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

[Ivan]

Hey @Devfine, 

Help’s here!

First thing you can try here is a clean reinstall of the Spotify desktop app. This will remove corrupted data from previous installations that could be causing the issue.  

In case you still experience this, check the hosts file on your PC for entries that need to be removed. Follow the steps described here on how to do that. 

Let us know how you get on! We'll be here in case you need any further help with this.

[Devfine]

Re-install didn't fix anything and nor did checking the host files

[Ivan]

Hey @Devfine, 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop. 

In case the clean reinstall and cleaning up the host file didn't do the trick for you it's also a good idea to try troubleshooting your Internet connection. Make sure you restart the 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. If it works with another connection, it's best to contact the service provider of the original network for more information.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted.  

[Devfine]

It works fine on another device on the same network and my internet connection is perfectly sturdy while I'm experiencing these issues

[Alex]

Hi there @Devfine,

Thanks for the reply.

There are a few things that could be causing the app to behave this way so we have to go through several steps of troubleshooting to find what's going on exactly 🙂

Can you try clearing the local file cache. To do this go to C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Spotify and delete the entire folder called Spotify.

If that doesn't work try switching Windows's default audio output to something below 192000 Hz you can access that from Control Panel > Sounds, Advanced tab.

Let us know how you get on with this.

[Devfine]

Hi, There was no folder called "Spotify" and with the second test I couldn't find a category named "Advanced" but my output is below 192000 Hz

[Mihail]

Hey @Devfine,

Thanks for getting back to us.

It would seem that the issue is related to the set up on that specific device. Could you check your Windows hosts file for Spotify entries and remove any you find? You can use this guide, it was written for another topic, but you'll find the relevant steps a bit further down there. 

Keep us posted. We’ll keep an eye out for your reply.

[Devfine]

I already tried this in a previous test, no luck.

[Mihail]

Hey @Devfine,

Thanks for your post and apologies for the confusion.

Could you check if disabling hardware acceleration makes a differences? You can find this option in the advanced settings. Make sure to restart your device after the change.

Also - are only specific songs affected, all, or random ones? If you could send the links/Spotify URI of a few of them, we'd be happy to take a closer look.

Hope you find this useful. Let us know how you get on.

[Devfine]

Happens to every song, I have tried tinkering with Hardware Acceleration but no luck

[Alex]

Hi @Devfine,

Thanks for the reply.

Can you try playing some music through the Web player?

If that works, try logging in with a different Spotify account in the Desktop app and see if that works.

Keep us posted 🙂

[Devfine]

I can listen to songs through the web browser but if i try to change the "Listen To" section to my PC it still says the error.

I do not have another spotify account to test this on unfortunately

[Devfine]

And to add to that the web player is very buggy in the sense that some songs don't start, even songs from the same album

[CarlosE]

Hey @Devfine,

Thanks for trying and for that info.

Could you check your firewall and/or antivirus configuration and make sure that Spotify is whitelisted?

Also, if you're using a VPN, try disconnecting it as it might interfere with the app's performance.

In case you can't borrow a friend's or relative's account to test this on, you can create a free account here.

Keep us in the loop. We'll be looking out for your reply.

[Devfine]

Spotify is allowed on my Firewall and Antivirus, using a different account doesn't work on this device either

[Mihail]

Hey @Devfine,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop and for the extensive troubleshooting you've done so far.

As we haven’t seen any similar posts about this recently, we feel this is most likely isolated to your device or specific setup. We recommend that you reset your PC and perform a clean reinstall of your Windows OS. That should ensure that the Spotify app from the Microsoft Store performs as expected afterwards. Alternatively you can reach out to the device manufacturer or Microsoft Customer Support here. 

Hope this info is useful. Let us know if there's anything else we can help with.

[Bronko73]

Come on guys!?! An advice to reinstall  Windows is really drastic and brings for sure no solution in this case.

The above mentioned error is not a unique problem. I have it myself.

A short investigation via google showed me that this a common problem to the spotify Windows app related to the sample rate of the audio device when using Hi-Res audio settings. 

Solution for users: Reduce sample rate or use web player of spotify.

Recommend solution (for spotify): Fix the Windows app.

Regards

[Devfine]

I agree with Bronko73. Reinstalling Windows seems like it can cause more problems than it solves. Is there not any type of debug I can turn on to see what the problem is, so then I can figure out what I need to fix.

[Jeremy]

Hey there @Devfine,

Thank you for your post in this thread.

A clean reinstall is different than a quick reinstall and could be helpful to get rid of any cached files that might be causing trouble. 

Let us know how everything goes so that we can continue assist you if you need us to. We're always one reply away.

Cheers!