Spotify will forget what last played after a while and play pop music

[Mineshaft110]

After a while of not playing music with Spotify whenever I go to press play from the pull down notification tab on my phone it will occasionally not play what it says is in the greyed out window and then start playing pop music from artists that I have never listened to with it stating "playing suggested music" at the top of the screen.

I don't know what I do to cause this issue to occur but it has been going on for weeks. The strange thing is that it will play the last song that I was listening to, stating "playing from play queue", only after I open the app and start playing a playlist then goes back to the playlist stating "playing from playlist daily mix (x)".

[Dian]

Hey @Mineshaft110,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

In order for us to investigate this further, could you share a short video recording of what exactly is happening on your end?

Keep us posted.

Cheers!

[Mineshaft110]

Hey Dian,

I appreciate the reply. However, since I am unsure what causes the issue I am unable to reliably replicate it, it happens at random times. Sometimes it can take hours from not listening to music on Spotify or even 10 minutes. The same thing happens each time where there is a pause from the moment I press play to when music starts playing, the music is always Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, or Taylor Swift. In order to try and combat this I have had to put these songs into the "Do Not Play" feature but they will still play when this issue pops up. It happens both after listening through a Bluetooth speaker as well as not using Bluetooth for a few days.

It happens almost once a day so I will try to take a screen recording when this issue comes up but I don't know how long that will take since I don't know the cause of the issue and will take some time to get recorded.

If it is any help I am using a Sony Xperia 10V with the latest system software as well as the latest version of Spotify.

Once again I appreciate the concern and I will strive to get the footage required

Many Thanks

[Mineshaft110]

Hi there Dian,

Here is a video that I managed to get where the issue occurs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qswwRp5p77E

Hopefully this can shed some light on the situation.

[Susan_GP]

Hi @Mineshaft110,

Thank you so much for your reply and for all the info and video you sent. 

First up, as you mention never listening to the recommended songs, we'd suggest you take the security measures indicated in this article > 'Still have access to your account?'. This is just to make sure your account is secure. 

On another note, we'd suggest running a clean reinstall of the app by following these steps. No worries, you won't lose any content. This will delete any leftover cache that might be causing issues. Additionally, make sure Spotify has permission to run in the background by going to Settings >Apps and notifications > App information > Spotify >Battery > Background Activity > Turn it on.

If this doesn't help, send over the OS on the device, along with the Spotify version you are currently running. 

We'll keep an eye out for your reply!

[Mineshaft110]

Hi Susan_GP

After following the recommended instructions of resetting my password, signing out on all devices, unlinking the account from other apps, removing associated accounts, performing a clean reinstall, as well as allowing Spotify to run in the background the problem still persists.

Something that I have noticed when it occurs is that the app can be left open in the recent apps section or it can be force closed down and removed from the recent apps. Either way the problem has occurred in both instances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMYS0lSmt4M

Here is another video showing it still happening following a clean reinstall. 

Running Android 13 and Spotify is on version 8.8.74.652.

If there is anything else I can do to help please let me know as this issue is rather persistent.

Many Thanks

[Alex]

Hi there @Mineshaft110,

Thanks for the post.

We've been digging deeper into this, but we need a bit more info. Can you let us know if this is happening on another device as well, like a desktop or the Web Player? 

Also, try clearing the queue on your phone before starting your music playback and check if the app comes back with more irrelevant pop music after you pause play for a few hours. It's possible that pre-loaded items in the queue pop up after the app stays idle for some time.

We appreciate your time on this.

[Mineshaft110]

Hi Alex

The issue only occurs on my Android device and I have not experienced any issues with using the desktop app as that is the other way that I listen to Spotify. I am unsure on the term pre-loaded items, is this in relation to songs that would have been put into the queue? I don't see how this would be relevant as I only really use the daily mixes or a handful of my own created playlists where the songs that pop up don't feature.

I have found that opening the app after a few hours will have a song that I haven't heard of as the active song and when I expand the window it says at the top playing suggested song. The drop down notification still shows my last listened song which was only a couple of hours ago.  Here is a link showcasing this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juA87AiiSkg

The main frustration is having to open the app again when I am wanting to listen to music rather quickly and using the drop down notification box is convenient enough for that but having to manually open the app, wait a few seconds to check if it is broken is making me feel less inclined to use Spotify on my phone. As the extra time spent on this is sometimes almost as long as sitting through one of the 5 ads that will then be pushed almost immediately after the song that I don't want to listen to finishes when I am just wanting to finish listening to a song or just listen to one song while doing something else.

