Extreme Battery Drain / iPhone 5

[jfu222]

Hi,

I have the premium service and have noticed a significant battery drain when using Spotify as compared to my iPhone 4. Is it just me?

I've optimized my phone to conserve power as much as possible already. Brightness, push/fetch, location, turned off cellular for spotify... Still. It drains really fast.

Just me? Any suggestions?

Thx!

[jfu222]

FORGOT TO MENTION : with the cell data turned off you can still recieve calls and texts and use the phone portion as normal. 

[delta6]

Just want to add to this, that I have iPhone 5 and Spotify is almost useless on this phone 😞

Since I got the phone five days ago, every time I use Spotify, the battery drains at about 15-20% every hour. And the phone gets hot on the backside. 

I did a completely new install after I got iPhone 5 and of course also installed Spotify. I have tried to delete and reinstall again, but with the same unfortunate results.

Please Spotify team solve this now. This has also been an issue with my old iPhone 4S. 

[tjosten]

Same issue here, spotify uses about 20% battery within one hour. Tested with no other application opened in background.

(Srsly, I am not willing to turn of cellular data to useful use of the Spotify app, guys. Please just fix this.)

[NealAudio]

I also just realized the reason for my rapid iPhone 5 battery drain is Spotify.  I listened to an offline playlist for about 20 minutes this morning, then locked the phone and it has been in my pocket ever since.

Now I have only 40% battery and my phone is very warm to the touch.

I noticed that I still have the "play" indicator on my screen to the left of the battery percentage - making me thing that somehow spotify is still actively on (and maybe even trying to play?) in the background, while in my pocket... locked and making no sound.  I just killed the app and the play button is gone.

Just chiming in - in case it sheds any light or helps in finding an update and solution to the problem many seem to be having.

Thanks!

[VPQRice]

Not adding any more value here appart from confirming the issue.

Used Spotify a lot on iPhone 4 with no issue.

Now since I've switched to iPhone 5 the battery gets drained at a rate of 15/20% per hour and after a while it seems like I could almost fry my eggs on the back panel... (pretty useless to me as I just bought a new frying pan)

Would really appreciate if an update could be released ASAP to tackle this issue as well as making the best use of the iPhone 5 larger screen...

By the way even if switching off cellular data might be a quick fix, it remains a pain in the $@%... I haven't bought an iPhone 5 to use it like a Nokia 3310 that can play music...

Cheers

[hopey]

I can confirm CPU usage -> battery draining issue also with ios6&iphone 4s

[ThatGuyDave]

What NeilAudio is experiencing is my biggest problem with the app. I have to kill the process because the play button doesn't go away all the time when I stop playback, and the album art remains on the lockscreen as well. Spotify is definitely refusing to end the process on its own more than half the time when stopping playback.

[caveman27]

Is there a solution/bugfix/update on its way? Any estimated time? The iPhone just doesn't work as a music player like this..

[gavingilbert]

I totally concur.  As a premium user I am going to cancel my account as it's the most useless app for the iPhone because of battery drainage

[NealAudio]

I found that the stuck 'play' problem and overheating was remedied by deleting the app and re-installing.  That's not to say that an update is not needed as there may be more iOS6/iPhone 5 issues that need to be addressed with playback and battery drain... but this at least made Spotify usable once again on my iPhone 5.

[user-removed]

Hey just for information.

Spotify is still looking into it and more reports needed. The more information about problem, the better.

[hopey]

Hi,

Found this thread after posting to another similar one:

http://community.spotify.com/t5/Mobile-iOS-iPhone-iPad-iPod/Spotify-update-on-iPhone-battery-drainin...

Yesterday I resetted my iphone and today I'm going to find out if it helps for my battery drain. Thanks for taking a notice about the issue.

P.S. I am iphone 4s user on ios6

[hopey]

I can now confirm that resetting whole os doesn't help to fix this problem.  700€ for a device that should "just work". 10€/month for spotify service -> 120€/year. I feel cheated. Here is bug report:

=== START OF TEMPLATE ===

Description

High CPU usage that results fast battery drain on iphone while listening spotify.

A more detailed description, using numbered steps

Playing local files. CPU usage about 50%, when pressing pause and play again on spotify CPU usage goes to normal 5-10% for a while.

What I expected to happen

CPU usage 5-10% and to be able to play spotify whole day as I used to be.

What actually happened

Rapid battery draining 50%/h.

My iPad/iPhone model

Iphone 4S

Device’s Operating System

iOS 6.0

Is your device jailbroken?

No

My mobile Spotify version

App 0.5.6.19.gaec439b7

Spotify Core 0.8.2.1400.gc9731fe6

My desktop Spotify version (if applicable)

0.8.4.

My provider and country

Saunalahti Finland

My username

Hopitas

Do you have any screenshots you can attach to more clearly explain your issue?

