Spotify causing severe battery drain on iPhone 6S running iOS 10

[jack_206]

This was an issue on iOS 9 and still seems to be happening on iOS 10. Spotify is using 3x more battery than any other app and accounts for about 50% of all battery usage. This never used to be an issue, and I don't understand what it could possibly be doing that is so resource-hungry. Most of my listening is via saved songs on my offline playlist, so it isn't a mobile data issue.

Anyone know how to resolve this? A music player should not be impacting device battery life like this.

Edit Oct 11 2016: Adding a screenshot since this doesn't seem to be getting any traction with Spotify. I unplugged 4 hours ago and my battery is at 13%. And 46% of my battery has been used by Spotify over the last 24 hours.

[h4llp4ss]

Yeah it sucks... I can run Netflix for 30 minutes streaming and only lose 4-5%, Spotify is twice that... It makes no sense.

[Sluuz]

I tried resetting my phone to factory settings, updated to iOS 10.1.1 and tried. Still it's using up a lot of battery. Then updated to iOS 10.2 beta 2, same story. Then updated to Spotify 6.9 beta, same story.

I don't see any improvement whatsoever, also not in the new Spotify beta's. Please fix this asap!

[user-removed]

Hey guys,

just 2 cents from my side. This is what 2 hours of Spotify playback (Screen off, mind you) does to my battery: 46% drain!

Here's a list of things I tried in order to fix the issue (in that order):

• Run in battery safe mode: does not help, maybe a little but not considerably.
• Re-install Spotify: no effect.
• Reset the iPhone and restore it from an iCloud backup: no effect.
• Calibrate the battery twice (draining it to 0%, charging it to 100% in one go, hard reset the phone afterwards): no effect.
• Reset the iPhone and set it up as a completely new phone (no backup): no effect.

So, this is it. It cost my several hours to do all this and it changed nothing. On the plus side, my 6S is blazing fast again. So resetting the phone once in a while is a good thing, I guess. But seriously: I cannot listen to music without a battery pack attached. It will just kill my battery like crazy and I rely on my phone for work. Might have to switch to Apple Music. It is worse in almost every aspect but I cannot use Spotify in its currents state.

Please. Do. Something.

[ex-spotify]

OK, so since Spotify absolutely doesn't care about such a (for me) huge issue with their app I will cancel my subscription. They even let people factory reset their phones (and recalibrate the battery, and configure it as a completely new phone, and ...) without showing any interest. How can it be an acceptable solution to reset your phone because of some misbehaving app?

I really can't understand that a Product Owner won't make it top priority that you don't have to choose whether you want to listen to music for a few hours (2-3?) or be available for calls and messages and watch Netflix, surf the internet and charge your Tesla twice.

The good part about the huge battery usage might be that my phone (iPhone 6) gets really hot and keeps me warm. This autumn gets really cold some days...

OK, so end of sarcasm... This morning I listened to music for 30 minutes and lost 20% battery. I for sure won't accept this and really dislike the non-existing involvement of Spotify in this issue. 

And on a side note: This "build a community and let users mope around and help themselves by recommending factory resets so that we can add bells and whistles to our totally overblown app" really annoys me. Sorry, but this doesn't work for me, Spotify. Bye.

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@un1qu3ger wrote:

• Reset the iPhone and restore it from an iCloud backup: no effect.
• Calibrate the battery twice (draining it to 0%, charging it to 100% in one go, hard reset the phone afterwards): no effect.
• Reset the iPhone and set it up as a completely new phone (no backup): no effect.

[jack_206]

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous, would be great to get some acknowledgment from Spotify. I've suspended my $14.99/month premium subscription and switched to Apple Music and Soundcloud until someone on here reports that this has been fixed.

[OgreArmor]

I'm having the same problem on iOS 9.3.5. I finally updated the app a couple of days ago, and the new version has been killing my battery ever since. I haven't used any mobile data to stream/download and I haven't been using the app more than usual, so I know it has to be a problem on Spotify's end rather than mine. I mean, 71% usage? Come on.. We have to get a fix for this.

[Germcevoy]

Another subscriber cancelling. Practically 1% battery gone per song when listening to offline tracks. Crazy but people keep paying so I can't see it being fixed. Off to try Google play it Apple Music.

[walkerz11]

Hello,

I have the same problem. I have decided to uninstall Spotify as a consequence of this problem. I am seriouly thinking about cancelling my signature. 

[jack_206]

Anyone know if this has been fixed? Any comment anywhere from Spotify? 

[GregM_]

A few weeks ago I removed spotify and reinstalled it. Previously I had a lot of locally stored music, I removed all of that too. I have also made sure I have the latest Spotify update on the app.

Now it's behaving a lot better than it did and is working ok for me, although it sounds like that isn't the case for many others. 😞

[douidou75]

Bonjour, it's the same for my 5S with the very last 10.2 iOS. It was not like that a few weeks ago, I don't know what changed. Now without even listening to any music, not usign streaming but offline downloaded playlists, stil, it says 22% of battery power ! Crazy !

Does Spotify care ?

[douidou75]

And also, by the way, why is Stoptify activated on background, althought I have the GENERAL / BACKGROUNG de-activated for every app (global unchecked for all) ?

[user-removed]

Hey guys, quick word back after a couple of weeks and iOS10.2:

I've deactived "background app refresh" for all my apps on my iPhone 6S (iOS 10.2) now which heightens standby time A LOT. (no surprise, I guess). Spotify (6.8.0.3786), in the meantime, behaves like normal again:

From my battery usage, "last three days":

Spotify: 25 minutes foreground activity, 8.6 hours background activity, 16% battery usage.

HOWEVER, the phone as such uses too much power for pretty much everything. Couple of minutes light browsing, checking emails, texting - 20% down. Maybe I've been blaming the wrong culprit to begin with: There is an iPhone 6S battery exchange program going on: https://www.apple.com/uk/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/

Supposedly, all iPhones produced from September-October 2015, are possibly affected. So is my iPhone. I am still waiting for my exchange battery. But this might possibly solve the issue for the iPhone 6S crowd.

[Jlevi]

Yup. Me too. Why hasn't Spotify addressed this thread yet..?

[ashaw953]

I'm seeing the same battery drain problem. Spotify, please fix!!

[nikkahn]

If you're having issues with your battery you might want to invest in a battery case, an external battery, or carry a charger around with you. I know it seems like a messy solution, but that's an ongoing problem with Apple phones

[user-removed]

Hey guys, a quick update on my 6S (iOS10, latest Spotify release):

The iPhone battery is to blame. My 6S was affected by Apple's recall of bad iPhone 6S batteries (see my post above). I got a new battery - as a result, my phone behaves just like before (=fine). So, maybe Spotify is still far from perfect on iOS, but the SEVERE drain on my 6S was more than likely caused by a bad battery. I have not had an issue since. Glad, I don't have to switch to Apple Music.

[ashaw953]

I checked my serial number against the Apple list and my battery is not one of the bad ones -- but I still have problems with Spotify draining the battery very quickly.

For the time being, I've stopped using Spotify except when I can connect my phone to a power source.

Andy

[kevmartian]

I agree that part of the problem is the 6s battery.  Mine is not on the recall list, but I think that my battery is still flawed and Apple has not admitted it yet.  My phone has been shutting down around 30% battery and usually doesn't make it through a day of light/medium use, regardless of Spotify.

However, Spotify definitely has a problem as well.  I can stream audio from other apps and not experience anywhere near the battery drain I get with Spotify.  I think it's a combination of bad battery and bug in Spotify.