Why does a random playlist or album open on my phone when I reopen the app?

[xxTrickster01xx]

This usually happens when I unlock my iPhone and open the Spotify app (which was still running in the background). Upon opening, Spotify will briefly show the page I was last on, then unexpectedly opens some random content. This content has ranged from albums of artists I have never heard of to playlists of users I do not know (I have never seen their account before). Usually, the content does not automatically play, just opens for me to see.

I have autoplay off. There is no evidence of my account being hacked. This has happened in public and at home. The content that opened was never on my screen (I can never find why it might have opened).

[xxTrickster01xx]

I wanted to give just a few more details.

This happened one time when getting in my car after leaving a restaurant (I do NOT have Car Thing). It opened D'Evils by SiR. I have never heard of this artist nor do I listen to that type of music. I spent about 5 minutes looking through the whole home page trying to find where the album may have been opened from.

As stated before, this has happened at home too when no one else was nearby (but is was a random person's playlist that opened).

The issue is rare and I have not found a way to reproduce it. Otherwise, I would submit a video of it.

[Novy]

Hey @xxTrickster01xx,

Thanks for reaching out here in the Community.

This does sound like rare behavior. Would you mind letting us know how often this happens to you? Are you able to replicate it using another mobile device?

It would be very helpful to have a screen recording or a video where we can see exactly what's happening on your end next time it happens. This way we can have a better understanding of the issue and provide further help. 

Keep us posted.

[daver412]

I have noticed this happen on iOS devices (iPhone 15) as well on random occasions beginning last month. I will be listening to an album in the car turn off the car I never close the app and it remains open in the background. I get into the car the next morning and it shows the album I was listening to and where I left off, then it quickly loads up a random song. My random song was a kid's nursery rhyme for "ABC's". 

[Susan_GP]

Hi @daver412,

Thanks for your reply in this thread.

So we can investigate, next time it happens, could you take a screenshot of the unknown content and send it here? In the meantime, we understand if you don't see any suspicious behavior in your account, but it's worth trying out some steps. 

First up, go to your Account Overview page and Sign out everywhere. Additionally, remove access to all the apps you've connected to your account from here. You can easily reconnect your apps anytime. Once done, log back in and check if that makes a difference.

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

[RedEboni]

Thank you for your prompt response. Sure, I will take a screenshot of the unknown content and share it with you the next time it happens. I appreciate your suggestion to try some steps to ensure the security of my account. I followed your instructions, signed out everywhere, and removed access to all the apps connected to my account. I will log back in and check if that makes a difference. Thank you for keeping an eye out for my reply.

[Eze323]

This weird stuff has also happened to me on various occasions this year. The app running with the screen locked, when I unlock, for a brief moment (a second or less) the app shows what I had before, and BAM, before I get to press play, it changes to some random album by some random artist I don’t know that isn’t even in my suggested artists, AND IT STARTS PLAYING ON ITS OWN, which is annoying because then it stays in my history as if I played that song/album. Last time it happened was today. It happens so fast that you can’t do anything to stop it, only pausing the song after it has started playing on its own.

[Eze323]

 

The first screenshot is the random album, the second is the screen that was supposed to open

[SufiyanMucker]

Same exact thing keeps happening to me, and I may be losing my mind because it’s coincidentally happening after I blocked my ex yesterday and to my knowledge I don’t remember logging into my Spotify on any other devices, if it happens again I’m just going to save the playlist myself and let it drop out of my feed because idk what is going on with this but it’s quite unsettling tbh, sry for the tmi if necessary as well x.

[Novy]

Hey there @SufiyanMucker,

Thanks for reaching out. 

Sorry to hear this is happening. We'd first recommend checking this article where you'll find a few tips on how to secure your account.

In case you think someone has gained access to your account, we'd recommend following all the steps in this article. If this doesn't do the trick, you can reach out to us privately through the channels here. They'll be happy to assist you further and check if everything is in order with your account.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to let us know.

