Release Radar not refreshing at 12am anymore

[SebastianHa]

My Question / Issue

Since a couple of weeks my release radar isn't refreshing at 12 am anymore.
It used to work perfectly fine for years and out of a sudden it changed. I used to stay up until 12 am to enjoy the latest songs right away. Now the earliest the playlist is getting updatet is 1am. I can't seem to find an article stating, that the time of updating the playlist was changed in general, nor did anyone else seem to experience similar problems (in my region). So why is it, that these issues started to occur for me out of the blue?

Looking forward to hearing from you – thanks in advance for any help and advice!

Plan: Premium

Country: Germany

Operating System

(Android 15 / Windows 11)

Spotify Version

Always up to date

[Bittencourt]

Hi @SebastianHa, thanks for reaching out!

That's odd. My first guess is that it might be a cache or App issue. A delay in playlist updates could be due to how your app fetches and updates content. Have you noticed if it also happens with your Discovery Weekly?

Anyway, try to clear Spotify’s cache in your app settings and make sure your app is updated to the latest version. 

Also, log out and log back into your Spotify account to refresh its sync. 

Testing the behavior on a different device (e.g., web app, mobile, or desktop) might as well be a good idea.

Let me know how it goes!

[Porty6600]

I have noticed the same the past several weeks. It always used to update at 11pm Thursday, but now it's right at midnight on Friday. I miss it being an hour earlier.

[Nandi2323]

I've noticed this as well. Spotify typically updates the Release Radar at some point in the night. 

The best fix for this problem is clearing the cache and updating the app. 

The app will update the playlist faster this way 

[SebastianHa]

Hello and thank you so much for your quick answer!

I don't know if the same happens with my Discovery Weekly playlist. Ever since the introduction of the Release Radar playlist, it has become my main source for weekly new music input. So I don't know whether Discovery Weekly gets updated in time or not.

What I can tell though: It's happening for me across all platforms and devices (web app, mobile and desktop) and they are always running on the latest version.

I also tried clearing the cache on my phone a couple of weeks ago, after making sure, that I was running the latest version, but it also didn't help. Especially since it happens regardless of the device, it is unlikely that the cache is actually the cause of the error, isn't it? Because the cache should be storing different date depending on the device/platform I'm using Spotify with ...

Do you have any other ideas or suggestions, what might cause this issue?

[SebastianHa]

Thank you for your message!

Unfortunately, as described above, I already tried all this things to fix this problem, but they didn't work.
That's also the reason why I waited so long before posting here, because I was hoping newer app versions would fix this problem, but the issue still remains. No matter the device.

[Bittencourt]

Hey @SebastianHa,

I'm sorry for the late reply.

I've checked the information about it, and this process occurs at midnight in Spotify system. However, the exact time may vary depending on your time zone.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[SebastianHa]

Hello Bittencourt, no worries!

That's funny, because my time zone hasn't changed at all.
It's always been 12am for new releases here in Germany and out of a sudden it changed to 1am a couple of weeks ago and that's the thing, that is really confusing me.

Maybe I might have to ask some of my friends, whether it's still 12am for them or not.
This way I can narrow down the problem and find out whether it's just me or other people as well and whether Spotify has perhaps changed the release times for Germany in general. That's at least the best guess I have at the moment.

I will keep you posted for when I have new info – Thank you so much in the meantime!

[Bittencourt]

Thank you @SebastianHa, let me know how it works with your friends!

[SebastianHa]

Hello, here is the promised update:

As I was away on Thursday night and forgot to ask some friends of mine beforehand, I could only ask my brother, who was accompanying me. A few minutes after midnight, we checked his Spotify and he already had the new songs online and the playlist updated. My playlist on the other hand wasn't updated until 1 am. So it doesn't seem to be a general problem for our location.