Spotify adds random songs to my ”Liked Songs” playlist

[AmaliaK]

Plan

Premium

Country

Romania

Device

Samsung phone & personal computer

Operating System

Android & Windows 10

My Issue:

Spotify keeps adding random songs to my ”Liked Songs” playlist.

What does this mean? My ”Liked Songs” playlist contains all kind of songs I don't know anything about. These aren't songs I accidentally liked. These aren't songs I recognize. Furthermore, I hate most of these songs.

Nobody else has access to my Spotify account or to the devices I use Spotify on. Two apps have access to it though - one is Spotify's Web Player, the other is Shazam.

The songs I search using Shazam go to a special playlist. Also, the app doesn't automatically like them for me.

This has been an ongoing issue for me. At first, I thought maybe I wasn't paying attention and accidentally liked these songs. I unliked everything I didn't like.

Then it happened again. I thought that maybe, just maybe, I don't understand how the ”Liked Songs” playlists works.

Now it happened again. It's very annoying. I was trying to enjoy some time off listening to music I like, and instead I woke up having to remove awful songs from my playlist.

I hate this. It is annoying and time-consuming. I also don't know how to stop it or prevent it from happening. It also affects my Release Radar and Discover Daily - two playlists containing almost nothing I enjoy listening.

[AmaliaK]

Hey folks,

Thanks for the replies. 

Can you make sure that Smart Shuffle is toggled off for your Liked Songs?

Something else that could be doing this is is another app which is linked to Spotify. It's worth checking the list of apps connected to your account and removing access.

A third possibility is that you've logged your account in on a device like a TV / speaker to which more people have access to and can like songs sometimes. You can log out from those by signing out everywhere. 

Hope this helps.

[AmaliaK]

Hey folks!

This issue seems to be related to your third party apps. Please remove them as shown here.
After making sure you have no third party apps left, go through the steps here under "Still have access to your account?".
Once this is done, you can manually re-add any of the third party apps you wish to have. Note that if you add the one that has been causing your troubles to begin with, your issue will re-appear.

Hope this helps; keep us posted on how things go 🙂

[Yordan]

Hi @AmaliaK!

Were these tracks recently added to your Liked Songs? Have you tried removing the Shazam app from your account page for a while to see if it would make a difference?

Feel free to send over the song links of some of the tracks you don't recognize in your Liked Songs so we can investigate further.

Let us know how it goes. Cheers!

[AmaliaK]

Hello!

These tracks have been added over time. Which is weird, because I have removed all the unknown tracks in the past.

These are NOT tracks I have ”shazammed”. I have only recently connected my two accounts (Spotify & Shazam), this issue dates before. I am 100% certain this has nothing to do with Shazam. Anyway, I have disconnected the two, just in case.

"uri": "spotify:track:4OnDo8bRa78Qe54oDjbd44",

"uri": "spotify:track:5elNY8kplY5TDhww8mFL1O",

"uri": "spotify:track:0ZnGdv09FPAxFzLVaMs3OE",

"uri": "spotify:track:1LeJvkuawbp424pRLlOVUz",

[Alex]

Hey folks,

Thanks for the replies. 

Can you make sure that Smart Shuffle is toggled off for your Liked Songs?

Something else that could be doing this is is another app which is linked to Spotify. It's worth checking the list of apps connected to your account and removing access.

A third possibility is that you've logged your account in on a device like a TV / speaker to which more people have access to and can like songs sometimes. You can log out from those by signing out everywhere. 

Hope this helps.

[AmaliaK]

Thank you, Alex. I appreciate your answer.

But let's get this straight.

The ”Enhance” button (aka ”Extinde” in my language) is grayed out and has never been otherwise.

There's no other app linked to my Spotify account.

I am not logged in anywhere else aside from my personal computer and my personal phone.

To me, it feels like Spotify tries to promote certain artists or songs and adds these fictional likes. If nobody else but Spotify has access to my data and my account, how else can I explain this phenomenon?

Also, what can I do now? Re-delete all the unknown songs and check in a month or two if anything suspicious came up once again?

[Alex]

Hi there @AmaliaK,

Thanks for the reply.

It's very odd that there were these unknown songs added to your Liked Songs in the first place. I've listed all the possible ways this could happen in my previous answer. The Spotify app itself can't add songs to your playlists and Liked Songs. The Enhance feature could do that, but it shows a little green icon next to enhanced songs. 

If you have suspicions that someone else has access to your account, I'd recommend going through the steps here. Since you use the app only on your personal phone and computer this isn't very likely though.

Sometimes it happens to me if I'm listening to music on my phone and my screen gets unlocked in my pocket to Like or Dislike a song like that and I later notice this, but this can happen only with song that you've been listening to.

I'd suggest you delete those songs, and check from time to time if there are new songs that you haven't liked in your Library. If you keep seeing more unknown songs added to your collection, do let us know and we'll investigate this further.

Cheers.

[AmaliaK]

Okay Alex, thank you.

I will go thru my Liked Songs again and delete the unknown tracks. 

I'll see how this goes over time and I will get back in a couple of months if it happens again.

[AnneeBrooks]

I was having this issue too and it was extremely annoying!  If you go into your playlist there is a button at the top called enhanced if you turn this off that will remove the songs you have not added. 

