Spotify Autoplaying When Opened/Changing Playlists

[amyfogmeister]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

iPhone 14

Operating System

iOS 18.1.1

My Question or Issue

within the last month there have been a TON of bugs & idk why or what change caused this. to start, abt 1-2 months ago, my spotify app (mobile, web browser, & desktop version) started having issues with playing/pausing content. for example, any time that i open the spotify app it’ll just start automatically playing whatever track i left off on whenever i attempt to open it. i touch 0 buttons, it doesn’t matter if i’m connected to bluetooth or listening thru my phone speaker - nothing changes it, every single time i open the app, it just starts playing. 

the other new issue is that regardless of what i was previously listening to and/or what buttons i did/didn’t press, when i open the spotify app, it stops whatever i was currently listening to, and either shuffles the entire playlist or just starts playing a random playlist that i was not at all listening to.

it completely messes up my place in the playlist, the shuffle order of the playlist i was on, the part in the previous song i was listening to - and it just picks a random playlist to start playing out of nowhere.

i talked to customer support & looked thru the community tab - nothing helped. i’ve deleted/redownloaded the app several times, & it only fixed the issue long enough for me to end my chat w customer support (ofc) before going back to the same issues. my app is up to date, i’ve tried redownloading it, i’ve looked through settings, i’ve done everything. it’s making the app really hard to use, any answers/ideas are appreciated pls & ty

[Vasil]

Hey there @amyfogmeister,

Sorry to see this has been happening to you!

Could you let us know if the described errors are all present across all the mentioned platforms? We'd like to ask you to try and separate the issues and the respective platforms they occur on in order for us to get a better understanding of what's going on.
We'd also like to know if you're starting your mobile app normally or via the lock screen widget.

In case a reinstall is fixing the described behaviour, clearing your cache should do it too.
Give it a try and let us know if/ when the issues return.

Lastly for now, you can also take a look if using a different network would yield the same results.

Many thanks! We'll be on the lookout for your reply 🙂

[Cangetin]

I have the autoplay problem on my ipad air, ipados 18.1.1. When I start the app, it starts playing the current song. Also when I do some other stuff like searching for music, it suddenly starts playing the current song or when I close the app or whent I am working in Safari. I haven‘t seen this on my iphone.

[amyfogmeister]

Hi there, 

I think initially the issue was present across all platforms mentioned, but now it only happens on my iPhone 14 (iOS version 18.2.1). I also often use the lock screen widget to open Spotify and hadn’t thought about it until I saw it mentioned in the reply here. 

After experimenting with it a bit, I realized that it DOES only seem to happen when I use the lock screen widget. The regular app icon & the shortcut I created for my home screen don’t cause this issue & it doesn’t happen on desktop. 

So the update as of 1/19/25 is: issue only happens on my iPhone 14 (iOS version 18.2.1), desktop/web browser have no issues. And the issue only appears to happen when Spotify is accessed using the lock screen widget. So the problem appears to be with the lock screen widget, which just autoplays the last track listened to or shuffles a random recently listened to playlist whenever you open Spotify that way. 

I’m glad I at least know how to fix/avoid the problem, but I will say, I hope the glitch with the lock screen widget is fixed soon bc I liked having/using that to access Spotify. It was way faster & easier and super convenient, and made listening in the car easier & safer bc I could just quickly pull up the app without looking at my phone. 

[maedo]

Plan

Premium

Country

Device

iPhone 12

My question or issue

Recently I’ve noticed that after shutting down the Spotify app on my phone that my playlist reshuffles, and starts with a new song. For example, I’ll be listening for one song on a playlist, shut down Spotify, reopen and when I do so, the same playlist changes the song and reshuffles the queue. I think this issue might’ve started after downloading the new IOS update, however I’m unsure- it’s been about 3-4 days. I’ve restarted my phone, turned off autoplay, deleted and redownloaded Spotify and logged out and back in- nothing. Help???

[Billy-J]

Hey @maedo, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

I’m sorry to hear this. Could you go to your phone's settings and check that Background app refresh is toggled on? Also, make sure you don't have any battery saving setting affecting Spotify. If this doesn't do the trick, it's worth running a clean reinstall to remove any old files from your phone. This is different from a simple reinstall which can resolve common issues. 

If that doesn’t work, it’s worth ensuring your phone is up to date to the latest iOS version by going to Settings > General > Software Update. 

Let me know how this goes!

