You can fix the ‘Spotify stops playing when the screen is off’ issue by reinstalling the Spotify app on your iPhone. You can also enable Background App Refresh for Spotify in the Settings app.
Hi, I’m Devansh. Along with Apple Music, I also use Spotify to listen to music. In this article, I’ll guide you through some steps you can take to ensure seamless playback of music on Spotify without pauses or glitches.
If your Spotify track pauses whenever you lock your iPhone screen, keep reading!
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First Steps to Fix Spotify From Stopping When iPhone Screen is Off
If you press play on a Spotify track and lock your iPhone, but then it pauses abruptly, it can have a wide range of causes behind it. This issue can be solved in a few simple steps in most cases. You can give these a try.
- Close and reopen the Spotify app
- Restart your iPhone
- Check for an update for Spotify in the App Store
After following these steps, just listen to music or podcasts on Spotify as you normally would. Is the music paused whenever you lock your iPhone? If yes, let’s talk about more solutions you can apply.
Top 3 Solutions to Spotify Stopping with Off iPhone Screen
If the above quick steps didn’t work for you, don’t worry. Let’s dive into three in-depth solutions.
Perform a Clean Reinstall
If, after restarting your iPhone and updating Spotify, the music still pauses whenever you lock your iPhone, you can try out a clean reinstall. You’ll lose your downloaded content, and the in-app settings will go back to default, but it’s worth trying out. Here are the steps.
Step 1: Open Spotify and tap on the gear icon in the top-right corner. Scroll down to Storage and tap on Clear cache.
Step 2: Now, open the Settings app, scroll down to General, and tap on iPhone Storage. On this page, locate Spotify and tap on it.
Step 3: Tap Offload App.
Step 4: Tap Delete App. Now, shut down your iPhone.
Wait a few minutes and turn on your iPhone. After it’s booted up, open the App Store and redownload Spotify. Since you’re reinstalling it, any pending updates will be included as well. Test and see if Spotify is working properly.
Enable Background App Refresh
iOS often restricts the background activity of an app when it is not being used, putting it in a suspended state. This could be the reason why your Spotify track pauses whenever you turn off your iPhone screen. Fortunately, there’s a way to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Open Settings, scroll down to General and click on Background App Refresh. Locate Spotify from the list of apps and ensure it is toggled on.
Now, when you play music on Spotify but switch off the screen, Spotify will still be allowed to run in the background hassle-free. The only exception to this is if you quit Spotify from the app switcher.
Disable Low Power Mode
If you’ve enabled Low Power Mode, iOS will try to save battery by cutting corners. This could lead to Spotify pausing every time you close your iPhone screen.
To check if LPM is enabled, see if the battery on the top-right corner of the screen is yellow instead of green. To turn LPM off, open Settings, scroll down to Battery and toggle off Low Power Mode. Read this article for more info on this feature.
Spotify Support
Finally, the reason Spotify stops playing on your iPhone may be due to an account-related or server-sided issue. If you share your Spotify account with a friend or family member, their interference might also be causing your music to pause randomly.
You can log out of your account temporarily. If that doesn’t work, I recommend contacting Spotify Support and having them look into any problems with your account.
FAQs
Here are some common questions about the ‘Spotify stops playing when the screen is off’ issue.
Fortunately, no. Unlike YouTube, Spotify lets you play music and podcasts even when your screen is off. However, getting Spotify Premium will remove ads and allow you to download tracks for offline playback. Click here for more details.
Does Spotify Only Pause When You’re Using a Particular Speaker?
If your Spotify music playback only tends to pause when you’re using a particular speaker or pair of headphones, the cause might lie with that device rather than your iPhone. Consider using another device as your daily driver instead.
Conclusion
If Spotify pauses whenever you lock your iPhone, the first thing you should do is reopen the app and restart your iPhone. You can also try a clean reinstall and enable Background App Refresh for Spotify. In addition, ensure that Low Power Mode is disabled.
Music can be a very immersive form of entertainment, so if Spotify pauses when you turn off the screen, it can get annoying quickly. Hopefully, the solutions mentioned above worked successfully!
Did applying the above solutions make Spotify run smoothly on your iPhone? Feel free to let me know in the comments!