Randomly pausing and skipping (wired headphones)

[s00zey]

Device

OnePlus 6

Operating System

Android 11

I use wired headphones on my OnePlus and Spotify has started randomly pausing and skipping songs. NOTICE: I know why this happens. The headphone wire is getting old and that means that the connection is not 100% reliable at all times. There are contact errors that last for microseconds at a time, imperceptible to human hearing but that is enough for Spotify to interpret that as a total disconnection, or misinterpret it as a handsfree control input to skip a song. It's an analog audio signal. I only need the application to send that signal and I don't want it to care if I hear it or not.

So, my question is not about what the problem is. I know what the problem is. My question is: How can I completely disable all playback controls other than the literal touch screen buttons so that my headphones cannot affect the application's playback at all? If I want to skip or pause, I will unlock my screen and tap the button on the application. I never want the application to change its behavior otherwise. I have access to Android developer options but I can't find any relevant settings there.

[Yordan]

Hey @s00zey,

Thanks for reaching out!

I don't think it's possible to do this. The app will automatically pause the playback when the headphones are disconnected. As for the tracks being skipped, I'm not sure what causes this behavior. If your headphones have playback buttons, this could be related to a malfunction on their part. It's worth replacing the cable, if that's an option.

Cheers 🤘

[s00zey]

So, it's an Android operating system issue? Or a Spotify issue? Is the phone hard-wired to auto-pause the instant there's a contact flaw or is it the application doing that?

[Yordan]

Hi @s00zey,

Thanks for the reply.

I believe this is triggered by the OS, since other media apps do it too.

The Community is always here if there's anything else you need assistance with.