"This song is not available..."

[ghbabunovic]

For many songs, the Spotify Mac desktop player refuses to play the song - instead, it give the error message "This song is not available. If you have the file on your computer, you can import it." This happens for songs both inside and outside my library, and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. This has happened pretty consistently since I first started using the desktop player several months ago, but until recently it was solvable by simply restarting the app. This no longer works.

I use Spotify Premium (family subscription), if that matters. Desktop app is version 1.0.77.338.g758ebd78. Running it on a Macbook Pro Retina Display from early 2015, with OS 10.12.6.

This is not a unique issue to me; the most recent post I found on it is from October. In that post, the "solution" was that this was a bug likely to be fixed shortly. Obviously this did not happen. Some other posts on the issue can be found here, here, and here. None of the (reasonable) proposed fixes I found in these posts (when there were any) worked for me.

To summarize what I did to try to fix it: Restart the app. Restart the computer. Deselect all local file options. Deselect all local file options, uninstall the app, restart the computer, re-download the app. Do that, then re-select local file options. Attempt to summon the Spotify Gods to see if they can fix it.

I will note that these songs still play on my phone and on the web player, so this is a problem specific to the Desktop player. It's obviously been a problem for some time, so honestly my hope of having a suggested fix actually work is low - but if anyone has an idea that works, I'll be overjoyed. If not... well, Spotify just needs to get its s*** together, I guess.

[user-removed]

Hey There!

Could you send the link to the song here to me so we can figure out what's going on? I also have the exact same Mac Book Pro so we can find out if it's a problem on your part or not on the Mac.

Hope This Helps,

twentythree

[ghbabunovic]

Sure! Below are a few songs that are not working, and a few (from the same artists) that are. Now that I look again, it seems like it's whole albums that are giving the error - so if one song on the album doesn't play, none of them do.

Not Working-

• https://open.spotify.com/track/6ooluO7DiEhI1zmK94nRCM?si=mkK8GTOcRW2ZCmbvlfSdqg
• https://open.spotify.com/track/15n4p6R6Tuht5KAgK3g3IX?si=QZT9eH-TSoKXlD7KGbCaaA
• https://open.spotify.com/track/1yTav5FEG4FwowZkhLjzhn?si=f5t32SP8Q2aw7SnuZW5iSw

Working-

• https://open.spotify.com/track/1by2yZWXqeTs4SRlBDsGov?si=oGHbz1f2SuyVZwjrleQtng
• https://open.spotify.com/track/0EVmhiRwd3OuiDefmYBFQj?si=vfuand44SxmqfzvQKVWEmQ
• https://open.spotify.com/track/3EytfC22ikoXM921cJbejn?si=P6H4fh5VQJyHqQYXViyUGQ

[paulduane]

I'm having the same problem, with a nearly identical computer. Macbook Pro, touchbar late 2016 model. I'm fairly new to the Apple ecosystem and have been tempted to start using Apple Music. The clunkiness of the Spotify app is making Apple Music look increasingly attractive.