Web player does not prevent macOS from turning screen off

[csbubbles]

Spotify web player doesn't prevent macOS from turning the screen off (while playing music). It appears to have started happening today. I can see the same behavior on two MacBooks and both in Chrome (102.0.5005.61) and Safari (15.5 – 17613.2.7.1.8).

Plan: Premium

Country: USA

Devices: MacBook Pro 2017, MacBook Pro 2019

Operating System: macOS Monterey 12.4

[AndresM]

Hey @csbubbles,

Thanks for reaching about this in the Community.

We recommend that you check the Energy saver preferences in order to make sure that the current configuration on your device allows Spotify to play music while preventing your MacBook from going to sleep. You can check more info about this here. 

Let us know how it goes. 

[csbubbles]

I haven't changed those settings in years, and everything worked for a long while till recently. So, I rather tend to think that the configuration should be fine there. It started happening on two laptops without changing any system settings.

Also, you sent an article to the settings in macOS 10.13, while the one installed on my MacBooks is 12.4, where the settings are different (there is no "Energy Saver" option in "System Preferences", I think it's called "Battery" now, and it may even have a different subset of options), and didn't mention which specific option should "allow Spotify to play music while preventing your MacBook from going to sleep". I am happy to try finding and checking it as long as you help me understand what it is, so please let me know.

To clarify the issue (as I might have not explained it properly, actually) – the "sleep mode" is disabled on my laptops, so they never go to sleep per se. However, there is a setting to turn the display off after 15 minutes of inactivity (the computer doesn't go to sleep, but the screen gets turned off). Web browsers, when playing media, typically prevent laptops from turning the screen off (so, for example, the user could keep watching YouTube or listen to music with the screen on), and it worked for a few years with Spotify just fine till a couple days ago. Now when Spotify is playing music (in an active tab, both in Chrome and Safari), it doesn't happen, and the screen is turned off after 15 minutes.

PS I adjusted the topic and my original message accordingly.

[OscarDC]

Hey @csbubbles,

Thank you for keeping in contact and for the info shared.

To keep investigating this case, would you mind checking in a private/incognito window to see if it makes any difference?

If the issue persists, could you record a short video with your phone where we can take a better look at the issue happening on your mac? You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert Video option in the post editor. You can also upload it to Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to see it).

We'll be on the lookout. 
 

[danekan1]

I am having the same problem... something changed within the last month. I used to rely on this. I do have a hunch it's actually more of a chrome and/or macOS change than Spotify though? 

[csbubbles]

> To keep investigating this case, would you mind checking in a private/incognito window to see if it makes any difference?

The behavior in the incognito mode is the same.

> If the issue persists, could you record a short video with your phone where we can take a better look at the issue happening on your mac?

Please elaborate on what is unclear in my original description and the previous comment (I think it was all quite detailed), and I will try to clarify here. I am not sure why you would need anyone to record 10+ minutes in this case to understand the issue, and what is exactly confusing for you.

If you are asking to record a "short" video, I assume that you might not have understood the issue? Can you please read my original post and the previous detailed comment carefully, and help understand what is still unclear there?

[Alex]

Hi there folks,

We've reached out to our internal teams about this. They'll investigate what might be causing the issue further.

In the meantime we recommend using the Desktop app.

We'll keep you up to date as soon as we have more news on this.

[danekan1]

I noticed that this behavior also changed with the Tidal web player no longer keeping macos from sleeping -- I think it was probably a chrome or macos change itself. Very undesirable.

(also the "I'm not a robot" verification on THIS SITE is terrible and never works right.)

[splootify]

Same here. Macbook Air 2020, macOS Monterey 12.5.1. I set system preferences to "turn display off after" 1 minute, and tested with both web player and the Spotify app, but neither worked as before (the screen would not sleep until the Spotify playlist finished). YouTube still works, although the Chrome tab has to be focused/displayed on screen.

I looked in the Terminal at `/usr/bin/pmset -g assertions`: it's confusing because `PreventUserIdleSystemSleep` is showing as enabled (set to 1), also there's a process `Google Chrome: NoIdleSleepAssertion named: "Playing audio"`, however this doesn't prevent my machine sleeping.

Spotify needs to do whatever YouTube is doing.

[Yordan]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your inputs so far.

We've heard back from our developers, who confirmed that this is not caused by the Web Player and is most likely related to the browser or the OS instead. Still, it's worth checking if you'd experience the same behavior in Chrome Canary, if you haven't already.

This issue was reported to Google here, but feel free to bring it to Apple's attention as well.

Hope this gets sorted out soon. The Community is always here if something else comes up.

Take care!

[danekan1]

It must still be possible though -- youtube.com I can play videos all day long and it still prevents it from sleeping... what is youtube doing differently?

[Zenism]

Spotify app

Macbook pro 2018

Monterey v12.6

My system settings (power/screensaver) haven't changed in a year. The only major change was upgrading to the latest version of macOS. I don't recall if the Spotify app was recently updated. I can't pinpoint which was the last to update (mac VS spot) and I'm still trying to hunt down which update may have started this issue. My guess it's with the Mac but I have no evidence as of yet.

I just wanted to report that I am having the same issue with my current setup.