[Android][Other] Spotify blocks screensaver on Amazon Fire TV stick

[brianhancill]

When you paused Spotify on the Android app running on an Amazon Fire TV the screensaver used to kick in according to the Fire TV's settings (after five minutes in my case). Then the screen went black after 20 minutes. 

But now the track that you pause in Spotify stays on screen for ever, happily burning its pixels into the display if you happen to go out and leave it like that.

Unlike someone else who posted an idea on here, my Fire TV screensaver does not kick in while music is actively playing on Spotify and I'm happy with that.

But if leave a YouTube video or a Netflix show paused, for example, the Fire TV's native screensaver will start. It should do so on Spotify - as it did before.

[Eni]

Hey @brianhancill, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

We moved your post from the Ideas board to the relevant Help Board, where it fits better.

Could you let us know if this started happening after a specific event such as an update?

On another note, we suggest that you check if the firmware of your device is up to date.

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

[brianhancill]

Thanks for the message. When I returned to my UK home early this month after several months away, Spotify would not launch on the Fire TV. There was a missing image icon where the logo should be on the launch page.

At that point I made sure the Fire TV itself was up-to-date and that the Spotify version was up-to-date then restarted the Fire TV. Sorry, but I can’t remember whether one or both of them needed updating or not. 

The restart solved the immediate problem but the

screensaver did not activate after that point. 

Three weeks later I have just left that property for another two months out of the UK and I’m unable to carry out any more tests in the meantime.

[MafeG]

Hi @brianhancill,

Thank you for your reply.

We completely understand and, when you're able to run those tests again, we'll be here to keep helping you if you still need it. 

Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.

[brianhancill]

Addition to this topic:

I am now at my French home where I use Spotify via a Freebox Mini Player V2 – another Android TV box.

It has a similar issue, though when you pause a track it doesn't stay on that song the way the Fire TV does. After a certain time it defaults to my Spotify home screen and stays there. Again, the screensaver of the host box does not kick in.

The Freebox itself is up to date and it is running version 1.42.0 of Spotify. There's nothing in the app settings to indicate whether that is current or not, nor is there any way to check for updates that I can find.

[MafeG]

Hi @brianhancill,

Thank you for keeping us in the loop.

In this case, it really depends how the devices are programmed to detect media playback on our app to enable or disable the screensaver. Although us moderators don't have this info, it could be that a change in the API has stopped this detection or similar.

As a screen saver is a system-wide feature separate from our app, this will require a firmware update on the device to re-enable it. It would be best to check with the specific manufacturers if they plan on configuring their screensaver function to properly detect playback via our app, as we don't have any influence over this.

In the meantime, please try minimizing the Spotify app to see if the screensaver kicks in. There are also some alternative "ambient" apps that act as a sort of screensaver. 

Let us know if you have any questions.

[brianhancill]

Thanks for the new reply but I don't know of any way to minimise the
Spotify app (or any other app) on these TV boxes running Android. Apps are
either full screen or not visible. There's no way to quit them either
without delving deep into the box preferences and doing it there.

[MafeG]

Hi @brianhancill,

Thank you for your swift reply. 

There are some Amazon support forums that suggest the same workaround that I shared in my previous post. As I mentioned earlier, it depends on each device how they're programmed to detect media playback in order to enable or not the screensaver. Unfortunately, that's not something we can influence from our end.

In this case, we suggest you contact the folks from Amazon support to get some insights about this, and hopefully, some steps to get the screensaver to activate. 

Let us know if you have any questions.