topic Re: "Spotify can't play this right now" error in Liked Songs on Mac (Sequoia 15.5) in Desktop (Mac)

"Spotify can't play this right now" error in Liked Songs on Mac (Sequoia 15.5)

accomplishedrope — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 09:14:56 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Czech Republic

Device

Macbook Pro 14" 2021

Operating System

Sequoia 15.5

My Question or Issue

When I try to play any song in the Liked Songs, an error occurs that states:

"Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it." This does not happen on my phone app (Android) or the web app.

If I open the artist, playlist or similar and play the same song through there, that works.

It's been happening for quite a few months now. I was hoping an update would fix it but that didn't happen.

I've tried so far:

Updating to latest version
Reinstalling
Clearing cache
Turning equalizer on and off
Changing output devices
Changing network

Re: "Spotify can't play this right now" error in Liked Songs on Mac (Sequoia 15.5)

Maria — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 11:20:27 GMT

Hey @accomplishedrope,

Thanks for posting on the Community! And kudos for trying some troubleshooting steps 🙂

Just to check, does this only happen with the Liked Songs playlist, or have you noticed this with other playlists as well? Are you having any issues when using the Web Player?

Another thing which comes to mind is the Smart Shuffle feature - if it's currently on, try switching it off > restart the app > start the playlist again to see if you notice any difference.

Let us know how you get on!

Re: "Spotify can't play this right now" error in Liked Songs on Mac (Sequoia 15.5)

accomplishedrope — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 14:33:41 GMT

Hey @Maria,

Thanks for getting back so quickly!

I noticed it happen only within the Like Songs playlist. In any other playlist, no matter the owner (Spotify, another user or mine), it works just fine. And no issues with the Web Player.

It sure enough was the Smart Shuffle feature. Thank you!

I remember I read about this fix before and I tried to turn it off, but didn't realise that there are two different places to do so. I would try to do it through the bottom control panel instead of the playlist options up top. Doing it uptop did the difference.

Just to elaborate, when I tried playing a song on my desktop in the Liked Songs, the error would pop up and the bottom control panel buttons became disabled.

If I played a song on another device or a web player, changed the shuffle, and then tried to play any song from my Liked Song playlist on my desktop, it would just fail again. But changing it directly in the playlist control up top fixed the issue.

Attached screenshot for reference what I mean by the bottom control panel and playlist options up top.

Re: "Spotify can't play this right now" error in Liked Songs on Mac (Sequoia 15.5)

Maria — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 15:06:36 GMT

Hey there @accomplishedrope,

Thanks for following up! Great to hear that it worked out alright.

We appreciate the extra info on how it was working from your end as well. This could help other users too, should they come across this thread and have similar issues.

Should anything else appear, we're just a post away 💚

Cheers!