topic Re: New Windows menu style can cause severe flicker/flashing in Desktop (Mac)

Add To Playlist Blinking and Can't Select

ralberts — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 13:55:09 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Macbook Pro 2020 Intel

Operating System

iOS 14.3.1

My Issue

The issue is when I click on the three dots of a song and then select "Add To Playlist" it shows two menus blinking back and forth and I can't select the playlist I want to add the song to. I have gif of the issue I will try to embed. I did upload it to giphy as well so you can see the issue:

https://giphy.com/gifs/spotify-issue-d6MTwTHr9lK8hoNwLt

Re: Add To Playlist Blinking and Can't Select

Yordan — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 08:11:14 GMT

Hey @ralberts,

Welcome to the Spotify Community!

Have you tried resizing the app to see if it helps? Something else you can try is collapsing the Now Playing View or Your Library, or disabling Hardware acceleration from the app's settings.

It's also worth resetting your preferences by deleting the prefs file from Spotify's installation folder:

Open Finder on your Mac and click Go > Library (if you don't have hidden folders enabled, press the option key first and it should appear).
Go to Application Support > Spotify.
There you'll find a file called prefs, which holds info about the currently logged in account. Simply delete it.
While in the Spotify folder, you'll also find a Users folder. Open it and delete its contents as well.
Restart the Spotify app.

Note that you'll be logged out and your settings will be reset, so you'll have to adjust them again. If you had music downloaded for offline listening, you'll have to re-download it as well. Your library, however, will not be affected, so no worries there.

If the issue persists, try performing a clean reinstall of the app.

Cheers!

Popover menu jumps from left to right constantly

the_epitome — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 11:30:21 GMT

- Spotify for macOS (Intel) 1.2.31.1205.g4d59ad7c
- Window is stretched enough horizontally, so right hand 'currently playing' panel is max width
- Initial click on the menu button for song is high enough up the screen so the popover drops downwards
- Subsequent hover on playlist menu item forced upwards due to number of playlists being more than 8
- Playlist selection then stuck flickering between left and right

Re: Popover menu jumps from left to right constantly

the_epitome — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 16:07:04 GMT

A bit more investigation.

This depends on the width of the playlist popover nearly matching the width of the 'currently playing' panel. In my case I guess the defining playlist was called "Moving Scenery From A Train Window" which happened to have a long enough title to hit the sweet spot.

Re: Add To Playlist Blinking and Can't Select

alicexzhang — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 16:57:40 GMT

I am not the author, but I am facing the same issue. I have tried clean reinstalling the app, and the blinking persists.

Re: Add To Playlist Blinking and Can't Select

Yordan — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 08:18:12 GMT

Could you also confirm that you've tried the other steps I suggested @alicexzhang? Feel free to also let me know what screen resolution you're currently running and try changing it to see if the issue persists.

Keep me posted!

Re: Add To Playlist Blinking and Can't Select

the_epitome — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 14:03:11 GMT

I can confirm this is a UI bug that is affecting macOS and Windows apps. I have detailed reproduction steps in another ticket here https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Mac/Popover-menu-jumps-from-left-to-right-constantly/td-p/5900490

The critical steps are:

1. When clicking the dots-menu for a song, the popover goes down, nearly touching the bottom of the screen.

2. Hovering over the "Add to playlist" item makes the list appear upwards because the number of playlists is larger than 8.

3. The width of the playlist popover very nearly touches the right edge of the whole window. The conditions can be recreated by altering the width of the "Now Playing" panel.

Re: Add To Playlist Blinking and Can't Select

Yordan — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 07:08:47 GMT

Thanks for the info @the_epitome.

Your feedback on this is greatly appreciated, folks! For the time being, some alternatives you can use are:

right-clicking the song(s) - this opens the same context menu
using the (+) button
dragging & dropping the song(s) to one of your playlists

I also recommend always running the latest version of Spotify so you don't miss out on any updates.

The Community is here if something else comes up.

Take care 🙂

Re: Add To Playlist Blinking and Can't Select

dakjek — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 19:58:17 GMT

I have just into this, too. What I found that works for me is resizing the Dig Deeper window to the right of the playlist. As the sizing changes, at one point the "Add to playlist" popups become stable. Depending on how wide/narrow that width gets, the "Add to playlist" window can become unstable and flicker back and forth as shown in previous posts.

Add to playlist bugging out

Astelle — Sun, 31 Mar 2024 22:11:00 GMT

On Windows spotify (happens on both 10 and 11), sometimes when I try to add a song to a playlist, the list of playlists duplicates to both side of the dropdown menu where Add to playlist is. Problem is, it rapidly goes back and forth between which side it shows, so it's impossible to actually click any playlist. The alternative is I have to like the song first, click that + symbol next to the song and change from like playlist to the playlist I want it in.

Re: Add to playlist bugging out

Ivelina — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 08:19:35 GMT

Hey @Astelle,

Thanks for posting in the Community!

If you haven't already done this and to test if it'll change the app's behavior when you're trying to add songs to playlists, try scaling the app a bit. One way to do this is by holding the Ctrl button on your keyboard and clicking on + and - or using the scroll on your mouse. You can also scale the app via the three dots > View > Zoom In/Out.

However, if this behavior continues, you can give Spotify a clean reinstall as it helps resolve issues with its performance and also gets rid of any corrupted cached files. To do so, you can follow the steps here.

