Force Stop not working on Pixel 6xl with Android 13

[poeticdisaster]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Google Pixel 6XL 

Operating System

Android 13

My Question or Issue
Force stop is no longer working for my Spotify app. It works for every other app that it is meant to work for but Spotify just won't turn off.  Background data usage & notifications are disabled.  I tried clearing my cache, restarting my phone and making sure that everything is up to date (the phone and all apps are currently).  I even tried a completely clean reinstall but I still cannot force stop the app. 
Can someone take a look into why this could be happening?  

Here is how it goes:   Open the phone -> Navigate to the Settings menu ->  open the Apps menu -> choose Spotify ->  Click Force Stop -> Confirm by clicking OK on the confirmation window ->   Nothing happens.
Spotify continues to run in the background - Both my PC & tablet show Spotify playing on the phone and ask if I want to switch to that device if I want to listen.

[St_Moritz]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Moto G7 Power

Operating System

Android 10

My Question or Issue

Since version 8.8.10.582, the app constantly runs in the foreground and it is not possible to stop it running  (pressing "force stop" in the app settings has no effect).  I have followed your instructions to do a clean reinstall but the app still runs continually, using up memory.  I have installed the previous version 8.8.8.548 which can be stopped from running with no problems.  Please could you advise if there is a way to fix this or if it can be addressed in future updates.

[Joan]

Hi there @St_Moritz 

Thanks for reaching out. If possible, could you please test if this same behaviour happens on other devices too? Also, please make a screen recording of the exact behaviour. With this information, we'd be happy to investigate this for you.

Keep us posted.

[Dian]

Hey @poeticdisaster ,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

Could you check if you have allowed any permissions for Spotify to run in the background? Maybe those override the force stop option.

As much as we'd like to help you out further, we think it'd be best to contact the manufacturer of your device as this looks like a device specific issue.

Hope this clears things a bit,

Cheers!

[St_Moritz]

Hi there Joan

Thanks for your message.  I have also tried the app on a Lenovo Tablet running Android 7.1.1 and I do get the same problem.  I attach a screen recording, showing me pressing the "force stop" button 3 times but it does not grey out and stays running.

I use an app called Greenify, which automates closing any running apps. It says that Spotify is "running as foreground (evading restrictions)" and it is the only app that I cannot stop running.

I hope this helps and wait your advice 

[Joan]

Hi @St_Moritz 

Thanks for the info. Does this happen also when Greenify is disabled/uninstalled? Did the issue occur before you installed Greenify for the first time, or was it only the update that seemed to cause it?

Keep us posted.

[St_Moritz]

Hi Joan

Thanks for your message.

I have disabled Greenify, as you suggested, and tried to stop the Spotify app but it still will not close. I find Greenify is a very useful app that automates closing apps that remain running after being used and I have been using it for many years now, so I don't think Greenify is the cause.

It has only been the updates since 8.8.10.582 last month that have caused this issue. All updates before that one (up to 8.8.8.548) have caused no problems in stopping.  I had hoped an update might fix it but so far they have not.

I look forward to your advice.

[sludgee]

Im having the same issue with my galaxy j7 running android 9! For the time being I've just been uninstalling it every time I'm done listening but that's getting old very quickly.

[poeticdisaster]

I've tried with and without background data enabled. Background data is the first thing I disable when I download an app. Is there anything else that could be causing this? 

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

Does this happen when the app is closed on all other devices that you're logged in on? Also, please let us know your Spotify version.

Keep us posted.

[St_Moritz]

Hi there

Just to confirm that I tried to "force stop" Spotify this morning and it actually worked, as the button greyed out. Not sure if there was a recent update to Spotify or the phone's system but it seems to have finally done the trick   I'm running the latest version 8.8.20.544. Thanks.

[St_Moritz]

Further to my last post, I'm afraid I spoke too soon.  The Spotify app has now decided to run in the foreground again and no amount of pressing "force stop" will kill it.  Clearly there is a service running that has a mind of its own.

[Zoli1972]

I have the exact same issue on my Samsung S8+. Also having high battery drain. Spotify frequently starts itself, I assume every time when I connect to any Bluetooth audio capable device, although I didn't use the app for the past 6 months at least. I have also problems using other audio player / webradio apps, maybe due to Spotify interfering with them during establishing the Bluetooth connection. This apps often refuse to restart playing when they were in pause mode, even if this was for a few seconds. I assume this problems are all caused by the Spotify app always running in the background and occupying ressources like the Bluetooth audio connection, so that other apps are unable to use them, and causing high battery drain. 

Any solutions other than uninstalling /abandoning Spotify?

Zoli

[vincentrifuge]

same issue for me on Android 12 (phone)

Spotify version 8.8.22.510

Cannot force close the app, also tried a clean reinstall (deleting all data + uninstall + install)

I also went into the Spotify settings inside the app and the Android settings for the app, but can't seem to find any solution by changing some things which could have anything to do with it.

Please fix asap, this app behavior is not ok! We are in charge of our device, not Spotify!!

[vincentrifuge]

I want to add that this Spotify version is the latest version of the app for me if I check the Play Store!

It says the latest update in the store was march 27, but i cannot force close for a while now, I can't say the version it started with but I feel it's at least one or 2 months now.

