6 ways to fix Spotify app stops playing when screen is off issue on iPhones

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Recently, a lot of iPhone users started complaining that the Spotify app on their iPhones suddenly stops playing music when they turn off their phone’s screen, especially, people who just upgraded to iOS 14 version and above, making this problem now famously known as the “Spotify app stops playing when screen is off problem on iPhones“.

Spotify app stops playing when your screen is off" on iPhone

You see, personally, I haven’t had this issue on my iPhone, so, I can’t confidently tell you what actually might be the cause of it, but still, today, I’ll be showing you some of the things I think might be behind this issue on your iPhones, and some things you can do that might help in solving it.

So, if you’re here, and you’re experiencing the infamous “Spotify app stops playing when screen is off” problem on your iPhone, well, if you stick around long enough, you might just be one step closer to getting it fixed.

So, having said that, and without further ado, let’s begin. #enjoy.

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6 ways to fix Spotify app stops playing when screen is off problem on your iPhone

Uninstall, reinstall or update the app.
Check if you have “Low Power Mode” enabled on your iPhone, and turn it off.
Enable “Background App Refresh” for the Spotify app.
Force restart your iPhone.
Check if there’s a new software update available for your iPhone, and update it.
Last option: Factory reset your iPhone.

1. Uninstall, reinstall or update the Spotify app

You see, sometimes, when having issues like this, the most obvious cause might be due to the presence of bug activity in the current version of the app that you have installed on your phone, and the first thing you’ll want to do in this case is to uninstall and reinstall the affected app, hopefully, the developers of the app are aware of this, and have released a new update of it that has helped fix the issue.

So, for the case of the Spotify app, simply uninstall it by tapping and holding on the app icon on your iOS home screen, and depending on the version of iOS running on your phone, the ways of deleting or uninstalling apps might be different.

For iOS 13 users

When you tap and hold on an app icon, tap on the “Edit Home Screen” or “Rearrange Apps” option.
The apps will start jiggling, and you should see an “x” icon on top each of them.
Simply tap the “x” icon for the one you want to delete which is the Spotify app in this case.
Finally, tap “Delete” and the app is gone.

While for iOS 14 & 15 users

Tap and hold on the app icon you want to delete.
And from the options shown to you, tap “Remove App“;
And from the next options shown to you, tap “Delete App” to delete it from your iPhone.

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And after you’re done deleting the Spotify app from your iPhone, you can simply go back to the App Store to download a fresh version of it, and hopefully, it should now begin to work fine and play without stopping on your phone.

But, what if it doesn’t?

Well, that’s where the next option comes in.

2. Turn off “Low Power Mode” if you have it turned on

Okay, so, if you followed the instructions from the first method above, and the Spotify app keeps stop playing when your iPhone screen is off, then maybe this next step might help, which is, turning off low power battery saver mode on your iPhone, assuming that you have it turned on before.

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So, for those who don’t know, low power mode is a battery saver feature that helps the battery last longer on your iPhone, but it does this by disabling some features on the phone, most especially, features that run in the background, and who knows, the Spotify app in question might just be one of its victims.

Here is what Apple has to say about the “**Low Power Mode**“.

Although the low power mode automatically turns on on its own when your phone battery hits 20%, but who knows, maybe you might have turned it on way too early, and in return, it’s beginning to get in the way of the Spotify app being able to remain open and playing in the background whenever you turn your iPhone screen off.

So, to turn off “Low Power Mode”, all you have to do is;

Go to your iPhone settings, and tap on “Battery“.
In the battery settings page, you should see the “Low Power Mode” option with a toggle button in front of it.
If the toggle button is green, that means it’s turned on, simply tap it to turn it off.
But if it’s off when you got there, then that means this actually wasn’t the cause of the issue on your iPhone.

But if you turned it off, and the problem got solved, well, congrats to you, but, if it doesn’t, then that takes us to the third option.

3. Enable Background App Refresh for the Spotify app

The “Background App Refresh” is a feature that keeps apps open and updating in the background even when in sleep mode.

Most people choose to disable this feature cause of its aggressive battery consumption, but we’re not gonna turn ours on or off completely, as we’re only gonna turn it on for the specific apps that need it, just like the Spotify app, and then turn it off for every other app that doesn’t.

