Surface Goes to Sleep

[JohnDoh]

I've got a Surface Pro 3 (Windows 8.1) and very annoyingly it stops playing music everytime the screen goes to sleep, I'm sure the screen should just turn off without Spotify stopping as well. As soon as I wake it up Spotify resumes playing.

Is this a spotify issue or a Surface issue, I'm sure playing media should continue when the device goes to sleep?

Cheers,

John

[cjclegg]

Same problem here... other audio don't stop like this so looks like a spotify issue to me

[JohnDoh]

Yep, now how do we get Spotify to fix it!?

[Peter__]

I think the issue is the Spotify client wasn't designed to run on tablets. Is the screen just turning off or is the entire tablet going into sleep mode (like on a laptop)?

[JohnDoh]

It's a Surface but it's basically a Windows 8.1 laptop just without a keyboard.

The whole device goes to sleep, however this doesn't happen if your using other Media Players - e.g. Windows Media Player or Xbox Music, I'm assuming there needs to be some option that the Spotify client needs to call to say just turn off the screen but don't let the device go to sleep.

Cheers.

[IggyP0P]

no solutions yet, i guess

[merotraj]

Im having the same problem! Spotify in general doesnt work particularly well when you use the Surface Pro 3 without the keyboard. The worst problem however is the need to keep waking the tablet up for Spotify to continue to play. I hope a resolution is found soon!

[rolls69]

Hi,

Same problem here. Does anybody has a solution for this issue ?

I don't want to pay a premium account if I cannot listen my music easely. 

Thanks.

[RedPhil]

Hi, not a solution but a work-around. You can change when the computer goes into sleep mode. Go into power options, windows key + x and select Power Options or search for Power Options. In Power Options select change when the computer sleeps. You can change the options for on battery and plugged in separately. For myself I tend to only use spotify on my surface when plugged into my HiFi system (on the go I use Spotify app on my android phone), I always plug in when using spotify in this way so I have set the computer to never sleep when plugged in. Note the surface still sleeps when the cover is closed so for normal charging the machine is in sleep mode.

Hope this helps

Phil

[bennzbrnnz]

I have the same problem. Although I found a solution that should fix the problem for you, it doesn't fix the problem directly which is quite annoying. The Surface is a tablet that is running Windows. When you press the power button, you are placing your Surface in sleep, which pauses Spotify playback. If you are using your Surface with the keyboard cover, it places it in a version of sleep called, "instantstart" (I think that's the name).  As you know Spotify is a desktop program and there for does not have access to certain permissions that metro apps (apps downloaded from the Store) have such as keeping audio playing while the screen is off.

I was able to overcome this problem by creating a power plan in the Windows Control Panel that prevents the computer turning off, as well as setting my screensaver to "blank". This will keep your screen on but will display a blank, black, dimmed, screen.

Hope this makes sense. Hopefully Spotify creates an app version. 

Best,

Ben

[yfitops2015]

Tablets running windows 8.1 have a feature called connected standby, its a power saving feature, I just got a very low powered desktop that has an atom cpu, as a result it was running like a tablet with connected standby enabled, this meant I couldn't set my monitor to switch off as it also put the pc to sleep, so anything running also went off which is probablly the same problem here.

If you disable connected standby your get all the power options of a desktop running windows 8.1 including the monitor off without system sleep.

Its a very simple registry change, not sure if its reversable as I haven't tried (I created a system restore point first just incase), have a good read about connected standby first though so you know how this might effect your device (You will not have a sleep option with connected standby disabled)

http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/disable-connected-standby.10901/

[mshellist]

I think I find the solution...maybe.  I was frustrated while Spotify was playing and would stop when it slept.  So, while itplayed, I just closed the screen down onto the keyboard and it kept playing!  Try it.

MAS

[stokd]

Bumping this post, got a Surface Pro 4 for Christmas and seeing this issue stems back at least a year...changing power settings in order for it to work properly is simply unacceptable. Spotify needs to fix this.

[yfitops2015]

Like I said above this is probably connected standby, connected standby doesn't allow you to sleep just the screen, if you disable connected standby then you should just be able to sleep the screen and leave everything else running, its pretty obvious why this would be enabled on a tablet, powering down just the screen isn't as energy efficient.

FYI - I have disabled and re-enabled connected standby with the registry change, so it is reversible, but creating a restore point first would be a good idea.

[stokd]

I guess what I'm getting at is why doesn't it behave like a smartphone then? Just the screen goes to sleep on it and there are still things running in the background, why is Windows so different? Especially since 8/10 are geared to be more mobile. Is this something that can be modified by Spotify since Windows 10 has universal apps? Or is Spotify not even available for Windows Phones?

[yfitops2015]

Spotify is a desktop application so I doubt its even coded to use connected standby, if it was a windows mobile application then I expect it could work in the same way as on android by making use of connected standby.

At least that's my take on things after reading about connected standby.

[cjclegg]

Yes the problem here is that there is no windows app for Spotify. There is a third party one I tried a while back which writhed in connected standby but I couldn't get on with it. Hopefully Spotify will release a universal windows app soon that will work better on the surface.

[Inselaffe]

Understand the helpful work arounds provided but please just fix the app or release a modern up app.

[Inselaffe]

That's modern ui!

[-Dav-]

Same issue here, with a surface 3 on Windows 10. No news about an update which fix this?