If there is anything else you can suggest to try then do let me know.

[Joan]

Hi @Mineshaft110,

Thank you very much for the info. We'll continue to investigate this to see why this happens. To that end, please send us your exact Spotify and Android Versions.

Thanks in advance.

[Mineshaft110]

Hi Joan

My Spotify is on version 8.8.74.652, and my Android is version 13.

[AlejaR]

Hey @Mineshaft110,

Thanks for all your help and for the info shared. 

Just to confirm, is this happening on another account? You can create a free test account to check if you find this behavior there as well. Please check both the web player and your mobile device.

On another note, can you replicate this behavior on a different mobile device? We understand this could be difficult to check, but it'd help us a lot if you could try. You can ask for the mobile device of a relative or a friend to open your account there and see how it goes.

We'd suggest checking if perhaps there's a new version of the app available. You can go to the Play Store and check. If you see an update button, please select it to update the app.

Lastly, can you replicate this while using Connect? If not sure, give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Keep us in the loop!

[jwsnyder78]

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

Device

(iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy 9, Macbook Pro late 2016)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue

Whenever I return to the app to continue listening to a podcast or music, spotify automatically switches to a song I’ve previously “liked”, and will play that instead of what I what I was listening to immediately prior to exiting the app / hitting pause on a song or podcast  . How do I stop this from occurring? 

[SaviorSix]

I'm having this same issue. I'll be listening to Daily Mix #, and when I get in my car or listen while working out, it defaults to whatever popular song is trending (Megan Thee Stallion, Taylor Swift, Jack Harlow, etc.) all of which are artists I don't listen too. It was fine up until a few months ago. I don't think it's an issue with the phone or app, I think the problem is that Spotify is pushing these songs and we can't opt out of it. I've looked for months on how to resolve it, even getting a new phone, but even under a different account with completely different music choices, the same songs will play by default. I would suggest looking for a different music streaming app.

[Mineshaft110]

This issue is still persisting even after several system software updates and Spotify updates. As of late the songs which are being "pushed" (no other way to describe the issue) are, Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas' and Wham's 'Last Christmas' throughout the end of November and all of December with the latest song that is being "pushed" is Sophie Ellis-Bextor's 'Murder on the Dancefloor'. I don't listen to this type of music and it is getting further irritating to use Spotify on a mobile device as it only happens on the mobile app and I haven't experienced the issue (yet) on the desktop app.

[OscarDC]

Hey folks,

Thank you for your messages. We appreciate your reports.

@jwsnyder78, if you have a Premium subscription, this issue could also be related to the Autoplay function, which allows the app to continue playing similar songs after the playlist/album you were listening to reaches the end. So in this case, we'd also recommend turning off the Autoplay feature from your app settings.

On another note, @SaviorSix include in your next response the make, model and OS version of your device, along with the Spotify version you're currently running to continue investigating the case.

We'll be on the lookout.

[Mineshaft110]

Hi OscarDC

I haven't used the Autoplay function for about a year or 2 as I found it to be annoying to keep playing music even after a playlist/album had all been played (after the Free Shuffle mode plays everything). Despite this it would play songs that are in the same genre at least, Rock after a Rock album, Rap after a Rap album and J-Pop after a J-Pop playlist. This issue is different than the Autoplay function since it seems to target specific songs that are in the charts or similar seeing as when it had first started it was a lot of Taylor Swift after some of the re-releases, or a lot of Christmas music around the Christmas season.

So after putting on a playlist that was either the Daily Drive, a Daily Mix, or a genre specific playlist when going to sleep and utilising the sleep timer function, upon waking up and going to play music from what was last played from the pull down notification player it would start to play something unwanted and unrelated to any music that I had listened to or even had liked on my Spotify Account.

Hopefully this has provided some more information for people to look into because as stated the issue still occurs even after several app and system updates and any sorts of workarounds.

[OscarDC]

Hey @Mineshaft110,

Thank you for your message.

We appreciate all the info you've included in your previous posts. Some of the suggestions might be expected in a free tier as the recommendations also include what's popular in your market, such as Christmas songs right after December, or Taylor Swift songs after the release of her new album.

To investigate this further, we'll need some additional details from all users:

- Is this happening with long or short albums/playlists?

- Do you have a Premium subscription or free?

Also, would you mind including screenshots or a video about what the app looks like in the Now Playing View after you reopen the app and find an unrelated song playing? It would be great if you could also include the URI of that song to have a better look.

We'll be around.