My Spotify Mac App Is Not Working

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Aug 30,2019 • Filed to: Streaming Music Services & Sites Tips • Proven solutions

Spotify is a digital technology that specializes in video and music streaming services. However, like any other program, it occasionally has bugs in Spotify. What to do when Spotify is not working? Don't feel worry! Below is a list of five common errors that can occur with Spotify for Mac and the solutions to these problems. Once you know how to fix all bugs in Spotify, you will be able to do set and then get back to enjoying your Spotify experience.

Part 1. Problems and Solutions to Spotify Not Working

Spotify shuffle sucks

Spotify shuffle sucks occur when Spotify does not shuffle all the songs in the playlist. Spotify may shuffle only a few songs in the playlist like the last 50 recently added songs, songs by the same artist or songs starting with a particular alphabet. You can, however, mitigate this as detailed below.

Solution:

Restart your Spotify app:
Step 1. Log out from your account in the settings drop-down options.
Step 2. Restart the Spotify app by closing it and clearing it from the apps running in the background.
Step 3. Log in again by selecting the Spotify app.
Step 4. Try to shuffle your playlist and check if it is playing randomly, if not try the next solution.

Sort tracks by title:
Step 1. Select your preferred playlist in your Spotify app.
Step 2. Swipe your finger down the screen. A 'filter 'search with a drop-down feature on its right then appears.
Step 3. Select 'Title' from the drop-down options.
Step 4. In your playlist screen, tap the shuffle button.

Spotify keeps crashing

Occurs when the Spotify app closes randomly or rather the music stops mid-play. In other cases, the program does not respond to commands like 'reloading.' This can be solved in the following simple steps.

Solution:

Step 1. Reboot your phone. Once the device is on open the Spotify app and check if it crashes. If it persists go to step 2.
Step 2. Clear data and cache of Spotify. From the home screen go to settings then apps. Open the app manager, select and tap Spotify. On the drop-down tap storage then tap CLEAR CACHE, tap cached data and finally tap CLEAR. Now open Spotify and check if it still crashes. If it does, go to step 3.
Step 3. Uninstall and reinstall Spotify. From the home screen go to settings the apps. Tap the app manager and select Spotify. Tap UNISTALL, click OK on the on-screen notification dialog box. Reinstall the Spotify app from the play store.

Spotify keeps pausing

This problem occurs when the Spotify application stops playing music after a few minutes. The app remains open, but the music resets itself to 'restart.' You can counter this problem following these simple steps.

Solution:

Step 1. Reboot your phone and open the Spotify app. If the problem persists go to step 2.
Step 2. Log in to your account at spotify.com. Click on username on the top right then on the drop-down menu click on 'Sign out everywhere.' Log back on to your account.

Spotify slow

This problem manifests itself when the Spotify application takes a lot of time to respond to user commands. Loading a new song, searching for a song or starting the app, takes time. In some instances, when the user clicks on a song, it loads slowly on screen then freezes and directs the user to the previous page. Below is its solution.

Solution:

For phones, the problem might be the device and not the app:
Step 1. Download the Speedify app from the google play/ Appstore.
Step 2. Install the app and open.
Step 3. Let Speedify run in the background while using Spotify.

For a PC:
Step 1. Close the Spotify app
Step 2. PasteUsersAdministratorAppDataLocalSpotify into the directory bar of windows explorer.
Step 3. Delete all items inside the data, storage and browser folders and not the folders themselves.

Spotify keeps skipping songs

The songs in the playlist do not play to completion. After a few seconds, the app skips to the next song in the playlist. I some cases some songs are not entirely played by Spotify while sometimes, the songs play but become a blur of skipping. Follow the simple steps below to solve this problem.

Solution:

Step 1. Open Spotify then go to settings.
Step 2. Scroll down the drop-down items then select delete cache data. It will delete everything in the app and not the application.
Step 3. Restart your phone and open the Spotify app.

For a PC first, close Spotify then create a backup of the cache folder Storage by renaming it. Restart Spotify, the app will recreate the folder as it tries to write to it and the problem is solved.

