Spotify app makes my game stutter/freeze till I tab out

[aaliyxh]

Hello,

so I’ve got a new pc around 2-3weeks ago (high end specs). Everytime I listen to Spotify on the app it makes my game stutter really bad and I basically can’t do anything anymore so I have to tab out my game to fix the stutter and tab in again. This happens once in a while. I tried playing YouTube Netflix or even the Spotify web player and my game just run all perfect. I tried contacting the spotify support and didn’t get a working solution. As said spotify web player runs just fine so does any other streaming app. Spotify app runs fine if I don’t run any game.

I tried:

Clean installing the app multiple times from windows store and Spotify website

turn proxy off and hardware acceleration 

turn spotify priority to high and low to experiment any difference (no difference)

deactivating the firewall/putting Spotify as an excuse 

playing Spotify on a different test account which still caused the same issue 

update all my drivers and so on

[AlejaR]

Hey @aaliyxh,

Thanks for posting in the Community and welcome.

Great initial troubleshooting! Let's take a closer look together. 

It's important to make sure that the software is up-to-date. In case the hardware acceleration is active, we'd suggest you deactivate it. Are there any changes?

On another note, would you mind sharing with us the make/model and OS of your new computer along with the Spotify version you are currently running?

Keep us in the loop!

[RachelBinford]

I also have facing the same problem.

[MihailY]

Hey @RachelBinford,

Thanks for reaching out.

Can you please let us know if you've tried the troubleshooting steps posted by @aaliyxh and @AlejaR above? Also, send us the OS version and Spotify version of your device.

Keep us posted.

[rilennotrylan]

This has been happening to me since Christmas Holidays and it's really annoying. It full on glitches the audio and keeps replaying the same line of a song while it's also glitching out my whole game. Makes me feel like my whole computer is going to explode and this computer is strong, my computer is fully up to date (including drivers and windows) and I'm positive my spotify is on the most recent version. At first I thought it was just my computer but other people are having the same problem. 

[Dian]

Hey @rilennotrylan ,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

In order for us to investigate this experience further, we need the exact versions of the Spotify app on your device and the operating system of your device.

Could you prepare a screen recording of the experience as well, so we can relay it to our tech team?

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[KleineGG]

I have the problem..

I have tried turning off Hardware acceleration

and made a clean uninstall/install. the problem still happens. My game will freeze or lag extremly much, until i tap into spotify.

It usually happens every 20 minuttes.

[Lyubka]

Hey @KleineGG,

Thank you for your reply in this thread. It sounds like you've tried a couple of things already, but let's try some more troubleshooting.

First off, we'd recommend that you check that the proxy settings of the Spotify app are set to default (auto-detect). 

It's also a good idea to check the firewall on your device and make sure Spotify is "whitelisted".

Lastly, if you use VPN services - try to disable them and test if you'll still experience this. 
 

In case you do, as our moderators previously mentioned, we'd like you to send us as many details as possible. We can then relay the information to our tech team. With that being said, it'd be great if you share with us a quick video where we can take a better look at this behavior. 
 

We'll be on the lookout for your reply. 

[PhantomEdge]

Going to bump this thread. I've been having this same issue for the whole week and it's awful. Spotify would repeat the same line and freezes my computer. If I don't make it in time to open Spotify back up my computer starts beeping and then it would be fine. But, it freezes for about 20 seconds. I've never had problem in the past it's only become an issue this past week. Makes me want to unsubscribe until the issue is fixed lol. The game I was playing was League of Legends. If anyone has a fix please let me know.

[MihailY]

Hey @PhantomEdge,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

As a first step, please let us know if you've tried the troubleshooting steps in this thread and share the info that was requested, so we can investigate further.

Looking forward to your reply.

[PhantomEdge]

I have already tried the troubleshooting above. It is still having the same issues.

[rafa1995]

I have the same problem at the moment, and my laptop is brand new, I'm playing world of warcraft and the music repeats over and over again the same line and the game stutters. The troubleshooting does not seems to do anything at all.

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

In order to forward this to the relevant team, we'd need the info requested by @Dian above.

Looking forward to your replies.

[sixwinged]

I don’t know about them but i’m on windows 11, spotify version 1.2.12.902.g1924b088 and i’ve been getting this issue on my newly built pc since i build it which was a week ago, honestly kinda glad to see other people with the exact same issue i was worried i did something wrong with the hardware. I unfortunately don’t have any screen recordings as it seems to mess with primary tasks (ie: freezing games) but it’s the exact same issue as others have described where i’m playing and then spotify will loop the same line/few seconds of a song over and over and then my game will get incredibly slow and freeze more often than not with only the cursor moving on screen super slowly. Like others have said the only way to get it to stop is to bring up the tab then it sort of fixes itself, only to bug out again if spotify is still playing. It’s really frustrating and the way i know it’s spotify is today i was playing final fantasy 14 while listening to music and talking to a friend on discord voice chat, the game froze again and spotify did its stutter but my friend still sounded clear and wasn’t stuttering at all which told me it was only the game and spotify getting messed with. Let me know if you need more info i’m happy to try and help get this issue sorted out.

[Alex]

Hi there @sixwinged,

Thanks for the post.

Can you check the following:

• Does the game lag when playing songs downloaded for Offline listening, with "Offline Mode" switched on from the app settings? This will help us understand if it's caused by streaming the music in real time, or if it's somehow caused by the app itself.
• Does this happen when playing music from the Web Player. Which browser did you use?

You can also try switching off the setting called "Hardware acceleration" and check if that stops the issue from occurring.

Looking forward to your reply.

[sixwinged]

Alright so

• I tried the offline mode and it still caused the stuttering and freezing, with the music downloaded too.
  • Web player has the issue as well weirdly, although it doesn't freeze or stutter the game but will constantly freeze the music and only continue playing when I tab out, only to freeze again if I go back to the game, kinda like pausing but the pause button isnt being pressed. I am using Opera.
  • I've tried hardware acceleration switched off as well and it sadly hasn't made a difference

[lemurderface]

This is still happening after all the troubleshooting mentioned in this thread and has been for months for me. Has anyone found a fix for it?

[Joan]

Hi there @sixwinged,

Thanks for the info. Could you please try the following:

• Does the issue occur the same way across all games or are only certain games affected?
• If possible, could you log in with a different account (from a friend or relative) and see if that makes a difference
• Try switching the game display setting between "Windowed Borderless" and "Fullscreen" and see if that makes a difference

Keep us posted.

[sixwinged]

• Only seems to be certain games weirdly enough
• Different accounts doesn't change anything
• Windowed borderless seems to have fixed the freezing however I'm not sure if this is just because Discord isn't running a vc while playing nor am I sure if this is going to be a permanent fix because the freezes and stuttering before used to be at very random times

[sixwinged]

Ok yep the freezing and stuttering occurred again seems windowed borderless isn't a fix 😞