[JimBobBobbins]

Dude. This is happening to me too. I have nothing externally linked, either app or hardware and my liked song playlist is littered with unlike songs...wth. There must have been some sort of policy change or something coz this is ridiculous!

[MihailY]

Hey @JimBobBobbins,

Thanks for reaching out.

Have you noticed a particular pattern in this behavior? Also, have you tried securing your account as suggested by @Alex above? 

If possible, send us a few links to the tracks that were added.

Keep us posted.

[Gmck89]

Hi this is also happening to me. 

[Dian]

Hey @Gmck89,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

Could you elaborate more on your experience with the Liked Songs collection so we can prepare further troubleshooting steps?

Are you using the Enhance feature or is it not visible on your end? Do songs get added to the Liked Songs collection without having nothing to do with the Enhance feature?

What troubleshooting steps have you already tried? This'll help us avoid repeating ourselves.

The more information you provide, the better our answer will be.

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[amykins13]

Hello - I am experiencing this issue as well and was told by support to add a response here to show the tech team that other people are experiencing the issue as well. I have verified that "Enhance" is not enabled. I can also list the specific songs that I did not add. It does not seem to be a human liking the songs, as some of the songs get added over and over even before I un-like them.

As an example- I have IFTTT connected to my Spotify account as a third party app. The only thing that IFTTT does is "if a song is liked, add it to a monthly playlist", so if I like a song in January, a playlist called January '23 gets added if it doesn't exist, and the song I liked gets added to the playlist. What I have noticed is that some of these "phantom like" songs are the same songs over and over, and they get added multiple times to the same month, indicating that something is attempting to like the same song over and over.

The songs that are currently added to my likes that I did not add:

 - Added Jan 15th, added again Jan 26th, added again Feb 1st, added again Feb 3rd
 - Added Jan 18th, added again Jan 29th, added again Feb 3rd
 - Added Jan 29th
 - Added Jan 28th
 - Added Jan 16th

[Alex]

Hi there @amykins13,

Thanks for the detailed info you've submitted.

I'd suggest going to your account page > Apps and make sure there isn't any other app apart from IFTTT, Facebook, Spotify ads etc. that is listed there. Any app you haven't heard of or aren't using. 

It's very likely that your account is linked to another service which is automatically adding these songs. These could be sports or gaming apps, fitness apps, news apps.

If you're logged on a communal device, like a gaming console, smart speaker or TV, to which other people have access, it's a good idea to disconnect your account from those for a few days, to see if the liked songs return.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

[amykins13]

Hi Alex -
Aside from IFTTT, Google, and Alexa, the 3rd party apps I have I'm all familiar with and should only be reading what I have in Spotify, and not be liking or adding anything. And my Google and Alexa devices are only in this house and only one other person lives here and he's not liking these songs either.

[Eni]

Hey @amykins13, 

Thanks for getting back in touch.

In this case, we suggest that you try following these specific steps. 

If the issue persists afterwards, would you mind creating a new account to check if the issue appears on it too?

Let us know how it goes. 

[nicorettejunkieagain]

Hey there, I am experiencing this issue as well. I have tried closing my computer app, and only having my phone app using the service. It's very predictable in it's behavior. Two liked songs, one song or track that I've listened to before, or something similar to before. These tracks are songs very clearly tailored for my taste. I have learned to use playlists other than my liked songs if I'm in a professional setting because I often listen to standup comedy on Spotify and don't want a coworker to overhear some of the less... tasteful introductions.

This ONLY happens on my phone app. I have deleted and reinstalled the app, and to no avail. I would love a solution!

[AndV]

Hello there, I am having these issues too where songs and playlists I never liked start popping up in my playlists and Liked Songs list for some time now repeatedly. I use Spotify on my smartphone and laptop, and use spotify web at work. I don't have any apps connected to my spotify other than Google Maps, and PS5, none of which should be able to do this automatically unless I do it myself. I've had to reset my password twice in the past and sign out of everywhere, however this keeps popping up.

These are some of the songs that have been added:

And these are some playlists added:

These are all songs I definitely haven't liked since I do not listen to this genre of music. Whatsmore, most of these songs are greyed out since I think they are not available in my region, more evidence that I did not like them myself.

I should mention one thing that I believe could be the culprit if it points to somekind of weakness of Spotify's security, in case anyone else has done this too. Sometimes I tap on some music ads on instagram (I think they are Facebook Ads... Meta Ads?). These ads are usually advertising an artist or playlist, which when you tap on them direct you to the artist's or playlist page. They don't really like the songs or playlist, just take you to them on spotify. However, any ad I've followed has been for rock/metal artists, not rap... Could it be possible that some "malicious" code is used to gain access to my acccount through these ads? Or if some code is used to like a bunch of songs/playlists in the background? This is truly a shot in the dark, since I am completely out of my depth here... Anyone else having these issues here also happen to have tapped on such ads or similar?

Also I am still surprised to see that Spotify still doesn't have 2FA for its users and only has for artists...

[Dian]

Hey @AndV,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

Your account is possibly compromised. Could you go over the steps on this page and secure it? Let us know, if the issue still persists afterwards. This'll mean you may have to change the passwords of your email address or other accounts, you're using to login to Spotify, as they may be the ones being actually compromised.

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[HediaA]

This is also happening to me. It’s the second time it’s happened and it’s so jarring