Spotify is the biggest music streaming service in the world, and with more than 400 million active monthly users, the service isn’t showing any signs of stopping. It recently released a new AI DJ feature in beta that learns your listening habit and scans new releases to play songs you will like or take you back to old beloved playlists you’ve forgotten. With this new release, Spotify music recommendations will become even better.
The company’s continuous effort to improve its service is one of the reasons it remains at the top of the music streaming industry despite stiff competition from Apple Music and YouTube Music. Still, running a streaming platform for a large user base isn’t easy, and users have encountered several problems with its apps. You can solve most of these issues yourself
Cover all the basics before you get started
A service that caters to hundreds of millions of users across multiple platforms is bound to suffer some issues. You can resolve most of these problems and continue your music-listening experience on your favorite wireless earbuds. You’ll find a list of common Spotify problems and their solutions below.
Is it you, or is Spotify down?
The issue might be with the service if the Spotify app isn’t working on all your devices. Like most online services, Spotify can suffer from outages, causing the Spotify app and web player to malfunction. For example, Spotify suffered a massive outage in March 2021.
To check whether Spotify is down or not, go to downdetector.com. This service tracks outages. You can also follow the SpotifyStatus social media account on Twitter, which lets you know when the service experiences server-side issues. If Spotify is experiencing an outage, you must wait for the Spotify team to resolve the problems.
Did you force close the app?
We know the frustration everyone experiences when a support tech asks you if you’ve restarted your device. That said, have you restarted your phone?
If a restart didn’t work, force close the Spotify app by opening the app switcher menu and swiping up on the Spotify card to close it. You can also tap the Close All button to close all the apps.
If that doesn’t work, reboot your iPhone or Android smartphone. Restarting the app and rebooting your device might seem like simple solutions, but they solve issues regarding the app’s sluggishness and overall slow performance.
Common Spotify problems with easy fixes
To help you solve other issues you may encounter when using Spotify, here’s an explanation of the common Spotify problems and tips for how to fix them.
1. You encounter the dreaded Spotify audio crackling issue
If you notice a crackling sound during playback, ensure you are using a fast internet connection. Check your Wi-Fi router or use an internet speed test service to check if your Wi-Fi or mobile data speed is up to the mark.
Also, check whether the Data Saver feature in Spotify is on. Sometimes it can result in shoddy playback. On your Android smartphone, tap the Settings icon in the upper-right corner and ensure the toggle for Audio Quality is off.
On an iPhone, go to Settings > Data Saver and turn off the toggle next to Data Saver.
If you experience an audio crackling issue on your desktop, turning on hardware acceleration can solve this problem. On Windows laptops, go to Settings and ensure the toggle for Compatibility is on.
The process is simpler on a Mac. Click the Spotify menu bar item and choose the Hardware Acceleration option to turn it on.
2. There’s no crackling issue, but the audio quality is bad
You don’t have to encounter audio crackling issues to know when the streaming audio quality is not up to the mark. By default, Spotify keeps the audio streaming quality set to auto and changes it depending on your internet connection, which might result in bad audio quality. You can stop this from happening by forcing the app to stream audio in very high quality.
You must be a Spotify premium subscriber to get the Very high audio quality streaming option. To set your audio streaming quality on your Android smartphone, go to Settings, tap the Automatic option next to Wi-Fi streaming and Cellular Streaming options, and set them to Very high.
On an iPhone, go to Settings > Audio quality and choose the Very high option under Wi-Fi streaming and Cellular streaming. It uses more data. If you have a limited cellular plan, consider this before enabling this feature.
3. The Spotify app doesn’t open or crashes on your Android phone or tablet
If you use one of the best Android smartphones and Spotify isn’t working on it, use Spotify on another device like your Mac or Windows laptop, and see if you can replicate the problem elsewhere. If yes, then check whether the service is experiencing any outages.
On the other hand, if the issue is specific to your Android device and there’s no reported Spotify outage, the problem is with the Spotify app. To fix the issue, force close and relaunch the app and reboot your Android device. Also, check for pending updates and update the app.
Clear the app data and cache if that doesn’t solve the problem. Go to Settings > apps > Spotify.
