[Android] Volume spike when using Connect

[Neantro]

Plan

Premium

Country

The Netherlands

Device / OS

Laptop: Clevo laptop with an up-to-date Windows 10 Pro 1809

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S8 with Android 9

Receiver: Denon AVR-X3500H with latest Firmware (2600-9174-8102-0025)

Spotify version on Windows: 1.1.17.543.geb9254e9

Spotify version on Android: 8.5.27.957

My Question or Issue

While writing this I'm still shaking. After opening Spotify on my Android device I selected a song I would like to hear like I normally do, and pressed play. The song started to play on my phone. I clicked the 'Connect to a device' button and selected the Denon receiver. After a short delay the song starts to play on Denon receiver on MAX volume. I've never set the volume of the receiver even near max in my entire live and I instantly knew why. Apparently max volume equals instant shock and permanent ear damage. In the moment I accidentally pressed the Samsung Bixby button which made the unbearable moment even longer. Once I could stop the music and set the volume to zero I was dazedly looking around while the smell of fried electronics from my B&W speakers filled the air.

One week earlier I had a similar incident from my laptop. I was working in the living room and I've been playing music from Spotify on my receiver for a while and on a random moment the volume switched to MAX. I didn't touch Spotify or my local system audio at that time because I worked in a remote desktop session. I don't know if this is related to the Spotify Android incident but they both happened within one week time span and never before. On the Windows system it looked like the Windows volume (which was on 100%) was synced with the Spotify volume, which synced this volume to the receiver. After setting my Windows volume around 20% I had twice the 'incident' that my spotify volume jumped to a lower volume. Which I had to set higher manually.

I have no clue why this happened. I do know I don't want this ever to happen again. Please look into this issue Spotify.

[Neantro]

Today I had the issue again and I've tried to reproduce the issue. Unfortunately I haven't found a reproducible scenario. I can however confirm that when I play music in Spotify on Windows the media master volume from my Android phone is synced to the Spotify volume in Windows. I have tested it by setting my Android master volume to mute and after a while the sound in Spotify on Windows muted, after that I've set the media volume on 50% and later 100% and both where synced at some point to the Windows Spotify volume.

I've tried to force the sync between Android en Windows Spotify by closing and opening the Spotify App on Android or by closing the Spotify notification bar. Sometimes this did trigger the sync and other times it didn't. Very confusing. After that I've tested with toggling the playback devices. Since then I haven't had a volume issue anymore. I will keep my eyes and ears open.

Spotify Windows version: 1.1.18.611.g9cc9bdc9 (first issue occurrence on 1.1.17.543.geb9254e9)

Spotify Android version: 8.5.31.676 (first issue occurrence on 8.5.27.957)

[vaidas1]

Same issue for me using HEOS 7 HS2 speaker with Samsung S9+ and Google Pixel 2 XL phones. It's unusable now with Spotify. You're listening music as a background in the late evening on 5% of volume and suddenly it goes straight to 100%, waking up neighbors  and scaring pets to death. And you end up running around home searching for a phone to lower the volume.

I'm working with software myself and cannot imagine how this issue is not solved for such a long time. Especially when it's happening so often, it shouldn't be difficult to reproduce. Are you just ignoring it?

It's really disappointing because until now I was very happy with Spotify for few years now.

[Splutty]

Since about... 3 weeks? the volume on the actual machine the songs are playing on will randomly be adjusted to whatever volume any of your connected devices has set.

Especially with a phone this is incredibly dangerous, because it's based off of the media volume set on the phone, which is quite often at max. And max on the machine that's the one actually connected to speakers might not be at all the same.

It appears to me as if volume settings are not replicated across devices, and the volume setting in the actual Spotify application (Android for me) is always reset to the "Media Volume" of the phone device, instead of taken from the actual master.

This gets extremely noticeable when recharging a phone, where Spotify seems to trigger this behaviour every 2 minutes or so, and the only way you can make it stop is to actually close the Spotify app on the phone, because adjusting the volume on the master makes absolutely no difference and gets reset from the phone through Connect.

So right now, it seems that volume changes made on the master do not get propagated at all to the Connect devices, whereas the volume on the Connect devices has no relation to the volume on the master, but still randomly affects and changes the volume on the master.

I think this is what happened in your case as well.

[Ruud5345]

Same problem here since a couple of weeks with the Galaxy S7 and the Bose soundbar 500. My ears beep and I have a 7 week old daughter who is now crying a LOT more, wth???? Fix**bleep**, I dont like threatening but this**bleep** people start lawsuits for!!

