Library either does not load or shuffle

[PurpleSabbath]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

Device

iPhone 6s, PS4, Xbox One

My Question or Issue

My library does not seem to load anymore.  It looks like it’s loading for a while but the tracks almost never appear.  When they do, if I click on shuffle, it does not play anything.  This is only on iOS.  On Xbox and PS4, I am unable to view my library at all.  Also, my daily personalized playlists haven’t updated since months ago (they have been the same ever since.)

[PurpleSabbath]

Just one more detail; I am also unable to view or play my library on my laptop either (windows 10).

[Mihail]

Hey @PurpleSabbath,

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the Community.

It's also a good idea to check if you observe the same under a different network. If it works with another connection, it's best to contact the service provider of the original network for more information. 

If the issue persists, we recommend you log out everywhere and run a clean reinstall on all your devices, this involves deleting the cache files of the app and will force a account wide resynchronization of your info. You can have a look at this guide for the steps relevant to each device.

Hope you find this useful. Let us know how you get on.

[PurpleSabbath]

Hello, I have uninstalled the Spotify apps on my Xbox One, PS4, and iPhone (including Spotify Stations) and reinstalled the app on all systems.  I cleared the cache on the iPhone app.  I can’t seem to figure out how to clear the cache on the Xbox and PS4 apps though. I even cleared my cache and history on my laptop.  I was able to shuffle my library once in my iPhone, but afterwards I have been unable to.  I am still unable to view my library at all on the Xbox and PS4 apps.

[Novy]

Hi again @PurpleSabbath,

Thanks for getting back to us and letting us know what you've tried.

Just to confirm, is the app crashing, staying unresponsive or simply not loading? Are you able to see other sections of the app without any issues?

Also, would you mind attaching some screenshots or screen recordings where we can see what's exactly happening with Your Library? 

Keep us posted. We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[PurpleSabbath]

The app otherwise works fine, it’s just the library that isn’t working.  I’ve deleted a bunch of tracks from my library thinking maybe it has gotten too large and maybe it would help.  I am able to view my library on my phone, but when I tap on shuffle play, nothing happens.  I don’t have any screen shots because there’s nothing to show.  Literally, nothing happens.  No error message or anything.  I am still unable to view my library at all on Xbox and PS4.

[Novy]

Hey @PurpleSabbath,

Thanks for your reply.

Have you noticed this behavior in a specific playlist or all of them? If you pick one song from a playlist without shuffling it, does it play as it should?

We'd recommend making sure that your phone has no battery saving/task killing apps, as these could cause issues with Spotify's cache. 

Let us know how it goes.

[PurpleSabbath]

This is with the “liked songs” playlist (which is what I meant when I referred to by library.  I’m sorry if that causes any confusion.  I always thought of those as the same thing.)  I always used to be able to shuffle my liked songs but I am no longer able to.

[Novy]

Hey @PurpleSabbath, 

Thanks for the clarification!

If possible, could you ask a friend or a family member to log into their personal account using your phone? This will help us see if the issue is related to your account. 

Also, remember to let us know if you spot anything new when you're using a different network. 

We'll keep an eye out four your reply.

[PurpleSabbath]

I don’t think the problem is

my phone since I can’t view my liked songs at all on PS4 and Xbox.  I tried to take a photo of my TV of the error I get there but the forums won’t let me attach a photo from my phone.  The error message I get when trying to view my liked songs on Xbox and PS4 says “Something went wrong.”  There is an image of a flag, and a button that says “try again.”  If I attempt to try again, I get the same message.  This has been happening for about a majority of the year.  

[Novy]

Hi again @PurpleSabbath, 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

In this case, you can create a new test account with another email address. After that, try playing some music from the new account and let us know if you're still unable to shuffle your liked songs.

This will help us determine if the issue is related to your account.

Keep us posted.