Spotify Won’t Load

Problem: There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to open Spotify and access your music. This occasionally shows up as an error 14 and every time you attempt to open the program, it automatically closes again. Other times there will not be an error message, the program just will not load for you at all, no matter how many times you click on it. Regardless of whether the program is opening and then closing again or if it won’t open at all, the following steps should be able to fix your issue.

Solution: The first thing you need to do is un-install Spotify. To do this you want to go to the Spotify menu and click “quit”. Once you have exited the program, you need to manually delete Spotify from your computer’s library and applications folder. You will also want to empty your trash. Once you have done that, re-start your computer. Once your computer has re-started, check your library and applications folder to make sure the files are gone.

Once you have re-started your computer and verified that Spotify is uninstalled go to the Spotify website and update the most recent version of Spotify. Once the installer has finished downloading, run it and re-install Spotify. You should now be able to open Spotify without issue.

Error 101

Problem: One of the most common Spotify errors is an error 101. A Spotify 101 error generally means that there is a conflict between Spotify and your computer’s firewall. In many cases, an error 101 will not happen when you first install Spotify, but can occur later on with automatic updates. The reason for this is that even though you have set it up so that your firewall recognizes Spotify as an accepted program, the automatic update can change how your computer views Spotify. This can lead to Spotify no longer being recognized by your firewall.

Solution: The easiest way to fix an error 101 is to remove Spotify from your firewall’s list of accepted programs and then re-start your computer. Once your computer has re-started, you will then want to manually re-add Spotify to the list of approved programs. This should clear up the error 101 and allow Spotify to start working once more.

In some cases your computer can have more than one firewall. Your computer may have come with a firewall built into the OS. This is a separate firewall from any third party firewall that you may have installed as an added layer of protection. If you do have two firewalls on your computer and are attempting to fix a Spotify error 101, then you have to make sure to apply the above process to both firewalls.

On rare occasions manually removing and re-adding Spotify to your firewall’s list of approved programs will not be enough to resolve the error 101. In these cases, you will need to uninstall Spotify and then re-install it. This will update the program’s information on all of your firewalls and allow the program to run smoothly without interference.

Update Error

Problem: Occasionally you may encounter an error when trying to install a Spotify update. Spotify updates its software every few weeks to fix bugs and make improvements to the quality of your experience and occasionally one of these updates can cause an issue.

Solution: When this happens, you need to exit the program by clicking “Quit Spotify” in the drop down menu. Once you have existed Spotify, you need to un-install Spotify, following the instructions above, and then go to the Spotify website and download the most recent version of Spotify.

Once you have completed your download, you can install the new version of Spotify, which should then run without any issues.

Re-Installation Error

Problem: There are times when you may need to re-install Spotify. This may be because you are trying to fix an error within the program or maybe because you have updated your OS. Whatever the cause, occasionally there can be issues with the re-installation. Luckily there is an easy fix to this problem.

Solution: When you are re-installing Spotify, you always want to make sure that you are using the most recent version of the program. It is always best to re-download the installer from the website instead of using the version currently on your computer. The version of the installer on your computer may be out of date, which is why it does not want to load. By downloading the installer directly from the website, you make sure that you are downloading the most up-to-date version of the program.

To re-install Spotify, make sure the old version is completely uninstalled and then go to the Spotify website and download the most recent version. Once the program has finished downloading, run the new installer, which should run smoothly. Once it is finished installing you will have access to the most up-to-date version of Spotify.

Can’t Search for Music

Problem: When it comes to using a streaming music player, you want to be able to find your favourite songs and this requires use of the search function. On very rare occasions, the search function can have an error where it will not let you click on it or search anything, which can be very frustrating. Thankfully it is also easy to fix.

Solution: To fix this problem you simply need to quit Spotify by going to the Spotify menu. You then need to wait for a few minutes and re-load the program. Very occasionally you may have to re-start your computer to resolve the issues. Once you do that you should be able to access your search function without any further issues.