[random4456433689]

Hello,

I'm having the same issue and I almost uninstalled Spotify app. I was also one step from moving to another service and close my family account membership because not only the Spotify app is behaving rudely and badly, as in, it must NEVER be automatically started unless explicitly requested by me, it's MY device, NOT Spotify's! Secondly, they do not allow me to use Spotify with a web browser on my phone, it can play songs but they won't let it open my library, EVEN when I request the desktop version on my phone. EXTREMELY rude and bad behavior by the Spotify app AND the website.

That being said, here is the solution I found for this, well it's more like "solution" than solution:

They have hooked Spotify app into that Bluetooth drivers or something, when you open Spotify, it starts your Bluetooth service on the phone even if you don't use Bluetooth! (yet another rude and bad behavior by Spotify app), so you have to first force stop Bluetooth (you need to "show hidden system apps" in the "Apps" list of Android phone, so after force stopping Bluetooth service, then Spotify is ableb to be "forced closed" and will not run again until next time you start it. You have to of course do this every time you want to force stop Spotify.

This kind of "bug" is an extremely big important issue as it makes me trust Spotify much much less and treat it as a bad behaving app, when distrust comes about an app on my phone, to it usually ends up being removed and replaced by something better. Thankfully there are other options to replace Spotify with, but I rather not do it as it is time consuming to move from Spotify but believe me, I WILL do it and move to another service if this issue is not fixed soon.

My Spotify version currently: 8.8.22.510

Thank you.

[vincentrifuge]

I was happy and hopeful to try your solution, but sadly i can not confirm that this fixes the issue for me.

I tried force stopping both the Bluetooth service and the Bluetooth MIDI service on my phone: still can't force stop Spotify.

I checked all (system) apps and no other app has anything about bluetooth in its name.

I went ahead and checked all running services in the developer options of Android, but no bluetooth related service was still running, according to the names of those services at least.

So sadly, even without the bluetooth services running on my phone, I still can't force stop Spotify.

[random4456433689]

How strange and borderline insane behavior of Spotify app, one thing I forgot to mention, try this while you are playing a song, if there is no song playing, then Spotify will not force stop. Sometimes it will sometimes it won't but for me, it always force stop when I am in middle of playing a file and try the force stop, then after that go to Bluetooth and force stop that one. I'm curious if this will work for you now.

[poeticdisaster]

As I explained in my original post,  I have background data disabled and even tried a clean install. 
It's now a month later and I'm on a newer version of the app - version 8.8.24.307  but there has been no change.
Force Stop does not work for Spotify on my both my Google Pixel 6 Pro and my Samsung SM-X200 tablet.  Every single other app is able to be force stopped. 

This is NOT device specific - please report this to the engineers/developers as a backend dev could easily figure this out. 

I also do not have any apps installed that have control over other apps like some other posters in this thread. 

[random4456433689]

I think I have found the issue, every time you open a website in ANY web browser (even full fledged browsers like Vivaldi or Edge that are not using Android System WebView) or an app using Android System WebView, if this website uses the video function (and maybe the sound but I think only the video) of HTML5, Spotify will automatically run! Not only that, even if you don't have Bluetooth antenna of the phone activated (as in, from the drawer menu on top, no active Bluetooth connection), even if the Bluetooth (hidden service) has been forced stop, Spotify will start the service!

While the website and the tab are active, even if you browse to a different website while still in the same browser tab that had the HTML5 tag, you CANNOT force stop Spotify! Only if you close the tab or the app, then you are able to force stop Spotify.

This is an extremely strange bug.

Questions:

Is this related to advertising and tracking everything you watch and listen to by Spotify? If that's the case, is such a thing even legal? Wouldn't such an app behavior fall under spyware category?

Is this a bug in Android library itself that provides video (sound?) functionality for HTML5? No other app in my device automatically starts though, except Spotify. Did they go lazy and are just using some buggy built-in function? Why doesn't this happen to any other apps on my phone except Spotify? Why does Spotify also start the Bluetooth service? What exactly is going on that once this happens, you cannot even force stop the Spotify app? What is it doing in the background?

To be clear, I'm not accusing Spotify of spying or being a spyware, I'm merely questioning the situation and if it's done on purpose for some reason or if it's just a nasty bug, the thing is, this could actually be an Android bug?

Would an app even be able to listen on anything and everything you watch and listen to? That seems a very scary bug or feature if that's the case.

My post contains only questions and speculation regarding this issue, but I believe Spotify has duty to answer regarding this issue and explain to us (their paying customers) why is Spotify automatically starting when you open a completely unrelated application to watch a video (or sound?)?

I highly and certainly doubt Spotify will answer. Also, considering they do NOT allow me to use the web version of Spotify on my phone EVEN THOUGH I SPECIFICALLY REQUEST THE DESKTOP VERSION, it makes me think they really really want you to install their app and my next thought is, this is not a safe application when it automatically starts without my consent on MY device.

Unless Spotify answers, explains and or fixes this issue, I personally feel that I have two choices:

1. Live with this.

2. Stop paying for and stop using Spotify and take my money to another service that respects my control over my own device.

Again, I absolutely and highly and surely and certainly doubt that Spotify will answer or explain or even fix this...

...but hey, stranger things have happened before, right?