Spotify Community

chill3r · 2012-03-02

I'm running Windows XP and I've recently uninstalled Spotify to get a clean install... Grabbed the latest downloader and tried to install and am getting an Error 18:

"The installer is unable to install Spotify because the files to write are in use by another process. Please make sure Spotify is not running and retry."

Well i've tried everything from rebooting, manually removing the spotify directory in C:\Documents and Settings\...\Application Data\Spotify and nothing seems to be working.

Has anyone seen this or have any suggestions? It's torture without the music!

chill3r · 2012-03-10

Alright so I somewhat solved the problem...

1) I removed all traces of spotify (check your appdata directory to make sure it's gone)

2) Removed Comodo

3) rebooted

4) installed Spotify successfully

5) install Comodo

6) tested Spotify and it still works fine

This is kind of a hassle just to get it working, but it works now...

View solution in original post

Skubbje · 2012-03-12

Fixed it!

I removed iTunes and reinstalled it, afterwards is reinstalled Spotify without a problem.

I hope i works for you as well!

View solution in original post

darkdj09 · 2012-05-17

sorted it for me, but more specifically, it was reg keys native to both iTunes and spotify, in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_USER hive in the software folder, just browse to the folder for iTunes and in the folder right click and click modify binary data, top row far right change the 0 to a 1 (it just turns the file off and all that file does is enables hardware support through the sound-card / on bord audio, you will still have audio, just wont be as clear through iTunes as it will be through everything else, change the 1 back to 0 to turn the file back on.), you should restart the computer every time you do this.

Anyway that's how I fixed it.
Good Luck

JSM

View solution in original post

erikahau · 2014-04-22

**BEFORE READING, READ "IMPORTANT" BELOW**

I know you found a solution, but heres what I did and it worked for me: (btw I have a windows 8)

1. Go to "start"

2. Go to the apps (swipe to the right side of the start page, and click the down arrow at the bottom)

3. Search "msconfig" (without the quotation marks of course)

4. Click on "msconfig" when it shows up

5. Go to the "services" tab

6. Click "disable all"

7. Restart your computer (it will tell you to)

8. The internet won't be working and everything will be screwed up when you log back onto your computer. (this is normal)

9. Repeat steps 1-5 and click "enable all" instead of "disable all"

10. Restart again, and reinstall spotify

11. ENJOY LISTENING TO MUSIC!!!

⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩

IMPORTANT:

Before I followed these steps, I did this:

1. Go to "settings"

2. Go to the control panel

3. Click programs

4. Click "uninstall a program"

5. Uninstall spotify

***ALSO***

When looking through the things listed under the "services" tab in msconfig, make sure you have spotify UNCHECKED before you reinstall spotify!!

View solution in original post

rock4lifedude3 · 2015-03-12

I know this thread is old, but I might as well put my 2 cents in. I figured out that my Steam Client Service was using the SpotifyWebHelper and SpotifyHelper files located in my AppData/Roaming folder. I haven't the slightest clue why Steam would be using them but that's what was preventing me from installing the update. If you are running Steam and this occurs, first try shutting steam down and then installing again.

View solution in original post

xxevalenciarxx · 2015-08-08

I just found another quick solution to this problem.

At first I could not open Spotify because this error code would constantly show up.. but then I tried deleting some files and I could not do that either. Whenever I tried deleting something, it would say "Invalid MS-DOS function". So I checked out a forum to fix that problem..and it ended up fixing my Spotify problem as well.

This is what I did:

1. Uninstall Spotify

2. Press Windows+R

3. Type and search "msconfig"

4. Click the "Boot" tab, and under "Boot Options" select "Safe boot"

5. Click "Apply", "OK", and then restart your computer.
6. Your computer should have restarted in Safe Mode. Just in case, try deleting a simple file on your desktop (this is what I did but is probably not necessary).

7. Repeat steps 2-4, but this time deselect "Safe boot", apply, press OK, and restart again.

8. Your computer should restart with everything working perfectly now.. Go to spotify.com, redownload Spotify and try installing.

Hope this helps!! Please click like if it does.

Have a blessed day 🙂

View solution in original post

11FCBfan · 2015-10-08

Don't listen to those people what you gotta do is simple:

1:Completely uninstall Spotify from your PC

2:Go to My coumputer

3:Go to the search bar and type "Spotify"

4:Delate ALL file that have Spotify in there name/description

5:Restart your PC

6:Reinstall Spotify

Cheers

View solution in original post

mayapatel0409 · 2015-10-29

I recently had the same issue and none of the solutions were working. First, try the other solutions because some feedback says they work, but if they fail try this.