Let us know how it goes 🙂

Playlist selection menu flips sides each frame when adding a song to a playlist (right click song)

ClarkDiggity — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 16:50:14 GMT

When right clicking on a song to add to a playlist, the playlist selection sub-menu flips sides each frame. This happens only when right clicking on the exact center pixel where the sub menu flips from one side to another. I assume in the code there is an edge case where the location value results in a true value when selecting a side (both sides are true). I somehow happen to do this quite frequently on accident, but recreation requires you to purposely select the correct few pixels. If the sub menu pops up to the left, move your cursor left and right click again. Repeat until submenu flips to the right, then move back until it flips to each side every frame.

From my findings, this only really happens when using a smaller window. My exact configuration:

- 1920x1080 monitor in portrait mode

- Spotify desktop app in one half of the screen (bottom or top half)

- Reset zoom, then zoom in once (control +)

- Left menu bar is extended out, but to its smallest size (without going to tiles)

- Windows monitor scale 100%

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Happens on desktop computer and laptop

Operating System

Windows 11

My Question or Issue

See above. In summary: Playlist selection menu (sub menu of "Add to playlist") flips from right to left side each frame after right clicking a song to add to a playlist.

Re: I want to report a problem with the desktop app

feighery — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:58:50 GMT

This depends on what context window is open to the right. Please see attached video of the issue.

Windows 11 Ver 10.0.22631 Build 22631 ,

Spotify for Windows (64) 1.2.43.420.gc7b23f70

The app is open on the left screen of a multiscreen setup so the border to the right is to another monitor.

Re: Playlist selection menu flips sides each frame when adding a song to a playlist (right click son

ClarkDiggity — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 17:46:52 GMT

++When I trigger the bug, it takes up 78% of my CPU on an 11th gen intel core i5-1145G7

New Windows menu style can cause severe flicker/flashing

n0000 — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 14:28:43 GMT

My Question or Issue: New Windows menu style can cause severe flicker/flashing

When opening any submenus of the main right-click menu (with add to playlist, remove, add to queue etc) such as when adding to a playlist, if the user has right clicked in a specific central location, then the sub menu will repeatedly redraw itself, alternating to the right and left of the main right click menu.

I think this is dangerous and is severe enough it could cause an epileptic fit in people who are susceptible.

See video for an example (eplilepsy warning, do not look at the video if you suffer from epilepsy).

To reproduce:

- Do not have spotify full screen, you can easily replicate by docking spotify to just half of your screen

- Go to a playlist

- Right click towards both the right and left of a song row and mouse over add to playlist. Isolate the point along the row where the submenu will instead display on the opposite side

- Right click in the general area of the crossover and hover over any submenu (ie add to playlist again) to see the effect

While the above sounds contrived, it is easy enough to do accidentally that I think this is an issue, especially with how often this action is performed. I believe this will also be the same for any menu with submenus elsewhere in the app however have not tested. This issue could also feasibly be present on other platforms.

Please note that the video doesn't do it justice due to the framerate and the effect is much more severe when you replicate.

Possible fixes:

a. Rate limit the redrawing of this menu

b. Identify what causes the menu to be redrawn (is it sensing overlap with the screen edge?) and enforce that it stays open on the side with more room once opened rather than testing for location again

Plan

Premium

Country

Device

Desktop

Operating System

Windows

Version

1.2.40.599.g606b7f29

Re: New Windows menu style can cause severe flicker/flashing

OscarDC — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 14:28:43 GMT

Hey @n0000,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

We tried to replicate the issue by following the steps you mentioned, but the menu always displays at the right side of the track. So in this case, since this could be related to an outdated version of the app, we'd first recommend performing a clean reinstall by following the steps mentioned in this article to see if it makes any difference.

It would also be great if you could have someone log in with their account on your device - such as a friend or a family member, to see if they can replicate the same behavior. This will help us understand if it could be account-related or not.

Lastly, include in your next response the OS version of your computer to continue investigating this case.

We'll be on the lookout.

Re: New Windows menu style can cause severe flicker/flashing

n0000 — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 14:28:43 GMT

Hi Oscar,

Windows 11 23H2

Updated (latest available) Spotify version: 1.2.40.599.g606b7f29

Screen resolution is 2560x1440 in case that makes a difference.

I've reconfirmed that it's still possible and also reproduced on another system.

I've attached another video of it as well as an example of how to force the menu to open on either side (to force it to open on the left, click towards the right side of the row and to force it to open on the right, click towards the left). The bug will trigger when you find the crossover spot.

It can be quite hard to find the spot on smaller screens, but it is there.

Thanks for looking in to this : )

Re: New Windows menu style can cause severe flicker/flashing

Vasil — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 14:25:25 GMT

Hey @n0000,

Thank you for the clarification and for bringing this to our attention! Accessibility has always been a top priority here at Spotify and we're always looking for ways to improve. That being said, we appreciate you taking the time to reach out and share your thoughts on this with us!

We're here for you if there's anything else in the meantime.

Add to playlist list opening and closing very fast on two places

user-removed — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 08:06:33 GMT

When I try to add a song to a playlist I click on 'Add to playlist' a new list appears with the playlists. But the list opens on one sides, closes and opens on the other side. This happens in rapid succession.

If I scroll up or down 1 click with my mousewheel and try again this doesn't happen. When I go back 1 mousewheel click back is happens again.

If the opening and closing happens long enough it becomes unresponsive. I did get a message that the page was unresponsive and was send back to the home screen

Changing screen size also makes it go unresponsive
Playlist height has to be more than half the Spotify screen height

Re: Add to playlist list opening and closing very fast on two places

DA_Tactix — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 18:27:33 GMT

Yeah I've encountered this issue with multiple of the Sportify popup menus. Basically the popup menus can't decide whether there is more room above or below to display itself and so it flickers back and forth extremely fast alternating between displaying itself above the right-click or button location and below the right-click or button location. I've encountered this specifically on the Windows version of Spotify.