Playback keeps automatically switching to my Android phone

[huWolfy]

Recently I've been experiencing this issue, where the playback from my desktop Spotify application is switched to my Android mobile phone. This happened multiple times yesterday, and already twice today.

Did someone else also met this issue? Support only recommended to log out/in from the Spotify app on Android and restarting the phone, but this clearly didn't help.

[Joan]

Hi there @huWolfy,

Thanks for reaching out. We'll be glad to help you get the app working properly across all devices.

Can you describe in a little more detail the exact behaviour here? Namely, let us know the following:

• When did this start happening?
• What device are you using? Which Android version is it on?
• Is there any pattern as to when the playback switches or is it purely sporadic whenever the Android app is open? Does it happen with specific content?
• Is it always to the Android app or does playback sometimes switch to other devices too?
• If possible, could you log in on a different Android device with your account and test if the same happens?
• A video of the behaviour. If the files are too large to attach here in the Community, you can send them to us via Google Drive or as unlisted YouTube videos.

With this information, we’d be happy to investigate.

Keep us posted.

[rifle5]

I have this issue also.  I will be playing music on my computer and Spotify will randomly change the playback device to my phone.  It doesn't matter if my phone is on the same network, or on mobile data, it will just randomly switch.

I was able to stop the issue by going into system settings (on Android), applications, and force stopping the Spotify app.

[Thought567]

Yeah, it’s terrible. I wish there was just a way to turn off automatic device changes.

if I want to change what device my Spotify is playing on. I will do it manually

[glimglam2]

Same for me, been going on for several days. Spotify running on Macbook Pro and Android, switches randomly to the phone.

[bluschd]

Plan

Premium

Device

Google Pixel 7 Pro, Lenovo Thinkpad

Operating System

Android 15, Windows 11

My Question or Issue

I have a laptop and a phone. I use both daily to play music. Usually, I'm using headphones and bluetooth speakers. Both of which support multiple connections, so whenever I use either, they automatically connect to my phone and laptop. Then I go to the Windows app and start playing music, which works fine for a while. But then after a few minutes, or whenever I change the bluetooth device (e.g. turn on/off my headphones) the Andoird app automatically "steals" control from my Windows app and then I'm listening to my phone instead of my laptop. This happens every time and is infuriating to no end so I usually end up killing Spotify on the phone and disabling bluetooth just so I can keep listing via my laptop.

This happened twice while I was writing this paragraph...

All I want is to control which device is doing the playback myself without some magic trying to transfer control between devices. When I start playing music on my laptop, I want to listen to my laptop until I explicitly tell the Android app to take over control (and vice versa). It's that simple.

Can this be done somehow or do I just have to live with the status quo?

[Yordan]

Hey folks,

Keep in mind that the mobile app will automatically take over and resume playback when an external playback device is connected to the phone by default.

That being said, could you all confirm whether you're using Multipoint Bluetooth devices, like @bluschd does? If so, test if having just one connected device at a time alleviates this issue.

Let us know how it goes 👍

[bluschd]

@Yordan wrote:

the mobile app will take over [...] by default.

Does that mean it can be disabled somehow?

[Yordan]

I'm afraid it's not possible to turn this off at the moment, @bluschd. That's the current expected behavior. We're regularly looking for opportunities to enhance the user experience for everyone though, so your feedback on this is greatly appreciated.

Let us know if having just one device connected does the trick.

[benam1]

I'm currently experiencing the same issue. A automatic device change toggle in the settings would be great to see.