Spotify Windows Desktop App very slow and lag continuous unsolved issue since 2022

[ZoneWolf]

I have tried everything, everything. Unless you have a new command prompt entry for me to make, I have tried it.

This is a formal functionality failure report to hand to the devs, not an opportunity to say that I should clean install (which I have done, about 5 times), or edit the hosts file (lol) and then mark this as solved.

Half of my job is troubleshooting software+hardware, I am 99.9% sure this is a Spotify-side issue.

After troubleshooting through all of the suggestions I've found here and elsewhere, I can only vaguely assume that some of my network settings (via windows basic settings, trying on multiple networks, two windows devices), may be hindering Spotify app's ability to communicate every action I take back to the servers, because Spotify is rapidly collecting usage data. This is fine within our agreement, but should not cripple the functionality of the app itself.

I've tried running it in safe mode and still lags. Spotify is clear to run in my firewall and process priority has been elevated and cache cleared and hardware disabled and downloads disabled and etc... 

Web Player works fine, iphone same account works fine.

Premium account, windows 10 (and 11), 32gb ram, i7, 2TB 2 SSDs, 1TB free.

[OscarDC]

Hey @ZoneWolf,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

We appreciate all the troubleshooting you've tried so far; it is very helpful to report an issue with the relevant teams. 

However, we need to gather as much info as possible to report it. Taking this into account, would you mind including in your next response the Spotify version you're currently running?

Also, could you confirm if you're using a VPN or not, as it may affect the proper behavior of the app?

Lastly, if you have the desktop version downloaded from our page, we'd recommend uninstalling it and reinstalling the version from the Microsoft Store, and vice versa, to see if it makes any difference.

We'll be on the lookout.

[Lemimic]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Windows 11 Desktop

Operating System

Windows 11

My Question or Issue

Spotify Desktop is very laggy. I cannot scrub through a song or play/pause without a 5 second delay between actions with no visual feedback.

I have tried both the Microsoft store application and the Spotify Desktop application. I have cleared my AppData folder and I am not at a loss on what to do. The web based application works fine but the desktop app refuses to be as snappy as the web one.

Any advice?

[Lemimic]

Since I noticed the ask for a Spotify version - I am on Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.22.982.g794acc0a . No VPN usage, and tried both versions of the application to no avail.

But this has been happening since at least March 2023 and is not new from many versions ago. Like @ZoneWolf has said, this is likely due to some networking setting that is messing with what Spotify is trying to do but is in the end affecting my playback experience significantly.

[wdani]

any news to that? Any Solution? 

[marcusblock]

On Windows Desktop version
Every time I go to different parts of my playlist it seems to load more and more into memory until I have over 2GB uses by Spotify. Then it becomes so slow it can no longer perform the function to go to current song in playlist, or retrieve Song Radio page

[ericsinsideout]

I've been having this same issue on my Win10 desktop, but oddly enough, only with 1 Spotify profile.  I have the premium family plan and created an additional profile for smart home devices so my wife and daughter don't ruin my algorithm and if I want to add liked songs, follow an artist or whatever on the new profile, everything has a considerable delay.  If I log in with my primary profile, it works perfectly fine.

[Gil]

I join the ranks of those complaining. The desktop app is almost unusable and I make do with the web player via Chrome, which lacks some functions (such as sorting and searching in playlists).

The computer (Dell XPS, Core i7-11700, 64 GB Ram, M2-Pro SSD, optimized and up-to-date) is unlikely to be the cause.

Fun fact: As I'm starting to export my playlists to Tidal and looking for ways to sync with my favorite curators... Tidal does its job flawlessly.

After three months of hassle, I intend to cancel my subscription after 10 years of loyalty to Spotify and switch to a Free account so I can keep up with favorites.

But it's a shame for a former Pioneer in terms of streaming if I can only listen to playlists compiled by Spotify and others in Tidal.

[ZoneWolf · Accepted solution]

As of 08.30.24 (and months before most likely), the problem resolved itself through the awesomeness of the dev team.

I submit this from the original problematic laptop with windows 10, forcefully un-updated, but primarily use a much much more powerful win 11 laptop typically.

Both devices appear to launch, load, scrub, navigate, and play songs relatively smoothly. Both quite overpowered machines however. 

I think the issue has been solved through Spotify updates over the past year. If you're experiencing multiple seconds of action-lag, play-lag, and just song-loading lag, then it may be present for several reasons, but as all things are in this age, you must update first. 

I recommend the normal procedure to clear cache and downloaded data, then if problems persist; fresh install, then make sure sound card drivers are updated (could be part of gpu driver), limit library size perhaps. It just works now on this older laptop surprisingly. Has been fine on newer machine since the beginning of the year. Solved.

[ZoneWolf]

I just submitted a solve since it's working fine for me now on all accounts, but like most solutions for these things, I forget when.

Typing from the problematic laptop. WIndows still frozen at 10 on purpose, spotify newly installed. Been using spotify desktop on newer laptop and it's been fine. I was experiencing 5-10 seconds of lag on library and song loading, and anything over 1 second is no bueno. Check your processes running, minimize the tasks, test to see if your sound card is being wacky, test internet packet transfer, and all the other good stuff. 

The problem resolved itself somehow for me, most likely through the dev's work this year.

[Gil]

I'll give it another chance, but I think.... Wasted lifetime.

[Gil]

Don't help. Uninstall Desktop App, deleted all Folders which Spotify uses, clean registy and do a completely fresh Installation after Reboot. Same Issues... Lags Loading Playlists, etc.  I'm done with it 

[joko7728]

same

[Lemimic]

same here. there has been no fixes regarding this.

[rw974]

This issue has been persistent for at least a year now and it boggles my mind.

I've tried turning off hardware acceleration, turning it back on, clearing cache, uninstalling, reinstalling, logging out and back in at least twice now and it's genuinely driving me to other avenues for music.

On the off chance devs see this, just work on making your app run as efficiently as possible. I'm old enough to remember when this Windows program would work properly and effortlessly.

[qqiilffphl7p0c9lv1qj]

I had a similair problem where spotify music only sounded every second frame or with a second delay. I solved it by turning my headset off and on.