Playlist tree view is gone

[imbeql1]

Plan

Premium

Country

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

On Spotify Desktop I had a neat folder/tree view of all my playlists in the sidebar. I could collapse and uncollapse everything at once, but the new UI now is some sort of hierarchical view that only allows to view one level at a time, very similar to the mobile app.

In my opinion this new UI is bad for several reasons

- I've lost sense of organization and overview, my folder structure is a few layers deep

- I often move (drag'n'drop) several songs at once from e.g. the Weekly Mix to a subfolder of a certain genre/mood, this is harder now

- I can't drag playlists to a level upwards, context menu only allows to copy a playlist to other folders

- Can't create new playlists directly within a folder from the sidebar (workaround: via context menu, this is unintuitive) [edit: there's a "+" plus button at the top that does that, other points still stand though]

Is there a way to return to the old tree view?

[kaworu_bloodpaw]

Hey there @imbeql1

You may've heard recently about UI tests for the Mobile UI. Now it's time for the Desktop UI!

This is an ongoing test and you can leave feedback in this thread as you wish.

Here's what I could find about the playlist view (thanks to Spotify Star @MattSuda).:

"If you would like to only see text in the Your Library sidebar like you used to be able to before the update, go to the Spotify app Settings ---> Library ---> and select 'use compact library'".

I hope this helps!

If my answer was useful, don't forget to give it a 'Like!' If my answer was the solution, don't forget to mark it as the solution! Thanks! 😇

If you need anything else, please reply and ask, or shoot me a Private Message! Feel free to follow my Spotify or Community profiles!  Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Spotify.

[imbeql1]

Thanks for the link to the other thread, I might copy my criticism into a reply there.

The compact library setting does not change anything about the hierarchical view and behaviour, unfortunately.

[kaworu_bloodpaw]

@imbeql1

In order to change the playlist view hierarchy, according to Matt,

"In the left "Your Library" sidebar, click on the "Playlists" filter. Then, in the sort drop-down select 'Custom order'".

You can see more in his post, here.

I'd like to help more, but I don't have the new UI yet.

[imbeql1 · Accepted solution]

I just found that I can click the tiny arrows to expand a folder. Not very obvious, but my main problem with this new UI is solved I guess.

So in order to restore the old library playlist tree view:

- Enable compact mode in settings

- Change sorting order to "Custom order"

- Expand your playlist folders on the little arrows

[seiffs]

Hi,

I just came to join your frustration. The new playlist tree is unfortunately way worse then the one before 😞 The navigation is confusing, some things I used to do often like moving and sorting are not possible at all. I tried to switch to the compact view, but it is different than the old tree view. It doesn't help. I wish I could switch back to the old tree view. The only thing I like about the new one is the cover-images as the folder icon. 

[ar2oor]

Is there any way to disable entering "inside" playlist group on sidebar? I tried with modifiers like ctrl, shift, alt but it always enters inside 😕

It's annoying, i can't double click on playlist group to start playing it, i must click right mouse and select "play".

Also, back button don't work on sidebar, it always correspondes to main window!

This new UI is very frustrating!