Please stop asking me to reset the password every week

[Stefpist]

I've got a Family/Premium account and the account out of the 6 that I use personally gets the password reset every week, which is a bit annoying.

I get an email saying the password needs to be reset "due to detected suspicious activity".

I connect to Spotify from my phone and my laptop, and I would guess the "suspicious" activity comes from the fact that I use my company's VPN (otherwise I couldn't work) and that changes IP/country every day, so maybe that's it.

Still, it's annoying, anyone has any ideas on how to make it stop?

Thanks

[paulafb64]

Exactly the same thing is happening to me. It's extremely annoying, not only because I can't access my email at work to reset the password, but also (and especially) because you can't go back to passwords you've already used before, so I have to come up with new random passwords every time, which I'll most probably forget.

Spotify should fix their issue with VPNs. I don't mind them letting me know if they think there's been suspicious activity, but they shouldn't force us to change our password if we don't want to.

[Maxim]

Hey @Stefpist and @paulafb64 ,

Thanks for coming to the Spotify Community.

In this case, I recommend following the steps that are listed in the spoiler on this page.

After you've done that, we can check if it's the private network causing the issue by:

1. not using Spotify via the VPN for a day or two
2. monitoring the behaviour of the app with and without VPN

Let me know how it goes 🙂

[Stefpist]

Excuse me @Maxim, but what does exactly mean to "monitoring the behaviour of the app"?

Because first of all I am not using the app, but accessing Spotify from the web (I can't install apps on my company computer), and anyway I do use it with and without VPN depending on the work I need to do and there is no change in the so-called behavior of Spotify. 

[Maxim]

Hey @Stefpist ,

Thanks for your reply.

VPNs can cause issues such as the one you had experienced as they can mask the real IP address and the device that is being used to access your account (through the web player, in this case). Depending on the type of VPN, it might also switch between multiple IPs from different locations.

A lot of sites and services will either block known VPN IPs or it can be a reason to trigger security protocols based on location and device access. In other words, using a VPN can make the security system think that your account is being accessed by multiple unknown locations, which in turn would trigger an automated password reset to your account.

Spotify does not currently block VPN usage, but they also do not support it so they can't guarantee that the service would work as expected when using one.

[Stefpist]

Thanks Maxim for the reply, I do appreciate all of that, but I would expect a question like "Was that you?" before forcing me to change password whiteout checking with me first, like Amazon does, by the way: they check with me to make sure it's still me even if apparently.

I guess they just have better tech than Spotify does, oh well.

So bottom line there is no solution to this issue, good to know.

[Iman_ahmed_music]

I would also like a ‘was this you’ option. As I’ve now had to change my password about 10 times and it’s REEEAAALLY getting old. Not happy at all

[Avith]

This is also happening to me every 3-4 months and also have to create new passwords evry time, I am not even using a VPN, so what is going on?

[Alex]

Hi there @Avith,

Thanks for the post.

The password reset prompt comes when our system detects suspicious activity on your account. It can sometimes be triggered if you're logging in from multiple devices, like multiple new computers or phones. It can also happen if you're travelling abroad frequently, since the system would detect that you're logging in from different countries. 

In the worst case scenario, someone is trying to log in to your account multiple times with a wrong password. This can happen if your email address is leaked somewhere.

There is no way to manually stop this prompt though, as it runs on automated algorithms. 

One thing you can try is to change the email associate with your account to a new one, which you don't use for other services.

Hope this info helps.

[mklopez]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA.

Device

Multiple PCs, Android phone and smart speakers

Operating System

Windows and Android

My Question or Issue

For almost two months now, Spotify has been resetting my account password almost every week, due to "suspicious activity". I have contacted tech support about this and, while gracious and apologetic, they have not helped. 

I have a fairly regular usage pattern: Mon to Wed, I listen at my home PC in the morning, then at my office PC during work hours, and back on my home PC at night. Sometimes I listen on my phone while commuting. On Thursday and Friday I work from home so I listen there, usually playing in one PC and remotely controlling from another. At home I also have a few Amazon Echo and Google home devices and sometimes I switch to those. Similar pattern for weekends.

Now, does any of that looks suspicious, or unusual for a paying user? Because starting the 3rd week of June, every Wednesday, I get a password  reset email, usually during the afternoon. And then I reset it, and have to re-login to all my devices. It has happened SEVEN times so far! I suspect I'll see an 8th email this Wednesday.

Customer service suggested that I do not use the Windows app on any PC that has a VPN --which I did-- and to try not to have the app open on multiple devices at the same time --which I also did. None of these has stopped the weekly resets.

Out of desperation, I'm sharing this story here to find out if anyone else is having this problem. Maybe a few more cases will escalate this as a formal bug in their security algorithm. 

[Maxim]

Hey @mklopez,

Thanks for reaching out.