[cccloudsss]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

iPhone 11 Pro

Operating System

iOS 18.5

My Question or Issue

For the past few weeks, half the time when I open Spotify or the app refreshes a completely random album that I don’t listen to automatically pops up and starts playing. For example yesterday it was HMM by Le Sifvar, and another day it was the Lemonade album by Beyonce. It’s beyond frustrating because it clears the song I was previously listening to and plays the new album, so I have to rebuild my queue or search for the song I was already listening to before being interrupted. If this is an advertising campaign please stop! It’s seriously making me consider leaving the app because of how frustrating it is.

[cccloudsss]

It’s nice to know I’m not the only one!! This has been happening to me too and my account isn’t compromised, I’m not entirely sure on why it happens either, I hope that we’re able to figure it out! The content automatically plays for me instead of just showing it, and it’s really confusing and frustrating.

[kaorrei]

My theory is that it's artists paying for plays and Spotify is useless to stop it or are part of the problem. This is getting ridiculous on my end, at least once a day this happens. 

[Megan419]

This happens to me too. I open the app, don't click anything, and it brings me to a random album/playlist. I followed the security steps, changed my password, logged out everywhere and it KEEPS happening every day. Today it was Let Go by Avril Lavigne, who I haven't listened to in years. Other times its random artists who I've never heard of. This seems like a widespread enough problem that someone at Spotify should've fixed something by now, considering its been happening for months if not longer.

[daave98]

I’m having the same exact problem,, down the exact Avril Lavigne song randomly playing. Ive also noticed a lot of the songs that start playing are new releases too. I hope they fix it soon because it’s pretty irritating 😭

[Ivelina]

Hey there folks and welcome to the thread @daave98.

We've seen similar reports in the forum before, but as we're not quite sure what could be causing this, we'd like to gather some additional info, so we can get a better understanding of the behavior. 

It would be very helpful if you could share with us as many details as possible and provide us with the following (if you've not already done so):

• Make sure that you've signed out everywhere and secured your account as suggested by @Novy here. 
• Remove access to any third party apps. 
• Disable Smart Shuffle and Autoplay. 
• If the behavior is happening only on a particular device, follow the steps here for a clean reinstall. 
• Does this happen in the Web Player as well? 
• Are you using an external device to stream music on to (such as a speaker for example)?

We really appreciate the cooperation and will be on the lookout.

[mylengrave]

**bleep** this happens to me all the time and I am getting crazy and super frustrated. I am listening to my playlist (only metal music) and when I open the app (iPhone 12 mini), it goes to a random playlist and starts playing music that has nothing to do with my account. For example Deutschland top music (I am Polish! In Poland), rap music (I hate rap, never listened to it), this is extremely annoying. I cannot even express how. Sometimes it only takes me to a random playlist or album, sometimes it would start playing it. Drama. 

sometimes AirPods, sometimes speaker, sometimes nothing, happens only on my iPhone, not on the pc/laptop/tv;

account has not been hacked, all secure, not shared 

[mylengrave]

 Screen 1, I opened Spotify, previously I would listen to my own playlist, it showed for a second a moved me to this 

And here is my playlist 

 

[fdshfg]

Plan

Premium Family

Country

US

Device

iPhone SE

Operating System

iOS 18.5

My Question or Issue

Recently, upon opening Spotify on my iPhone, I am either redirected to a random artist's page or a random song automatically starts playing. I don't recognize any of the artists or songs that are played. The issue only occurs on my iPhone when I open the app (it doesn't interrupt my listening, just occurs once when I open the app), not on my laptop or iPad. I haven't seen any notifications about logins to my Spotify account recently and I can't think of anything that could have caused this.

[Sefs]

Same thing happens to me. But only in the mornings. When I open the app in the morning, it immediately plays a random song, usually of an artist I’ve never heard of. I can’t help but think it’s a marketing ploy. I would have a playlist I was listening to the night before for or a queue I painstakingly created but by morning it’s all gone because Spotify thinks I have to listen to one random artist first thing in the morning. Super annoying.