Part 2. Download and Record Spotify Music

iMusic is specially designed for music lovers to get and manage music: download, record, transfer and manager music. It is the best software to download music directly from Spotify for free.

iMusic - Download Spotify Music Easily and Efficiently

  • Record unlimited free music in a single click.
  • Download music from more than 3000 music sites.
  • Automatically filter Ads and split tracks.
  • Identify music and get info like artist, album, etc.
  • Download music to MP3 or MP4 format high quality files.
  • Directly save downloaded and recorded music to iTunes.
Spotify app not working

Steps to Download Spotify Music by iMusic

Step 1. Launch iMusic

My Spotify Mac App Is Not Working Together

First download this Spotify offline software and install it on your computer, then run the iMusic program to open the primary window.

Step 2. Copy the Music Track’s URL

Navigate to the “Download” option within the “Get Music” window. in this very window, some popular sites as well as the URL paste box would be displayed. Select spotify and search the song you would like to download from this site. Copy its URL code and go back to the program.

Step 3. Step 3. Dowload the Spotify Music Track

Paste the URL you copied from Spotify within the URL paste box, select the desired target format and hit “Download”.

Step 3. Transfer Downloaded Spotify Songs to iPhone or Android

When you got the Spotify music tracks downloaded, turn to the DEVICE tab on the top. Then choose the third one to transfer Spotify offline music to your mobile devices by selecting and transfering. Quite easy, right?

In the recent years, Spotify reaped lots of accolades. For a good reason! Its huge music catalogue, continuous UI improvements, and top-notch personalization make the service one of the best places where you can discover, play, and curate your music.

There are two major ways to do Spotify on Mac. You can either install a desktop app or access your music collection in a browser. In this article, we explain how to use Spotify web player and lay out the pros and cons of web Spotify versus Spotify desktop app.

Spotify web player on Mac

Sometimes, installing an app feels like too big of a commitment. Especially if you’re new to the service and want to try it out before you decide whether it’s worth it. In this case, listen to Spotify online! If you didn’t know about Spotify online player, we’re happy to break the news for you. Indeed, you can get your hands on Spotify music from the comfort of your browser.

The online player is very similar to the app in terms of UX and offers most of the same features:

  • Access the entire Spotify music catalogue
  • Search music by artists, titles, playlists, etc.
  • Create and edit your personalized music library
  • Copy and share Spotify playlist links
  • View artist pages, featured music, genres & moods, etc.

Before we go into details, here’s one obvious thing we have to mention: Spotify web player won’t stream properly without a stable Internet connection. So if you decide to try it, make sure you have a quick WiFi fix at your fingertips.

Wifi Explorer does a great job monitoring and optimizing your WiFi. It scans your entire network environment and gives you detailed information on signal strength, best spots for surfing the Internet, and network problems. Even more, it explains the issues and tells you how to fix them. So if you use web players like Spotify or movie streaming services like Netflix, you can expect your network connection to always be spot on with WiFi Explorer.

Spotify web browser support

You can access Spotify web player at open.spotify.com. From there, log into your account and start using Spotify as usual. Here’s the list of supported browsers:

  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Edge
  • Opera
  • Safari

Spotify web player available on Safari, again

Web player compatibility is pretty extensive now — but it wasn’t always like this. In 2017, Spotify crossed Safari off the list, so the Spotify web player was only available on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Luckily, this has changed recently. Starting May 2020, Safari is officially a Spotify browser, again.

By limiting the compatibility of the web player, Spotify couldn’t reach a huge part of their target audience — primarily, Mac users who use Safari as their main browser. With the release of macOS Big Sur, Safari will likely become even more popular, considering the new features like improved speed, browsing protection, personalized home screen, and more. So it’s definitely a timely move, Spotify.

Spotify web player versus Spotify Mac app

So who wins the battle? For many people, using a web player versus downloading an app is simply a matter of convenience. But if you want to know the pros and cons, there are many of them on both sides. Let’s dive deeper and find out whether it’s worth using Spotify online.