Next, tap the Clear data and Clear Cache buttons. After you clear the cache and data, uninstall the app from your Android device. Then reboot your phone, install the Spotify app from Play Store, and log in with your account.
4. The Spotify app crashes or doesn’t open on your iPhone or iPad
If you own an iPhone or iPad and experience issues like app crashes and slow performance, you can solve most of these issues by clearing the app from the app switcher menu and relaunching it. You should also update the app to the latest version. To do this, long press the App Store icon and choose the Updates option. Check if Spotify has an update and install it.
If that doesn’t solve the issue, delete the app cache. To clear the Spotify cache on your iOS device, open Spotify and tap the gear icon. Then, open the Storage settings and use the Delete cache button to remove it. Finally, uninstall the app and reboot your iPhone before installing the app.
5. Spotify only plays downloaded songs and podcasts
Many users have reported that sometimes Spotify only allows them to play downloaded songs and podcasts. This problem might occur when your device doesn’t have a working internet connection. If your device is online, and you still can’t stream music or podcasts, you might have set Spotify to offline mode.
In offline mode, Spotify only allows you to stream music and podcast saved offline on your device. When Spotify is in offline mode, you see a banner on your app, as shown in the screenshot below. To disable offline mode in Spotify, open Settings and scroll down and turn off the Offline mode option.
On an iPhone, go to Settings > Playback and disable the toggle for Offline.
6. The Spotify Error Code 17 appears on your Windows computer
Error Code 17 was a common error that Windows users experienced when using Spotify. The problem still pops up, especially if you run an older version of the Windows operating system. To solve this issue, uninstall the desktop app from your Windows laptop. Use a third-party clean app or the built-in disk cleanup service in Windows to clean any residual files. Then, restart the laptop and install the Spotify app again, which should solve the issue.
7. Your Spotify premium features are missing, or you can’t download music
Several users have reported that sometimes Spotify doesn’t let them download songs or that they don’t see Spotify’s premium features. The easy way to solve this problem is to log out from your Spotify account and log in again. Ensure you are using the correct account when logging in to your Spotify account. Since Spotify lets users sign in via a Facebook account, if your premium subscription is tied to your email, it won’t work.
If you see the other premium features but can’t download songs for offline listening, check if you have surpassed the 10,000 songs download limit. You should also check whether you have reached the device limit. Currently, Spotify allows you to download songs on up to five devices. If you have surpassed the limit, you must remove a device. Go to your Spotify account page and use the Sign out everywhere button to sign out all the devices currently connected to your Spotify account. Then, sign in on the devices you are currently using.
8. Local songs and playlists don’t play on the Spotify app
In the past, Spotify allowed users to play local songs and playlists by dragging and dropping songs in the app. While you can still play local songs via its app, the drag-and-drop method doesn’t work anymore. Now, you can add your local playlists using its Settings menu.
To play your local playlists in Spotify, click the Settings icon and enable the toggle next to Show Local Files. Then, select the Add a source button to add your local songs and playlists.
9. Your Spotify playlists are missing
If you can’t find your Spotify playlists, the probable cause is accidental deletion. Spotify lets you recover your playlists. To check if you have accidentally deleted your missing playlists, open the Spotify website and log in with your account. Go to Recover Playlists and select the Restore button to restore missing playlists.
10. Music appears to play on the Spotify app, but you can’t hear it
Check if the app or device volume is on mute if you don’t hear any sound when playing songs on Spotify. It might also be that your audio output is set to something else. For example, you might have Bluetooth headphones connected, or the app might pass audio to an external display that doesn’t have a built-in speaker. If everything is fine on the settings side, perform general troubleshooting steps, including clearing the app cache and reinstalling the app.
Banish pesky Spotify issues and get back to enjoying the music
You can use the above troubleshooting steps to solve common Spotify errors. If the issue isn’t listed here, reach out to the Spotify Cares Twitter account to report your issues. On the other hand, if you can’t deal with the errors and problems, consider switching from Spotify to YouTube Music to enjoy seamless musing streaming.
Conclusion on The 10 most common Spotify problems with simple fixes
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