1. Go into the File Explorer app

2. In the File Explorer, on the left hand side there is a column, in the column click "This PC"

3. On the search bar that should come up in the app, search "Spotify"

(This process may take a minute, be patient)

4. Select all of the items that come up by checking an box to the left of the item that is only visable when scrolled over or already selected

5. Right click in the area of the selected item(s)

6. Click delete

7. It should move them to the recycling bin, if not and there is a pop up press "skip" in the pop up and go to the recycling bin.

8. Empty the recycling bin then reinstall Spotify!

This was the easiest solution I could come up with! I hope it helps, if not please contact me.

-Maya

View solution in original post

anchibi · 2016-01-30

Trust me, do what i did. It happened to me twice the error code 18 and i solved it twice by doing this (Don't even do what some guys are posting here, about going to msconfig and weird things like that, i do it once and had to restore my PC).

-Go to Programs and Uninstall Spotify.

-Go to AppData/Roaming and delete the Spotify folder (If it says it can't be delete because "other programs are using it" restart the PC and you will be able to do it.

-Restart the PC if you didn't do it already .

-Download Spotify again and install it.

And that's all you have to do, i hope it work for you 🙂

View solution in original post

user-removed · 2016-04-14

easiest fix for my error 18 message was to go to task manager and end task to spotify out of my backround process

View solution in original post

Shilohpineapple · 2016-11-19

I did this and now I can't get to my lock screen won't load 😞

View solution in original post

Shilohpineapple · 2016-11-19

Nevermind it loaded after waiting 10 minutes lol.

View solution in original post

Brylee_sd · 2017-01-08

I was reading all the solutions and they all seemed so complicated. This worked great! I first uninstalled spotify then just went into task manager and into processes and closed the spotify background processes and I could reinstall the app!

View solution in original post

Talentedgman · 2017-10-22

Didnt work for me ;-;

View solution in original post

chill3r · 2012-03-02

I should also mention that i've opened Task Manager, and there are no spotify processes running as well.. this is very aggravating..

4nto · 2012-03-05

Hey.
I had the same problem.

If you are running windows, just go to start -> run -> type msconfig
Then go to - I guess it will be named "Start", and then unmark "Spotify". Restart your computer, and reinstall Spotify.

I hope it solved your problem 🙂

Cheers

chill3r · 2012-03-05

Thanks for the suggestion, but that didn't work as well,

I've also read another suggestion in another thread that to run the setup.exe in compatibility mode which takes me a little further, but now i'm getting an Error code 13: "The installer is unable to install Spotify because the neccesary files could not be created"

I've removed Spotify files in Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Spotify, the app also does not appear in my Add/Remove Programs... Is there anywhere else to look to clean this app out so I can reinstall?

chill3r · 2012-03-07

Is nobody else having this issue? I've seen different variations in the forums... I just can't get past this Error 13 now

chill3r · 2012-03-09

Are the spotify tech support not on these forums? I've also sent in a form and i've still yet to get a reply from anyone... other than the automated message

I've since tried installing in safe mode w/ networking and that installed however I can't run the program when i go to normal mode... this is ridiculous.. almost been two weeks without the music...

chill3r · 2012-03-09

Latest update:

Looking at my event logs, i've noticed that my Comodo Firewall has been blocking the Spotify Installer from doing its thing, even though I have it disabled at the moment...

Just for trial, I uninstalled Comodo, rebooted, and was able to install Spotify...

However, I refuse to run Spotify without having some type of firewall software in between and am going to keep tweaking things in Comodo to see what I can do to have it unblock... either that or hope that Spotify will come out with an update to support running behind Comodo...

emelie · 2012-03-09

I am having the same problem and nothing is working. i have tried all different ways that i found on different support pages but nothing works..... error code 17 and sometimes 18. what should I do?

@chill3r wrote:
Latest update:

Looking at my event logs, i've noticed that my Comodo Firewall has been blocking the Spotify Installer from doing its thing, even though I have it disabled at the moment...

Just for trial, I uninstalled Comodo, rebooted, and was able to install Spotify...

However, I refuse to run Spotify without having some type of firewall software in between and am going to keep tweaking things in Comodo to see what I can do to have it unblock... either that or hope that Spotify will come out with an update to support running behind Comodo...

chill3r · 2012-03-10

Alright so I somewhat solved the problem...

1) I removed all traces of spotify (check your appdata directory to make sure it's gone)

2) Removed Comodo

3) rebooted

4) installed Spotify successfully

5) install Comodo

6) tested Spotify and it still works fine

This is kind of a hassle just to get it working, but it works now...

