Desktop stealing control of sound from all devices

[patrick0789]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

Google Pixel 7a, Desktop, Laptop

Operating System

Android OS 13, Windows 10, Windows 11

My Question or Issue

Any time I listen to music on my desktop at home via the app, the following day when I drive to work and try to listen in my car, my audio drops out every 3-5 minutes and says its playing through DESKTOP now. It ignores the fact that I was already listening in my car and just reverts to the previous session. I've even manually changed devices and gone as far as clicking "forget about device" for my DESKTOP, but it keeps coming back, pausing my music, and reconnecting automatically back to my home computer, thus interrupting my music. IT does this from my phone and from play.spotify.com when I am using the web browser player on my work laptop. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app, cleared my browser cache, not sure what else to do.

What is causing Spotify to abandon the ongoing listening session on a local direct device and revert back to playing remotely?

[Yordan]

Hi @patrick0789,

Is there someone back at home who might using your computer while you're away? If not, it's highly recommended you secure your account by following the steps here as it might have been compromised.

Take care.

[patrick0789]

No, just my dogs haha. It doesn't happen when I'm listening via the desktop
at home so thankfully that rules out a compromised account.

I was able to reproduce it though. The issue only occurs when the Spotify
app is left open on my desktop. Even if it's not playing. I know you're
saying, "well then just close the app", and yes, turns out that easily gets
around the issue but #1 I'm forgetful, and #2 it still begs the question:
Why/How does a stopped session of Spotify have the ability to take back
control from another ongoing session on another device? I understand if
someone presses play on that desktop it takes back control, but no one is
home and the desktop has a screensaver running.

...and no I don't leave the music on for the dogs

......or believe in ghosts

.........or aliens

[Lyubka]

Hey @patrick0789,

Thanks for getting back to us.

It seems like this issue is related to your unique set up, this indeed is an odd behavior, however, we can't answer your questions as we can't reproduce it on our end.

This could happen if you have a stereo hooked up to the pc or a Bluetooth device.

We'd recommend that you try this out when you are at home with a phone to see what's happening.

Hope this helps. Take care 🙂

[patrick0789]

When I listen to music sitting at my computer, technically I'm listening
through the Amazon Echo and Echo Sub in my office. I use the desktop to
pick the music and start it playing, then select my Amazon Echo's Sound
System Group and have it start playing through the Echo. When I am done I
may give Alexa a "stop" or "pause" command and then walk away for the
night. The next day I then get in my Tahoe which connects via AndoirdAuto
and my music will start playing in my car for a few minutes. Then I make it
a few miles down the road and my audio goes out and when I check the
Spotify app it says "Playing on DESKTOP". So I switch it back to
AndroidAuto and my music continues a few minutes before doing the same
thing again and reverting back to DESKTOP. Like I said I'd tried selecting
"Forget This Device" from my phone to get rid of the DESKTOP device all
together from its view but it comes back anyways.

[Joan]

Hi @patrick0789,

Thanks for the reply. Could you try using the "Sign out everywhere" feature from the account page to disconnect all devices, also manually disconnecting Alexa too? After that, log back in to all devices and see if the behaviour changes.

Hope this helps.

[Drummist77]

I am having this issue as well. I am using android auto through a wired connection in my truck then all of the sudden the music stops. When this happens I check my phone and it says it's playing from my desktop computer. On my computer I am using the Windows PC spotify app. So here is the scenario... I listen to spotify on my PC via the windows app, I pause the music, I go to get into my truck, plug in my phone, and start driving, music stops and the phone says listening on desktop. No one is at my house using any devices while I am gone. 

I am happy to help troubleshoot with you all and take notes of times if needed. 

[Eni]

Hey @Drummist77, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community.

Could you let us know if the same happens if you close the Spotify app on your PC instead of just pausing the music before using it in your car? 

We'll be on the lookout.

[Becaustic]

Might be a pixel issue as I'm having the same issue with a pixel 7 pro. I actually even had my wife turn off the PC at home and it keeps happening. It's driving me insane and honestly keeping me from using my service.