[maedo]

Thanks for this- however, I tried the clean reinstall and it worked for several hours, but then the issue started up again. Just checked also- my IOS is up to date. Anything else I can do?

[Billy-J]

Hey @maedo, 

Thanks for getting back to me! Let’s check all our bases to narrow down what’s causing this problem. Can you try starting Shuffle in the Spotify app on a different device (desktop, tablet or even better, another mobile phone) if possible and see if it reshuffles after restarting the app. That will help me see if it’s account-related or device-related.

Keep me posted. 

[maedo]

I tested on my iPad- the issue occurred on there as well.

[Kjsinkowski]

Edit: this is the widget causing this problem. I have seen several other posts on this. The widget is basically now just a play button. 

before the widget would bring me to my Spotify home page or what I was playing last - but it didn’t auto play. 

I updated and cleared cache and deleted and reinstalled. No change. 

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

(iPhone 16)

Operating System

ISSUE 1:

when iPhone is plugged into Apple car play, I cannot use Spotify on the iPhone. I try to tap the spotify app and nothing happens. 

ISSUE 2:

when using the app normally on my phone, and not plugged into my car, every time I tap the app, Spotify opens and starts auto playing whatever I was playing last. 

[Kjsinkowski]

Exact same issue. No fix yet either! Some people say theirs is repaired but mine is not. 

[Joan]

Hi there @Kjsinkowski,

Thanks for reaching out.

Can you confirm if you've tried the steps provided by @amyfogmeister and @Vasil? If you haven't yet, please do so. If the issue persists, let us know the exact device and iOS version you're on so we can look into it further.

Let us know how it goes.

[Dessi]

Hi there @Kjsinkowski,

Thanks for reaching out!

Regarding the first issue you've described - how are you trying to access Spotify? Are you tapping on the app icon directly or on a widget? It'd be great if you can ask a friend or relative to connect to Car Play through their device to double-check if they experience the same issue. This way we can determine if it's device related. It's also worth restarting your device and connecting again, as well as force stopping Spotify and re-opening it to see if that makes a difference. 

When it comes to the second issue you've mentioned - does this only happen when tapping on the widget? Do you get the same behavior when opening Spotify through the app icon? Have you tried removing the widget and re-adding it again?

Keep us posted.

[delamike]

Hi @joan, I have tried to replicate Amy‘s steps since I have the same issue but it did not work. I am using the Widget on my iPhone 12 Pro Max (iOS 18.3.2) and have the same Autoplay issue.

This is really annoying, looking forward to further suggestions 

[Kjsinkowski]

Hello, yes I have completed all steps (twice). iPhone 16 pro 18.3.2, with the Spotify widget on my Home Screen. This is NOT the widget on my Lock Screen. Edit- tried to upload a screen recording but the file is too big. 

[Kjsinkowski]

Hello, for second issue: this is widget on Home Screen only. I have uninstalled, updated, etc. iPhone 16 pro, 18.3.2. 

[Billy-J]

Hey @maedo, 

Thanks for trying those steps and for your patience while I took a closer look. Can you provide this information so I can understand better and get a clear picture of where this may be coming from:

• Are you connected to an external device (speaker for example) via Bluetooth/Connect when this happens?
• Does this happen with multiple playlists or a particular one?
• Can you see if this happens when you use the Web Player?
• Do you notice a difference when you enable/disable Shuffle? You may also try this with turning on/off Smart Shuffle also. 

In addition, if you can, can you ask someone like a friend or a relative to log in to their account on your device to check if the problem can be replicated with their account. 

Let me know how things go!

[Ivelina]

Hey @Kjsinkowski and @delamike,

Thanks for the responses!

It would actually be great if you could send us a video recording so we can take a look at what happens. If the file's too large to upload here via the Insert Video option in the post editor, you can instead upload it to Google Drive and share the link with us.

We'll be on the lookout.

[Kjsinkowski]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11GnOnFtXUZex5Ximu96y9_4_lI-JgrC-/view?usp=drivesdk

here you can see - I tap the widget, it opens and immediately starts playing what was last playing. 

[maedo]

• While this issue occurs while I’m using my airpods, it also happens when I’m just listening through my device speakers.
• It seems like it’s happening to all of my playlists
• The issue is still present on the Web Player
• I usually have shuffle on, but once I disabled it, the issue still happened
• I tried logging into an alt account on the app to trigger the same issue, but it didn’t work. Seems like it only happens on my account.