Spotify auto playing music and volume gets turned down to 0

[akaCoda]

This tittle may seem like this is not a account issue but please read the whole thing first (._.)
After having my spotify paused for a period of time (if i had to guess, somewhere around 10-15 minutes) on my windows desktop client AND mac, spotify volume goes to 0 (not muted, just 0) and starts playing music by these unknown artist with like 400 monthly listeners.

After looking into the account that had been playing on my account for multiple hours now because I had stepped away from my computer, it seemed all of there songs had distorted auto quality and all of their songs on these artist account had roughly the same amount of listens. 

I just ignored it but this kept happening. Sometimes it was the same random artist, and other times it was a different account with damn near close the same amount of monthly listeners and the same thing where all of the songs on the account had near the same amount of listens.

just to make this a bit easier to understand, here are the name of some of theses accounts so you can see for yourself.
"awake1511"
"Cruz.Melancholy.Melodies"
(there was another artist named "lan lon G-Melos" but it seems like they might have been banned? I mentioned it on spotify support yesterday and they took all of these songs down. )

Note: awake1511 and lan lon g-melos are the 2 main accounts that were affecting me. After getting off support yesterday, they seem to have taken there songs down. "Cruz.Melancholy.Melodies" was the new artist that started playing that same night in place of the other 2 which had there content taken down (or grayed out i guess? the state when there music is still on spotify but its unable to be played)

these are the names of the accounts i've been affected by but if you look into "Fans also like" tab, you can see there are so many accounts just like this that.

This has been happening for a month. I've contacted spotify support who was very helpful however they suggested I make a post here.

they had me do a clean install (clear files from %appdata%)
they also suggested prior that I clear my queue and turn off smart shuffle. My queue was not the issue and smart shuffle was not on. This also happen when spotify is paused on my computer. Also, they asked about spotify connect due to the volume issue but its not spotify connect. Spotify support gave me a alt account to test and see if the issue was occurring the and it wasn't. They also asked me about any connection that I may have had and they were:
Spotify Premium Plan
Discord
FIX
Musixmatch
Hypeddit
I didn't recognize "Hypeddit" and "Fix" so i disconnected those.


Straight up, I pause spotify, tab in about 15-30 minutes later to resume it and its auto playing music from a unknown artist with the volume on 0.

as i said i've already, i've been on support messages extensively so this is not a tech issue and considering there are so many accounts just like it, this seems very suspicious. This is why i believe spotify support told me to make a extensive post here.

The current solution i was given was to make a new account. They transferred all my information such as playlist and my premium plan.

im aware this post is very long but this seems like a potential back end issue and not documented at all. My hope was to be as through as possible to get this solved ASAP. If anymore information needs to be provided, i will happily do so.

All of these was happening to me on my macbook and windows computer.

Plan

Premium

Country

U.S

Device

Windows, Mac

Operating System

Windows 10

[CryticalAce]

Hey @akaCoda,

From what I'm reading, it sounds like someone may have gained unauthorised access to your account; I would suggest going to your account settings, and when you scroll down to the Security and Privacy section, you'll see an option to "Sign out everywhere", I would suggest using that and changing your password to ensure your account cannot be accessed by anyone else.

Cheers,

CryticalAce

[akaCoda]

This is what I though it could've been at first. Support said there is no suspicious activity on my account but ill try it anyways and get back to you.

[akaCoda]

this did it. support said there was no suspicious activity so i didn't consider this. thanks for the help ♡

[CryticalAce]

Glad it worked! Happy listening!

Cheers,

CryticalAce

[ExoticHaha]

Facing the exact same issue, my Spotify Windows app is playing weird AI music, setting it to repeat, and lowering the app volume. I noticed this happening the past few days and here are my findings:

I requested all of my streaming data from Spotify (an option in Spotify settings) to uncover what music is being played and when. This provided me with a list of every single song that was played on my account, including the AI generated slop that was being automatically played.

