Can't stop DFplayer mini playing the file even using mp3_stop command

As you might expect from the name, the loop function is a loop. The code inside of this function runs over and over again. So the mp3 is played, there is a delay of 26000 milliseconds, the mp3 is paused, the mp3 is stopped and then the process starts over again. If you only want something to happen once on startup then you should put it in setup().