Connect - Autoplay DISABLED, but still ACTIVE

[JalapenoMunich]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

Samsung Galaxy A51, Windows 10 notebook

Operating System

Android 11, Windows 10

My Question or Issue

I'm listening on several Sonos speakers via Connect. Recently, Spotify has started playing other music once the album I listen to has finished - i.e. it's using the Autoplay feature. Problem is: Autoplay is DISABLED on all devices, but it's still being used. How do I fix this? (I've already reinstalled Spotify on all devices.)

[JalapenoMunich]

Here's another three threads on the issue. 

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/When-streaming-to-Sonos-through-Spotify-App-Autopla...

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/Spotify-Webplayer-generates-playlist-in-queue/m-p/5...

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Other-Podcasts-Partners-etc/Alexa-adding-songs-to-queue/m-p/5293636...

The following answer by a mod in one of those threads was the final straw for me, I've just cancelled my family subscription.

"Welcome to the Community! We're happy to shed some light on the situation

Currently, that's the normal behavior while using the Connect feature. In this case, toggling on/off AutoPlay is only possible when playing locally.

We've received other user reports about this, so in [this thread] we've shared a statement about this topic."

[bonifacy]

It seems to me that big tech is doing it deliberately. Spotify chooses what music you are going to listen, Youtube removes dislike button, creating an illusion that there are no people who disliked the specific video, meaning everyone are happy. This is something Orwellian in all of this for sure.

[tomcrane]

Some press coverage of Spotify's new compulsory Autoplay "feature":

https://screenrant.com/spotif-autoplay-connected-devices-automatically-enabled-no-fix/

https://uk.pcmag.com/streaming-music-services/136897/cant-stop-wont-stop-spotify-makes-autoplay-stan...

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/10/22774897/spotify-connect-autoplay-default-speaker-music-streamin...

[themichaek]

Having poked around at this for a bit, I suspect this feature change is not actually what was intended by the development work that went into it, and that the unintended consequence (can't turn off Autoplay) was then explained away as something that wouldn't really be a problem for many users. My hunch is that the underlying work here was to improve some engineering for how queuing works for Spotify Connect, since I agree with previous comments that Spotify as a business probably doesn't want this outcome for users, and if it were an easy fix to roll back it seems likely it would have been done already. Plus, have you seen the weird stuff that happens when you toggle repeat on and off with your queue visible? All the hallmarks of trying to solve a technical problem with the wrong success conditions. Still - this is a dealbreaker for me, and I will switch to another service if this clear feature regression is not restored promptly.

[elektrokokke]

I just started a free 3-month trial period at the competition, let's see how this turns out. At least one of my now two streaming subscriptions will be cancelled soon.

And unless Spotify does not unambiguously state that the current behavior is a bug and will be fixed, this will be definitely be the Spotify subscription. As it is now, it's unusable for my family and me.

[tranvianoruega]

This is so ridiculous. When I contacted customer support, they told me I was WRONG, and that autoplay has ALWAYS been activated at all times on desktop. HUH??? Explain to me please, how did all my albums in silence? 

What sort of company does this to its consumers?

[HERMAN59000]

Je suis très en colère envers Spotify ‌‌😡

Depuis novembre 2021, Spotify impose aux abonnés la lecture automatique d'autre morceau de votre playlist.

Pourquoi obliger les abonnés à écouter autre chose que sa musique préféré ?

A quoi sert une playlist si on écoute autre chose au final, c'est absurde.

Spotify propose déjà des playlists personnalisées selon ce qu'on écoute.

On a le droit d'écouter ce que l'on aime d'où l'intérêt des playlists.

C'est une vraie régression en terme d'expérience musicale.

J'arrête mon abonnement début 2022 juste à cause de ça.

[JonBurgerman]

Does anyone know of a tool / bot / script that can analyze your Sportify playlists and LPs etc and help migrate them to a streaming service that doesn't force auto-play on you?

My home was the only place where I can control exactly the music I want to listen to and Spotify is taking that away from me with this always on Auto-play bug.

[BaconFat]

Now I cancelled premium too. Might be back after 3 months trial of Apple Music if Spotify has reverted their change.

