Spotify tries to play through Bluetooth even when connected to BMW Wireless CarPlay

[Liquid_Ice]

Plan: Premium

Country: USA

Device: iPhone 12 Pro Max

Operating System: iOS 14.4

My Question or Issue:

Ever since upgrading to Spotify 8.6.x, I have had problems with Spotify playing music in my 2020 BMW M340i with Wireless Apple Carplay.  The problem is that when the car first starts, it connects to my phone via Bluetooth and Spotify starts to play music, it says it is playing on device "BMW #####" (where the #'s are a random set of numbers).  Then once Apple CarPlay connects via Wi-Fi the audio cuts out and Spotify continues to play on device "BMW #####" - if I change Spotify to play on "This iPhone" instead then everything works fine - but in previous versions of Spotify I did not have to change this - it just would work automatically.

I already tried doing a clean install of Spotify (followed the directions by going into Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage -> Spotify -> Offload App then Delete, turning off iPhone, turning it back on and installing Spotify again) - I tried this multiple times and this did not fix the problem.

I tried different apps, specifically Amazon Music and YouTube Music and neither app had this issue - they both automatically started to play on CarPlay with no issues, so I do not think the problem is with my phone or its connection to CarPlay.

Would really appreciate it if Spotify could fix this and when connected to CarPlay - default to "This iPhone" as the output for audio.

[darbid]

I am having the exact same problem. The real annoying thing is the connection to the BMW is normally later than Car Play and almost always after you have started driving. 

im in a 5 series 2021 BMW. 

[Alex]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for reaching out about this.

Can you upload a video of how things look on your end. 

It would also be helpful to share the following info:

• Device make, model and OS version
• Spotify version

Cheers.

[darbid]

Device: iPhone 11 Pro

Software: 14.5

Spotify Version: 8.6.24.1302

Spotify Account: Premium

here is a video https://www.dropbox.com/s/macwp7usomnuo5n/IMG_1209.mov?dl=0 - I think this is publically viewable.

[Liquid_Ice · Accepted solution]

I found out this was a conflict between the built in BMW iDrive Spotify app and the Spotify app on my phone.  For whatever reason, when I start the car, the BMW iDrive Spotify app was trying to play through my phone (I thought it worked using the car's data plan and didn't need my phone), and when CarPlay turned on and connected, CarPlay took over as the primary audio source but the phone was still trying to play via Bluetooth to the iDrive App (hence why the source is BMW #### and switching to iPhone fixes it).

My solution was to logoff of the BMW iDrive Spotify app (you need to go into the app and then press the hard button Option near your iDrive controller) - after logging off of that, the problem went away because it was no longer trying to play first via iDrive.

[darbid]

Thank you for helping. Turning one off is always an option :-). I was hoping for something a little better.