music just starts playing automatically on my iPhone

I too have this problem and have spent hours now trying to fix it. It’s becoming extremely irritating. I just took a nap using an app that plays stories to help you fall asleep. I finally fell asleep and eventually the story ended and that app stopped playing anything. Once that happened, Apple Music started blaring and woke me up. I know it’s kind of funny but I am so mad right now. It’s pathetic Apple can’t fix this.

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.

This certainly seems to be an intentional act by Apple to force us to listen to Apple Music rather than their competitors. No auto play icon on my iphone14promax. This is beyond irritating, frustrating and insulting for Apple to do this. I am getting sick of their efforts to control and monopolize.

Crnogorac wrote:

This certainly seems to be an intentional act by Apple to force us to listen to Apple Music rather than their competitors. No auto play icon on my iphone14promax. This is beyond irritating, frustrating and insulting for Apple to do this. I am getting sick of their efforts to control and monopolize.

This is just the way bluetooth audio works in vehicles. You will find the same thing happens if you use Spotify instead of Apple Music and is the same for Android devices as well. Nothing to do with Apple forcing you to listen to Apple Music.

—AM wrote:

What exactly do you mean when you say “the stereo”?

When you said "CarPlay or a speaker", I was referring to the Head Unit of the vehicle, but it does not have to be a vehicle and will play with any bluetooth connection that provides audio. Some Bluetooth devices will allow you to Pause/Play music and those also usually have a setting for AutoPlay, but most vehicles do not have the option to Play/Pause bluetooth on the head unit so they will always play when connected.

—AM wrote:

CarPlay — at least on my car — doesn’t work in Bluetooth mode. There is a Bluetooth option, but it’s separate from CarPlay. The CarPlay app is activated only when you use a USB connection. So, I’m talking about USB connections.

That Shortcut will only activate on a bluetooth connection. CarPlay can work using Bluetooth, but only on the vehicles with Wireless CarPlay. Since you have a wired connection to CarPlay that Shortcut will not work. You can delete that one though and instead of tapping "Bluetooth" after "Create Personal Automation", tap "CarPlay". It will show "Connects" by default, then tap "Next" and continue on with the shortcut after the "Next" step.

I have not tried that one, but I think it will still work for you with the wired CarPlay connection. Please let me know how it works for you.

You would think Apple would come on here and at least tell us that there’s no way to fix this!!! You think they would at least tell us something? Instead of just leaving us completely in the dark! My next phone is an android!!! I’ve been with Apple iPhone since day one in 2007.

Iron-Owl wrote:

You would think Apple would come on here and at least tell us that there’s no way to fix this!!! You think they would at least tell us something? Instead of just leaving us completely in the dark! My next phone is an android!!! I’ve been with Apple iPhone since day one in 2007.

This forum is made up of users like you. Apple will not come on here and tell you anything. You do have the option to Contact Apple directly to see if there is a different solution.

Since your next phone is going to be an Android, this is a heads up for you so you are not disappointed. It does not matter the device and the same thing happens on Android.

https://support.google.com/android/thread/131031647/how-do-i-disable-autoplay-on-bluetooth-connect?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/222082661/spotify-automatically-playing-in-my-car?hl=en

If you have read any of the posts here, you will realize it has nothing to do with the device. The problem is that the radio in your car has no way to Play/Pause Bluetooth music. If it did not start playing when it was connected, the radio would not be able to start playing the music. You will notice that when you switch the source of the music from Bluetooth to FM on your radio that the music continues on your phone and only stops when it gets disconnected from Bluetooth. Again that is because the radio has no way to Play/Pause music on Bluetooth. All the phone can do is start playing on connection and stop when it is disconnected. This keeps the device hands-free so you are not starting and stopping the music on the phone.

The shortcut below works by pausing the music on a Bluetooth connection. This will work with the downfall of when you do change your radio to listen to Bluetooth music, you will need to start the music on your phone manually since it has been paused. That is not necessarily hands-free and may be why it is not included on every device.

Hey, everyone may not know what you know and that’s ok. Help with the knowledge without being rude ok? Sheesh “filled with people like you” that’s the rude I’m referring to, we can be kinder to eachother

leahann273 wrote:

Hey, everyone may not know what you know and that’s ok. Help with the knowledge without being rude ok? Sheesh “filled with people like you” that’s the rude I’m referring to, we can be kinder to eachother

Not sure what you mean by “filled with people like you”. I think you might have misinterpreted my comment "This forum is made up of users like you". This is simply to point out to the person that I replied to that Apple is not here to address the concerns that are being posted, as these forums are only made up by users of Apple products, not anyone representing to be from Apple. We are all just users of the products, just like the poster is and are here to help solve issues that others may be having with their device.

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 !

I tried both disabling the infinity symbol and changing the settings to Automatically Airplay Never. Neither fixed the problem. Apple Music always starts playing. I've also had it start playing music after using AirPods on a phone call and removing the taking the AirPods. This is really annoying because I don't use Apple Music.

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?!

joefiesta wrote:

what in the world is rude about Mac Jim's reply?

I think it was just a misunderstanding of my post. There was no negative tone that was intended as we are all users helping others. While this thread has gone many different directions, the fact that music autoplays when connected to a vehicle with Bluetooth has happened ever since Bluetooth audio became available in the car. This is true of any device. If the vehicle does not have a way to play/pause bluetooth audio, then the device must play it to be hands-free, otherwise you would need to play/pause music on your device which does not make it hands-free. It all depends on the vehicle and with most you can change the input to be AM/FM instead of bluetooth audio and it is not a problem.