Static in the left earbud when phone screen goes to sleep/times out

[Kairoh]

Whenever I am connected to my phone with a Bluetooth headset and listening to Spotify, as long as my screen is awake and active I have zero issues. The second that I lock my phone or my screen times out and goes to sleep, I will get static/crackling in the left ear bud.

I have a Google Pixel 9 Pro as a phone and have tested this out on the Google Pixel Buds Pro & the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds. I also have tested this on a number of different apps on my phone such as Youtube music, soundcloud, and other media apps and the only time I have this issue is with Spotify.

I have uninstalled/reinstalled Spotify, disabled EQs in any of the apps associated with the earbuds, checked firmware/updates.

[Kairoh]

At first I thought this was a problem related to the earbuds which is why I've tested it out on a few different brands and the problem persists and it is only with Spotify. And I get the static/cracking noise in the left earbud only when the screen times out.

So far the only solution I have found to keep it from happening is setting my screen timeout to 30minutes and making sure the screen stays on whenever I am listening to music. But this is not sustainable as it will drastically effect my battery life and pretty much makes it impossible to listen to Spotify if i'm walking with the phone in my pocket since I can't lock it.

Any insight as to why this is happening would be appreciated. I have definitely isolated the problem and it is clear it occurs only when my screen times out and spotify is running. I have no issue with other apps effecting the sound quality of my earbuds when my screen times out.

[OscarDC]

Hey @Kairoh,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome. 

Since you've tested the behavior and it seems to be happening just when the screen is locked, it's possible that something could be affecting the proper behavior of the app when it's in the background. So first, to make sure we're on the same page, We understand you’ve already tried some troubleshooting steps including reinstalling, but did you use the steps for a clean reinstall mentioned in this article?

If so and the issue persists, would you mind checking if the app has any background restrictions on the battery optimization settings of your phone? You can find the process in this Google support article.

Lastly, would you mind checking on a different device (using your own account) to see if it makes any difference? If you don't have another one available, you can borrow one from a friend or family member to test it out. 

We'll be on the lookout for your response. 

[Kairoh]

I did a clean install a few times as the article suggests. The link you provided to check battery optimization settings is a bit outdated as the path to find that setting has changed in the last 5 years. That being said I did go into the Spotify App settings and made sure it is allowed background usage as seen in the screenshot:

I did a clean install a few times as the article suggests. The link you provided to check battery optimization settings is a bit outdated as the path to find that setting has changed in the last 5 years. That being said I did go into the Spotify App settings and made sure it is allowed background usage as seen in the screenshot:

I have also tested the earbuds I'm using along with the spotify app on my old iphone and it works fine. So it seems like the issue is either specifically between spotify and android. It makes sense to me that the issue is related to the battery optimization but I dont know if there are other settings that would need to be changed other than "Allow background usage" that could be causing it.

So far none of these options have changed anything.

I have also tested the earbuds I'm using along with the spotify app on my old iphone and it works fine. So it seems like the issue is either specifically between spotify and android. It makes sense to me that the issue is related to the battery optimization but I dont know if there are other settings that would need to be changed other than "Allow background usage" that could be causing it.

So far none of these options have changed anything.

[alexei_wu]

Click on Profile > Settings and Privacy > Media Quality

- try different quality levels

- try disable "auto-adjust" feature