Whenever I jump into my vehicle, my phone connects to the stereo and starts playing either Spotify or Audible depending on what app I had last opened on my phone. I don't always want to listen to music or a book when I jump in my car and I would like to decide for myself whether or not to open the app. With Audible it is especially irritating because if the volume is down low it will play in the background sometimes for multiple chapters which means I need to go back and try and figure out where I last listened. I have tried every conceivable way to prevent the apps from opening automatically and failed. The only way to stop them is to put them in deep sleep mode on my phone. That works but it makes the apps unstable and when I do want to listen they constantly turn off. Anyone else had this issue and found a solution? All permissions have been turned off in my phone. I know it's the phone because this was an issue with my Grand Cherokee and now is an issue with my new Cadillac.
Dang, that sounds terribly annoying. I don't have a solution that you probably haven't already tried, assuming you've dived into the settings on your phone and the car.
(And here I thought the head unit not displaying what song I was listening to was annoying.)
wae
UltimaDork
4/8/25 2:11 p.m.
I have the same problem with Android using Youtube Music, Youtube itself, and Antennapod. Drives me up the freaking wall because it also appears to be somewhat random. Sometimes it'll just start playing whatever I was listening to or watching. Sometimes it doesn't. As best as I can tell, it's using some sort of ESP-based system to know exactly what I would like it to do so it can do the opposite.
Does Android Auto/apple car play start automatically? There should be a setting on the phone or on the vehicle with the phone connected where you can choose if 'audio starts automatically '
Close the app. That means you had the app running in the background.
1kris06 said:
Does Android Auto/apple car play start automatically? There should be a setting on the phone or on the vehicle with the phone connected where you can choose if 'audio starts automatically '
I uninstalled Android auto thinking that might be the issue. When it was installed there is a setting to prevent it from opening automatically which I had turned off but I decided it was not related to Android auto because the problem continued after it was removed.
Slippery said:
Close the app. That means you had the app running in the background.
Negative. It opens closed apps and plays them.
WilD
Dork
4/8/25 2:27 p.m.
Slippery said:
Close the app. That means you had the app running in the background.
This has not been true of my experience in the past. In my wife's car, both of our phones have been connected and she always listens to music (Spotify app). Every time I got into her car by myself, and started it to move or for a quick errand, it would play "All about that base" via Apple Music which was apparently the only song I had saved on my phone. Prior to this I had never knowingly used that app, it was never open, nor did I know this song was saved on my phone. I deleted the song from my phone so it would stop happening.
I have the same problem, in my case none of the affected apps will do it if they aren't running (Firefox, VLC) so completely closing them is the only sort-of-workaround. It's only bothered me enough to look through all of the settings on the headunit and phone to confirm that there's nothing there that will help, not enough to get into the serious software/firmware modding that would likely be required to fix it.
Why not turn off the bluetooth on the phone? On my samsung it is a swipe and tap.
i don't have this problem on my apply device ;) just sayin'
in all seriousness for what ever reason car play as of late launches with the recent apps on the left side but nothing is playing automatically. My car also remembers what I was listening to last time (sat radio for example) and does not switch from that.
Seems like one of those things for which there isn't a standard behavior, so you get the outcome of whatever behaviors add up from your phone, your apps, and your car.
When I last had an Android phone, I'd often be listening to something on the house Sonos system, controlled from my phone. Then I'd stop it, and some time later I'd go get in the car, which would quietly start playback on the last "audio" app I used, which was Sonos. So I'd effectively start the stereo in the house and drive away not knowing. That took a while to figure out.
I had to try to ingrain the habit of starting another audio app before leaving the house.
It's usually in the app settings itself. look for something that says something like
allow external devices to start playback
On Spotify it is under devices and called Media Autoplay. You want that off
Jesse Ransom said:
Seems like one of those things for which there isn't a standard behavior, so you get the outcome of whatever behaviors add up from your phone, your apps, and your car.
When I last had an Android phone, I'd often be listening to something on the house Sonos system, controlled from my phone. Then I'd stop it, and some time later I'd go get in the car, which would quietly start playback on the last "audio" app I used, which was Sonos. So I'd effectively start the stereo in the house and drive away not knowing. That took a while to figure out.
I had to try to ingrain the habit of starting another audio app before leaving the house.
how many "I think the Sonos is haunted" conversations did you have with other members of your household.
My Samsung S23 Ultra let's me create rules, I'm not sure if all Samsung's have this feature though. So personally, when I get in my car, I made a rule that when my phone connects to the Bluetooth it opens maps and Spotify but doesn't play anything. When my phone disconnects, it turns off. Look to see if your phone has the ability to create rules, that could help.
Steve_Jones said:
It's usually in the app settings itself. look for something that says something like
allow external devices to start playback
On Spotify it is under devices and called Media Autoplay. You want that off
I have done a deep dive into my phone settings and everything applicable is denied or turned off.
porschenut said:
Why not turn off the bluetooth on the phone? On my samsung it is a swipe and tap.
I want Bluetooth in my car. But on my terms.
porschenut said:
Why not turn off the bluetooth on the phone? On my samsung it is a swipe and tap.
I want Bluetooth in my car. But on my terms.
In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :
Just to confirm, not the phone settings, but the settings in the Spotify app itself.
Steve_Jones said:
In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :
Just to confirm, not the phone settings, but the settings in the Spotify app itself.
Autostart turned off. You would think it would be that simple!
In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :
I was hoping it was. How strange.
bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:
porschenut said:
Why not turn off the bluetooth on the phone? On my samsung it is a swipe and tap.
I want Bluetooth in my car. But on my terms.
Another example of AI taking over our technology? Never liked Bluetooth in the car, I was afraid of random BT electrons taking over and driving.