[PurpleSabbath]

Hello,

I created a new test account and logged in on my iPhone in the Spotify app, and also in the Spotify app on PS4.  Everything works fine with this new account.  I am able to view my liked songs on both systems.  I am able to shuffle my liked songs on my phone, and then connect to my PS4 like normal.  Nothing seems wrong with the new account.

[PurpleSabbath]

Another detail I noticed, the test account had working Daily Mixes.  On my main account, Daily Mixes stopped updating earlier this year (around the time the “liked songs” limit was increased) and eventually those playlists seemed to have disappeared entirely.

[Jeremy]

Hey there @PurpleSabbath,

Thank you for your post and confirmation.

Since it works fine with the new account it seems that it's an account issue.

We suggest that you check out this article that describe how you start over with a new account. You can also check this article out to find out how you can transfer your music from your old account to the new one.

If you have any questions we're always one reply away.

Take care!

[PurpleSabbath]

I don’t understand.  Why do I need a new account?  Why can’t my current account be fixed?  And why can I no longer have an account with my current email address?  And even if I do start a new account, as my Liked Songs list grows, will I start encountering the same problems that I am with this account?  I don’t understand why any of this is nevcessaey.

[Jeremy]

Hey again @PurpleSabbath,

We've looked into this with the right team and it seems that you have over 900,000 saved songs and the app is trying to load those up, but since that is a very large amount, the devices are timing out. There's unfortunately no way for us to influence how the devices can handle such a large amount of data at this moment.

To bring this into perspective, if we assume an average file size of 3.5MB per track, having actual files of those tracks would require over 3.5 Terabytes of storage capacity on your local device. Even though only a fraction of this needs to be transferred every time a device tries to load up your library it will still be a very large data-size

If you'd like to you can reach out to our Customer support, but we cannot guarantee that a solution will be found and we do recommend to try and build a new collection, while keeping in mind that there're technical limitations on how a device can process data. They can also help you so your current email can be updated on your new account.

Take care!

[PurpleSabbath]

Hello,

When the song limit was removed, there was no messaging that taking advantage of that feature would make the app no longer work properly.  Is there a hidden limit to how many songs i can have under Liked Songs before the app stops working? 

I’m also confused because I spent a lot of time this week removing tracks to bring the total down to see if that would help things to work again.  The amount I am at now is actually lower than it was before it stopped working.  There was a recent update to the Spotify app on iOS that seems to coincide with these issues.  Was something changed with this update that would cause the app to no longer work as well as it did before?

Thanks,

John

[PurpleSabbath]

If I were to rebuild my library on my current account, how would I go about doing that?  Is there a way to just delete everything?  I read that this can be done on PC, but I can’t load the liked songs playlist on PC (the message says “couldn’t find that playlist”) so I’m not sure how can do this.

[Eni]

Hi @PurpleSabbath,

Thanks for getting back in touch.

Even though the song limit was removed, we can't guarantee that the app will work properly when there's a large number of saved songs in your account because of the reasons @Jeremy mentioned before.

Additionally, it's easier to remove several songs at the same time on the desktop app as you can select all of the songs and delete them at once. 

However, since they aren't loading we suggest that you try creating a new account following the steps we sent before. 

If you have any questions, just let us know.

[PurpleSabbath]

Hello,

I managed to delete my entire “Liked Songs” library to start fresh.  I started adding a few albums and tested viewing and shuffling my liked songs on all platforms to see if they worked, and they worked fine.  So I began adding songs to build up my library (with no intention of bringing it to the large amount I had before).  I had been occasionally shuffling my liked songs during this process and everything was working fine, until just now.  I tried shuffling my liked songs, and they won’t play.  The current track just stops and then nothing happens.  My current liked songs amount is 8340, which is still far below the old limit. 10,000.  When the limit was 10,000, my liked songs library was at that limit constantly, and I had no problems viewing and shuffling liked songs during that time.  It’s almost as if the limit is actually lower than it was before.  Can anything be done to fix this now?