Family Plan: "Someone Else is Listening" Message

[littlesu]

This is happening to me.  What do you mean by "each member of your family will need to beloved into their devices using their own personal Pandora accounts?"  Can't they log into the family plan account from their own device?  I'm totally confused.  Thanks in advance.

[AdamPandora]

@littlesu The reason that error message is popping up for you, is because your other family members are still logged into your Pandora account on their devices.

Upgrading to the Family Plan means that you and up to five other accounts can enjoy all of the benefits of Pandora Premium, while keeping your individual Pandora accounts.

So far I see you have sent two invitations - however there are no Pandora accounts registered under the two email addresses those invitations were sent to.

If those other two other people would like to join your plan, they will first need to set up separate Pandora accounts using their personal email addresses.

Once those accounts are created, they can then accept the invitations they were emailed to join your family plan subscription.

If you run into issues with this after the new accounts are created and added to your plan, let me know.

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

Pandora Update 12/30/21:

If the Someone else is listening error message is popping up, then that means someone else is logged into your account on their device and attempting to stream Pandora at the same time as you.

Each member of your family will need to be logged into their devices using their own personal Pandora accounts that are added to your family plan.

If you believe that message is getting triggered due to an unauthorized user on your account, please reach out to our support team directly for assistance with securing your account here. 

Thanks for being a part of the community! 

[jrl9466]

 Just updated to family plan.  Why am I still getting this error message??

[AdamPandora]

@jrl9466 The reason that error message is popping up for you, is because your other family members are still logged into your Pandora account on their devices.

Upgrading to the Family Plan means that you and up to five other accounts can enjoy all of the benefits of Pandora Premium, while keeping your individual Pandora accounts.

So far I see you have sent one invitation - however there is no Pandora account registered under the email address that invitation was sent to.

If that other person would like to join your plan, they will first need to set up a separate Pandora account using their personal email address.

Once their account is created, they can then accept the invitation they were emailed to join your family plan subscription.

If you run into issues with this after the new account is created and added to your plan, let me know.

[jrl9466]

Thank you very much. It may have resolved itself somebody was listening through my Google Home account and I am listening through my laptop currently.

Sent from my iPhone

[AdamPandora]

@jrl9466 I'm still showing the person you attempted to add to your plan hasn't created their own Pandora account yet.

To prevent this from happening again in the future:

1. Have them sign out of Pandora on all of their devices.
2. Have them create a new account using their own personal email address.
3. Have them accept the invitation that was emailed to them to join the plan

Let me know if you continue to run into issues after that has been completed.

[BMeek]

I don't have a family plan and I don't share my account with anyone, but I want to chime in on this topic because your apps are just too darn **ahem**-rententive about my own use of Pandora across various devices.  For example, while I'm at home I tell Siri via my HomePods to play a station...  Since HomePods offer limited control over station configuration, and I'm thinking about it, I launch the iOS app and start adding key songs/artists to a station (without actually playing anything).  Sure enough, the music is interrupted with the "someone else is listening" message.  No, I'm just messing with my account!  On the same network (i.e. from the same IP address)!  Don't get me started on how many times I've heard this message on my Android head unit (in the car) because I've left the app open on my phone (which is also providing the Internet connection to the car stereo but not playing any songs).

Anyway, it's a bad customer experience thing.  Your code shouldn't be so quick to complain when a longtime user bounces between devices.  It seems I've been interrupted by this message a lot but I've never actually been in violation of the spirit of my subscription (and I don't actually listen to multiple devices at the same time :-).

Thanks for reading my rant and please tell the bean-counters in marketing to lighten up on the circumstances that trigger this interruption (only use upon several minutes of simultaneous interactive usage in different locations for example).

[cterry877]

I upgraded to the family plan and sent out invitations. They accepted but when the enter it still states only one can listen at a time. Subscription has been verified and paid for $164 - family plan. You sure would think that a company bringing revenues and as large as Pandora would have online and live support. Real money maker for 3 kids in a basement.

