Spotify knows its app is destroying your battery and it's trying to fix it

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Spotify (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • A growing number of users are reporting unusually high battery drain when using Spotify on their iPhones.
  • Spotify is aware of the issue and is "currently looking into it."

If you're using Spotify on an iPhone and wondering why it's eating into your battery life, you aren't alone. In fact, a growing number of people are reporting the same issue and it appears Spotify is already working on a fix. Once it works out what's wrong, that is.

A number of Reddit posts and threads on the Spotify forum are full of people reporting that the Spotify is draining more battery than usual — and it all seems to have started within the last couple of weeks.

Decided to switch over to Spotify for the past month and I am listening to music on average 3 hours per day, which is the same as I did with Apple Music. Only difference being that by 4-5pm my iPhone is hitting 20% battery remaining where as when I was using Apple Music, I'd only get 20% battery warning later at night around 8-9pm.

While Spotify doesn't seem to know what's wrong just yet, 9to5Mac spied that it has at least confirmed that the issue is being looked into. It also wants users to try disabling Background App Refresh to see if that helps, too.

Thanks for your reports about battery drainage while updating from iOS 14.8 to .15 on both firmware versions during the past days.We've passed your info on to the relevant team and we can confirm they are currently looking into it. If you're experiencing this issue, make sure to click +VOTE and Subscribe to the thread to be notified of any developments.Aside from trying restarting and/or a clean reinstall of the app, it'd be great if you'd give disabling Background App Refresh a shot: this could be found under Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh.

As one Reddit user points out, a solution to the problem — at least in the short term — is to use Apple Music instead.

Yes, it's happening to me too. I deleted the app and am using a 3 month free trial of Apple Music until it gets fixed. Spotify isn't perfect but I've used it for years and love having my music and podcasts all in one place. Hoping they are able to fix this issue soon.

Whether you're using Spotify or Apple Music, you deserve to listen with great headphones! Be sure to check out our collection of the best AirPods Max deals before making any buying decision!
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Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.