music just starts playing automatically on my iPhone

I don’t know if this is going to work but here we go:

go to settings > general > AirPlay & Handoff

Right on top there is “Automatic AirPlay”

disable it and test it out…

Ended up deleting the music app. Was happening even when scrolling facebook.

Aliababwa1234 wrote:

Jim your defenses of Apple are for naught. Apple Music is programmed to open automatically and there is no way to stop it short of deleting it. After the better part of a decade of this super annoying non-addressable issue by the user, I am just fine with my decision to determine that my Apple Music purchases are a loss and delete it. I do not have these issues anymore and use several apps for music when I want them, which is what everyone that originally landed on this page was looking for with Apple Music. The answer is to delete Apple Music

If you do not have purchased music, or a library of songs, or a subscription to Apple Music, then I would suggest to anyone to delete it as the app will serve no purpose for you in the first place. For those that have built their library of songs and benefit from the Apple Music subscription, then the information has been provided for them. The beauty of it is that everyone is free to use any option that they want. There are many options available, each with their own benefits and problems that can be found with any simple internet search.

Go to Settings > AirPlay & Handoff and turn off automatic handoff. The phone is handing off music playing to the car Bluetooth speaker as it would for any Bluetooth speaker. But of course then it won’t automatically connect to any other Bluetooth speaker. Each connection would have to be manual.

Despite these very detailed instructions (thanks for that), they didn’t work on my phone. There aren’t any icons next to “playing next”. I had to delete the Apple Music app entirely. I have never used it and I don’t want to. Hopefully Apple won’t decide to do me a “favor” and reinstall it.

If there is a setting to stop autoplay it would be on the stereo. In most cases the stereo will automatically start playing when the source of the music is set to Bluetooth. It needs to do this since the stereo does not have a Play/Pause button for Bluetooth music. If it didn't start playing when connected, there would be no way for you to start playing it from the stereo. Here is a possible option that will create a shortcut that stops the music from playing when connected to Bluetooth. The downfall to this approach is that to get music playing again through your car, you will need to start playing it on your phone.

• Open Shortcuts app
• Tap Automation at the bottom of the screen
• Tap "Create Personal Automation"
• Tap "Bluetooth"
• Tap "Choose" under Device and select your car
• Tap "Done"
• Tap "Next"
• Tap "Add Action"
• Tap "Media"
• Scroll down to the Playback section and tap "Play/Pause"
• Tap "Play/Pause" on the top of this screen and choose "Pause"
• Tap "Next"
• Tap "Done"

If you decide you don't want this automation after creating it, you can simply delete it from the Shortcuts app.

iOS 17 added an extra step to prevent shortcuts from running automatically, so you may need to turn off the "Ask Before Running" option on the shortcut as explained in the user guide:

Some personal automations can run without asking you for confirmation when they’re triggered.

1. In the Shortcuts app  on your iOS or iPadOS device, tap Automation .
2. Tap the automation you want to run automatically.
3. Turn off Ask Before Running, then tap Don’t Ask to confirm your choice.
4. Tap Done.
5. The automation will not notify you when it’s triggered.

It plays over top of my meditation app even though I stop the song and close Music repeatedly. Absolutely infuriating. Found infinity symbol (autoplay) through directions here and it was not on. Went to Settings > General > Airplay and Handoff and set Airplay to Never, turned everything off. Fingers crossed.

ok had no infinity icon as well - looks like I solved it by setting a 1 min time limit on the music app- so after i play a song for 1 min - it will no longer pop on when headphones are attached or after apps finished like meditation or sleep apps - try setting a time limit !

None of the advice here worked for me, except for deleting the Music app. It's sad, because I wanted to continue using the Music app but this auto-play "feature" every time I plug in headphones was infuriating. Why on earth would I ever want to automatically play a song that wasn't playing before I plugged in the headphones?!