-

=== END OF TEMPLATE ===

[nznordi]

I have to admit that this issue must be the most annoying mobile / app issue I have come across so far.

I played around with the iOS 6 beta just after I started using spotify and it must have been around that time that my iPhone started not making a full days charge anymore. Being 2 years old, I thought it was time for a battery replacement and I did get one. Not much change.

Then I did upgrade to iPhone 5 and same story; very poor battery life and all the previously described symptoms; hot case, battery draining so fast that you can see % drop in front of you. Despite being new setup, i.e no app setting baggge etc, brand new and latest versions of everything
.

Then I came across this thread and it all made sense- I was using spotify all the time ( in offline mode) or it was at least open. Closed it and it is much better now.

This bug has cost me an unnecessary battery upgrade and hours of frustration.

Please resolve urgently as I may have to cancel my subscription if can't really use it due to insane battery drain.

Very frustrating! So far no comments from the spotify team???

[dexradio]

Concur with all the comments so far, I'm a Premium subscriber and the battery drain issue is very bad. It doesn't last at all, I'm back listening to iTunes and Podcasts as I can't rely on having enough battery to do me the full day which was the case on my old iPhone 4.

Would like an acknowledgement from Spotify that they are doing something at least?

Dex.

[thelarster]

Same issue here - very annoying!

=== START OF TEMPLATE ===

Description

High CPU usage that results fast battery drain on iphone while listening spotify.

A more detailed description, using numbered steps

Very fast battery drain while using Spotify, almost a percent every 3 minutes with iPhone 5, iOS 6.

What I expected to happen

Almost no or very little batter change since my commute to work is about 10 minutes.

What actually happened

Rapid battery draining 50%/h.

My iPad/iPhone model

iPhone 5

Device’s Operating System

iOS 6.0

Is your device jailbroken?

No

My mobile Spotify version

App 0.5.6.19.gaec439b7

Spotify Core 0.8.2.1400.gc9731fe6

My desktop Spotify version (if applicable)

N/A

My provider and country

AT&T USA

My username

thelarster

Do you have any screenshots you can attach to more clearly explain your issue?

-

=== END OF TEMPLATE ===

[tomjol]

This is incredibly frustrating. I cannot use Spotify on my phone at all.

I have started a free trial with a competitor (beginning with R) and found that their iPhone application (a) has been updated for the iPhone 5 and (b) doesn't have the same battery issue. I'm up to 4 hours 43 minutes usage today, most of which has included playing music over bluetooth, and I have 60% battery remaining. Yesterday (using Spotify) I got home with about 20% remaining after only around 90 minutes of usage.

I do not intend to pay for two services and, while I think Spotify's collection is slightly better, not being able to use the service on a mobile device is a real deal-breaker. I have been a premium subscriber for over two years, and believe I am the type of customer you can't afford to lose.

=== START OF TEMPLATE ===

Description

High CPU usage that results fast battery drain on iphone while listening spotify.

A more detailed description, using numbered steps

Very fast battery drain while using Spotify

What I expected to happen

Reasonable rate of battery drain, maybe a few % per hour.

What actually happened

Rapid battery draining 50%/h.

My iPad/iPhone model

iPhone 5

Device’s Operating System

iOS 6.0

Is your device jailbroken?

No

My mobile Spotify version

App 0.5.6.19.gaec439b7

Spotify Core 0.8.2.1400.gc9731fe6

My desktop Spotify version (if applicable)

N/A

My provider and country

O2 UK

My username

tomjol

Do you have any screenshots you can attach to more clearly explain your issue?

-

=== END OF TEMPLATE ===

[David]

50% drain per hour is totally bananas. I haven't experienced anything remotely near that when using an iPhone 4S.

tomjol - I see that you're also streaming using Bluetooth, which may contribute to part of this power drain.

But for the rest of you, it seems to be happening over a multitude of different devices, and as Bengan states in his post here, there may be other factors here outside of Spotify. Just so you're aware, we still investigating.

[tomjol]

Yes I am using bluetooth, though I experienced the same (slightly lessened) extreme drain without it. Note that I actually provided an example of a rival application and outlined how it performs as Spotify should (updating those numbers I have 37% remaining after 8 hours 12 minutes usage on arrival home this evening).

IMO it is quite clear that the problem is not outside Spotify, and indeed the post you linked is nothing more than speculation. I am effectively running a controlled test here - something in my device configuration may be triggering the problem, but the problem is part of Spotify, of this I have no doubt.

Frankly the response time to anything to do with the mobile clients is shocking, and I'm appalled that it's gone on this long already.

[delta6]

@David

"multitude of different devices"? 

Come on. How many different iPhone devices are there? I can reproduce this problem with certainty on both an iPhone 4S and 5 on both iOS 5.0 and iOS 6.0. The same is the case with other users.

Please do not make us users sound like the ones who just don't get it. The fact is that Spotify has a useless app out there, and in the last month we haven't heard anything about any progress of fixing this.