This proved useful, as there is one extremely important piece of data that Spotify provides in the streaming history that shows why a song started playing. One section of the data for a song that started playing randomly on my PC was:

"reason_start": "remote"

reason_start indicates why a certain song you played started playing, and this included the AI music. As you can see above, the reason is set to "remote" - this could mean multiple things, however the main one is that your Spotify account is being remotely accessed.

At this point, I discovered the reason as to why my account is interacting in this manner. I'm not sure how it was remotely accessed, but things happen. I had tried all the options you mentioned in your post such as changing pass, signing out of all devices, removing app access etc., but the issue kept happening.

I contacted support 10 minutes ago who conducted a forced sign out. They indicated to me that the sign out they conduct removes all remote access too, which is apparently something not available to users.

I believe this AI generated artist is attempting to generate fake (but real) streams by remotely accessing Spotify accounts and streaming their music from it. I would contact support and let them know that you have already tried all the available options and that you fear your account is being remotely accessed, and hopefully they can resolve it for you. Good luck!

[CryticalAce]

Hey @ExoticHaha,

Fantastic information, thank you! I'll keep what you said in mind if anyone had the same issue I can point them in the right direction!

Cheers,

CryticalAce

[akaCoda]

wanna follow up on this. This issue has started happening to be again. I have not allowed any 3rd party apps to access my account which support said could've been the reason last time. This just started happening today. I went on to spotifys website and forced sign out of all my sessions through the website. That was about an hour ago. I logged back in and went to go eat dinner. When I came back to my computer (windows 10 desktop). That same music was playing again.

the artist name is "Hercule5.Hurt.24"
even after blocking his music from playing, it still go ahead and plays. seems like its being played remotely like @ExoticHana said above. 

I noticed it right away this time when I hit play on my playlist. it automatically paused the moment I hit play and started playing music from that artist I mentioned above. I hit play again and it pauses AGAIN and starts playing his music. After a 3rd time of hitting the play button on my playlist, It finally just plays. 

[akaCoda]

just wanted to add that for my case, instead of just playing the album and setting it to loop like what @ExoticHaha (in my last message I wrote "hana" instead of "haha" sorry about that) say had happened to her, it actually just adds the entire playlist that the artist had posted to my queue like 20 times to make my queue super long. 

[Dessi]

Hi there @akaCoda,

Thanks for your reply!

Sorry to hear this started happening again, I'd recommend starting off with reporting this artist and any other similar ones you've encountered this issue with. Our content team can then take the appropriate measures. 

You mentioned being in contact with the Customer Support Team and trying out different suggestions for protecting your account, but I'd say it's still worth going through every step in this article. This way you can ensure that your devices are protected as well. Some suggestions beside the ones in the article that I can think of are changing your internet and email passwords, as well as scanning your devices for viruses/malware.

Hope this helps.

[Vicgoat]

Hi, been facing the same issue recently and did what was mentionned in the conversation but it didn't work. I tried doing a complete scan of my pc to detect virus/malwares, but nothing was found.

[Yordan]

Hey folks,

Are you using any smart speakers? If so, check if unlinking and re-linking Spotify helps. Also, when the issue occurs, does the app say that you're "listening on another device" or is it still playing on your device locally?

To ensure your account is properly secured, follow the steps below in order:

1. Reset your password.
2. Sign out everywhere from your account page.
3. Remove all third-party apps connected to your account.

Take care 💚

[Vicgoat]

Hi! Nope, no smart speakers, everything is still playing on my pc locally.

[Dessi]

Hey @Vicgoat,

Thanks for the reply!

If you've already tried everything suggested in this thread about how to protect your account and you still experience this afterwards, I'd say it's worth creating a new account. I understand this might be something you'd not be willing to do, but in case you decide to go for it, you can check out this guide on how to transfer your playlists, followed artists and followers to the new account. 

If you have an active subscription, you can cancel it, wait for your account to revert to the free version and re-subscribe on the new account. You can also close the old one once it's on the free version and you've done the transfer.

Hope this helps.