Spotify's Autoplay feature has been automatically enabled on connected devices within the past few weeks, and there's no way to turn it off.
Spotify is automatically enabling Autoplay on connected devices without an option to disable it. Spotify's Autoplay feature is a great option for those who want to hit play and forget about it. The feature works by detecting the current song, album, or playlist that's playing, and continues playing similar music once the original selection has finished. Effectively, letting the user play music forever.
Spotify has been expanding beyond just music these past few years. The company now has a decent library of original podcasts and has even released a Car Thing that provides the user with easier access to their podcasts and music library while driving. Spotify is also available on a wide range of devices in general, including smartphones, tablets, PCs, and even smart speakers.
Spotify recently made a change that appears to be already upsetting a number of users. A Spotify spokesperson told The Verge that when using the service through a connected device, "Autoplay is the default setting," and that there is currently no way to disable it. The spokesperson goes on to say that, "Autoplay will not commence if you play a track, album, or playlists with Repeat enabled." On a Spotify Community forum post, a moderator also essentially confirmed that this is a feature and not a bug, and was implemented within the past few weeks.
How Annoying Is Spotify Now?
Enabling Repeat won't solve the issue if someone only wants to play one song or an album. Furthermore, they're not left with many options until Spotify decides to reimplement a toggle that lets them turn off Autoplay. For example, Spotify's alternative is for users is to visit the Spotify Idea Exchange and upvote the "Option to toggle Autoplay on/off across all devices/platforms" suggestion. While algorithmic playlists are a recent invention, the fact that Spotify is forcing Autoplay on every user with a connected device is hardly beneficial to its users or the service. As with most things these days, choice matters.
There is always the choice to switch to a different music streaming service. There are a handful of other options out there that offer the ability to play a song or album on-demand and without having to turn on (or off) the repeat function. Of course, switching services should only be used as a last resort. For some, like those on a family or annual plan, or those interested in the other features only Spotify has, there might not be a choice of switching at all. In reality, Spotify just needs to add the feature back and, hopefully, it doesn't take as long as Spotify HiFi to roll out.
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Source: The Verge, Spotify
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Peter Cao (108 Articles Published) More From Peter Cao
Spotify automatically starts playing thru Bluetooth in my car even when the app is closed. I use and android device and I also have Pandora. I want to choose which app to use. How do I stop Spotify from auto start.
Spotify quietly updated its autoplay feature with a seriously frustrating quirk. When you play music on your Spotify Connect devices, autoplay is now enabled by default and there’s no way to turn it off. This means that after your album, playlist, or your song selection is done playing on any device other than your phone or computer, Spotify will continue playing recommended tracks indefinitely.
Users have voiced their complaints in the Spotify Community forum for weeks, filling an ongoing thread with their grievances. It caught the attention of a Spotify Community moderator, who provided some more information about the issue — which is apparently a feature and definitely not a bug.
“We can confirm that Autoplay is the default setting for any connected device”“We can confirm that Autoplay is the default setting for any connected device,” a Spotify spokesperson said in an emailed statement to The Verge. “This means that whenever you play music from Spotify on a device other than your phone or computer, Autoplay will be enabled, and tracks will be added to continue your listening experience.”
However, the spokesperson says that “Autoplay will not commence if you play a track, album, or playlists with Repeat enabled.” That obviously doesn’t help if you want an album or playlist to end after it’s done playing. The spokesperson also mentioned that Spotify updated the experience “during the last couple of weeks.”
In the aforementioned thread, the Spotify moderator suggested that users cast their votes in a post in the Spotify Idea Exchange to show support for an option to toggle autoplay on and off, but the page that the moderator links to doesn’t address that exact issue. In the post’s description, the user asks for Spotify to bring back the settings menu on the Spotify web player that was recently removed, which prevents users from changing their autoplay options when listening from the web player.
Other than the title of the post: “[AutoPlay] Option to toggle Autoplay on/off across all devices/platforms,” it doesn’t have much to do with the problem users were initially discussing, causing confusion in that entire thread — comments on the post concern both the settings menu and the problem with Spotify Connect. It’s unclear whether bringing back the settings menu on the web player will help resolve the autoplay issue on connected devices (or vice versa).
When a post on the Spotify Idea Exchange receives over 180 votes in under six months, the suggestion gets the “Live Idea” label and will be looked at by the Spotify team. Right now, this so-called idea is currently a “Good Suggestion,” meaning it received more than 50 votes in under three months. The status should be upgraded soon, though, since it has a total of 259 votes at this time of writing.
It’s ironic that Spotify calls something that’s essentially a bug report an “idea.” After all, music on connected devices wasn’t set on an infinite loop too long ago. With Spotify projected to increase its user base from 381 million to 400 million users by the end of this year, it’s going to have a lot more users it needs to satisfy.
“At Spotify, we’re committed to delivering the best possible listening experience. We recently updated our Autoplay settings for connected devices, and are actively gathering feedback from the Spotify Community,” the Spotify spokesperson continued. “As always, we’ll continue to evolve this feature over time based on user feedback.”
Android/Samsung S20 5G/ USA - I too struggled with this issue in my car for a long time and after thoroughly testing disabling certain things in my Android settings (because Spotify showed me no setting related to this particularity in the app), these changes finally stopped the automated opening and playing of audio in the car when I connected the Bluetooth.
Step 1: Settings Advanced Features 》Android Auto 》(Uncheck) Automatically resume media
Step 2: Settings Advanced Features 》Android Auto 》(Uncheck) Wireless Android Auto
Note: Tested and worked, but only as far as connecting and the app opening automatically and playing without my consent. Once I open Spotify myself though, it will automatically begin playing audio and the volume knob in my car will still also trigger to unpause the audio and play (a different but related issue I've had as well).
Good luck!
I seem to have the opposite problem, but I assume it is caused by the same behaviour..
On the Windows App, if I am listening with Bluetooth headphones or a Bluetooth speaker and I stop/pause the playback, the music stops, but it will then start playing automatically when I turn off the Bluetooth headphone/speaker.
It's very annyoing because my Bluetooth speaker has a timeout for shutting down if no music plays for a while, so if I leave for lunch for example, when I come back the music has started playing on its own through the laptop's speakers while I was away.
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I just want to get in my car and Spotify does NOT immediately start playing, even though I stopped playback before I left the car, turned off the app, AND the app isn’t even on so I can’t stop the music. So imagine me on the phone during a conference call while getting back in my car, starting the car, and then fumbling for my iPhone to turn the app on just so I can turn the music off. It makes me want to NOT use the app. But I guess I know what Ek’s response to that would be.
I can’t help but wonder if the dev team is being intentionally obtuse. It’s a great app, and a popular service. So the notion that such a simple support request comes up so often and almost always receives an answer to the wrong question really makes me wonder. Are they simply blowing wind to cover a marketing strategy? It sucks, but after Daniel Ek response about privacy, I guess that’s what I would expect. The alternative is that they really are just not getting it, which is actually more disturbing.
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2021-10-06 11:34
Hey everyone,
Thanks for reaching out and reporting this behavior to us.
We'll make sure to take it into account while moving forward, however we can't set an exact timeframe for when this will be fixed. The reason is that the autolaunch &autostart functions are dependent on the way a device is configurated to interact with the app API. We recommend that you reach out to the manufacturer to report the issue with them as well.
That being said, some users report that they managed to fix this by altering certain settings on their device. We've compiled a list of possible solutions for you to try bellow:
- post by @weenyoceans
- post by @LedLeo
- post by @Cartman7891
- post by @Eriksen
Hope this helps!