Mobile Android volume button controls Spotify Connect instead of phone's media volume

[Boekk]

Plan

Premium

Device

Huawei, Samsung, OnePlus

Operating System

Android 10

Spotify version 8.5.74.834

Harman Kardon Towers with Google Assistent and Spotify

My Question or Issue

Normally the volume buttons on my Android phone control the media volume of videos/media that I play on my phone. Lately, however, the volume buttons control Spotify volume when music is playing via the Google Assistant HK Speakers (increasing/decreasing the HK speakers, not my phone). You can see in the screenshot how there's a casting symbol for volume control. I know it is the Spotify app and not Google Home or Chromecast, because when I go offline on Spotify the music keeps on playing on the Google Home HK Speakers, but i can't control the volume via my phone anymore. 

So, how do I set the volume buttons on my phone to control the media from my phone instead of the volume from the Google Home HK Speakers?

[Xenia]

Hey there @Boekk,

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community!

Apologies for the delayed response, we just came across this thread.

Just to clarify - when you say go offline on Spotify, do you mean closing the app on your phone or switching into Offline Mode? Keep in mind that Spotify Connect doesn't work in Offline Mode or when you turn on flight mode, since both devices must be connected to the same WiFi, which might explain why you're not able to control the volume of your speakers. 

If, however, you're listening to Spotify on your speaker while playing a different audio source on your phone, there should be a drop down list that will allow you to switch between the different audio sources.

Hope you'll find this info useful. Let us know how it goes! We’ll be right here if you still need help 🙂

[marvinfrede]

Found a solution yet?

[ItCameFromGOOR]

The drop down does not let you choose which volume levels will be controlled by the physical buttons.

[Ver]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out to us 🙂

This is an expected behavior because the volume buttons prioritize the app that is running. If you want to change the volume while playing a song, you can open the app and then turn the volume up or down.

Hope this helps. If you have more questions, we are here for you.

[ItCameFromGOOR]

I'm having this issue when spotify is running in the background and I am
using another app, youtube for example.

[Ver]

Hey @ItCameFromGOOR,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Just to double check-If you open another app, can you still regulate the volume of Spotify? If that's the case, we'd suggest you restart your device and then log out and log back in again. If the issue persists, you can give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. That way you can make sure the cache is not causing any issues.

If you still experience this issue, you can try on another device. 

Keep us in the loop! If you have questions, you know where to find us.

[ItCameFromGOOR]

Yes that is basically what is happening but sometimes the problem seems to
fix itself

[Ver]

Hey @ItCameFromGOOR,

Thanks for keeping us posted 🙂

This could be a device-related issue. It's a good idea to restart the device and then to log out and log back in again. That way any changes can sync up. You can also check these steps and run a clean reinstall. Is there any change?

If the issue persists, you can try logging in to your account on another account. By doing that we can check if this is indeed a device-related issue.

Let us know how it goes. We'll be right here if you have any questions.

[Naughty_Jothi]

Same issue on Samsung best Galaxy Note 10+, Android 10, One UI 2.5. Huh must be something to do with the biggest android phone market share phones - Samsung 😕 

Doubt a smaller company like Spotify here would be at fault when there's a slight conflict with thier app and the largest phone manufacture. Oh well

[Niemack]

I was about to make an agitated request about please finally fixing this issue when I figured, well I'll try the clean install thing first, will probably not fix anything but here goes nothing... and it worked! 

Thanks for fixing this, this was really annoying and almost blew up my speakers twice when I tried to adjust the volume on a youtube video and spotify hijacked the volume buttons 🙂

[Alex]

Hi @Niemack,

Thanks for sharing what worked for you with the Community!

You can mark the post which helped you as a Solution so other users with the same issue might find it easier.

Cheers.

[user4561]

I have been hit by the same issue, but only noticed that a week ago. The same behavior as in the screenshot: while being on the home screen pressing hardware volume buttons causes Spotify Connect to intercept the press and change volume on the smart speakers. I cannot change audio volume while using Google Duo and some other apps that play video.

Tested on Samsung A51 and OnePlus 7 - same issue.

Note, on the screenshot volume icon looks like you are casting your screen. When did Spotify start emulating sound "casting"? Can I downgrade to that version?

The only workaround I found is to kill the Spotify app. Which is annoying. If there will be no solution to this bug I will uninstall it completely so I don't need to kill it ten times a day.

[Niemack]

Same here, please fix this, it is so annoying and I almost killed my living room speakers on multiple occasions because I wanted to turn up the volume on another app.

Note the screenshot attached - the volume slider looks like it is adjusting something that is cast, in fact, it is controlling spotify connect when clearly I am in the play store at that time.

[Brainu]

The same thing happened to me. I wanted to raise the volume on my phone (on a video, unrelated to Spotify) and I raised the volume to the max in my living room. I don't think my neighbors liked it...

It got fixed though after I reinstalled the app on my phone. I just hope it stays like that.

[Brainu]

Nope, it's back to how it was. I have to keep reinstalling the app and it works for a random amount of time.

[world2explore]

Exact same problem here, on latest Spotify and latest Android on Samsung 9+. Turned my Bose speakers up to Max while trying to adjust the volume of another app I was in 😡 I'm sure my neighbours didn't like that!! PLEASE FIX THIS BEHAVIOR

[djgoosh]

same problem here.. any solution ?

even when i'm listening through another device and not using the connect the phone still control the volume key !! really annoying and quite dangerous..

One time i accidently put the volume up key all the way up when i wanted to increase the volume of a video on my galaxy device and it was connected to my Denon receiver and the kids were near.. they got scared and started to cry !!

PLEASE FIX

[arte_nm]

no its not a solution. I have tested it on 4 devices. All clean install and its still happening. Why are Spotify Mod community so useless.

Why are you just eager to mark something as solved after one guy jumps through the hoops to enable/disable stuff in their PCs - its not solved its a workaround by person that has been fed up that they pay for service and absolutely no issues are being fixed.

Workaround by clever person is not "Job Done" for spotify. Your job here Mods is to report the issue to development. 

I'm experiencing the same issues for over 5 years now. I found links to issues that I'm having to posts from 2013 marked as solved. And All next posts being closed because: iT wAs SoLvEd iN tHaT PoSt FrOm 2013. 

I have never seen more useless community page than of multi billion dollar industry Giant. 

[Ivan]

Hey @arte_nm, 

Thanks for posting on the Community about this. 
 

If you still observe this happening across multiple devices after a clean reinstall, it'd also be helpful to check how it goes when a different Spotify account gets logged in on your device to see if this could be an account-related issue. You can ask a friend or family member to log in to their own Spotify account on your device, or simply create a test account for this purpose. 

If it works with another account, you can follow the steps in this Spotify Answer next.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted.