When I open Spotify it mutes other audio streaming

[Pertul]

Plan

Premium

Country

Sweden

Device

iPhone 13

Operating System

iOS 16.1

My Question or Issue

There is an error with the app in iOS.

As soon as ypu open the Spotify app it mutes other streaming audio sources.

So if I am listening to radio in another app and want to go in to Spotify and just add a song to a playlist, it will directly close audio from my radio app. Same with all apps playing audio, they will all be killed as soon as I start Spotify. And even if I do not play anything in Spotify it mutes all audio, so I hear silence. 

No other music app I have does this.

Please fix so it does not kill other audio apps playing / streaming audio when you just open Spotify.

You may want to just open the app and add a song etc without playing from Spotify at that time.

It should only take over as audio source when you press play on something in Spotify, like other audio apps behave.

Thank you.

[Jo]

This is happening to me again now. Let’s say I’m listening to the radio and I hear a song that I want to add to my Spotify library. I switch to Spotify to do that, and the radio audio stops. I don’t currently have Spotify Premium and this doesn’t exactly encourage me to resubscribe.

[mrfracas]

Happening to me as well on iOS 16.4. Amongst other no audio playback with Spotify, this is a persistent issue. Hope it gets fixed soon. 

[scorpio321]

Don’t understand why Spotify haven’t fixed this yet. Clearly its an issue for many.

I’ve had it on my iOS devices for months on end.

Really poor such a basic thing as this is being ignored.

[mrfracas]

I would go as far to say it feels like an invasive control of how we use our devices. 

[mrfracas]

Hi Alex. Where are you getting these settings from? They don’t appear to exist on the latest version of Spotify on iOS. 

[dr_michael]

guys, someone should definitely make this spotify behavior public. 3 months have passed and nothing was fixed, issue status is unknown.

even more, their new music feed feature now automatically plays music as you scroll through.

music should start ONLY when i press play button myself.

[dr_michael]

they should be in ios settings->music. but in fact they are not 🤷‍

[dr_michael]

the bug appears to be fixed. thank you

ios 16.4.1

spotify app 8.8.30.499

[danr7_]

Still an issue for me. Again, "Search" and "Your Library" tabs problematic.

iOS 16.4.1

Spotify app 8.8.30.499

[mrfracas]

It’s so frustrating how disruptive this issue is if I’m listening to some live radio on another app and I want to search and save the song in Spotify, which completely disrupts the other app whilst in an idle state. FFS

[mrfracas]

Issue persists for me:

Spotify 8.8.32.533

iOS 16.4.1

[retchen]

I’m *this* close to cancelling my premium account because of this problem. You are *really* dropping the ball, Spotify. Not cool. 

[retchen]

Issue persists for me, as well. This is SUCH a stupid move, Spotify.

[dr_michael]

After 3 weeks of the bug being fixed for me it started again yesterday. And I might have found the cause (at least one of them) and how to fix it.

The problem started when I used my windows spotify app at the same time with my spotify ios app - they were interconnected via same wifi. I haven't used this feature during these three weeks, and yesterday was the first time I've used it in a long time.

So, as long as both devices (comp and phone) use the same wifi, also windows spotify plays some music and spotify ios app is closed at this moment, then when you open ios app it will stop any ios playback.

Optionally, the problem lies somewhere in this feature. At least I managed to fix the issue using inter-device playback cache:

— open spotify app on windows and on ios, both on the same wifi -> turn on any track in windows spotify -> see that windows app shares playback with ios app -> stop the track on windows app -> close the windows app, then close the ios app (swing up from memory).

Unfortunately I didn't manage to reproduce the bug. Tried lots of different sequences of actions when both apps were running on the same wifi but none of them broke the cache.

Hope it helps someone.

ios version 8.8.36.571

windows 10

spotify windows version 1.1.78.765.g5ea20600

[mrfracas]

Updated to 8.8.40.462. This bug is not fixed. Still hijacking my flow. 

[retchen]

I got in touch with Spotify and provided a human with a video replicating
this invasive move by the app. Cancelled my Premium account until they
fixed it.

[user-removed]

I'm experiencing this issue as well, app version 8.8.40.462. Other playback on my iPhone appears to stop when switching to the Search tab in Spotify, and the videos under the "Explore your genres" heading begin to play. Recording is attached.

[retchen]

That sounds exactly like what is happening on my end, too

[mrfracas]

If everyone goes to the top of the first page of this thread and likes the original comment, it comes up with a ‘ME TOO’ button, which will add you to the number of people who have this problem. So far it’s only 7 listed, so I don’t think Spotify will care

unless they see it’s affecting lots of people. Probably 1000 people need to be

recorded as being affected. 

[user-removed]

I have opened a support request with Spotify for this issue but I would like to point out that the Spotify app on iOS is also causing Apple Music to pause its playback, even though Spotify itself isn't playing any music. Performing a clean install of the Spotify app (version 8.8.40.462) is not helping with the issue.