Car thing won't connect unless Spotify is open & active

[brrian]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

T-Mobile REVVL 5G

Operating System

Android 11

My Question or Issue

Car Thing won't connect to my phone unless the Spotify app is open and active (in the foreground). Otherwise, I get the "Phone Disconnected" message and if I go to the phone list it shows as trying to connect. Is this normal - must Spotify be 'fully' open and active, or should it work if it's open but running in the background?

[Yordan]

Hi @brrian!

Welcome to the Community and thanks for reaching out!

CarThing should automatically connect to Spotify when the app is in the background. If Spotify isn't running, it should even automatically launch it. It's possible that this feature has been disabled on your device, so check your phone's App settings as well as Battery settings as there might be something that prevents Spotify from starting automatically / connecting to CarThing.

Let us know how it goes. Cheers!

[brrian]

Thanks for the reply.

Battery settings: Spotify is set to "Don't optimize", which I assume is preferred, as it prevents any battery restrictions.

I don't see any app settings that seem to affect or prevent Spotify from running in the background or opening.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled the Spotify app & that's had no effect.

I'm stumped... not sure what else to check or try. Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Brian

[Yordan]

Hi again @brrian!

Not sure how it looks on your device (since all android devices are slightly different based on the manufacturer), but on mine I have the option Auto-start manager in the Battery settings, from where I can set Spotify to run automatically. Check if you have something similar (maybe under a different name). You may also look for Background app management and disable it as well.

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[brrian]

I have neither option. I disabled a "Battery Manager" option which restricts apps that are draining the battery... I doubt that'll have any affect, but it's worth a try. I'll let you all know what happens. Thanks!