Here in the Community, we cannot access or make any changes to accounts, so I recommend that you reach back out to Support so that they can take another look at your account: https://www.spotify.com/about-us/contact/ 🙂

Hopefully, they'll be able to resolve this issue!

[mklopez]

Thanks for the reply. As I said in the post, I just wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this problem. I know that no one here --except if they work for Spotify CS-- can possibly fix it.

I have talked to support repeatedly. Last time they said they would "escalate it" to the proper team, and haven't heard back since then. If I get another password reset notice this week, I'll reach out again.

[TuPater]

This also started happening to me. I used to use Spotify in a native mac application at work, and have recently uninstalled it to use the Web Player instead. At work I have a VPN, which can easily be the trigger, and now I get password reset emails due to suspicious activity.

It's certainly annoying, but even more so is that support are completely oblivious of the problem and reply with canned responses about problems with my passwords (which are randomly generated, unique, and handled by a password manager)

[mklopez]

Last week I had a web chat with customer service. They guided me to do one last password reset, remove old devices and apps from my account, and they assured me they did something in my account that would stop the resets --as long as I don't use a VPN (weeks ago I stopped using the app in the single PC where I use a VPN, didn't stop the resets). I'm waiting to see if it happens again this week.

[TuPater]

I'll be interested to know if this works for you. I have to use a VPN at work, and if I can't use the Spotify web app while at work that will certainly be annoying. I understand there are workarounds (e.g. having earphones that can pair with multiple devices simultaneously), but I really don't like it when a software decision (made by others) requires a specific hardware configuration.

I guess I understand Spotify's situation: my gut feeling is they check for VPNs and do some level of geoblocking / geofencing to avoid mis-use, but (as hopefully they did with you) there should be a way to flag certain accounts once they are confident the usage is legitimate.

[artur2000]

Hi.

While reading your post, it sounds exactly like my problem that I have experienced. Also the timing is very similar. My password resets started happening sometime in July on exactly one week mark (Sunday nights specifically). Super frustrating when you actually asleep, you wake up in the morning to go to work and you can't play music. After 4-5 resets, it was less frequent, about once every 10-12 days. I had tech support case opened. They had me reinstall the app on all my devices, reset password once again ( like the past 8 resets were not enough), asked if I use VPN because apparently "hackers" use VPN's too (seriously got to tell that to my Chief Information Security Officer). Upon assuring that I do not use any public VPN's, app reinstalls, they finally escalated the case. If you think escalation team solved my issue... the answer is NO. They were basically rehashing the same thing what Tier 1 support told me already, but now instead of live chat it was back and forth emails. Looks like Spotify does not have a concept of case ownership. Basically random techs will respond to your queries/responses. Completely useless waste of my time. Nobody was able to provide me with the reason why this happens. They would always quote "we care about the security of your account" while at the same time there is no option to enable Multifactor Authentication on the account. When I started to be more demanding and less polite, they completely ignored me and stop responding to my inquiries. At some point I said - enough, this should be fun, not a hassle. I ended up stopping auto renew on my account, got a subscription on alternative platform, moved my family there, transferred my playlists, and eventually canceled my family premium subscription. After being paying customer for 5+ years with no prior issues, this happened to me. This is obviously their defective "suspicious activity" detecting algorithm that will cost them money in the long run. Reddit is filled with posts that pertain to this issue. Unfortunately these are all left "open" with more questions than answers. Without any dent in their subscribers numbers, nothing will be done to solve this issue.

[raccooncorpse666]

Same here, with the "Choose a password you haven't used before" on the top of that it just feels like spotify is trying to insult you. Because I'm not a machine and I can't create new passwords every week which I will remember on next day at least .

[TuPater]

My advice is to use a password manager and generate (and save) a random,
unique password.

[mklopez]

Just to follow up....

Over the past weeks, by request of the "escalation team", I had my devices and services reset, and they even asked me to use a different email address --I created a unique email just for this-- and nothing has helped, the password reset happened  again this week.

In my last email I begged them to have someone from their IT or security department to look at the system logs of the software that scans for these security problems, so they can identify exactly what is the trigger. Until someone does that, this will be just a guessing game. They responded that they had submitted all the info "to the respective team" and they would let me know when/if they find anything.

I really don't want to cancel my account, but much like artur2000 I might end up finding this too much of a hassle, specially a PAYING hassle. Pandora and/or Amazon Music are looking mighty attractive right now.

[Henricus]

Spotify needs to use the "was this you" system. Changing passwords without our consent is ridiculous and is not a protective feature, it's called babying your customers and no one wants that. Just get rid of this dumb behaviour. Algorithms aren't needed for this. My account gets reset every week because apparently I can't connect to multiple devices. I myself have 3 to 4 BT devices, then there's friends family, work etc. This is just bad, period. Tell your devs to remove this "feature" and at most go with the "was this you?" feature that all other apps use and works perfectly fine.