Chromecast / Bluetooth Issue - Help Pleaae

[philstation]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Pixel 3a / Google Home Mini

Operating System

Android 10

My Question or Issue

At night, I use Spotify to "Cast" to a Google Home Mini in my daughter's room which works as expected. The problem that I have is that when I go to bed, a few hours later, and connect my Bluetooth headphones to my phone, Spotify automatically switches to playing out of my headphones, even without the app running in the foreground. What is worse, is that the speaker then starts talking about how it cannot continue because the account is in use elsewhere which, given my daughter is asleep, is not good!

I am not intending to listen to Spotify on my headphones, I just want to listed to some podcasts using another app which makes this incredibly frustrating.

I can see how this could be useful in some situations but in my use case it is most definitely not. 

Is this intended functionality?

Is there any way to stop this behaviour?

[Kbella]

Did you find a solution for this?? I am having the exact same issue right now, and with the Google mini too! Really hoping you found a fix!! 

[Eni]

Hi @Kbella, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

We recommend that you unpair your headphones from your phone, restart the device an pair them anew. That way the connection will be built from the ground up.

It's also worthwhile to check the individual device settings from your Bluetooth menu after paring the devices again.

If those steps don't do the trick, could you let us know if this started happening after a specific event such as an update?

Keep us posted.

[Kbella]

Hi @Eni ,

Thanks for the help! I tried everything you suggested and unfortunately there's no change. Though I did realize I had one detail wrong in my initial post. When I connect Bluetooth headset (or earbuds), Spotify immediately stops playing on my Google Mini and starts playing on my phone, but NOT thru the headset/earbuds. It plays thru the phone's speaker even though it says it's connected to the Bluetooth device I just connected. So strange! There isn't an app or settings option for either the headset I'm trying to use nor for the earbuds. Both have previously worked just fine without this happening. This issue has only come up when I plugged in a wired headset one time. Nothing changed to make this randomly happen now, not that I'm aware of at least. Has been a couple weeks since last phone update (pixel 4a) and everything was working fine every day since. This all just started a few days ago. 

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thx!

[Ver]

Hey @Kbella,

Thanks for getting back to us 🙂

It's also a good idea to give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. This one is more thorough than the usual one.

Could you try logging in to another account on the same device to check if that makes a difference?

Let us know how it goes.

[jlivingston]

This is absolutely not solved and the suggested solutions are silly. This is not a bug in an installation, it’s a design flaw in the app. (A particularly infuriating one)

Not only does the white noise I use to sooth my daughter to sleep stop on the google home when I connect my headphones, but it WAKES her with an obnoxious announcement that Spotify is being used on a different device.

[Kbella]

Fully agree with everything you just said! I get so frustrated when I've tried every troubleshooting sequence imaginable (plus a few helpful tips that other struggling people posted on the interwebs) just to get asked if I have checked the settings or reset the pairing. 🤦🏻‍♀️ 

But whatever. It's all part of the process, right??

I truly cannot express what I feel when I hear that all too familiar LOUD af announcement "Spotify has stopped playing since it is being used on another device" ... "Rage" probably comes close.

But seriously, that announcement has been shouted at me thru my Google Mini's speakers several times when I have been sitting still, watching a YouTube video over the phone with earbuds in, while Spotify music is playing thru Google Mini in the family room. No changes for a decent stretch of time, no devices turned on/off, no loss of or addition to Bluetooth connection, etc. Random, completely random.

I play soft piano music to help fall asleep at night. Then just like you said happens with your daughter, Spotify will randomly scream at me loudly that the connection was lost cuz it is being used on another device. That is the worst, it takes so long to get my heart rate down after that!! I've seriously considered cancelling my PAID Spotify membership countless times due to these issues. I always talk myself out of it in the end. But I just don't know how much longer I'll be able to take it. 

[jlivingston]

RIGHT??

I’ve had some luck casting, then closing the app, then playing something on a different app, then connecting my headphones.

Recently though, the spotify app has been persistent in reminding my iphone that it is the source of the cast and my phone seems to process that as ongoing media playback and automatically re-routs the audio to the newly connected device.

I always know if it will do this when I connect by locking my phone and seeing if the play controls for spotify are on my lock screen. If they are, I keep messing with it and other apps till it goes away. Even then I’m only successful about half of the time.

[CAV0K]

Why is this marked solved? It is not solved. 

What would solve this is either a setting in the app for a hierarchy of connected device priority (likely a complicated solution), or an option to turn off automatic streaming to a newly connected headset when already streaming to another connected device (seemingly a very simple solution).

Please fix this, it is a terribly inconvenient default behaviour in the app.

[OscarDC]

Hey @CAV0K,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome. 

Spotify will usually recognize the external audio when you have the app open or playing in the background. However, it shouldn't change the audio source if the app is fully closed.

Would you mind including in your next response a short video where we can see what is happening to help you further? You can attach it by using the Insert Video option in the post editor or uploading it to Google Drive and sharing the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to see it).

We'll be on the lookout.

[bwarren97]

I'm going to join the ranks of the people complaining about this issue. I use Chromecast Audio at my work, and sometimes put on a pair of Bluetooth headphones when I want to talk on the phone. I use these headphones outside of work to listen to music, so I don't want to disable the "Audio Playback" on this device from my phone.