Why you should choose Spotify web player

You have it but you don’t own it — this is one of the key benefits. With an app, you invest more of your time and your Mac’s resources into using the service. But the value of Spotify webplayer doesn’t end there. Here are all the pros and cons:

Pros:

  • Ability to take your music with you. A huge advantage of the web version is portability. With the Spotify desktop app, your music is limited to your device. In contrast, a quick Spotify web player login lets you access your playlists anywhere.
  • Save space on your Mac. If you’re a storage perfectionist and want as little gigabytes waste as possible, the web player makes more sense.
  • Block ads. Free Spotify comes with visual and audio ads. So many people with a free account get web Spotify to be able to use ad blockers on it.

Note: Ad blocking is not a clear-cut advantage, though. There are some great Mac tools with targeted ad-blocking features — like AdGuard — that can disable both web and in-app ads. So you can block ads anywhere.

Why Is Spotify Not Working

Cons:

  • Lower bitrate. With the Spotify online player, you get 128kbps bitrate if you have a free account, and 256kbps if you use Premium. With the desktop app, you get 160 kbps and 320 kbps respectively. This means the Spotify web player is a bit slower than the app.

Why you should choose Spotify Mac app

According to the study by Simplecast, most people drop off within a few minutes when they start listening to a podcast on the web. But those who play podcasts in desktop apps tend to stick around longer. This indicates higher user retention in the app versus web player. It’s hard to say why it happens so but we can assume that people who install apps are usually loyal users who invest more of their time into using the service. Does it sound like you?

Let’s look into the pros and cons of Spotify app to find out whether it’s worth installing:

Pros:

  • Offline mode. No doubt, the best thing about the Spotify app is the ability to play music even when you go offline. You can save and play entire playlists, and forget about network connection. Spotify even allows you to purposefully enable offline listening via the Apple menu (Spotify > Offline Mode).
  • Faster load. Because the app provides higher bitrate, you can expect a slightly faster music load. Still, an average user won’t notice any difference.
  • Get new features first. There’s more active development on the Spotify app, which means app users are the first to enjoy UI improvements and new features.
  • Music control via the Control Center. Since Apple elevated the Control Center in macOS Big Sur, it now gives you a one-click access to all important toggles — including Spotify. So you can easily pause a song or fast-forward to the next one without opening the app.

Cons:

  • Device limitations. The only solid disadvantage of the desktop app is lack of portability. So if you intend to use Spotify on lots of different devices, the web player is a better choice.


Related: How to download Spotify on Mac

Finally, you might consider using both. While your data syncs across the app and the player, you can keep track of your music anywhere. For instance, the Spotify app will be good for offline listening in case your network connection is unstable. But if you notice the app is draining your Mac’s battery and you don’t have a charger with you, switch to a player. All it takes is a quick Spotify web player login, and you’re back into your music flow.

But wait, how do you know if Spotify causes battery drain? This is easy. Just make sure you have iStat Menus in your menu bar — a system monitoring utility that provides quick insights on disk space, memory load, active processes, and more. Check iStat Menus every time you notice battery drain or any Mac misbehavior like freezing or fan noise and the app will tell you exactly what’s wrong.

Spotify web player not working: Best fixes

On a negative note, the web player tends to misbehave more often than the app. There are many factors at play here — from browser dependency to the lack of support on Spotify’s side.

In the majority of cases, Spotify web player not working is a network problem. We’ve described how to keep track of your WiFi with Wifi Explorer before — and this is the first thing you should do. If your connection looks good, here are more suggestions on how to fix the problem.

Open Spotify web player in a private window

Very often, it’s a browser that misbehaves, not Spotify. Maybe there’s an extension that hampers music loading, or it’s time to clear cache. There’s an easy way to check whether it’s your browser messing with Spotify — open Spotify in a private window and see if it works well.

To open a private browsing window in Safari, navigate to the main menu and select File > New Private Window. Now, you can access your player in the Incognito mode.

In Chrome, click on the three-dot menu in the upper right corner. Then select “New Incognito Window.”