David · 2012-03-10

Those error codes mainly indicate a problem with Spotify connecting to the internet. Firewalls / Virus checkers might cause this issue, so adding Spotify to the exceptions list would be the first step I would do here, unless you have to reinstall the program like chill3r had to here.

Airhorn Enthusiast

chill3r · 2012-03-10

Thanks for the response David..

problem is, I had Spotify in my exceptions list in my Comodo firewall, however after the upgrade:

1) Comodo tagged Spotify as causing a buffer overflow

2) after uninstalling Spotify and downloading the latest Spotify downloader, the Spotify setup application was also blocked by Comodo (causing error 13)

Therefore, I uninstalled both Comodo and Spotify and reinstalled both and that seems to be the only (albeit tedious) solution...

mrcoolken71 · 2012-03-10

Mine keep sayin that the downloader is interrupted and I got Windows 7

David · 2012-03-11

What browser did you try and download with? My first suggestion would be to try using something else (Google Chrome, Firefox) and see if it can download successfully there.

Airhorn Enthusiast

Skubbje · 2012-03-12

Fixed it!

I removed iTunes and reinstalled it, afterwards is reinstalled Spotify without a problem.

I hope i works for you as well!

darkdj09 · 2012-05-06

sorry about this, this was a double post I just tried to delete it by deleteing the post content but it dident work. I would appreciate it if someone could delete this for me.

JSM

darkdj09 · 2012-05-06

Well this is the problem im getting but the cause of it is not the same.

Im no spring yellow headed chicken when it comes to computers, in fact I have 6 computer qualifications despite being disabled with Aspergers Syndrome and Learning Difficulties.

For several months now spotify has been giving me the message "Failed to connect to spotify social" this didn't bother me much since I never really used spotify social so I would just close the error message and get on with it. A few weeks after this started I noticed I was now getting a new problem an error message saying spotify was still running after I had closed it, and this would still occur even if I had closed the Spotify process tree in the task manager. It seemed the only way to ensure spotify was closed after using it was to restart the computer.

Well today I decided to run the risk of re-installing spotify so I un-installed it with no problems (so it seemed), but now when I try to re-install spotify it is saying that the files that the setup program needs to write to are currently in use and telling me to to make share that spotify is not currently running. I have checked my virtual machine (windows XP mode) and it doesn't even have spotify on it. The only thing I can think of is that my laptop is networked to my other computers and they all have spotify on them.

But would that cause error code 18 ? Network sharing is not enabled on any of my computers for Program Files or Program Files X86 the spotify data store is not even kept in that location.

Basically im at a loss for an explanation. Could spotify be running in the background on my laptop of a Network location ? Could the files that the setup for spotify is referring to be native to another program ? Or could this be a problem with Spotify itself ?

JSM

darkdj09 · 2012-05-07

Ok just a quick update, It seems there is another Spotify player running from someware on my system as I just solved the mysterious "Spotify cant connect to Spotify Social" issue I was having, were is Root Directory is, I do not know yet. Be back in a jiffy

JSM

darkdj09 · 2012-05-07

after spending 3 hours looking for this I still cant mind it, or any trace of it, after spotify is closed. In other words it only starts on system startup.

JSM

darkdj09 · 2012-05-17

sorted it for me, but more specifically, it was reg keys native to both iTunes and spotify, in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_USER hive in the software folder, just browse to the folder for iTunes and in the folder right click and click modify binary data, top row far right change the 0 to a 1 (it just turns the file off and all that file does is enables hardware support through the sound-card / on bord audio, you will still have audio, just wont be as clear through iTunes as it will be through everything else, change the 1 back to 0 to turn the file back on.), you should restart the computer every time you do this.

Anyway that's how I fixed it.
Good Luck

JSM

user-removed · 2012-07-29

I had no problem Downloading the software the first time, it worked Great:) but a couple day later it would not even open. so I uninstalled it, and i attempted to restall it but in the midst of the install it stops and says i my files are being used by another procees (Error Code 18 ) ?

Spotify Community

Help categories

Account & Payment

Using Spotify

Listen Everywhere

error code 18 - can't reinstall Spotify!

error code 18 - can't reinstall Spotify!

Suggested posts

Let's introduce ourselves!

Help Wizard

Step 1

Just quickly...

FAQs

Ongoing Issues

Help categories

Account & Payment

Using Spotify

Listen Everywhere

error code 18 - can't reinstall Spotify!

error code 18 - can't reinstall Spotify!

Suggested posts

Let's introduce ourselves!