Unable to open songs from links

[carlesonmarcus]

Plan

Premium

Country

Sweden

Device

iPhone

Operating System

iOS 17.2

My Question or Issue

When clicking a song link that was sent to me via SMS Spotify opens but the song does not start and a loading screen appears. Does anyone else have the same issue? Any fix in sight?

[Ivelina]

Hi there @carlesonmarcus,

Thank you for posting in the Community!

If you haven't already could you make sure you're running the newest Spotify version? Does it only happen with one song or multiple songs? 

Have you tried any troubleshooting steps so far such as logging out > logging in twice in a row (it can help resync your device and Spotify account) or a clean reinstall to check if that changes anything?

Keep us updated.

[carlesonmarcus]

Thank you so much for you reply! 

I´m running the latest version of Spotify and logging out and then in again fixed it! 

Thanks again!

[Ivelina]

That's awesome to hear @carlesonmarcus!

You know where to find us if you need help with anything else 🙂

Cheers!

[carlesonmarcus]

Hi again, 

I now have a similar issue again, but this time on android the Spotify app opens and plays a completely different song than the one in the link. It seems this issue was introduced in conjunction with an update of the Spotify app that was launched some 2 weeks ago. Any ideas have this can be resolved? 

Thank you in advance! 

[Elena]

Hey @carlesonmarcus,

Thanks for letting us know!

Do you have an ad blocker installed on your device? If yes, then can you try adding http://api2.branch.io/ to the list of exceptions and let us know if this helps? 

Can you also ask the person to send you the link through a different channel to see if that makes any difference? You can test it out on a different device as well to check if the same thing happens.

Let us know how it goes.

[carlesonmarcus]

Hi Elena, 

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly! 
I don’t have an ad blocker installed and I have tried on different devices, and actually found that the issue also applies for iPhone no matter how the link is sent. For both platforms and across devices, the issue is rather odd. If I send let’s say 10 links, 9 of them could open successfully only to find that the 10th doesn’t. Instead, it would typically play another song with the same artist. If I then revisit the failed link and open it again it could open as it should. It thus seems to be some randomness to the issue that was introduced in conjunction with one of the most recent updates to the Spotify app. 
I have also tried to log out and back in again in the app, without any change. 

Thanks again! 

[Elena]

Hey @carlesonmarcus,

Thanks for the update!

Can you test this on a PC if possible so that we can check if it's connected to the mobile app only? It would also be great if you can share an example link of a song that isn't opening so that we can test it out on our end as well. 

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[carlesonmarcus]

Hi, 

What I’ve found is that it can happen to any link, so it doesn’t seems to be related to any specific track but rather some general error that could occur on any track. I’ve done some extensive testing but I can’t figure out what is causing the error. One song can fail to open (it opens another song) the first time I click it, only to open correctly if I click it again. This happens on both my android and iPhone. Other times it would open correctly but only play like 10 seconds of the song, so there is really something strange going on here. I’ve also tested on my laptop and couldn’t replicate the issue there, although I got the error message “upstream request timeout” a couple of times and other times it would quickly show the message “couldn’t open the page” before displaying the song. So with that said, the error seems to be primarily isolated to iPhone and android. 

I’ve compiled a list below of some songs, but again, be aware that the error sometimes comes right away and sometimes I need to click like 30 links before it fails. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/2FQrifJ1N335Ljm3TjTVVf?si=dsEOzy-qRH-ak9j0xx7zUA

https://open.spotify.com/track/1QbOvACeYanja5pbnJbAmk?si=izi10ZWjRauSwKlDCJuORQ

https://open.spotify.com/track/5XVjNRubJUW0iPhhSWpLCj?si=20pplQonSwSu2QX3ppPQOw

https://open.spotify.com/track/4HXOBjwv2RnLpGG4xWOO6N?si=6FDz4BjJQeaetGns6qeDTw

https://open.spotify.com/track/29U7stRjqHU6rMiS8BfaI9?si=_sLrhUiCStaT7tHl8BB8aA

https://open.spotify.com/track/2C5SI38AMmqckQGnD1H2FO?si=a_JLGtBcQem6x8p92TBKGQ

https://open.spotify.com/track/2hvOsGJc6qll4WzW8Ljqc3?si=gr6YhzSuT1iyYQWgTPji2g

https://open.spotify.com/track/5sj197xVLlMuwxgSCXYEkU?si=FZAI6ylERsSM-P85UTSD-A

kind regards

Marcus

[Elena]

Hey @carlesonmarcus,

Thanks for the cooperation!

We tried opening the links you sent, but couldn't replicate this issue so what you can try is checking if the Spotify app is set to default when it comes to links. You should be able to check in your phone's settings by going to Apps -> Spotify -> Open by default (or something similar). Make sure that the app is allowed to open supported links and that open.spotify.com is included in the list. It's also worth clearing the cache and logging out and back in afterwards.

Hope this helps.

[carlesonmarcus]

Hi, 

That doesn’t surprise me as the issue is very illusive and often appears randomly after clicking more links.
There is nothing wrong with the “open in Spotify” sequence, I’ve tried to empty the cache in the browser and also to log out and back in again. I’ve actually tried the above on multiple devices, but no luck. Do you have any other ideas?

kind regards

Marcus 

[Elena]

Hey @carlesonmarcus!

Thank you for your reply. 

We appreciate you taking the time to test things out and report the behavior to us in so much detail. 

After our discussion so far my best suggestion would be to copy and paste the link the directly in the app's search with songs that stubbornly don't show as expected. 

Make sure to keep the app up date as each new version comes with fixes for reported issues. 

Let us know if there's anything else we can help with!

[carlesonmarcus]

Thank you Elena! 
I truly hope this gets fixed in an update soon as it’s very annoying. And as I said before, I think the issue was introduced with any of the most recent app updates (or possibly changes in backend that came with them). 
Since I last wrote I’ve heard friends who have had the same issue, so I would expect a lot of users are experiencing this. 

Thank you again! 

[mjcino]

Not sure if it's the same issue, but I am unable for the life of me to figure out how to open a Spotify link on my iPhone. It always goes to the App Store, whether I open it in the Discord I got the link from, or I copy the link and put it in Safari. iPhone 13 pro max, iOS 17.6.1. I can open Spotify from the App Store, but then I'm just in Spotify and no link opens.

[carlesonmarcus]

That sounds weird. Not sure it´s the same issue, but perhaps the root cause is the same...

[mjcino]

Turns out, the link was to a music jam thing (or whatever it’s called), not to a playlist. It wasn’t even still going on by the time I tried it, but it wouldn’t have worked anyway because I don’t have a paid membership.

Oops!