Playback keeps automatically switching to my phone

[huWolfy]

Recently I've been experiencing this issue, where the playback from my desktop Spotify application is switched to my Android mobile phone. This happened multiple times yesterday, and already twice today.

Did someone else also met this issue? Support only recommended to log out/in from the Spotify app on Android and restarting the phone, but this clearly didn't help.

[65dldde-fr_zg]

Sorry for the wait. So I did everything you said I should try. Here is what happened:

1. Unplugged wired headphones: I did this with only my AirPods connected and the results were the same when I switched from my iPhone to MacBook. Although, I should point out that it wasn't as bad as before with the headphones. The music switched over and suddenly stopped after a second to ask me to reconnect my AirPods to the MacBook from my iPhone. However, instead of giving me extra trouble, I clicked on the "Reconnect" button then pressed play on my Spotify app and it worked well after that.

2. Using the web player instead: The same issue, even without the headphones. 

3. I am now about to reinstall Spotify for both iPhone and MacBook. 

[65dldde-fr_zg]

Even after uninstalling and reinstalling, I get the same issue: it doesn't keep the music playing flawlessly.

[gormster]

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

1. Pair some bluetooth headphones with your device (e.g. AirPods). They need to be headphones that automatically connect and become the default output device.
2. Turn those headphones off.
3. Start playing a song in Spotify.
4. Select a Spotify Connect destination from the Connect menu (e.g. a local Sonos device)
5. Turn the headphones on/put them in your ears (depends on model - do whatever the thing is that causes them to connect and become the default output device)

EXPECTED RESULTS:

Spotify continues playing through the connected Sonos device.

ACTUAL RESULTS:

Spotify disconnects the Sonos device and starts playing back through headphones.

REGRESSION:

This behaviour is new as of the last few months - not sure the exact version when it changed, sorry! This was an old bug, but it was fixed a few years ago, becoming tied to the option to show Spotify controls on the lock screen. However that behaviour seems to have been reverted.

NOTES:

I think this happens due to a missed check in the notification handler for `AVAudioSession.routeChangeNotification`. My guess is that it interprets the `newDeviceAvailable` route change reason as meaning that the user has deliberately selected the output in Control Centre, whereas it can actually fire with essentially no user interaction at all. The handler should check if the user has selected a Spotify Connect destination or is currently playing back on "This iPhone" before making the decision to end Connect playback and resume playing on the device's new audio route.

For the tiny handful of people who actually want this behaviour (and I have to assume it's near zero), I would suggest having this be a configurable option. If you really wanted to make everyone happy, you could have this be configurable per device, like so:

When the "lock playback" switch is selected, a deliberate user interaction within the Spotify app is always required to switch the playback destination. System notifications can't change it. (There might have to be an asterisk to this with Sonos specifically, because the user could create a group from the Sonos app, but I think these kind of details can be worked out in user testing. The point is, it doesn't switch without the user tapping something that very clearly is going to switch playback off the current device.)

AFFECTED PLATFORMS:

iOS (maybe others, I don't know)

[jhart31]

I also have this issue. My laptop stops playing my music and gives the playback to my phone easily 100 times/day while I'm trying to listen on the laptop while working. I don't touch the phone. The phone is not connected to my bluetooth headphones. The phone is not on the wifi network I'm using to listen on the laptop. I cannot imagine what event is triggering the switches but it's infuriating. And all these people on this thread are dealing with the same problem. Why would spotify ever automatically switch devices? Who wants that? And why has nothing been done about it? Absolutely garbage and I will most likely switch to another music service over it. My music has stopped twice while typing this message. For an app whose only purpose is to play music, you'd think I'd be able to get through one whole song without the music stopping.

[burt868768]

Why don't you just tell us how to fix the issue?