topic Re: Cannot open desktop player in Desktop (Mac)

Cannot open desktop player

enabowyer — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 17:26:46 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Device

Macbook Air 13"

Operating System

macOS 15.4.1

My Question or Issue

My Spotify player always opens at login, never had any issues and now I cannot get it to open. Every time I click on the icon, it just tries to open and then closes straight away. I tried restarting my computer and reinstalling the app and this hasn't changed anything. I still cannot open it.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

Eni — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 20:33:18 GMT

Hey there @enabowyer,

Thanks for getting in touch about this and welcome to the Community!

You mentioned that you've already reinstalled the app, but would you mind going through the steps of a clean reinstall, as it's more thorough than a normal one?

If the issue persists, we suggest that you check the firewall and make sure Spotify is set as an exception. Also, disable any antivirus or ad-blocking software, and turn off any VPNs if in use.

Lastly, could you check if the web player is working as expected?

We'll be waiting for your reply.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

enabowyer — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 10:40:48 GMT

Hi Eni,

I followed the steps of the clean reinstall and it is now up and running again!

Thank you very much 🙂

Re: Cannot open desktop player

puffinnegan — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 20:09:59 GMT

I am now having this issue too and have for the past few days out of nowhere. It was working fine every day prior the issue arose.

I have deleted every trace of spotify off my device, restarted my device, and re-installed with the same result of it instantly closing the moment I try opening it. There were no Spotify files in my cache to delete, nor anything in my library. Only the web player works.

I'm not sure what else to try

My mac is on version 12.6 Monterey

Re: Cannot open desktop player

Ivelina — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 15:14:55 GMT

Hey @puffinnegan,

Thanks for posting in the thread!

To get a better understanding of the situation, did you notice when this behavior occurred for the first time and if it was after something specific (an update for example)? Are you seeing any error messages?

You mentioned reinstalling the app, but just to be on the safe side, make sure you've followed the steps for a clean reinstall as mentioned by @Eni in this post. Additionally as suggested, check if Spotify is set as an exception in your firewall as it can be blocking the app. Also, disable any antivirus or ad-blocking software, and turn off any VPNs if in use.

Lastly, remove any third party apps you've allowed to access Spotify from the Account Page and if you could think of any other apps/softwares that you've recently installed on your Mac which may be interfering with Spotify, disable/uninstall them and let us know how the app behaves.

Appreciate the cooperation and we'll be on the lookout.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

Sweetsinger — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:44:17 GMT

This would work great--IF I choose to disable my antivirus software. Which I WON'T.

Who makes an app that requires you to expose your data to the Internet?

Re: Cannot open desktop player

FiraHunter — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 09:08:12 GMT

I am having the same issue. I tried to do a clean reinstall but there was nothing on my laptop to even delete besides the app itself.

I am on a 2022 Apple M2 MacBook Air (Tahoe 26.1, fully updated).

I've already tried restarting my laptop, and deleting and reinstalling Spotify. I looked up solutions to this and tried going to Library > Application Support to delete the Spotify folder to do a clean reinstall, but there literally IS no Spotify folder in App Support. And no, I'm not just blind. I've looked like six times.

I've tried using the Finder to search for anything on my laptop that even has the word "spotify" in it and deleted all of it. Reinstalling it, it immediately crashes the second it opens, just like it was doing before I reinstalled it.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

Ivelina — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 14:18:29 GMT

Thanks for posting in the thread @FiraHunter and for the cooperation.

Kudos for already going for a reinstall, but to be on the safe side, it's important to clean all leftover files when performing a clean reinstall of Spotify to ensure there isn't something corrupted that's causing this issue.

As on MacBooks it's possible to have hidden folders, I recommend making sure that Spotify's related folders aren't accidentally hidden on your device. If you need more info on how to show hidden folders, you can have a look at Apple's support page and for example at this thread. After that I recommend checking the steps for a clean reinstall once again if the files you were previously unable to find now show up.

Additionally, I think it could be helpful to have a look at this article from Apple's website on how to delete or uninstall apps on Mac.

