How do I wrestle back the control of my play button from Spotify?

[Jaydo]

Hello everyone,

I use my headset's call button to pause and skip audio in the various apps. This external control is important to me as I am often on the move. The normal Android behavior is that the button controls whichever app you are using at the moment. If I turn on Spotify then it takes control of the play button, but then it does not let go of it.

If I switch to another app, like PowerAmp (where I spend more time) the play button will actually stop PowerAmp and start Spotify. This will happen even if I force-close Spotify through settings! Even restarting my phone no longer seems to work (like it used to). I had to uninstall Spotify so that I can use other apps, which is unfortunate because I only recently subscribed. Is this fixable?

I am on LG v10, with the latest Android update.

[Jaydo]

Well that's unfortunate.

Since my last post, other music apps started showing issues. Podcast Addict now hogs the controls and if I close it, the buttons stop working all together. Seems like it may just be Android. There seems to be no preference for the controls. How does it all work? I guess just random commands running around aimlessly in circles in a maze and bumping into one another.

[Jaydo · Accepted solution]

One more update while I'm here (for another problem) . I needed to reset the phone for something else and now the controls work as they are supposed to (the headset buttons control whatever app was opened last). So i guess that's a solution...