[freebirdlan]

Same problem with Chromecast and Chromecast Audio. 

[Splutty]

It's really simple.

1> Every Connect Slave should take their volume settings from the Master on startup/wakeup/tickle/boingboing/ANYTHING.

2> A Connect Slave should NEVER, EVER, under any circumstance whatsoever, adjust the volume of the Master unless a user specifically moves the volume controls.

3> The volume settings for Spotify should NEVER affect global settings on any of the devices it's running on. The fact it now seems to use Media Volume on phones is uttterly hairbrained. The fact that this then propagates to the Connect Master is mindbogglingly worse...

For bug report sake: All my Spotify apps are up to date, and this propagating/syncing volume the wrong way happens on all of them.

- Windows 7 (2 systems) 1.1.19.480

- Android (phone and tablet) 8.5.31.676

Just tested again on my phone. Set media volume to something, open Spotify, 2 seconds later the Connect Master gets adjusted to whatever my media volume on my phone is.

-

[gaupe]

Actually tinking about this problem, i think it should be possible to Totally switch of remote volume control for Spotytify connect slave devices. This porobelm has been before and after this is solved will have a chance to  arise again. I think for big amplifiers with connected speakers like an AVR   this to even remotely possible could happen is  somethin you want to avoid at all cost. The damage it can do, not alone to the equipment, but to your, your childrens or your pets ears is a risk that can not be taken. 

I dont know what Splutty exactly means but in no way a connect Slave should take their volume settings directly from the master on connect as 50% on a Master can be a whole different decibel level to a slave.  Which can mean a disasterous high volume.     At this moment i looks like every windows app and android app and probably also apple app is master the moment a spotify connect slave is assigned to play the music.  This in itself can allready give so many problems....   but has probably to do that one account is allowed only to play music on one device. 

For the moderator who want as much input as possible. It seems t  come around the same time as this volume spiking problem arises, when a cast the music from my android device (nokia 7 plus latest android version)  and it goes in sleep mode. after that it is troublesome to remote control the spotifyc connect slave anymore. all kinds of tricks i then have to do in order to get remote control back again to the spotify connect slave, from stopping the app starting it up again and pressing play (on musics from an album which it is allready finsihed with )  before i can select anything else to play. or play to another spotify connect device , switch off the original spotify connect device and switch on again and then switc casting to teg original inetnde spotify connect device again.     I am not sure but to me it seems this problem might be connected to te volume spike problem as it might be that when that happens another spotify connect master might take over o some other mechanic happens what causes the volume on the spotify connect devcie to go to max 

[WaiJai]

I have also been having volume spike issues for the past month when using my Naim Uniti Star (connected via WiFi). The volume level can suddenly jump from 25 to 79 (or any other extremely high level - there doesn't seem to be a regular volume level or pattern). For much of the time, the volume level is stable but every so often it will jump to heart attack levels - even when I'm not touching anything. This problem occurs when using either an iPad Pro, Samsung Galaxy S8+ or Windows 10 computer. All devices have the latest firmware / software installed. Naim Support seem to think it's a Spotify problem, but curiously I don't have any problem with my other wireless devices (KEF LSX and Audio Pro ADDON C5).

[Splutty]

I dont know what Splutty exactly means but in no way a connect Slave should take their volume settings directly from the master on connect as 50% on a Master can be a whole different decibel level to a slave.

That's exactly why the Slave should take its volume setting from the Master (Master being the Spotify that's actually playing/connected to speakers). So if the Master is set to, say 7%, then the Slave should take that 7% at all times.

Right now, it doesn't, so you get a Master with 7%, one Slave with 100%, another Slave with 78%, and your Master will randomly be adjusted to 100% or 78% depending on which of the Slaves gets an 'update' (recharging your phone apparently counts as an update, it's completely reproduceable, every time I charge my phone (as the slave) it'll adjust the volume of my Master to whatever the phone's Media Volume is set to)

The other problem that adds to this is that now apparently Spotify's volume controls are hooked to the device's main volume controls (or in phones, their Media Volume), instead of being localized purely to the application. So Spotify actually changes the main volume of your amplifier (if it's running Spotify) instead of just the volume of the app and leaving the main volume alone and under your control.

[gaupe]

Ah clear now. In that case i can agree with wat  splutty sugests  (I appearently have the master ans slave pinciple confused as i thought the master would be the one in control of what is done and the slave performing the task 🙂       

Allthough i still think that there should be a possibility om the spotify connect device to set it so its volume can never be remote controlled to prevent this and future bug from happening .   This or a way better failsafe system.