topic Re: Spotify client debian 13 in Desktop (Linux)

Spotify client debian 13

Martin91625 — Mon, 04 May 2026 13:59:12 GMT

Plan

Premium

Device

Lenovo Thinkpad T480

Operating System

Debian 13 Xfce

My Question or Issue

When trying to play any track, it says spotify has an issue playing this right now, even after reinstalling the desktop client. Web client works properly with the same account. I suspect that this problem started after installing the new update from the repository.

Re: Spotify client debian 13

mtllmusicaudiophile — Tue, 05 May 2026 15:48:55 GMT

Same issue for me. cleared app cache, reinstalled and not resolved. Issue started last night after updating spotify-client

OS: Debian 13 LXQT

Device: Lenovo Thinkpad X13

Package: spotify-client
Version: 1:1.2.86.502.g8cd7fb22

Re: Spotify client debian 13

cyborgkid — Tue, 05 May 2026 19:11:55 GMT

The issue is related to spotify-client trying to use PipeWire instead of PulseAudio.
Can you try to launch spotify-client with the following switch?
spotify --audio-api=pulseaudio

Re: Spotify client debian 13

mtllmusicaudiophile — Tue, 05 May 2026 19:44:44 GMT

thanks.

that works. now, how do I make it the default? I tried adding that switch to exec in spotify.desktop but no dice.

I guess I can look at switching to pipewire...

Re: Spotify client debian 13

cyborgkid — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:19:23 GMT

Changing the Exec in /usr/share/applications/spotify.desktop worked for me:

...

Exec=spotify %U --audio-api=pulseaudio

...

But switching to PipeWire certainly looks like the long term solution.
If I understand that correctly, switching to PipeWire should be as easy as installing 'pipewire-audio', which will remove PulseAudio and seamlessly switch to PipeWire instead.

Re: Spotify client debian 13

mtllmusicaudiophile — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:51:59 GMT

thanks. that worked. I had been attempting to modify /usr/share/spotify/spotify.desktop. modifying the file in /usr/share/applications works.

thanks.

for the moment, will stick with pulseaudio since it was the default from my installation.

Re: Spotify client debian 13

cyborgkid — Tue, 05 May 2026 21:29:59 GMT

I just tried the switch to PipeWire:

Just install 'pipewire-audio' and restart the desktop / reboot, worked seamlessly for me and spotify-client will work again without any modification.

Re: Spotify client debian 13

mtllmusicaudiophile — Wed, 06 May 2026 16:18:43 GMT

I just tried it and success. i see pipewire running in processes, pulseaudio isn"t running and spotify works without the pulseaudio api switch.

thanks for your help!