How do you remove the audio controls from iOS lock screen? (BBC iPlayer, Apple Music, Spotify, etc)

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How do you remove the audio controls from iOS lock screen? (BBC iPlayer, Apple Music, Spotify, etc)

How can these controls be removed?

The app in question is BBC Sounds, but these controls also appear with Apple Music, Spotify and likely any other audio app.

The trouble is, these controls are permanently on the lock screen, evidently even when the phone is in my pocket. On numerous occasions now, I've gone to get something else out of the same pocket, touched the screen and ended up jumping to a totally different point of the show I'm listening too. Of course, as the phone is in my pocket, I can't see where I was to skip back to it, which is pretty infuriating...

I've tried:

Settings -> Face ID & Passcode -> Allow access when locked and turning everything off: The audio controls are still present
Settings -> Notifications: there is no section for BBC Sounds, turning off for Apple Music made no difference
In the BBC Sounds app itself, there's nothing it settings that would prevent this. Apple Music and Spotify do not appear to have settings sections within their apps.
I'm on the latest iOS version, currently 17.5.1
I've tried removing widgets using this guide and this guide, but I don't think this is actually a widget.

iPhone 15 Pro

Posted on May 22, 2024 12:29 AM

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Answer 1

cjw296 Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 13, 2024 3:00 AM in response to cjw296

I contacted Apple Support, went through the tedious first level escalation process, and eventually got someone who acknowledged the issue and that there is basically no way to turn this off at the moment.

The best they could offer was to complain through Product Feedback - Apple, so I've sent a "Bug Report" through the Feedback - iPhone - Apple channel and would suggest anyone impacted by this to do the same, here are the comments I used:

It is currently impossible to disable the cross-app player controls on the lock screen. 

These controls are permanently on the lock screen, evidently even when the phone is in my pocket. 
On numerous occasions now, I've gone to get something else out of the same pocket, touched the screen and ended up jumping to a totally different point of the show I'm listening too. 

Please see details here:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/472851/remove-audio-controls-from-ios-lock-screen-bbc-iplayer-apple-music-spotify-e

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255621763?sortBy=best

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How do you remove the audio controls from iOS lock screen? (BBC iPlayer, Apple Music, Spotify, etc)

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