Warning popup every time I try to switch devices.

[ahvzren]

Plan

Premium - Family

Device

Pixel 4a

Operating System

Multiple Win10 computers

Question or Issue

Lately (as in the last few days since 7/16/22) when I have gone to switch spotify playing on one of my devices to another, I have gotten a popup message that I have to click out of before doing so.

It says something to the effect of 'You're currently listening on another device. You can only play Spotify on one device. If you want to add more people to your family plan, you can do so here' with a link to the family plan page.

I do have a family plan. However, these are all my devices I'm switching between. These are the devices that I switch between multiple times per day and have been for years. I want the other device I'm switching away from to stop playing.  I am not in any way, shape, or form trying to play on two devices at once.

There has been ZERO other activity on my account.  This is happening several times a day, and adding another click and several seconds of waiting for the popup to pop up and clear each time I want to switch devices. How do I turn this "tip" off? Will downgrading to a normal account fix this?

I've attached the popup.

[Vasil]

Hey @ahvzren,

Thanks for sharing this with the Community!
Would you mind telling us if there are other devices you're trying to switch your playback to? 
You have mentioned a Pixel 4a and multiple Windows computers, are there any others and how do you try switching between them?
I'd also like to know if the devices are on the same network and if any are using a VPN service.

Many thanks in advance!
We'll be on the lookout for you response 🙂

[Faranae]

I would like to confirm this popup only started a few days ago and only occurs when clicking the "Connect to a device" button after being connected elsewhere. 

I switch daily between only two devices, none of which are behind a VPN: My PC during the day, and my Android phone at night. I am already on a family plan. I do not appreciate the implication that I'm stealing, when I am actively using Spotify's existing system (connect) to prevent such a thing.

[ahvzren]

I switch my playback between my main desktop computer (Windows 10), my laptop (two different profiles, Work and Personal, both Windows 10), and my phone. All of them are on the same wifi network - my phone is sometimes on its cellular network, though that doesn't seem to change whether the popup appears or not. None of them are behind VPNs. I have a family member that is on my family plan (with, of course, his own account) who switches between his phone and computer and has not gotten these popups.

To switch, I start up Spotify and select the Device Switching menu, accessible via the computer(?) (a rounded rectangle over a line) icon in the lower right hand corner. Normally, this popup *interrupts* my Device Switching menu selection for some reason, which is pretty jarring.

I'm still getting the popup, at least once a day.

[Danielp17]

I have been getting this popup aswell and it is very annoying.  I have a family plan and don't need to be told to purchase one or how to use it.  I am simply switching the device I'm listening on.  Quite frequently I switch between two desktop computers, sometimes a third, my laptop as well as my phone.  I am never trying to listen to music on two different devices at the same time, instead I'm trying to switch devices that I'm listening on and sometimes I'll control my phone from my comptuer.  As user Faranae said, "I do not appreciate the implication that I'm stealing"

[Eni]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. 

We'd like to investigate this further. In this case, would you mind providing us with the following info:

• troubleshooting steps you've tried
• make/model and OS of your devices 
• Spotify version
• does it happen on any device or only on a specific one?

We'll be on the lookout.

[Wizzbob05]

I'm having the same issue, it appeared maybe last week it's quite annoying especially since I use Spotify connect a lot to control other devices playing. It usually only happens if I'm playing music on one device and then use connect to switch it to my PC or my laptop. I think it happened once where the popup was on my phone when I used it to switch my music stream between my desktop PC and my laptop. The popup only happens when music is actively playing

I'm on a premium family plan in the UK, phone is android and laptop/pc are windows 11/10

[ahvzren]

Troubleshooting

I've tried no troubleshooting, because I don't know what I would do to troubleshoot this.

Make/Model

My laptop is an ASUS Laptop, GL703VD running Windows 10 (Version 10.0.19043 Build 19043). My desktop is a custom-build running Windows 10. My phone is a Pixel 4a. 

Version

I have automatic updates on, but the last time it happened (today) on my Laptop, the Spotify version was "Spotify for Windows 1.1.89.862.g94554d24". My desktop (today) is running "Spotify for Windows 1.1.90.859.gf1bb1e36".

Frequency/Occurrence

It tends to happen more on my laptop (either work on personal profile), though not always. It seems to happen every time I first open Spotify in a while while another device is running Spotify, then it doesn't happen again. It always happens when I have Spotify on another computer running, but again, I _want_ to stop Spotify from running on that device and switch to this one. Today, the popup popped up without me trying to click anything - I opened Spotify, and without ANY interaction, it popped up.

As I said before, it was happening at least once a day. I haven't used Spotify that much on my laptop or phone in the last few days, so I can't tell you if that's decreased or not.

[Alex]

Hey everyone,

Thank you for your posts and patience.

We've reached out to the relevant internal teams about this issue and we believe it is being triggered, because the playback in one device is happening at the same time the app tries to connect to another device, as if a user was trying to play in 2 different devices at the same time.  We've passed on your feedback about this issue and have been informed that the teams are looking into improving this, so this won't be happening when choosing to connect to a device via Spotify Connect. 

We don't have an official date when this issue will be resolved and can't say if it will be prioritized at the moment.

Hope this info clears things up.

[fordylam]

This doesn't clear anything up and is an infuriating non-response. Started happening to me too. Been using Spotify the same way for literally years and paying for a family plan since it was first offered. One of the actual value propositions with Spotify is the whole pick up where you left off on a different device seamlessly. Then suddenly, instead of picking up as expected, now I just get this pop-up and have to refresh the page of whatever I was listening to for the progress to actually update.

[Thebrowncoat]

I agree 1000%. I have been a member since Spotify’s inception.  And this is making me seriously consider changing to a new service. 

I listen to Spotify on my phone and through nine different Alexa devices in my home, and I transition probably 20 times a day when moving from my living room to my bedroom to my garage. and now every time I do it I have to pull out my phone and acknowledge this silly banner.