Private browsing might actually fix the problem for you, but it’s not a long-term solution. You can’t use the Incognito mode forever. So if you discover your Safari player works fine in a private window, go and fix your browser. Make sure you check for browser updates, flush DNS, or even get rid of all browsing activity if necessary. Give your browser a new start.

Allow protected content in your browser

One of the most common error messages that Spotify users come across has to do with protected content. In this case, when you try to play a song, Spotify will show the following: “Playback of protected content is not enabled.” This is because there are websites where protected content can’t be displayed by default. To fix the problem, enable protected content via your browser settings.

If you listen to Spotify online in Chome, do the following:

  1. Paste the following link in the address bar: chrome://settings/content
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select “Additional content settings”
  3. Click on Protected Content
  4. Enable “Allow sites to play protected content.”

To enable protected content in Firefox, you should simply click Enable DRM in the yellow bar. If this doesn’t work, paste “about:preferences#content” in your browser address bar. Then, navigate to DRM Content and enable DRM.

Clean up browser cache

There might be cases when you open the web player and try to play a song, but Spotify can’t play this right now. Since there are no error messages, it’s hard to know what’s going on. Most likely, it’s not a Spotify problem so you might try to clean caches and flush DNS.

My Spotify Mac App Is Not Working

What’s DNS and what does it have to do with the web player Spotify? DNS (Domain Name System) basically translates the domain names you type in the address bar to IP addresses — this is how your browser loads data. DNS cache contains all your DNS queries. By resetting those queries, you let your browser reload information “from scratch.” So this is a useful thing to do whenever you experience problems with loading.

CleanMyMac X will help you flush DNS in just one click:

  • Open CleanMyMac X
  • Navigate to Speed > Maintenance
  • Select “Flush DNS Cache” > Run.

There’s also an option to flush DNS manually via Terminal by running the following command: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder;say cache flushed.

No help? Then try and clean all caches. This will give your browser a fresh start. And guess what, CleanMyMac X can do that, too. You can use this advanced Mac cleaner to remove all traces of your browsing activity across multiple browsers — so you don’t have to dive into settings, execute Terminal commands, and do other complicated stuff. Here’s how it works:

  1. Open CleanMyMac X
  2. Navigate to Protection > Privacy
  3. Click on the Scan button
  4. Select the browser and types of browsing data you want to remove
  5. Once you’re ready, click on the Remove button.

This is it. Now you can access the web player and try reloading your music. Notice how much faster and “lighter” your browser feels after you’ve cleaned things up!

Fix “Spotify can’t play this right now” error

What if it’s all working, except the music? Usually, in this case, Spotify will show an error message saying something like “Spotify can’t play this right now.”

This is a known problem. If you check Spotify Community forum, you’ll find lots of similar reports there. Unfortunately, there’s no single fix that could solve this 100%. Some users say it has to do with local files — but this is rather the desktop app problem. In case you see a similar error message in a browser, we recommend to check your sound settings:

  1. Open System Preferences via the main Apple menu
  2. Click Sound > Output
  3. Make sure you set your Mac as an output device. You might also want to check sound control and adjust the balance.

Boom 3D is a great utility that helps fix sound on a more advanced level. It’s a system-wide volume enhancer that can take sound beyond your default settings. Apart from fixing output settings, it generally makes Spotify sound better thanks to its awesome 3D Surround Sound feature. Whether to solve music-not-playing or simply elevate the sounding, make sure you have Boom 3D installed on your Mac.

My Spotify Mac App Is Not Working Remotely

All things considered, Spotify problems are easy to fix. And if you have Setapp on your Mac, there’s definitely nothing to worry about. The thing is, Setapp — a collection of 200+ apps available for a monthly fee — has WiFi Explorer, iStat Menus, AdGuard, CleanMyMac X, and Boom 3D, and you can try them all for 7 days free. So whatever problem you encounter, you’ll find a fix in Setapp.

Now, when you know how to use it, why not try the web player Spotify? Unless you need the Offline Mode feature, listening to music in a browser is a great choice. In the end of the day, it’s just as efficient as the desktop app, and it also saves your Mac’s resources.

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