topic App on Mac will not play music in Desktop (Mac)

App on Mac will not play music

vilde22 — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:01:22 GMT

Plan Premium

Country Norway

Device (Macbook Pro nov 2024)

Operating System (sequoia 15.7.2)

App on Mac will not play music. Have tried removing and downloading the app again but still same issue. Works on web browser, iPhone and another Mac. The playbar will not move and no music is playing, but you can skip to the next song. But playbar is still not moving.

Have had similar issue on my previous Mac, but then the playbar was moving. Don't remember what I did to fix the problem back then.

Re: App on Mac will not play music

Joan — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 10:21:59 GMT

Hi there @vilde22,

Thanks for reaching out. We'll be glad to help you get the MacOS app back in working order once again.

You mentioned the different previous issue about the playback bar progressing without music playing and that definitely sounds like the topic of this thread. Feel free to check that out for some pointers that might help here. Be advised that we're also aware of another issue on Mac, where the app doesn't start at all. Check this thread and if you encounter such behaviour, provide us any relevant info there.

In general, we recommend trying the following if you haven't already:

If you've only tried the regular reinstall, try the clean reinstall instead. That's what managed to fix the previous issue.
Try turning off Hardware Acceleration.
Check your Firewall settings and ensure Spotify is allowed through

Let us know how it goes.

Re: App on Mac will not play music

azyan — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 22:09:28 GMT

I am running into this exact same issue on my device. Only started this morning.

Plan Premium

Country United States

Device (Macbook Pro Nov 2024)

Operating System (sequoia 15.6)

I had similar issues with another app (Logi Options+) and the app developers had to push a hot-fix. Apparently, it was a certificate issue for them. Not sure if something similar is happening here

Re: App on Mac will not play music

Joan — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 07:42:48 GMT

Hi @azyan,

Thanks for letting us know.

I noticed that both you and the OP are on the previous MacOS version, so if possible, could you try updating to version 26 and see if the issue persists?

Let us know how it goes.

Re: App on Mac will not play music

azyan — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 08:39:28 GMT

Hi Joan, I appreciate the suggestion. Unfortunately, I am not comfortable upgrading a major OS version in an attempt to resolve this Spotify issue. As Sequoia will still be supported for quite some time, I think users can expect a major application like Spotify to provide versions that support this widely used OS.

Re: App on Mac will not play music

MihailY — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 11:18:49 GMT

Hey @azyan,

Fully understand your point, thanks for the reply.

As a next step, can you check your hosts file for any Spotify entries using this guide?

Let us know how it goes.

Re: App on Mac will not play music

azyan — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:47:21 GMT

Thanks! Yes, I saw this guide and checked it early on. Spotify was not on my hosts file. I don't see widespread reporting of this issue, but I haven't changed anything about my device either, so it is a bit confusing (unless there was an automatic update).

Re: App on Mac will not play music

AlejaR — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 23:50:40 GMT

Hey there @azyan ,

Thanks for your reply and for the info shared.

Would you mind letting us know exactly what troubleshooting steps you've tried so far? If you haven’t yet, we’d suggest you perform a clean reinstall of the app. By doing that, the app can be up-to-date and you can make sure the cache is not leading to this behavior.

On another note, it's worth flushing your DNS cache to see if that helps:

Open Terminal.app.
Enter the following command: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
Restart Spotify.

If issues persist afterwards, we’d like to gather some additional info. Please send us:

The exact Spotify version you’re running.
Does this happen on the web player?
Did you notice if this started to happen after a specific event such as an app update?

Keep us in the loop!

Re: App on Mac will not play music

azyan — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 18:52:45 GMT

Hi, a clean install seemed to do the trick. Thank you all for your help!

Re: App on Mac will not play music

AlejaR — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 19:07:00 GMT

Hey @azyan,

Thanks for the reply.

We really appreciate you keeping us in the loop. We’re happy to know you could sort this out, don't hesitate to reach out if you need us again.

If anything else comes up, the Community will always be here for you.