I know that closing Spotify on my phone will prevent the music from disconnecting from the Chromecast, but sometimes I forget. What I want is for Spotify to have a built-in behavior (or as an option in Settings) that if it's currently playing on an external device (ie. Chromecast), that it DOES NOT automatically switch when it detects a new Bluetooth device being connected. That would be great.

[Kbella]

I fully agree!! That would be a HUGE help. It's sad that I'm now in the
habit to automatically pause the living room Google mini in our house
(always playing Spotify, 12-16 hrs/day) every time I want to wear my
Bluetooth earbuds to listen to something on my phone. Then I have to wait
for the earbuds to be fully connected, wait for a second or two, and THEN I
can play Spotify again and trust that I'll be able to use my Bluetooth
device as intended!! There have been several times when I hear the
connection tone from the earbuds and play Spotify, only to hear the dreaded
message about it being played on another device & have the music blast
directly into my ears! That's why I said I have to wait a second or two,
and even then it doesn't always guarantee that I waited "long enough" for
Spotify's liking.

*Sigh* It is exhausting. It's a damn music app ... Which I love, and PAY
FOR every damn month!! It would be so fantastic if they could work this
mess out.

Basically my long winded (with a dash of venting haha) way of saying: Your
idea to put it in the settings - perfect! 🙂

[jlivingston]

YES

PLEASE GIVE US AN OPTION TO TURN OFF AUTOMATIC SWITCHING.

There is seldom a situation where automatic switching is actually desired. It’s almost always an annoying side-effect that makes the spotify app less useful.

The best part is, it’s not even hard to implement! 😄

[jlivingston]

This continues to be frustrating and seems to have gotten worse with the latest update.

Attached is a video of my phone having no apps open at all (spotify included) and it's still feeding the player api with the audio playing on my nursery speaker. I NEED to be able to connect my phone to bluetooth to do my job. I also NEED the baby to take full naps to do my job and having my speaker stop playing audio and wake the baby with it's whole "this audio can't be played" is a fate worse than death.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oy_x30_X4tDOXkePy2ymll9UCuvrEE2M/view?usp=sharing

[jlivingston]

Responded in the thread but not to you directly. Here's a video of my phone with NO apps running (spotify included) where spotify is still feeding the player api and making it so that I can't connect any bluetooth devices to my phone for fear of ending one of two naps I get per day to actually focus on my job. Unfortunately, I'm a software engineer for a podcast company and my job requires that I connect my phone to bluetooth throughout the day. As I type this, I'm in checkmate. Send help.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oy_x30_X4tDOXkePy2ymll9UCuvrEE2M/view?usp=sharing

[Eni]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for all the info you've sent so far.

We'd like to investigate this further. In this case, would you mind providing us with the following info:

• troubleshooting steps you've tried
• make/model and OS of your devices 
• Spotify version
• does it happen on any device or only on a specific one?

We'll be on the lookout for your replies.

[jlivingston]

This issue has spanned several make/model/os/version combinations for me but I'm currently on an iphone 13 pro max with ios 16.0.2 (20a380) and Spotify version 8.7.68.568

I've listed troubleshooting steps in previous comments but here's some things I regularly try (sometimes they work, sometimes they don't)

Player API switcheroo
1) Cast music from spotify

2) Open youtube and play a youtube video

3) Quit spotify while youtube is playing

4) Pray. <-- Generally ineffective

Use a different device:

Cast spotify from my laptop while spotify is closed on my phone. <-- This frequently doesn't work.

Uninstall spotify on my phone while the baby naps:

-- Frankly this is the most reliable option

--

Again, this isn't a bug, it's a design flaw. Using the player API while casting subjects the listening session to IOS's opinionated device handling. We need an option to disconnect the cast from our device and allow the casted device (Google home, chromecast, Google speaker group, etc) to be regarded as the primary spotify client for the listening session.

[jlivingston]

(Even if I use smart speaker voice commands to start the listening session and pull my airpods out of their case never having unlocked my phone, it will STILL reroute the audio)

[Kbella]

Troubleshooting steps I've tried are listed in previous posts within this thread. What I can remember off hand: I have uninstalled/reinstalled Spotify far too many times to count, updated Spotify when/if necessary, unpaired/paired Bluetooth earbuds, and I am sure I have done more than I can't recall at this time. 

The following is what I currently have to do every single day, several times a day, in order to play Spotify on the family room Google Mini speaker while also using Bluetooth earbuds that are connected to my phone:

Pause Spotify, turn Google Mini sound down, put earbuds in, wait for them to make the sound that they have connected to my phone, wait a couple of seconds just to be safe, then tell Spotify to connect to the Google mini again (since it automatically chooses the Bluetooth device), wait for that connection to be successful, press play, then increase the volume back to where it was. If I miss any of those steps, I will be deafened by Spotify either blasting the music directly into my earbuds without me telling it to play there, or by Spotify yelling thru the Google Mini that it has been disconnected & is being played on another device.

Spotify version:  8.7.72.546

I am using a Google Pixel 4a, Android version:  13

This is the phone I've used the entire time. It has happened with multiple different Bluetooth devices, though. 

[Kbella]

I feel #4 has been *entirely* ineffective on my end. Must not be doing it right ... Or do all the 4 letter words not count?? From how things are looking, maybe I just need to "reinstall my connection"... or "check for updates."