Auto plays with car Bluetooth and can't pause.

[DocDefilade]

Plan

Premium Duo

Country

United States 

Device

Galaxy S21 5G

Operating System

Android: Version 13

UI version 5.1

My Question or Issue

Playback starts when connected to car Bluetooth.

I've tried a bunch of the suggestions but nothing has worked so far.

And secondly when I push pause, it works for 2 seconds then starts again. Only closing the app stops playback.

Starting my car in the mornings, and it auto blares and can't be paused is surely upsetting my neighbors. Super frustrating.

And the last issue just seemed to clear up, which was the app dimming on startup and controls being locked.

I swear I haven't had this thing work hiccup free for at least a year.

Any help to get this working smoothly would really be appreciated.

My best,

-Nigel

[Ivelina]

Hi there @DocDefilade,

Welcome to the Community!

The issue that playback starts when connected to car Bluetooth sounds similar to the one in this thread. It's worth checking it out, as well as what other users have shared.

When it comes to the app dimming on startup and controls being locked, have you by any chance given it a clean reinstall to see if that'll change anything? It can help resolve different performance issues and you can follow the steps here. Just keep in mind that you'd have to re-download your content for offline listening again afterwards.

Hope this helps and keep us posted.

[Truedad21]

I (and others: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Android-Spotify-automatically-starts-when-I-connect-to-Blue...) have a similar issue- whenever I connect any listening device via bluetooth (earphones, car...) Spotify begins to play on my laptop or phone, regardless of whether the app is closed (I also have my settings NOT to open Spotify automatically when either device is turned on). This happens annoyingly when I am speaking with a client online, or listening to ANY other audio or video in any other application. The link you provided as a possible solution above sends me right back to this page... I cannot access the thread you suggest. In the link I've included above, you will see that many others have this problem, and no one has responded or addressed it there. Please help.

[Susan_GP]

Hi @Truedad21,

Thanks for your reply in this thread and all the info provided.

That was our bad! This is the correct thread we recommend checking. There you'll find some steps that you can try to stop Spotify from playing automatically when connected to your car. However, what you're experiencing is different, as it happens with any device you connect to via Bluetooth. In that case, try going to Spotify's settings on your device and turn off the option 'Spotify Connect in background'. Then restart the app and check if that makes a difference.

If not, you can also try performing a clean reinstall of the Spotify app. You won't lose any content, but you might need to download your offline music again.

If nothing helps,  send over the make, model, and OS version of your device, along with the Spotify version you have installed. We'll take a look.

We'll keep an eye out for your reply!

[DocDefilade]

Hi there @Susan_GP 

Thanks for the response.

Turning Spotify Connect in background is something that I turned off after reading other threads, so that isn't the cause.

There was one thing that wasn't turned off in the Android Auto that is now switched off and I will report back after I can test it.

I'm hoping that the not staying paused issue might be fixed also if the Android Auto thing works. I feel that it is just a loop of it wanting to automatically play, and after I pause it, it wants to auto play again and again.

We'll see what happens.

Thanks for taking the time to help.

[DocDefilade]

Hey there,

The thread you linked to is actually my thread, that didn't work either.
It started this thread to hopefully get a new solution, particularly since there is now the added annoyance of me not being able to pause the playback anymore.

Even when the app is closed it starts playing back from where I left off, and when I pause it pauses for a second, then plays again. The only way to stop playback is by opening the app, and then closing it again.
I believe that I have turned off all autoplay permissions in the phone settings and in the Spotify settings.

When I search for a solution to this, I only find people searching for solutions, but not fixes so far.

Looks like people have been searching for a fix to this for over 5 years.

I would hate to do this, but if I can't figure this out soon I'm going to have to cancel Spotify. It really is that much of a issue.

If something this simple can't be fixed, with the hundreds of threads over many many years, then I'll just remove the source of the problem.

I really like Spotify, and have been a subscriber for many years and want to keep the service, I just can't deal with how upset this makes me a couple times a day, so thousands and thousands of times so far.

[MihailY]

Hey @DocDefilade,

Apologies for the confusion, the link has been replaced with the correct one. Feel free to check out the suggestions there and also see if these make any difference.

Regarding your issue with not being able to pause the playback - does this occur with podcasts or music (or both)? We're currently investigating issues with pausing podcasts here, so please share the details requested if this is the only type of content being affected.

Keep us posted.