Android: Stop Pandora from running in background, heres what to do

So, I’ve been having this annoying problem with the Pandora app on my Android phone. It just keeps running in the background, even when I’m not using it. It’s like a little music gremlin that won’t go away! This thing sucks up my battery and probably uses data too, which is no good. I tried a bunch of stuff to get it to stop, and I think I finally figured it out, so I want to share what worked for me.

First, I tried just swiping the app closed from the recent apps screen. You know, the usual way you close apps. Nope, Pandora was still there, chilling in the background. Then I noticed this little notification that said Pandora was “active in the background”. I tried swiping that away, but it didn’t do anything either.

I even looked at the media output thingy, and it showed my device name with “Unknown” over “Unknown” instead of the artist and song title. Thought that was weird. I swiped away that “Unknown” notification too, but guess what? Within an hour, Pandora just popped back open again! Like, seriously?

After messing around some more, I went into the phone’s Settings. It’s the little gear icon. Then I scrolled down and found something called “Apps” or it might be called “Application Manager” on some phones. I tapped on that and then scrolled through the list to find Pandora.

• I opened the Pandora app settings.
• I tapped some button about “Advanced” settings for Pandora.
• Then I saw an option to “Force Stop” the app.

I clicked “Force Stop,” and that seemed to do the trick! Finally, some peace and quiet from that background music. I think this basically tells the app to shut down completely. I was tired to see Pandora’s running in the background all the time, and I hope it was not using my battery.

It’s been a while now, and Pandora hasn’t started running in the background again on its own. So, if you’re having the same problem, give this “Force Stop” thing a try. It might just save your battery and your sanity!

Honestly, it was super annoying to deal with this. Apps shouldn’t just keep running like that without permission. But hey, at least I figured out a way to stop it. Hopefully, this helps some other folks out there who are pulling their hair out over this too!