Can't play song on PC but works on Phone

[Devfine]

Plan

Premium

Country

England

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10 Home

My Question or Issue

I am trying to listen to some songs on spotify but whenever I go to play one on my computer I get this message "Spotify can't play this song right now. If you have the files on your computer you can import it" It's the same sort of message I would get offline but I am watching YouTube and messaging while getting this message so it couldn't be that. When I play a song on my phone and having the audio come out of my phone it works fine, I just can't play the audio through my PC.

Can I get some help here

[Devfine]

Before I i re-install windows I would like to know if there is a debug I can use to find the problem

[Jeremy]

Hey @Devfine,

Thank you for your reply.

There isn't an available debug tool. We are aware that this issue pops up from time to time with some users, and while we did make some backstage improvements, a small subset still experiences it.

From the investigations performed, we managed to identify that one of the possible causes stem from audio-drivers, audio-cards or general audio-related configurations, which however can be very individual and vary from system to system.

Cheers!

[Devfine]

I shouldn't be paying a monthly subscription for this, I've tried solutions from all over the interrnet and even some of my own, none of them worked. I'm not going to uninstall Windows just to most likely face the exact same problem. Fix your app, this is a common issue.

[Devfine · Accepted solution]

Alright I fixed it, and I find it so stupid how this wasn't suggested previously. Re-install Spotify from the website, NOT the Microsoft store!

[SpootifyStillSucks]

So I have the same issue and it's 2024. This gentleman reported this issue in 2020. 4 years later and people are still getting the same problem. I literally just chose a song via my phone and it started playing on my PC. I try clicking on my library or searching any song and the f**king app just sits there. There's is nothing wrong on our end. Hence why we're here. Most consumers aren't complete f**king idiots and do self troubleshooting before looking for answers. How about quit suggesting completely insane "it's on your end, not ours" BS "fix-its."

It's on YOUR end. NOT OURS.

Funny how a resolution was never found and here we are 4 years later, yet your bill payment system works flawlessly. Takes my money every month without issue. Still no music though on my PC.

AND THE AMOUNT OF RECAPTCHA I JUST HAD TO GO THROUGH JUST TO TYPE THIS?!?!? HOLY **bleep** SPOTIFY YOU GUYS ARE REALLY PISSING ME OFF RIGHT NOW. If I don't find a fix, I'm canceling.

[rushxx00]

same issue here

[Jxvm]

Didn’t work

[monsterhunter100]

For some reason, a song that I have favorited, and can play on mobile, is unable to be played on my desktop (Using Windows 10).
This is on desktop

Song on desktop

This is on mobileSong on Mobile

When I attempt to switch the song that is playing, from mobile to desktop, it stops playing the song, saying "Spotify can't play this right now."

[MINIMEFF]

I just did that and I'm still having the issue, after logging out and reinstalling nothing worked

[Dessi]

Hi folks,

Thanks for reaching out!

We wanted to sum up what was suggested in the thread so far, so give these steps a try if you haven't already:

• Perform a clean reinstall of the app. A user mentioned that installing Spotify directly from the website and not from the Microsoft store solved the issue.
• Check your firewall and/or antivirus configuration and make sure that Spotify is allowed.
• If you're using a VPN, try disconnecting from it as it might interfere with the app's performance.
• Try a different device - you can log in on a friend or relative's device to test if the issue persists there.
• You can also ask them to log in their account on your device to check if they experience the same thing.
• Disable hardware acceleration in Settings -> Compatibility.
• Clear hosts file.
• Clear the local file cache by going to C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Spotify and deleting the entire folder called Spotify.
• Switch Windows's default audio output to something below 192000 Hz from Control Panel > Sounds, Advanced tab.
• Restart your network device (router or modem), then log out and log back in to the Spotify app. If this persists after the network restart, test if you observe the same when using a different connection.

We also managed to identify that one of the possible causes stem from audio-drivers, audio-cards or general audio-related configurations. This, however, can be very individual and vary from system to system.

Hope this helps.