep music from playing after you finish a whole playlist, album or selection of songs.

However, there's something you can do. If you want to play only one song, you can empty your queue and then add that song to the queue.

By doing this, Spotify will stop playing music right after that song is finished. In this scenario, AutoPlay must be turned off. 

In this article you can find more info about how the queue works, and how to manage it. 

Hope this helps!

[Daddify]

The 'add to queue'  method works for me, although it's not nearly as simple as YouTube's Autoplay is on/Autoplay is off switch. I wish Spotify could be as simple.

[Jeremy]

Hi there @Daddify,

Thank you for your reply and feedback.

We're really glad to see that everything works as it should for you again 🙂

You can read more about how your feedback reaches Spotify here.

Let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Take care!

[gijsvs]

Hello, same issue here. Autoplay is active while switched off in the settings. I already did a clean reinstall. (and not particularly impressed with the autoplay selections!)

Now what?

Thanks for any help

Gijs

[Ver]

Hey @gijsvs,

Thanks for posting here 🙂

You can give the steps @MafeG mentioned a and try empting your queue. Then you can add that song to the queue.

In case the songs are still in the queue, it's a good idea to check if the option to repeat songs in the Now Playing View is turned on. If it is, we'd suggest you turn it off.

If the app is still playing songs after the last song in a playlist, we'd suggest you give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall.

Let us know how it goes.

[superk47]

I am having a similar issue.  When I listen to albums, they no longer stop at the end like they once did.  I see there's a queue that's telling it what to play next but I just want it to stop like it used to.  I changed my autoplay setting in the phone app to "off" but it doesn't have any effect when I'm listening on the desktop.  It just keeps on playing songs in this queue that I didn't create and there's no way to empty the queue - when I manually clear out a song, another one pops up at the end.

Why can't it just stop at the end of albums like it two weeks ago?

[MafeG]

Hi @superk47,

Thank you for posting on this thread. 

Just to make sure, does this only happen when playing albums, or does it also happen when you finish a playlist? 

Also, when the issue happens are you streaming to another device using the Connect feature, or are you using only one device to play your music? 

Keep us posted.

[thedizabides]

I have the same problem as @superk47.

I followed the steps for a clean uninstall, i.e. I cleared the cache/data, uninstalled Spotify, powered down by phone for a few minutes, reinstalled Spotify, and then toggled AutoPlay to Off.

I started a playlist when I was connected to Bluetooth earbuds, but finished while connected to a Sonos speaker. The AutoPlay feature remained off.

I then started an album I had saved to my Library while still connected to a Sonos speaker. When I checked the queue, Spotify had added nearly 50 additional songs. When I attempted to remove these songs from the queue, nothing happened. 

It would appear that this is the problem - once I connect to my Sonos speaker, i.e. pretty much the ONLY way I listen to music - Spotify now turns on the AutoPlay feature. I just tested this theory: I disconnected from my Sonos speaker and started a different album. The queue only contained songs from that album. When I connected to my Sonos speaker, I have a massive queue of songs I cannot even remove.

Why does Spotify believe this is a good user experience? 

[Alex]

Hey @thedizabides,

Thanks for the reply.

Currently Autoplay will be automatically enabled when streaming from Connect devices such as smart speakers/ home sound systems. 

There are other users who feel like there should be an option to toggle this on/ off. You can show your support by adding your +Vote to this Idea. This is something that the Spotify developer team is currently looking into. The more votes an idea gets, the more likely it is to get implemented.

Hope this helps.

[superk47]

• I generally listen to albums through the web browser. I don't use playlists so I'm not sure of that case.

My computer is generally connected by Bluetooth to a speaker - I'm not sure if the connect feature is enabled or not.

[CantDisableAutoplay]

@MafeG, thanks for posting this helpful solution! Unfortunately, it only works when the play queue is empty, and there is no way to keep it empty. The recommendation engine _always_ puts more (unwanted) songs on the queue when the (wanted) songs that I queued up finish. What's more: the button the empty the queue is usually missing. (I posted a bug report about those issues in another thread.)

Is there more recent guidance on how to play an individual song without any other songs playing? Thanks!

[Alex]

Hey there @CantDisableAutoplay,

Thanks for the post.

Can you clarify if you're playing music straight from your phone/ PC or you're casting to a smart speaker over Spotify Connect? 

You can try going into your app's settings and uncheck the settings Autoplay> Autoplay similar songs when your music ends in this app and Autoplay similar songs when your music ends on other devices.

This should disable Autoplay completely. Note that on some smart speakers this options is set to on by default by the manufacturer and can't be controlled from Spotify.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

[CantDisableAutoplay]

@Alex, thanks for the response!

I see this behavior when playing music on my phone or desktop speakers using the phone app or desktop application (respectively). I made sure to disable both autoplay settings on both the Android app and the desktop.

The problem seems to be that Spotify has a recommendation engine in addition to autoplay that cannot be disabled and that populates the queue with songs whenever it is empty. Playback may be stopped, but as soon as I try to play a new song, I'm stuck with a queue full of songs that I didn't want. For what its worth, this behavior does not seem to occur on my iPad.

[Alex]

Hey @CantDisableAutoplay,

Thanks for the reply.

Can you tell us if this list of recommended songs in the queue gets generated even if you search for a single song and play it (not an album or playlist)? I just tried this on Desktop and the queue stays empty when I play a single.

Cheers.

[CantDisableAutoplay]

@Alex, thanks for taking a look.

Here is a video of the behavior I'm seeing. Even when I choose an individual song, unwanted songs still get added to the queue when the song finishes:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X0KWx4uMkKAACjkH8UamWByz64vH58WF/view?usp=sharing

[CantDisableAutoplay]

Apologies, I misinterpreted your suggestion! I was still trying to use the "Add to Queue" method, when just directly playing the song gives the desired behavior. Thanks for looking into this!

[SeriousRos]

This irritates me too. I am thinking of unsubscribing for the same reason. I cannot even find an autoplay button to switch off but it seems that doesn't help anyway. I just want to hear the tune I searched for. Not something after which I'm not expecting. It's so annoying having some algorithm decide what it thinks you want to hear.