Hope this helps and keep us posted.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

FiraHunter — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:49 GMT

I did all of this and there were no hidden files anywhere on my Mac. I did, in fact, completely uninstall Spotify and it did not work. The reinstalled app still immediately crashed.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

Ivelina — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 08:30:27 GMT

Thanks for the response @FiraHunter.

Then it's also worth making sure to disable any VPNs, disable any ad-blocking software you may have on your Mac and setting Spotify as an exception in the antivirus system as suggested in this post.

It would also be helpful if you could share as many details as possible as requested in the post. This way, we'll understand what other steps you've gone over and avoid suggesting the same ones.

We're here if anything else comes up in the meantime.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

FiraHunter — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 09:03:37 GMT

Plan: Basic/Not Premium

Country: USA

Device: Macbook M2 Air 2022

Operating System: Tahoe 26.1

I do not have a VPN on this device or WiFi. I do not have adblock enabled. Spotify is already set as an exception in my antivirus, since there's no option in the Privacy Setting that says "Do you want to open Spotify even though it's not trusted?"

Now when I just redownloaded it again (from here, which is where I've always downloaded it from: https://www.spotify.com/de-en/download/mac/) it pops up for 0.2 seconds with a message that says that the last time I opened Spotify, it was forced to close while re-opening or something, but the message goes away so quickly that I can barely read it. It, once again, crashes the second that I open it no matter how many times I click on it. I've also tried opening it by right clicking and clicking Open there instead of left-clicking it to Open. Neither way works. It crashes immediately.

So, this would be the third or fourth time I've attempted to clean uninstall (yes, I clean uninstall every time) and reinstall the app, and restarting also doesn't work.

Edit: here are screenshots proving that there are no Spotify anything left on my computer.

Edit 2: I have just looked to see if anything shows up in App Support or Caches when the app is installed and there is nothing in either of those Library areas... Very odd. I don't know what to do about that.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

Ivelina — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 15:43:43 GMT

We really appreciate all of your cooperation and provided info @FiraHunter.

The tech teams are actually investigating this behavior at the moment and we've forwarded the details from the thread. As soon as we've got any updates on the matter, we'll let you know in the thread.

In the meantime, we're here if anything else comes up.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

ericatucker2 — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 17:44:59 GMT

Hi there, I am having the exact same issue. Randomly yesterday my Spotify on my macbook air just stopped opening. The icon bounces but then does not open. I have done a clean reinstall multiple times, I upgraded my IOS, now operating at 26.1 and it still won't open. My web player and spotify on my phone are completely fine. I have been back and forth with someone on spotify chatting and it has been very unhelpful. Any other suggestions? I do not have any anti-virus programs downloaded on my mac.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

sassy031 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 03:31:14 GMT

Are there any updates to this issue? My playlist will not refresh, I cannot access my profile page either. Certain pages won't load.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

wngyee — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 14:42:49 GMT

Same issue persists for me as well. I've uninstalled and reinstalled, restarted my Macbook and everything else works fine. I can play via the Google Home and my iPhone app, so it's just the iOS App that's not working and not due to connectivity errors.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

OscarDC — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:31:20 GMT

Hey folks,

Thank you for your patience.

Taking into account that some updates have been rolled out lately for the app, could any of you try this again and confirm if the issue persists?

We'll be waiting for your responses.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

wngyee — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 15:21:54 GMT

It’s still not working for me

Re: Cannot open desktop player

Ivelina — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 10:57:20 GMT

Hey @wngyee,

Thanks for letting us know.

There is something else that could be tested. If you're comfortable with the Terminal app on your MacBook, try with opening it and typing: /Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/MacOS/Spotify --mu=test

Keep us posted if the app opens for you after this command.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

wngyee — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:48:41 GMT

It’s not that the app doesn’t open. It opens but just doesn’t load. And then it just has the “Something went wrong” message.

Re: Cannot open desktop player

Vasil — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:19:35 GMT

Hey again @wngyee,

Thanks for letting us know!
What I'd suggest here is trying the steps from the threads here and here.
If nothing helps, let us know which steps you've gone over and we'll gladly take a further look into this for you 🙂

Keep us posted on how things go 🙌🏼