Play/Pause and Stop buttons (media keys) not working.

[a3ng25]

My play/pause and stop media buttons are not working in Spotify.

Spotify for Windows, 1.2.0.1165.gabf054ab
Windows 11 Home, Version 22H2, Experience pack 1000.22636.1000.0

My other media keys work with Spotify. All my media keys work with other apps.
The buttons used to work with Spotify.
I have disabled the setting in Spotify for Show desktop overlay when using media keys. I have disabled the Google Chrome flag for Hardware Media Key Handling. I do not have the Google Music extension.
I have tried the Windows keyboard troubleshooter and it returned no issues. There are no windows updates or keyboard driver updates.
Keyboard checker registers keystrokes from the keys.
The issue has been going on for a month or two now.

[OscarDC · Accepted solution]

Hey @a3ng25,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

This type of issue is commonly related to some damaged cache stored from previous versions of the app. In this case, we'd first recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app by following the steps in this article. This is often an overlooked step, but it's more thorough than a quick one and can be helpful in getting rid of any cache that might be causing trouble.

If the issue persists, we'd suggest clearing more deeply by deleting the host files on your computer. To do so, just Follow the instructions in this post (even if it's a different issue).

Hope this helps. We'll be on the lookout.

[a3ng25]

Thanks, the fresh install seems to have worked.

Sorry for the long pause, went on vacation without this computer/keyboard so I couldn't try it out until now. 

[Alex]

Hey there @a3ng25,

Thanks for the post.

Glad to hear that reinstalling the app has solved your issue 🙂

Cheers.

[jcer1]

It seems I have exactly the same issue but reinstalling and even checking my "hosts" file does not help.

What does not work is only play/pause key, forward/backward works fine.

What helps is to restart my PC (Win10 ver. 21H2) but the key works only for a limited period of time (a half day?), after that, any pressing play/pause simply does nothing. Pressing play/pause button in Spotify app (latest version, from today) works always fine. Any other suggestion?

[Vasil]

Hey @jcer1,

There are two versions of the app. One is downloaded from our website, the other one is available on the Microsoft app store. The latter is optimized for Windows use and, as such, it's behaviour can slightly differ from the first.
If you haven't already, I'd suggest checking if the same issue is observed with bost versions of the app 🙂
Thanks!

[jcer1]

@Vasil, I'll try. Thanks for a tip. I'll move to MS Store version of Spotify App.

Meanwhile, I realized that it is Microsoft Teams application that steals Play/Pause keystrokes. If I quit Teams and restart Teams again, the problem is gone (for a while... a day or two). I googled that some settings in Microsoft Edge (they said it is used internally in Teams) could prevent stealing media keystrokes but not tested yet. If I recall, I'll try to tell you what helped.

[Vasil]

Hey @jcer1,

Thanks for the update! 

And as for the Teams settings, this Microsoft page could be of use to you 🙂
Let us know how things go.
Cheers!

[jcer1]

@Vasil, I was nearly death by laugh when reading Teams.exe binary modification :))  I was back in my Atari 800XL era. Really refreshing!

But ALT + PLAY/STOP WORKS !!!!

 -- would take this solution. Knowing this trick I can feel like a REAL expert! 🙂 Thanks.

Could you mark this as an answer (shorter than reading 3-page chat in MS forum)?

[Ivan_Likers]

Plan

Free

Country

Kazakhstan

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Media keys do not work in Spotify while Google Chrome is running, when I close it in the tray, Spotify starts to see media keys

[dmac-ie]

Just in case anyone else has issues with this, using Logi MX Keys. 

Press FN+ESC keys together and check the results.

It should switch you between F-Keys and Media Keys on your MX Keys keyboard. Leave it set to Media Keys, and it will control the media keys correctly. See attached.
This is on Win11, but should work for Win10 also.