Music is playing on other device when i hit play on phone, when it shows that phone is output device

[lfedo21]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Galaxy S9, pc

Operating System

Latest update, and windows 10

My Question or Issue

My phone and pc dont usually auto connect, which is okay. But when i pause the music on my pc when im taking a break from gaming, and change to my phone which shows a different song playing from before i hopped on the pc. i hit play and it will play for 30 seconds. Then, even after i have paused the music on my pc, it will 7 times out of 10 switch to playing on my pc, no audio coming out of the phone. The other 3 times, it will change the song on the phone to the one that was playing last on my pc, but pause and wont be playing.

This is only an issue when they dont actually connect, which is what i prefer. Sometimes it will connect, and i have to switch them as i switch. But if the 2 didnt connect when i was on the pc listening, why does my phone connect to it and start playing on the pc after i paused it, walked away, and hit play on my phone?

Autoconnect, if its going to work, should only work if im playing music on my pc. there is no reason my phone should autoconnect if my pc isnt playing music anymore. And if it did, the pc should be reading that my phone is playing music. It shouldnt connect and change the output device, especially after i paused it and played it specifically on the phone after. Turning it onto local devices wont help, all 3 devices i use spotify on are on the same network

[Alex]

Hi there @lfedo21,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

If both of your devices appear on the Connect Tab, that means that they're both connected. The app will remember which device you played music on last and will automatically start playing music from that device no matter which device you press play on. This is why playback will sometimes start on your PC automatically. To avoid this try clicking on the connect tab on your phone and selecting the phone from the list. After that you should start hearing music from your phone. 

Note that connection issues may cause delay in updating the Now listening view across devices. You can try clearing the app cache and restarting your router, which should speed this process up. 

It's also good to run a clean reinstall of your apps from time to time to avoid issues caused by corrupted cache.

Hope you find this info useful. Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.

[lfedo21]

Hi, i know how the connect tab works. As i said, my phone, will not show up on the pc, and my pc doesnt show the phone. I will pause the pc, and play on the phone afterward. After 30 seconds, it will stop, show whats on the pc and say music is playing on the pc. Neither showed up in the tab. When i got on the pc, i dont need to transfer through the connect tab. When i get on the phone, i dont need to transfer for 30 seconds. Then, since its already playing music, i assume its fine, but it auto switches back to pc.

With your solution, the phone would already be connected to spotify on my pc. Like ive said, this rarely happens automatically.

This isnt a connection issue with my router. There are 0 connection issues on any of the devices we have connected. As far as i can tell, its straight up just the spotify app not working how its supposed to. The connect feature lags, or is just straight glitched to the point where it doesnt work when its supposed to.

If i pause it on one device, and press play on another that is not connected, it doesnt matter what the app remembers, it shouldnt change the output device. If i play music on my phone that isnt connected to my pc, after pausing it on my pc, the music shouldnt jump back to the pc after 30 seconds of it playing on the phone If i press pause/play on my phone while it is connected and i am listening on my pc, that is the only time that controlling the phone should pause/plays it on pc.

[Alex]

Hi there @lfedo21,

Thanks for the detailed reply.

Normally you should be able to see all the active devices which you're logged on with your Spotify account in the Connect tab. If that's not the case try running the clean reinstall on both apps. Note that you'd have to redownload all your Offline music afterwards, since it includes clearing the app cache.

As we weren't able to reproduce this on our end, we'd need to go through a series of troubleshooting steps to get to the bottom of this 🙂

Can you also let us know if you've tried connecting your phone and PC to another network, like a mobile Hotspot?

Keep us posted.

[candera]

This behavior is super annoying. I go into another room and say, "Alexa, play Spotify." It does. As I walk out of the room, I say, "Alexa, pause." It does. So far, so good. I go to my computer, sit down and hit the play button. I'm nowhere near the other speaker. I want it to play on my computer. I have absolutely no reason to want it to play elsewhere.

I understand the behavior, but I still find myself making this mistake all the time, because it is surprising, counterintuitive, and unnatural to hit play on a device that can play the music and have the music come out of a different device.

Please at least make this an option, although I can't imagine why this wouldn't be the default. Devices are not right next to each other. Play means, "Play here." Anything else is weird. 

[Eni]

Hey @candera,

Thanks for reaching out about this. 

We understand where you're coming from and we appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us. We will make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.

[Bonified]

Hi.

Need assistance please. 

Was playing spotify on my phone in the bus and it kept on pausing and changing song and when I check on connected devices it shows that's it's connected to a PPA-LX device.. 

I logged off the app and switched off my phone for a few minutes. 

I need assistance in that regard 

[Dian]

Hey @Bonified,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

Could you go through the steps on this page to make sure your account is secured?

Let us know how that went,

Cheers!

[music__]

This is happening for me as well.  I have a desktop at home, laptop at home, desktop in the office and my phone.  I'm listening to Spotify on my desktop at home then press pause.  I leave my house (theres no more wifi) and then open Spotify on my phone.  It starts playing on my desktop at the house!  I then have to change the active device to my phone.  When I sit at my office computer, open Spotify, it plays on my phone instead of the app I just opened.  Is there any way to not have to change this manually everytime?

[MihailY]

Hey @music__,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

What you're describing is unfortunately currently not possible, however, we do understand your point and we've made sure to forward your suggestion to the relevant team here at Spotify.

Let us know if there's anything else.

[music__]

Ok, question though, when I pause at home and flip to my iPhone, do you know why it works for ~30 seconds and then flips back to my home?  I have to then flip it back to my iPhone.  I'd say I have to do it once or twice before it registers to continue playing on my phone or whatever current device I want to overtake as the primary.

[AlejaR]

Hey @music__,

Thanks for your reply and for the info shared.

So, we'd like you to try by reinstalling the app on you device you notice any difference. You can find out the steps to do it in this article. Once you've done that, let us know if the playback continues to flip.

If that doesn't do the trick, would you mind sending us a video recording of this behavior? Please attach the video in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload it to YouTube or Google drive and make it public, so we can visualize it.

Lastly, can you send us the exact Spotify version you have running in your device?

Keep us in the loop!

[Rhiphiar]

Plan

Premium

Country

United Kingdom

Device

Google Pixel 6 Pro

Operating System

Android

My Question or Issue

How do I stop Spotify from showing songs playing on other devices on the lock screen of my phone? This is particularly annoying when I am playing through my laptop and the phone lock screen wakes to tell me the song has changed.