Playback gets paused if Bluetooth headset is connected with multiple devices simultaneously

[Xenia]

Hi everyone,

We're seeing reports that the Spotify app keeps pausing audio whenever there are multiple devices connected to the same Bluetooth headset and the app is open on at least one of the connected devices. Special thanks to @growlybeard who provided a very detailed description and video showing the issue!

To keep you all in the loop we've merged a few threads together and have passed on the collected info to our tech folks, who are still looking into the issue. 

We'll be keeping everyone up to speed here, so make sure to subscribe to this thread! 

[jsvensson]

Device

iPhone 8 and Windows 10, using Jabra Elite 65T earphones (Bluetooth)

My Question or Issue

Summary: Spotify pauses the music if my Bluetooth earphones are paired with two devices that have the Spotify client running.

Spotify pauses the music if my Bluetooth headset is paired with both my desktop computer and my iPhone, and I'm listening from my iPhone. I've "bypassed" this by closing the client on my computer when listening from the phone, but this is still a rather poor user experience, having to juggle Bluetooth pairings around or making sure I close the client on the computer when walking away from it.

I isolated the cause of the issue after disconnecting or unpairing my headset from the computer, after which the issue disappeared and the music no longer paused. The issue only appears while I'm in range of both devices.

[jsvensson]

A friend of mine also has the same Jabra Elite Active 65T, I have and he has the same issue with the Spotify client pausing when his earphones are connected to two iPhones.

[bksarthak]

Same issue here.

Inventory : Macbook Pro + iPhoneX + Jabra Elite Active 65t

Scenario: When connecting the earbuds to both of the devices, everything is fine. Music keeps on playing on whatever device you were listening to. The moment you open Spotify client on device 2 and try to do the "handoff" on Spotify client or even the client realizes there are two devices streaming to single earbud, the music pauses and does not resume playing even if you quit the Spotify client on either devices

Hotfix : Disconnect the earbuds from either of the device and hit play on the connected device. It will resume playing.

I hope Spotify fixes this, looks like a Spotify issue since I don't face this with any other app.

[PedroNogueira]

Plan

Premium

Country

Portugal

Device

IPhone 11

Operating System

iOS 13.3.1

My Question or Issue

When multiple devices are connected on the Spotify app (such as in this case, both Desktop and IPhone devices) and being the controlling/listening device the desktop and listening through bluetooth earphones (Bose Soundsport connected to the pc), the IPhone let's control the volume of the app and in this case the earphones, although they're connected to the PC. This could seem kinda of a nice to have feature.

Problem is, that basically I can't have my IPhone sound muted. Any other sound source (such as Instagram videos) can play sound undauntedly but through the IPhone's speakers nonetheless. Just because the IPhone Spotify app is connected to the app on the desktop, IPhone will play any sound through the speaker

[dougw03]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Intel Windows 10 PC + Google Pixel 4a Android 11 Phone

My Question or Issue

I just got a pair of Jabra Elite Active 75t Earbuds and have these connected to both my PC and my phone simultaneously via Bluetooth 5.1 multipoint. I prefer to listen to Spotify on my phone because the audio quality is much better. However, I want to control Spotify from my PC since it is much more convenient.

Whenever I use this configuration, the audio on my phone does not work because the earbuds get a signal from my PC that Spotify is trying to play music there (even though it is just being used to control audio through my phone). I know this because when I press play on my phone, it runs for about 2 seconds then automatically pauses because Spotify on the PC is trying to take control. The only way to resolve this is to close spotify on my PC and only keep my phone spotify running. This requires me to use my phone for control though. Please let me know if you need more details trying to reproduce this bug.

[Billy-J]

Hey @dougw03, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

I'll take a closer look at this and get back to you asap! 
Thanks for your patience in advance.

[Billy-J]

Hey @dougw03, 

Thanks for your patience! 

The solution in your case would be to connect the earbuds only to one of the devices. I'll also get some more detail on my end to see if this is expected or not. There is some more information on how to set the music quality to High on your PC.

Hope this clears things up in the meantime!