This is what I did. I added a screen time for ITunes and time it only for the minimum 1 minute. Before you go car play iTunes & it stops after 1 minute, walla, you can play your other music app. Add the app on screen time so you can limit use.

Similar issue, no "infinity" sign, but I believe people mean the shuffle and loop signs, make sure they are both *not* enabled like this:

And not like this:

Solved it for me.

Thank you for this thread to help me understand my issue with autoplay!

meagen195 wrote:

You’d think apple would finally do something about this! It’s been the same on all iPhones and it’s horrible.

I disabled “hand off” and it’ll still automatically play in my car.

it’s one of the most irritating IPhone features. Instead of adding 50 minor fixes each month, they should focus on the items pepper hate about the phone.

I you have read through the posts you would realize it has nothing to do with the iPhone and every thing to do with the car manufacturer. The way a hand-free Bluetooth device works when connected to a vehicle that does not have a setting to pause Bluetooth audio is to start playing immediately when connected to the car. If it did not do this, then when you chose to listen to Bluetooth audio from your phone, you would need to manually start playing the music on your phone while driving which defeats the purpose of a hands-free connection that they advertise.

Newer vehicles from some car manufacturerers do have a setting to pause Bluetooth audio and allow you to start playing without having to do that from your device. These vehicles also have a setting to prevent autoplay when connected. This also affects Android devices as you can see here:

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-s22-series/autoplay-music-in-car/td-p/7667316

https://support.google.com/androidauto/thread/194798173/i-want-to-turn-off-autoplay?hl=en

https://support.google.com/androidauto/thread/188932983/can-t-turn-off-start-music-automatically?hl=en

In addition, most vehicles will allow you to set a different input source, such as FM before you shut the car off. When you later start the car, the input source will remain on FM and only play the Bluetooth audio when it is chosen from the car radio. All the options depend on the vehicle you have and what settings they include to control your Bluetooth device, whether it is an iPhone or Android phone.

Jim your defenses of Apple are for naught. Apple Music is programmed to open automatically and there is no way to stop it short of deleting it. After the better part of a decade of this super annoying non-addressable issue by the user, I am just fine with my decision to determine that my Apple Music purchases are a loss and delete it. I do not have these issues anymore and use several apps for music when I want them, which is what everyone that originally landed on this page was looking for with Apple Music. The answer is to delete Apple Music

71JXN wrote:

Seems to be an issue with the OS. I closed my apple music subscription and deleted the Music App, and it just opens the next app. It seems more like a developer's self-ego trip than a company initiative. I tried to open a ticket, but it seems that is not their priority. It is extremely annoying. I've tried everything to stop my phone doing that. Any suggestions are more than welcome.

Review these links and you will see it also happens with Samsung and Google phone. The case is true for any music app as you will also see people complaining that Spotify starts playing automatically when connected to the car.

The car stereo/head unit needs music to play when you select Bluetooth Audio from its controls. If your unit does not have the capabilities to play/pause Bluetooth Audio, it must play when the connection to Bluetooth is made. Some newer vehicles are now including this option to play and pause the music and also has a setting to pause music when the bluetooth connection is made. Floofaroo88 found this setting on their vehicle.

https://support.google.com/android/thread/222082661/spotify-automatically-playing-in-my-car?hl=en

https://support.google.com/android/thread/183167111/how-do-i-disable-autoplay-on-bluetooth-connect?hl=en

https://support.google.com/android/thread/131031647/how-do-i-disable-autoplay-on-bluetooth-connect?hl=en

https://support.google.com/androidauto/thread/188932983/can-t-turn-off-start-music-automatically?hl=en

https://support.google.com/androidauto/thread/194798173/i-want-to-turn-off-autoplay?hl=en

I suggest anyone thinking this is an Apple Music or iPhone issue, read the above Support Articles.

You don't want the infinity symbol, you want the three dot+lines menu symbol that brings up the Up Next list, then clear that list, and also play to the end of the currently playing song. Return Apple Music to "no music selected to play" in other words.