New Home Screen Update (i.e. "Good Afternoon" Playlist) not working

[user-removed]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

Device

iPhone XR

Operating System

iOS 13.4.1

Spotify Version

8.5.52.935

My Question or Issue

It appears that the update to the New Spotify Homescreen redesign that was rolled out about a month ago is not working on my phone.  Attached is a screenshot of my homescreen.  At the top of my homescreen I see "Recently played" playlist instead of the new "Good afternoon/evening" playlist.  Does anyone know what I need to do to activate the "Good afternoon" playlist? Following are some of the things I have already tried:  uninstalling the app, restarting the phone, and deleting the Spotify cache.

[dynAdZ]

Same for me, on all devices missing. My wife and daughters have it since March or so and I‘m still waiting. Tried a couple of solutions but nothing. Who can help?

[Alex]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for reaching out about this.

Because the new Library layout is being slowly rolled out to all users, your app might appear different than that of a friend or family member. 

Nevertheless here are some basic troubleshooting steps that might sound simple, but often overlooked:

• Log out everywhere - doing this will make sure that your account is properly synced with the servers
• Perform a clean reinstall of the app on all of your devices in order to avoid any issues caused by broken cache - check out this article for a step by step guide.
• Make sure Offline Mode and Private Session are disabled
• Disable your VPN.

@dynAdZ, could you tell us if you've tried the above mentioned troubleshooting and if you've had any luck so far.

We'll be on the lookout for your replies. Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have more questions.

Have a great day!

[dynAdZ]

Hi Alex,

thanks for your reply and your suggestions in order to get this solved. 

I can confirm I already performed the steps you suggested earlier but did it again just now without any success. None of my apps show the new home screen elements. However, when I log in with another user, e.g. the Spotify user of my 5yr old daughter, it will immediately show up. On the same device, same app. When I log out and back in with my own user, the items are missing.

So this might be an issue of something which is related to my user.

Thanks for your continuois efforts.

PS: What I forgot to mention earlier is, that I already had these elements weeks before the official announcement of the change was released. But after the official rollout started, it went away.

(Screenshot attached)

[Alex]

Hi @dynAdZ,

Thanks for the quick reply.

From what you've told us, it appears that your account was most likely part of a test group before the new feature was officially rolled out to the majority of the market, hence you we're able to see the new elements in the Library.

In this situation we'd suggest you try and create a new account and check out if you can see the new recommendations playlists there. If that's the case you can follow this guide on how to transfer your music over to the new account. 

Otherwise you can wait until your account gets the new Library experience as well. However, we cannot say when exactly this will happen since new features like this might take up to a few months to be implemented on all accounts in a given region.

Hope you find this info useful. Give us a shout if you have more questions.

[dynAdZ]

I see, thanks for the hint. Before I will go ahead and delete the user, maybe you can investigate if my user indeed is part of any non-productive group and just remove it from there, this would be good. I have my user for many many years, maybe something like 11 or 12 years and don't want to delete it. I have a 9 months premium family membership with my whole family inside the account, the hazzle of deleting the entire thing, transferring music, playlists, users and the remaining subscription months (if this is even possible) might just be overkill.
Maybe give this to some technical department and they might be able to see if my user is in any special group and if yes, they can just make it a "normal" user if this is possible.
Thanks in advance!

[Alex]

Hi again @dynAdZ,

Thanks for your reply.

We understand that creating a new account and transferring all of your data is a big inconvenience, especially if your account is the Manager account of a Premium Family. Unfortunately there's no way to remove accounts from those test groups manually. 

So for now we'd advise you to use the recommendations from your Release Radar and Daily Mixes. In one of the next app updates your account might get the new Layout including the Good Afternoon playlist, however we cannot say when this will happen with certainty.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

[spiffydean]

Hi Alex - 

I'm replying because I have tried all of the recommended steps and am having the same issue. I got the feature in March 2020, and then randomly within the last week I no longer have anything show up for me in that spot on my home screen. I am based in the US for reference. My wife is also on my family plan and has the feature.

[Mihail]

Hey @spiffydean ,

Thanks for reaching out.

As @Alex mentioned, these features are still being tested out. This means that they might be available for some users, while other don't have access to them. It's also possible that some users see them only temporarily. 

