When I switch devices, my playlist changes also

[purplesapphire]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

Device

iPhone 14 and Lenovo ThinkPad

Operating System

iOS 16.3.1 and Windows 11 Pro

My Question or Issue

I sometimes listen to Spotify on my laptop using the Spotify app and sometimes on my iPhone. I listen to one playlist on one device and a different playlist on the other device. For the past couple of weeks when I change devices - EVEN WHEN I CLOSE OUT OF THE PREVIOUS DEVICE'S APP (this used to work) - when I open the new device, it changes to the playlist I was listening to on the OTHER device. So this is what happens:

Listen to my phone playlist on my phone.

I stop listening.

I open up my Windows app on my laptop and listen to my laptop playlist.

I close the app entirely.

I open my phone app and it switches to my laptop playlist rather than continues with my phone playlist.

How do I get it to stick to one playlist?

[Dian]

Hey @purplesapphire,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

The described behavior looks like the way the app should actually behave. The syncing of which playlist is being played between devices using the same account is normal. Maybe previously there was some issue in your device setup and the sync was not possible.

Hope this clears things a bit,

Cheers!

[purplesapphire]

I have experienced the sync when the app was open on both devices at the same time (which is super annoying as well, but I learned how to manage), but I've never experienced it syncing when the app on one device was closed first.

Is there a workaround? I don't want to have to keep up with where I was on which playlist just because I moved from my office to my car.

[Dian]

Hey @purplesapphire,

Thanks for the reply.

There is currently no workaround for the interdevice playlist progress syncing, but maybe you can suggest a new feature through our idea submission flow. More on that here.

Hope this clears things a bit,

Cheers!

[adambal]

IMHO this behavior is absolutely unaccepted. I also close Spotify on device 1 and later when opened Spotify on device 2, my previously listened playlist on device 2 is changed to music listened on device 1 saying "you listen on device 1"! wth? device 1 was turned off half hour ago. This is not an issue of discussion, this is a bug! Hey, are you OK at Sporify?

[purplesapphire]

I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden it is worse than ever. Now, even if I close my device, the new device will completely switch play lists.

I tried to suggest an idea and was not able to. To be honest this is making me look at other streaming services because it is totally dumb to force me to listen to a play list simply because I moved from one device to the other.

[Yordan]

Hey folks,

Spotify Connect allows you to use one device to remotely control listening on another, which is what's causing the playback to sync across your devices. A way to bypass this would be to first force-stop Spotify on device #1 before launching the app on device #2. As long as the Spotify process isn't running in the background on any of the devices, the sync won't occur.

In the meantime, there's this idea about disabling the Spotify Connect feature which may resonate with you - feel free to check it out and share your feedback.

Still, if you'd like to post your own instead, you can do so by heading here and giving your idea a fitting title. Depending on how unique it is, you may then get a list of similar ideas that were already suggested to see if you can find what you were looking for.

If you think your idea should be considered as a separate, you can scroll down to the bottom of the list and select "Tell us about your idea" - you can now enter an elaborate description for your idea making sure to include as many details as possible. Select "Post" to finalize the process and submit your idea. Others will be able to add their votes to show their support.

Hope this clears things up. The Community is just a post away if there's anything else you need assistance with 💚.

[purplesapphire]

Force stopping does not stop the playback sync.

The link to disable Spotify Connect led to a post, not actual instructions on how to disable it. It is clear that I am not alone in wishing there were a way to turn off this "feature," but I do not have time to read pages and pages of the conversation in order to find how to turn it off.