Songs disappear and are impossible to play

[DaceSane]

Plan

Free

Country

France

Devices

HP Laptop 15-bw0xx, Redmi Note 8T

Operating System

Windows 10, Android

My Question or Issue

Hello,

Since yesterday, some songs in my playlists (especially Korean ones from many artists but I don't know if there's a connection with the problem) are grayed out and are impossible to play, either on the desktop application or the WebPlayer.

As time goes by, you don't even see the song title anymore, just a black box with the date when it was added to the playlist (see screenshots).
Similarly on the Android application of my phone, the songs have even disappeared from my playlists and are nowhere to be found. If I go directly to the artist page, the songs don't appear or the album is completely grayed out.

I've already deleted and reinstalled Spotify but it doesn't help.
Would you have a solution please ?

[DaceSane]

Oops I actually just saw that it wasn't a bug at all but a definitive deletion of the songs. I should have informed myself before.
Thanks for your time anyway !

[Irukandji]

Plan

Free

Country
USA

Device

HP Pavilion laptop

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Hello.
I am aware that many Korean songs have been removed and why, this is NOT about that.

The unavailable songs are not grayed out (as they usually are), but just a black box (see attached photo). Is there any way to see what songs were removed and are being affected by this situation? I am sure many people would appreciate being able to see the missing songs. 

Yes, I have the 'Show unavailable songs in playlist' button toggled ON.

[MattSuda]

Hey @DaceSane thanks for reaching out!

We can confirm that Kakao M's catalogue isn't currently available. Spotify would love to have them back too and are working on it, so hopefully they'll be back in the future.

There's more info about Spotify content here: https://support.spotify.com/article/Content-missing

Regarding the blank unavailable songs in your playlists, if you go into the app settings and turn on "show unavailable songs" then the songs will still show up in your playlists but greyed out. It looks like this option may be turned on in the desktop app but you currently have that option turned off in the mobile app.

It looks like this option is currently not behaving the way it normally does. This is resulting in some songs being completely blacked out instead of showing a greyed out name. The songs should still be in your playlists so you can keep track of them, even if they are not currently available to play. This issue of blacked out songs is currently being looked into and should hopefully be fixed.

[MattSuda]

Hey @Irukandji thanks for reaching out!

We can confirm that Kakao M's catalogue isn't currently available. Spotify would love to have them back too and are working on it, so hopefully they'll be back in the future.

There's more info about Spotify content here: https://support.spotify.com/article/Content-missing

Regarding unavailable songs, if you go into the app settings and turn on "show unavailable songs" then the songs will still show up in your playlists but greyed out. I am aware from your post that you have this option turned on.

Unfortunately, it looks like this option is currently not working the way it normally does. This is resulting in some songs being completely blacked out instead of showing a greyed out name. The songs should still be in your playlists so you can keep track of them, even if they are not currently available to play. This issue of blacked out songs is currently being looked into and should hopefully be fixed.

[Irukandji]

So the being blacked out is just a glitch, and eventually the songs will become visible again (though unavailable until further notice)? Thank you for the reply!

[MattSuda]

Yes that is correct. Normally when songs are unavailable to play, the song name, artist name, and album name will still be shown, and you can still access the release page, but the names will be greyed out. This is so you can still keep track of the song in your playlists.

When unavailable releases become available again, the greyed out text on the songs will change to white text again and you should be able to play them.

You're welcome!

[MattSuda]

For unavailable songs, if you go into the app settings and turn on "show unavailable songs" then the songs will still show up in your playlists but greyed out. I am aware from your post that you have this option turned on.

Unfortunately, it looks like this option is currently not working the way it normally does. This is resulting in some songs being completely blacked out instead of showing a greyed out name. The songs should still be in your playlists so you can keep track of them, even if they are not currently available to play. This issue of blacked out songs is currently being looked into and should hopefully be fixed.

[MattSuda]

@DaceSane @Irukandji 

I have an update to share regarding this issue.

Spotify is aware of the issue, but they won't be able to return the songs to their original places in your library and playlists. You'll need to re-add them when they become available again. Normally the songs are greyed out when unavailable. However, availability can vary over time and between countries, depending on the permissions from rights holders. In this case since the songs are blacked out it means they were totally deleted from Spotify.

The current workaround to see which songs are blacked out is to right click or tap the options menu for the song in the web player, desktop app, or mobile app and go to the credits option. There you can see the song title and artist so you can keep track of the songs that are currently unavailable. 