Currently there is no way to manually enter or remove an account from an A/B test group, so the only workaround would be to create a new one and see if the features are available there. You can also transfer your music collection and followers using the steps here. Otherwise we suggest that you keep your app always up to date. That way you won't miss a thing, should these features be rolled out officially 🙂 

Hope this shines a bit of light on the matter. We'll be here if you have any other questions.

Cheers.

[dynAdZ]

For me the feature popped up again last week, so quite a few months after it initially appeared and then disappeared again. Let's hope it stays this time.

[AeroZ]

Their support has been “fixing” this for my account for months now. The feature was released in march lol.

[spiffydean]

Mihail - 

Thanks for the response. I guess I assumed this wasn't simply a test feature, seeing as Spotify issued a press release detailing the feature in March: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2020-03-09/get-to-your-favorites-faster-with-spotifys-new-home-screen/

Nothing in the press release indicates that it is a test feature, but if that's truly the case then I guess it makes sense. I'm just confused why I would have it for 6 months and then all of a sudden lose it. 

Thanks for the help.

Dean

[Mihail]

Hey folks,

Thanks for your posts.

It's true that the gradual testing and release of the Daily Wellness playlists has started, however it's not fully rolled out for all regions.

This is why differences between users and changes in availability are still expected behavior. As @dynAdZ mentioned he got the feature back after a while.

Our development team is hard at work with the aim of finalizing this new feature as soon as possible, however we can't set a specific time frame.

Hope this is helpful but don't hesitate to let us know if you have any further questions!

[spiffydean]

Mihail -

I really do appreciate the help, and I don’t mean to sound rude, but I think the frustration expressed in this forum is usually the result of the responses having nothing to do with the original questions posed. We (at least I) haven’t mentioned the Daily Wellness playlists at all, yet that’s what you say is in testing. Again, I am specifically referring to the top 6 recommendations on the top of the Home Screen, as referenced in the press release I posted and the original post on this thread.

[Mihail]

Hey @spiffydean,

Thanks for your reply and apologies for the confusion.

We meant the new Home Screen design experience in the pervious post. We're constantly testing out new features in order to improve your listening experience. That's why the app might look different between users or why you might not see a feature that was previously there. 

We can't set a specific timeframe for when this feature will be finalized and fully rolled out, but in the meantime you can try the workaround that @Alex suggested. 

Hope this info is useful. Let us know if there's anything else we can help with.

[AeroZ]

So you’re saying that even though Spotify wrote a press release that this is a new feature released it’s actually not? I don’t believe that they would do a press release for something that’s in testing.

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2020-03-09/get-to-your-favorites-faster-with-spotifys-new-home-screen/

“Starting today, when audio lovers open up their Spotify mobiles or tablet apps, they’ll be greeted with a refreshed user interface that allows them to quickly jump back into familiar content.”

[Mihail]

Hey folks,

Thanks for your feedback and posts.

We wanted to let you know that what @Alex posted earlier here still holds true - it appears that some accounts were part of a test group before the new Home Screen Design was officially rolled out to the majority of the market, hence the new elements in the Library are not visible.

Our development team is hard at work with the aim of finalizing this new feature as soon as possible, however we can't set a specific time frame.

We have also been informed that if you frequently use Private Listening mode this may interfere with the algorithm gathering enough data for the new playlists. If you spend the majority of your time in the app with this feature turned on, we recommend disabling it and expanding Your Library. By linking new songs and following different artists/podcasts you can give the algorithm a boost. If this was the reason why the new elements on the Home Screen weren't visible, they should appear after a couple of weeks.

Hope this shines a bit of light on the matter. We'll be here if you have any other questions.

[AeroZ]

It’s been a year since the first Home Hub update was released and I still don’t have it. I’ve never used private listening.

I don’t know what kind of a test group I could be a part of because my Spotify looks and has been looking the same for years. 

[Briantheodor]

Good Evening playlists haven’t changed in over a month. 

[spiffydean]

That’s a bummer. I don’t know why this feature is so weird. My stuff will ONLY update if I listen via Spotify Connect. I can listen to an artist for hours on my phone and it won’t change anything. One song from an artist via Spotify Connect will show up instantly