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Spotify automatically launches when I plug my iPhone into my car

jmpage2

jmpage2

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
3,243
629
i was having this problem with Pandora and eventually gave up and uninstalled the app. Recently I installed Spotify on my iPhone 6 and now whenever I plug my iPhone into my car the iPhone automatically runs Spotify instead of whatever was playing on the iPod.

I have searched on this problem and it appears there is no real solution?

Proposed workaround of using Bluetooth is not acceptable to me, audio sounds noticeably better with the USB connection and has the advantage of charging my phone.

It's a bit mind boggling that Apple or app developers don't have a setting that controls this behavior. Anyone have any insight?
 
jmpage2 said:
i was having this problem with Pandora and eventually gave up and uninstalled the app. Recently I installed Spotify on my iPhone 6 and now whenever I plug my iPhone into my car the iPhone automatically runs Spotify instead of whatever was playing on the iPod.

I have searched on this problem and it appears there is no real solution?

Proposed workaround of using Bluetooth is not acceptable to me, audio sounds noticeably better with the USB connection and has the advantage of charging my phone.

It's a bit mind boggling that Apple or app developers don't have a setting that controls this behavior. Anyone have any insight?
Click to expand...

I have the same issue with Apple Music, seems to play whenever my car's bluetooth connects to the phone. Pretty annoying as I don't care for playing music off my phone as I use Sirius XM anyways.
 
jmpage2 said:
i was having this problem with Pandora and eventually gave up and uninstalled the app. Recently I installed Spotify on my iPhone 6 and now whenever I plug my iPhone into my car the iPhone automatically runs Spotify instead of whatever was playing on the iPod.

I have searched on this problem and it appears there is no real solution?

Proposed workaround of using Bluetooth is not acceptable to me, audio sounds noticeably better with the USB connection and has the advantage of charging my phone.

It's a bit mind boggling that Apple or app developers don't have a setting that controls this behavior. Anyone have any insight?
Click to expand...
Surely a setting in your car
 
I find for me it starts what ever I was last using. Although I haven't done total research about this - it does this when I shut down my car and then disconnect the cable to my iPhone. If I disconnect the phone before turning off the car/radio it doesn't do that. Again, I haven't tried it a bunch of times to prove but it seems to work that way
 
CTHarrryH said:
I find for me it starts what ever I was last using. Although I haven't done total research about this - it does this when I shut down my car and then disconnect the cable to my iPhone. If I disconnect the phone before turning off the car/radio it doesn't do that. Again, I haven't tried it a bunch of times to prove but it seems to work that way
Click to expand...

I always shut the car down and then disconnect my phone.
 
CTHarrryH said:
Try disconnecting before shutting down - see if it makes a difference
Click to expand...

It does not make a difference, I tried it. Secondly I shouldn't have to do things in a specific sequence in order for basic things like this to work.

I will contact BMW about the problem when I actually have some spare time to discuss it with them.
 
Try turning off Handoff in Settings>General. Also, do you have the Spotify app installed on the NBT?
 
jmpage2 said:
It does not make a difference, I tried it. Secondly I shouldn't have to do things in a specific sequence in order for basic things like this to work.

I will contact BMW about the problem when I actually have some spare time to discuss it with them.
Click to expand...
I agree you shouldn't have to - was just curious - seemed to work differently for me if I do or do not.
 
BigDO said:
Try turning off Handoff in Settings>General. Also, do you have the Spotify app installed on the NBT?
Click to expand...

Spotify is part of the app suite on the NBT just like Pandora. There is no opportunity to install or uninstall those "apps" as they are part of the NBT firmware.

I was not aware that Handoff could have anything to do with this. I will disable it and see if it makes any difference.
 
I have the same issue with the Music app. If I'm playing Spotify over USB in the car, then make a stop, when I get back into the car it'll start playing the Music app instead and I have to manually launch Spotify again and hit play.

It's idiotic; I don't want anything to play automatically, just let me decide what I want to listen to when I plug it in!

This is a 2014 Honda Accord.
 
Same issue with the Chevy Colorado, so irritating when you don't bring an AC adapter! No Mr Truck, I do not want to play my music through the speakers
 
CTHarrryH said:
I find for me it starts what ever I was last using. Although I haven't done total research about this - it does this when I shut down my car and then disconnect the cable to my iPhone. If I disconnect the phone before turning off the car/radio it doesn't do that. Again, I haven't tried it a bunch of times to prove but it seems to work that way
Click to expand...

jmpage2 said:
I always shut the car down and then disconnect my phone.
Click to expand...
Yeah I have found I have to stop the music on the phone BEFORE cutting off car. Otherwise it picks up where it left off the next time I am in the car. This is with iTunes music not Spotify but.......... Also with Toyota Entune system.
 
Last edited:
I can't believe that BMW are that backward that they don't have an option in the settings. I had a VW years ago that would play the last(Bluetooth, USB, hard drive, iPod or SD card) I had playing when I got out of the car.
 
Isn't that Siri suggestions? I don't see any settings for it on iOS 10 but on iOS 9 it's under general -> handoff & suggested apps -> installed apps
 
jmpage2 said:
Spotify is part of the app suite on the NBT just like Pandora. There is no opportunity to install or uninstall those "apps" as they are part of the NBT firmware.

I was not aware that Handoff could have anything to do with this. I will disable it and see if it makes any difference.
Click to expand...

Just an update, disabling handoff had no affect on this problem.

I have observed that if I plug the phone into the car before starting it then it is less likely to launch spotify automatically but it still happens most of the time.

Added comedic bonus.... I installed the BMW Connected app to see if it had any settings that would help with this and now both Spotify and BMW connected both start up when the car is started. Since I have a somewhat older iPhone 6 it pretty much results in my iPhone grinding to a halt for nearly 30 seconds until I can finally kill the offending apps.
 
I would much rather it played Spotify automatically, but mine, which is connected via Bluetooth almost always starts playing a random song I bought on iTunes 10 years ago and don't even have downloaded to the phone. Very annoying because I bought most of my music on CD and ripped, then Amazon, then switched to Spotify... so there's just a few albums on iTunes and I don't even listen to them anymore.

Mostly I listen to Sirius and podcasts but they never play automatically.

If I bypass Bluetooth and use the Lightning cable, it's even worse with iTunes libraries popping up and crap... to the point that I kept a 3.5mm aux cable in my car (before the loss of the jack) for friends to plug into because it's a whole ordeal to get a new iPhone connected.

Car radios are just stupid at this point. All the R&D going into cars and the radios get worse and worse as they gain screens, etc. It's like they're trying to cause accidents at this point.

I wish CarPlay was a mode on the iPhone and that my radio was just an amp that the iPhone docked into. Like Nightstand mode on the Apple Watch.
 
Chiming in how terrible the smartphone/car connnection is these days.

I do not use Apple Music at all, but it force launches when I plug in via USB to charge. Steals focus away from anything else I was listening to. To get around it I got a USB charger that plugs into the lighter, but it's ridiculous that I can't just control the behaviour of the USB port already built into the car.

I do use Spotify but I'd probably be just as annoyed as the OP if it was forced on me whenever I wanted a charge.
 
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