[Anou_Shy]

Plan Premium Family

Country Germany

Device Acer Swift Notebook

Operating System Windows 10

My Question or Issue

When I started up Spotify I noticed that some songs were missing the song title and artist and I couldn't play them. I don't mean that the information was grey, it was gone completely. All I could see was the greyed-out date when I added the songs to the playlist and I haven't found anyone with the same problem online. I uninstalled and re-installed the Spotify app and at first, it seemed to have helped. In my regular playlists, all songs are shown again. But in my favorites, they're still missing. I can only see what song it is when I click on the three dots at the side and I can't notice a pattern. When I sort by artist, there are about 80 songs missing in the beginning and a little over 110 songs missing at the end, even though they don't fit there alphabetically. The order seems random and which songs are missing seems to be random as well. It's songs from multiple artists but as far as I can tell only a few per artist and never all of them. When I search for the missing songs (not in the playlist but in general) I can still find and play them, so they haven't been deleted. But I still can't play them from my playlist.

I know the obvious solution would be to kick the songs and re-add them. But this would take quite some time for almost 200 songs and I guess there's no guarantee it won't happen again in the future. So, I'm hoping that someone can provide a more easy solution to fix this problem quickly.

Thank you in advance 🙂

[AmandaAndyT]

I have the same issue, both on mobile and desktop. But when I click on the "more info" dots for the song, I still don't see the title or artist 😞 Although for some songs, the album cover is still seeable.

[bryan123]

Plan: Premium

Country: USA

Device: MacBook Pro 2019

Operation System : Catalina

For the past few days, ramdom songs in mt liked songs, playlists, and Spotify playlists appear completely blank and unplayable. They can't be clicked on, can't go to the artist page or anything.

Ive been able to get some to play by putting them in the queue but they still appear blank with no song name or artist name. 

 

 

[AyuTheHuman]

Hi there!
Are the unplayable songs K-pop songs?

[bryan123]

yes they mostly or all are, I believe.

[AyuTheHuman]

A lot of K-pop tracks have vanished from Spotify recently because their deal with Kakao M, a K-pop song distributor, expired. Those songs are either greyed out or blank.

Nobody knows when the songs'll be back, so we'll just have to wait.

Hope this helps!

[bryan123]

I just looked it up and saw, thank you! Typically when a song is removed, it just gets greyed out, so I found it strange that they are completely blank, but thanks for the answer! hopefully it will be fixed.

[Anou_Shy]

@AmandaAndyT At least I'm not the only one ^^'

I usually don't manage playlists on my phone, so I didn't notice before. But you directed my attention to it, so I just checked and the issue is occurring on phone for me, too.

Only clicking on the dots doesn't make it visible for me either, I can only see the information in the pop-up window with the song title, the interpreter, the producer, the writer, and the source when I click on "Contributors" (I don't know if this word is actually used in the English version for Spotify, I use the German version, so it's just my personal translation ^^').

For me, the songs are completely unselectable, so I also can't see any album covers.

[Alex]

Hi there folks,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

Can you upload some screenshots or a video recording of how things look on your end. This will help us see exactly what's going on.

Sharing the URI's/links to those missing songs and the playlists this is occurring in will also be great.

We'll be on the lookout for your replies.

[Anou_Shy]

Hi 🙂

I took some screenshots to show what it looks like for me. The first one shows what it looks like in the playlist. After I uninstalled and re-installed the Spotify app it only occurs in my favorites and no other playlists anymore. The second screenshot shows what it looks like when I open the song information and in the third picture, I opened the album via the dots next to the song. This particular song I can still find when I look for it in general like a few more, but other songs I can't find anymore. So maybe some of them simply got deleted, and that's why they appear like this, but then I don't know what happened to the others that are still on Spotify. Also wouldn't it be weird if suddenly almost 200 songs that I had in my favorites were deleted at the same time, even though they don't seem to be connected? I'm not familiar with how things work in this area, so would this be plausible?

Anyway, thanks for looking into this! 🙂

[Eni]

Hey there @Anou_Shy, 

Thanks for getting back in touch and for sending us this info. 

Would you mind checking if in the app settings > Display options > Show unavailable songs in playlists option is toggled off?

Additionally, could you let us know if in other playlists the unavailable content is showing as greyed-out?

Keep us posted!