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And to turn this feature on, all you have to do is;

Go to your iPhone settings menu, and go to “General“.
From there, loacte and go to “Background App Refresh“, and turn it on.
After turning on the option itself, from the list of apps below, you can disable the feature using the toggle buttons in front of them for the ones you don’t want, and keep it enabled for the ones you want, such as the Spotify app.

4. Force restart your iPhone

But, what if after doing everything from the first method to the third method above and the problem persists, well, maybe a good old force restarting your iPhone might just be what the phone needs right now, and, as you all know, restarting electronic devices such as phones, helps to fix most common issues like this most of the time.

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And bear in mind that restarting your iPhone is absolutely different from resetting it. Restarting does no harm to your phone as it’s basically just turning off and turning it back on, so, you shouldn’t be bothered about losing your data here.

And to force restart your iPhone, well, depending on your version of iOS and the iPhone itself, the methods of doing this are different.

So, for the iPhone 6, 6s, and SE 1st Gen

Press and hold the home button, and power button.
When the Apple logo appears, release the buttons.
Now you just have to simply wait for the phone to turn off, and reboot on its own.

For the iPhone 7 & 7 Plus

Press and hold the volume-down button and power button.
When the Apple logo appears, release the buttons.
Once again, wait for the phone to turn off and reboot.

For iPhone 8 and upwards

Press and release the volume-up button.
Press and release the volume-down button.
Press and hold the power button.
And when the Apple logo appears, release the power button.
Wait for the phone to completely turn off and reboot.

So, like I said, a good old force restart in most cases, helps to fix common electronic software problems like the infamous “Spotify app stops playing when your screen is off” problem troubling your iPhone, but, what if it doesn’t fix it this time?

Well, then that brings us to the next option.

5. Check if there’s a new software update on your phone, and update it

Sometimes, issues like this might arise from the fact that our phones are running on an outdated or obsolete version of their proprietary software, and the only way to fix it is by updating the said phone to its latest software version.

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So, to check and update our iPhones to the latest version of iOS, all we have to do is;

Go to your iPhone settings, and tap on “General“.
From there, locate and tap on the “Software Update” settings option.
From the software update page, if you see the option to update your phone to a new version of iOS, simply do so.
And for those who are already running on the latest version, and doesn’t see an option to update, well, you should probably try looking at the last option below.

6. Erase and reset your iPhone

So, if you’ve tried all the steps above, and you’re still stuck with the “Spotify app stops playing when your screen is off” issue on your iPhone, then, maybe it’s actually time to factory reset that iPhone of yours.

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But remember, you should only do this when you’ve tried all possible methods, and have no other choice but to do so, as factory resetting your iPhone will wipe every single piece of data from your phone, and it is advised that you first backup your phone before attempting this.

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To factory reset your iPhone, all you have to do is;

Go to your iPhone settings page, and go to “General” settings.
Scroll to the bottom of the page until you see the “Reset” option, tap on it.
From the options shown to you on the new page, tap “Erase All Content And Settings“.
If you’re asked to provide your iPhone passcode, simply do so, and if you’re asked to provide your Apple ID password, do so as well.
You might also be prompted to backup your files to the iCloud before erasing the phone, and I’ll advice you to do this if you haven’t done it before.
After all that, tap on “Erase” and your iPhone will be wiped clean and restored to the same way it was when you took it out of the box.

After erasing your phone and resetting it to factory settings, if you backed up your files before doing so, when turning on the phone for the first time after the reset, you’ll be given the option to log in to iCloud with your Apple ID and restore your files from the backup.

And after doing that, when your phone is completely turned on and running properly, you can go ahead to download and start using Spotify again to see if the “Spotify app stops playing when your screen is off” problem still persists.

And that brings us to the end of this tutorial on the different ways you can fix the “Spotify app stops playing when your screen is off” problem on your iPhones.

Please tell us if any of these methods worked for you by leaving a comment for us in the comments section below, and if you happen to find this guide helpful, simply give it a thumbs up by sharing it, and as always, I’ll see y’all tomorrow, #peace out.

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