[AlyssaPandora]

Hi there, @cterry877. 👋

Sorry to hear that you're having trouble with this.

Someone from our User Support team has reached out to you via email to help with your Family plan. If you don't see the email message yet, please check your spam / junk folder to make sure it didn't end up there. 📬

[dnoeltx]

I have a family plan subscription with 3 accounts.  The main, owner account is logged into an iPhone, a second account is logged into an Android phone and the third is logged in on our Sonos system. Each is a separate account with its own email address.  Very often when I am playing Pandora on the Sonos and the iPhone user starts playing Pandora, we get the "Someone else is listening" error on the Sonos. Restarting there causes the error on the iPhone.  Any advice?

[AdamPandora]

@dnoeltx Can you please verify one more time for me that you are logged into separate accounts on both your Sonos device and iPhone?

To view the account you are signed into on Sonos:

From your mobile device, open the Sonos app and go to Settings, then My Services. Select Pandora from this list and verify that you're signed in with the correct email address. If not, sign out, then sign back in using the other email address.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

To view the account you are signed into on your iPhone:

You can find the active account by:

1. Opening the Pandora app and selecting the Profile tab.
2. Tapping the Settings gear in the upper right corner.
3. Checking the email address next to the Account field.
4. If this is not correct, scroll down and select Sign Out. Then log back using the other email address.

Let me know how it goes.

[dnoeltx]

I have very carefully, and numerous times, verified that we have 3 different accounts logged into the 3 different devices.

[AdamPandora]

@dnoeltx In order to look into this further, our support team will need to speak with the main account holder of the plan.

Have them send our support team a message directly here.

Let me know when they send that message, and I'll check in with our support team to make sure they received it. 

[FrankCastle32]

I am having the same issues with the family plan. My family members after accepting the invite takes them to a log in page instead of activating them in the family plan

[AlyssaPandora]

Hi there, @FrankCastle32. 👋

Sorry for any trouble you've experienced with your Premium Family plan invites.

At this time, the individuals you invited don't have Pandora accounts under those email addresses. In order to join your plan, they would need to create a Pandora account.

++

If you've already sent an invite to a family member and they haven't received it, make sure that:

1. You've sent the invite to an email address your family member can access (not necessarily the email address on their Pandora account);
2. They check their spam folder, as the invite may have ended up there.

Once they've received your invite email, they'll simply select Accept Invite, and either log into their existing Pandora account or create a new account.

If you continue to have trouble with this, please let me know and I can create an email case with our support team. 

Let me know how it goes. 🎧

[JamiDK]

I upgraded to Pandora Premium and have four people on my account, I did this so we can all still listen without getting kicked off, but we still get kicked off?

[AdamPandora]

@JamiDK I moved your post over to this existing thread: Family Plan: "Someone Else is Listening" Message

If the Someone else is listening error message is still popping up, then that means your other family members are still logged into your account on their devices and are attempting to stream Pandora at the same time as you.

Each member of your family will need to be logged into their devices using their own personal Pandora accounts that are added to your family plan.

Have each of them sign out of Pandora on their devices, and then sign back in using their personal email addresses associated with the Pandora accounts you added to your plan.

Hope this helps!

[jjhtpc]

This is a terrible restriction.  I have all of my echo devices on one account, an account dedicated to the house so that I can play whole house audio.  This stopped me from being able to listen to something in the kitchen while my kids listen to something downstairs.  Very silly restriction, it does nothing positive on family accounts.  The family accounts is already purchased to serve multiple people let it serve the whole house audio as multiple streams.

[AdamPandora]

@jjhtpc The Pandora account connected to your Community profile isn't currently upgraded to the Premium Family plan - I'm showing it is still set up with the free service.

Please have the main account holder of your Premium Family plan contact our support team directly so they can help ensure you get set up properly.

You can contact them directly for assistance here.