topic Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux in Desktop (Linux)

No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

jonte330 — Tue, 19 May 2026 09:41:29 GMT

I am getting no sound from the Spotify desktop app on Ubuntu Linux. All other apps play sound normally.

I have tried reinstalling the app with no success. Checking pavucontrol, Spotify is outputting to the correct output (Line out) and volume is normal. The monitor in pavucontrol does not register sound from Spotify.

The app worked a few months ago. I was messing around with outputs in pavucontrol in order to isolate the output from Spotify for streaming reasons. I changed the output to a new one I created in the terminal but this output is not available in the list anymore. I don't remember all the details, unfortunately.

I've checked that Spotify is playing on "This Device" and it also works normally on my phone and in browser.

Anyone have any ideas what's wrong?

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

embu08 — Tue, 19 May 2026 12:13:50 GMT

Same issue, app worked 5 min ago, after it's update no sound, Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS desktop. Web, windows, and android works. Tried restart, reinstall, didn't help

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

jvrn — Tue, 19 May 2026 15:46:19 GMT

Same issue too. Last snap update in Ubuntu 22.04.5 brokes it. The error "Can't play this song right now" happens all the time.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

jvrn — Tue, 19 May 2026 15:50:51 GMT

Update to my own comment. Launching it from bash with "spotify --audio-api=pulseaudio" works ok.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

dogzofwar — Tue, 19 May 2026 17:44:57 GMT

The same is happening to me. I'm using Spotify for Linux 1.2.86.502.g8cd7fb22.

INTERESTINGLY, if you switch to watching videos (for instance, "I Don't Live Here Anymore" by War on Drugs, which has a video), the sound does work. So this means it's not a permissions issue or anything.

The above suggestion of "Launching it from bash with "spotify --audio-api=pulseaudio" also works. So again, this is not a permissions or driver issue.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

uncoolbob — Tue, 19 May 2026 17:49:02 GMT

After Snap auto-updated Spotify from 1.2.84.475.ga1a748ff (rev 93) to 1.2.86.502.g8cd7fb22 (rev 94) on Ubuntu 20.04, playback stopped working completely with the message “Spotify can’t play this right now”. Audio worked normally in other applications (e.g. VLC), there were no PipeWire/PulseAudio errors when pressing play, and sudo snap revert spotify immediately restored normal playback.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

narjesia — Tue, 19 May 2026 21:12:31 GMT

App on openSUSE 15.6: “Spotify can’t play this right now” since yesterday. Unable to play local songs since a few months.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

fdat3 — Wed, 20 May 2026 01:35:57 GMT

Same issue since yesterday, I can not stream any songs on Spotify (Linux)

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

HelgeNissen — Wed, 20 May 2026 06:16:08 GMT

Same issue here (Ubuntu 22.04.5). I can confirm that jvrn's fix launching from bash works for me.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

iorq — Wed, 20 May 2026 07:22:19 GMT

Linux mint 21.2 the same, no sound from app

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

AnotherHobbyist — Wed, 20 May 2026 07:44:39 GMT

Same Issue here on ZorinOS. This is since the update yesterday to version 1.2.86.502.g8cd7fb22 via snap store

Thanks @JVRN - your suggestion of running "spotify --audio-api=pulseaudio" got me on - can't work without me tuuuunes!

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

Lirick — Wed, 20 May 2026 07:58:07 GMT

which types of installations do all of you use? in case you are having issues with the snap could you please try to run `snap connect spotify:pipewire` and see if that fixes the issue without falling back to pulse

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

Kuu — Wed, 20 May 2026 08:30:34 GMT

I'm using a snap installation and even after uninstalling and installing it again, it did not work.

The `snap connect spotify:pipewire` does not fix it

The "spotify --audio-api=pulseaudio" worked. Thanks @JVRN

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

Thrsh018 — Wed, 20 May 2026 08:34:15 GMT

Thank you, genius!!! Spotify is getting worse and worse... couldn't even find the support but your fix worked... at least for now.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

fintux — Wed, 20 May 2026 11:38:27 GMT

I reverted the version with "sudo snap revert spotify", which also works. The latest flatpak version also seems to work. Apparently snap should install an update only after a new version is available, so it shouldn't try to reinstall the broken update. This way, I don't have to keep adding the switch every time I start Spotify.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

jefcap — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:32:47 GMT

Same here when using snap.

After moving to flatpak, all went back to normal.

Using Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

sepehrrr — Wed, 20 May 2026 15:17:55 GMT

I’m running into something similar on Ubuntu 22.04.

In my case, system audio works fine now. Chrome/YouTube plays sound (even for Spotify on web), and Ubuntu Settings shows the speakers correctly. Spotify also shows up in the sound settings, so it’s not like the app is completely invisible to the audio system.

The problem is only with Spotify from Snap:

spotify 1.2.86.502.g8cd7fb22

When I checked with pactl, Spotify was creating an audio stream and it was being routed to the same analog output that works for other apps. But I still get no sound from Spotify.

One odd thing I noticed is that Spotify’s stream shows:

Channel Map: aux0,aux1
media.name = "audio-src"

That looks different from what I’d expect for a normal stereo app stream.

So this doesn’t look like a general PipeWire or speaker issue on my machine. It feels more like something specific to the Spotify Snap audio path on Ubuntu 22.04 / PipeWire.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

jonte330 — Wed, 20 May 2026 16:44:59 GMT

Great! This seems to make the app work like it is supposed to. But I will not accept it as a solution because it is a workaround and it is completely unacceptable that paying customers need to figure out how to run spotify from terminal with additional parameters. Thank you though, it's good enough for me right now.

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

Skaidus — Wed, 20 May 2026 17:06:35 GMT

Have the same issue in Ubuntu 😞

Re: No Sound in Desktop App on Ubuntu Linux

JohnnieB — Thu, 21 May 2026 10:16:22 GMT

Same issue when installed via Snap on ubuntu.