[dougw03]

Hi Billy,

This is really frustrating because I purchased these earbuds so I could connect to multiple devices at a time. It seems that the root cause of this issue is Spotify thinks I am playing from two devices simultaneously. If I close spotify on my PC or use another PC that is not simultaneously connected via BT, the issue goes away. However, I simply want to use my PC for control and my phone for playback while being connected via BT to both simultaneously. Can you please submit a bug report for your engineering team to investigate this?

P.S. I have my spotify settings on very high on both the phone and PC. I think that the issue is my phone supports a higher quality bluetooth codec than my PC so the audio sounds better through the phone connection.

[dougw03]

Hi Billy,

Were you able to find out if this is expected or not? Just to make sure we're on the same page, I want to be able to listen to Spotify on my phone and control from my PC while both are connected to my BT earbuds (via BT multipoint). Windows does not support HD audio codecs via bluetooth and so sound quality is significantly worse when listening through the PC vs Phone. Spotify thinks I am trying to use spotify in 2 places at once and so it automatically pauses the music. This does not happen with Youtube Music or other services.

[Ver]

Hey @dougw03,

Thanks for the information 🙂

Currently there is no option to control Spotify while being simultaneously connected via Bluetooth to two devices. We always strive to improve our app and the experience with it. We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us. 

You can also have a look in our Idea Exchange to see if someone else has already made a similar suggestion. If there isn't one, you can give these steps a go and submit your idea. That way other users can also support it. Rest assured that the higher the number of votes an idea gets, the more likely it is for it to be implemented.   

If you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'll be happy to help.

[shimilid]

Having the same experience on Jabra Elite 75t. This is a real pain! I have to use the web client instead of the Mac app, which is much less comfortable.
I really hope you guys fix it soon 🙂

[nfelger]

I have the same issue with Jabra Elite 75t and it's driving me up the wall. It even happens when the lid on my MacBook running Spotify is closed!

[Ver]

Hey folks,

Thanks for getting in touch with us 🙂

This is an expected behavior. In case you are running Spotify on both devices while they're connected to the same Bluetooth earphones, the music will automatically pause on the device you're actively using.

We always strive to improve our app and the experience with it and appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us.

You can also have a look in our Idea Exchange to see if someone else has already made a similar suggestion. If there isn't one, you can try these steps and submit your idea. That way other users can also support it. Rest assured that the higher the number of votes an idea gets, the more likely it is for it to be implemented.

Here you can find more information about how your feedback reaches Spotify.

We'll be right here if you have any questions.
 

[nfelger]

Oh no, you misunderstood me! (Fair enough, I wasn’t being clear at all 😇)

I’m not even playing Spotify audio. It affects ANY audio playback!

Like this:

- I have the Spotify app running on my laptop - there’s no music playing;

- I connect my headphones, they connect to both phone and laptop;

- when I now try to play any audio on my phone - YouTube, Audible, doesn’t matter - I get this incredibly frustrating start/stop behaviour. 

The only workaround I have is going to my laptop and closing Spotify or waiting what feels like 10-15 minutes... Interestingly, this is never a problem when making or receiving calls, only audio playback. 

[Eni]

Hey @nfelger,

Thanks for letting us know that.

Since you mention that this affects any audio playback not only Spotify, we suggest that you reach out to the headset's manufacturer for more information. 

If you ever need help with anything else, just let us know 🙂 

[shimilid]

That's ridiculous. This only happens when the Spotify desktop (Mac for me) app is open on our laptops, meaning it hogs the earphones audio even when it isn't active. As mentioned above - this doesn't reproduce when using Spotify's web app, so there's definitely something your programmers can do on your end, and probably not much the earphones manufacturer can do.

[nfelger]

@Eni how do you explain the fact that when I close Spotify on my laptop, the problem goes away entirely? I find it hard to believe that this is anything other than a problem with YOUR product. As @shimilid says: what's the earphones manufacturer supposed to do about the fact that Spotify is apparently hogging the playback?

[timansky]

having the same issue with oneplus 7t pro + osx big sure + sennhizer momentum 3

multipoint not working as expected with spotify app

[Novy]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for your replies. 

Just to confirm, have you tried un-pairing the headphones from all devices and then re-pairing them before you open the app?

If possible, could you try to reproduce this issue using a different headset?

Let us know how it goes.