If Apple Music works just as fine as Spotify, the only thing making me switch again would be if Ceo Daniel Ek have a Japanese style press conference where he takes all responsibility for his company's shortcomings and burst into tears and cries loudly.

[elektrokokke]

There is tunemymusic or something like that which deezer uses to transfer playlists etc.

Don’t know whether that works for other services, too.

 My trial with deezer wasn’t very positive so far: they have a feature similar to autoplay, too, and it can’t be switched off in the app either o.O. Supposedly it can be switched off in the browser, which turns it off in the app, too, but I didn’t try that out. Worse, the app can’t control Sonos speakers.

 On the positive side, that way I found that when you play music via the Sonos app, you won’t get autoplay, and that’s also true for Spotify. So for people with Sonos devices, this might be a workaround, though it’s far from optimal. Deezer sonos users seem to have to live with this.

 Don’t know what to do right now. Have to look out for other streaming services that don’t treat their users like vermin. I have some doubt that Apple and Amazon are the right candidates though ;-).

[CPH]

In the reply from the Moderator team I see no explanation why this feature bug was introduced. It would have been interesting to know why. Was it on purpose or a mistake?

But no matter why this happened, PLEASE make it possible to turn off autoplay. Can't be that difficult, huh?

I'v never liked the autoplay function and would rather see it being removed altogether than having it always on.

[antipopmonkey]

@elektrokokke, I suggest you give Tidal a try. I don’t know if Sonos speakers support Tidal Connect but that feature should be pretty much identical to Spotify Connect. Tidal also have Autoplay can be turned off, but I don’t know it the toggle is global or just for the device you set it on. 

[Godwhacker]

@elektrokokke Apple Music seems to have parity for available music, and you can use 'FreeYourMusic' with a one-time fee ( for the basic version) to transfer saved albums and playlists across. You get 3 months free when you sign up, so with the cost of FreeYourMusic that works out to about 1.9 free months.

[DML71]

Awful feature. Anyone actually request this ‘feature’?  When I chose an album I chose an album not a playlist. 

Knowing spotify it’ll take 18 months to roll back. 

[user-removed]

I cannot longer play a playlist for my daughters before they can go to bed. I need Spotify to play just the play list and then stop. This makes Spotify useless for an important daily use case. 

[amynalan93]

As a workaround, please try the sleep timer function that's available while your music is playing. It will end playback after a selected period of time, and still works, fortunately.

[Godwhacker]

I don't want to manually set the sleep timer to the duration of an album every time I play an album. That's not a solution, that's as big a headache as getting extra songs added to the end.

[JalapenoMunich]

Thanks to everyone who has suggested the Sleep Timer workaround, but it's just that, a workaround.

I don't want to check how long my desired album runs and then hope that one of the time frames offered in the Sleep Timer sort of fits the length. And I certainly don't want to do that about 20 times a day, which is roughly how many albums I listen to every day. I want Spotify to fix the bug that destroys their basic product. I don't want them to shift the responsibility to the users to try and find sort-of-okayish workarounds. I want Spotify to respond here in the forum. I want Spotify to respond to the DMs I've sent them on Twitter. I want the Spotify moderators to respond to the DMs I've sent them here. 

I encourage everyone who's annoyed by this bug to cancel their Spotify subscription and explicitly state "I'm leaving because of the Autoplay bug" when you are asked for the reason during the process.

The only way we can convince Spotify to fix this is if we vote by our feet. 

[dsdsdsdsds]

How can you force such a "feature" on me? I pay you to play the music I want. If I want to listen to radio, I start a radio. Disable this ASAP. Damn I'm annoyed...

[annarosemg]

God this is so infuriating. I like to play an album of lullaby tracks for my kiddo when I put him to bed via the streaming device in his nursery. I do not want the music playing all night long. Frustrating that I can't have it stop at the end of the album. It goes on to other suggested tracks- which may not be quiet enough for my needs. One of the suggeat tracks was so loud it woke him up. TURN THIS FEATURE OFF. NO ONE ASKED FOR IT SPOTIFY.