Spotify and C4 - Music Starts Playing After Being Shut Off

[TVC15]

Scenario

·         Composer HE 3.3.0

·         Controller 3.2.1.592369-res

·         Samsung Galaxy S21+ with current Android operating system

Symptoms

·         Within Spotify on my phone, I select a playlist and then launch C4 room(s) I want to deliver music to (all via Spotify)

o   Volume is preset for each room

·         When I press “Pause” in Spotify and then “End Session” in the C4 app everything apparently shuts down

·         Intermittently, 5-10 minutes later the music comes back on in all of the rooms at a high volume level

o   This even happens after I press pause in Spotify app and SWIPE away the app to close it

·         What is causing the music to start playing again?

[johnpg]

I don't have a definitive answer, but I have experienced this as well. What I ended up doing was to go into the Spotify app and make sure it's not connected to Control4 via Spotify connect.  I do not recall it ever happening when I did that. Another thing I've done is disable Auto Play. I'm not sure if that had any impact or not. Hopefully someone else knows for sure, but those are things you can try at least. There are a lot of VERY knowledgeable people on here, so it's likely someone will be able to fill in the blanks. 

[Cyknight]

26 minutes ago, johnpg said:

go into the Spotify app and make sure it's not connected to Control4 via Spotify connect

This - with auto play and how spotify connect works (as in it's not actually running on your phone anymore, your phone becomes an interface only) closing the Spotify app just leaves the session in play, and as you pause then shut off, it likely restarts after awhile, then autoplay kicks in etc.

 

I would expect if you leave the 'pause' out in the app, and just shut the rooms off in C4, it would kill the stream, but with the pause added it may not be.

Ending the spotify connect session will kill it off for sure.

[SpencerT]

30 minutes ago, johnpg said:

Another thing I've done is disable Auto Play. I'm not sure if that had any impact or not. 

This. Especially if you share an account in your household. 

[TVC15]

One step at a time: I will go into each room and disable auto play and give it a week or so to see what happens. Step two, if needed, will be to go into Spotify settings and turn off "Spotify Connect in background". Question: isn't Spotify Connect the way I am able to launch Spotify and then select my C4 zones within Spotify?

[Cyknight]

7 minutes ago, TVC15 said:

Question: isn't Spotify Connect the way I am able to launch Spotify and then select my C4 zones within Spotify?

Yes ... and no. The point being that with Spotify Connect, you actually hand off the actual streaming from your phone to the C4 controller (vs for example airplaying youtube music). So your phone is, at that point, no longer the streaming device, so closing the app (or leaving with your phone) won't stop the active stream.

Said differently, your spotify app on your phone is no longer actually 'playing' the music, it's just an interface to see and control the music in Control4 (or any other spotify connect device)

[TVC15]

1 minute ago, Cyknight said:

Yes ... and no. The point being that with Spotify Connect, you actually hand off the actual streaming from your phone to the C4 controller (vs for example airplaying youtube music). So your phone is, at that point, no longer the streaming device, so closing the app (or leaving with your phone) won't stop the active stream.

Said differently, your spotify app on your phone is no longer actually 'playing' the music, it's just an interface to see and control the music in Control4 (or any other spotify connect device)

Got it! Trying Auto Play = NO first.

[johnpg]

2 hours ago, TVC15 said:

Got it! Trying Auto Play = NO first.

Good luck and please let us know how it works out.

[TVC15]

16 hours ago, johnpg said:

Good luck and please let us know how it works out.

Testing began yesterday. I will update after one week with a status.

[TVC15]

Setting AUTO PLAY = NO appears to have solved the problem, as of today!

[TVC15]

Update after three months...Spotify has been coming back on intermittently after setting AUTO PLAY = NO. Have to figure out what the next steps are since it is quite a shock when all of my zones come on at 100% at 2am!!! Any other suggestions would be much appreciated! Image of current settings attached. Going to try setting "Power Off Rooms When Paused" to "After 15 Seconds" instead of "Disabled".

[c4toys]

do you have a sleep macro that you can ramp volume to 0 before turning the room(s) off? I have a Heos project that had this issue and this work around has worked for 3yrs

[SpencerT]

Or can you rename the Spotify connect instance? Or delete and re-add under a different name? There are settings in the Spotify app that allow remote reconnect and autoplay. 

[Skypalace]

I have this exact same problem. It started when I upgraded my system from OS2 to OS3 (w C4-CA10 and replacing the touchpanels ). Never had this problem on OS2.

Actually, rereading, it may not be EXACTLY the same. It happens if I hit Pause in Spotity, but NOT if I End Session of the Spotify session within C4 (which is the workaround that does work, when I remember. I don't always Pause knowing that I'll be ending it (for the evening etc)),
TVC15, I'm a little confused as to your exact scenario (or perhaps multiple) you mention both pausing and swiping away, but also pausing and then ending the session.

For me it's longer than 5-10 minutes - it's more like a couple of hours after hitting Pause (first happened at some point in the middle of the night after we were all fast asleep).

My workaround has been to always end the C4 Spotify session, versus just hitting Pause on one of the Spotify devices. Which I usually remember, but not always. But rereading TVC15 sounds like he may be doing this? If so, I'm confused as to what exactly is happening - the last C4 Spotify session starts back up, and begins replaying on all the previously selected devices, if it the session was ended, and thus no active C4 listening sessions at all?

So very curious to see if a root cause is sorted out. The C2 to C3 may perhaps be a clue that it's something n the C4 side not on the Spotify side unpausing.

Seems like neither of these cases should happen:
1) A paused Spotify session magically unpauses and starts playing (my scenario, perhaps also one of TVC15's scenarios)
2) End ended Spotify session starts back up (sounds like this is what TVC15 also sees?)

[TVC15]

17 hours ago, Skypalace said:

I have this exact same problem. It started when I upgraded my system from OS2 to OS3 (w C4-CA10 and replacing the touchpanels ). Never had this problem on OS2.

Actually, rereading, it may not be EXACTLY the same. It happens if I hit Pause in Spotity, but NOT if I End Session of the Spotify session within C4 (which is the workaround that does work, when I remember. I don't always Pause knowing that I'll be ending it (for the evening etc)),
TVC15, I'm a little confused as to your exact scenario (or perhaps multiple) you mention both pausing and swiping away, but also pausing and then ending the session.

For me it's longer than 5-10 minutes - it's more like a couple of hours after hitting Pause (first happened at some point in the middle of the night after we were all fast asleep).

My workaround has been to always end the C4 Spotify session, versus just hitting Pause on one of the Spotify devices. Which I usually remember, but not always. But rereading TVC15 sounds like he may be doing this? If so, I'm confused as to what exactly is happening - the last C4 Spotify session starts back up, and begins replaying on all the previously selected devices, if it the session was ended, and thus no active C4 listening sessions at all?

So very curious to see if a root cause is sorted out. The C2 to C3 may perhaps be a clue that it's something n the C4 side not on the Spotify side unpausing.

Seems like neither of these cases should happen:
1) A paused Spotify session magically unpauses and starts playing (my scenario, perhaps also one of TVC15's scenarios)
2) End ended Spotify session starts back up (sounds like this is what TVC15 also sees?)

I have had this solution running since late November, 2022, and it SEEMS to be working.