topic Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out. in Desktop (Windows)

[Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

AranFielder — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 18:10:36 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

United Kingdom

Device

HP Envy x360

Operating System

Windows 11

App version: 1.1.94.870.gf994cb0b

My Question or Issue

Play button is greyed out. Still allows me to play some playlist and podcasts (streamed and definitely not downloaded) but no rhyme nor reason as to which and why. Very occasionally I can listen to something else if I hit download first, then play, then stop the download. This doesn't always work.

Things I have tried:

Completely clean uninstall and reinstall.
Running as administrator.
Updating Windows.
Logging out and in again.
Rebooting computer.
Checking Hardware Acceleration is enable in app settings.
Restarting Router.
Different Internet Connection.

Not really sure what else I can do. My account still works fine on my phone, on my XBox, on my Amazon Echo. Just the Desktop app that seems to be having issues.

Any advice appreciated.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

AlejaR — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 19:26:16 GMT

Hey @AranFielder,

Thanks for posting in the Community and welcome 🙂

Kudos for the troubleshooting you've already tried! At the moment, it's possible to download the app from both the Microsoft Store and our Web page here. So in this case, if you install the desktop app from the web page, try to uninstall that version and try installing the one from the Microsoft one or vice versa.

On another note, you might need to check for any local settings on your device that could be blocking the app. In case there's an antivirus software or such that could be restricting access to the app, try whitelisting Spotify.

Lastly, just to confirm, is this happening only in the desktop app or does it happen in the web player as well? It'd be awesome if you could check.

Keep us in the loop!

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

AranFielder — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 14:09:52 GMT

Apologies for the delay, as I missed the notification for this post in my inbox!

I have uninstalled and reinstalled both through the Spotify website, and through the Microsoft store. Same issue.

This affects absolutely nothing else on my computer, however I have excluded Spotify from the all firewall and antivirus softwares - Issue remains.

This issue does not affect the web player, only the desktop app.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

OscarDC — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 14:26:28 GMT

Hey @AranFielder,

Thank you for keeping in contact and for the info shared.

To continue investigating your case, since Windows 11 is the recently released version of the OS, it's possible that the app is not fully optimized. To make sure this is not affecting the behavior of the app and if possible, could you check on a different PC (It could be a friend's or family member's PC) running Windows 10 to check if it makes any difference?

Also, include in your next response a screenshot where we can see the button grayed out, along with the Spotify version you're running after the last update.

We'll be on the lookout.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

AranFielder — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 15:31:52 GMT

I don't have access to a PC running Windows 10. And this problem has only arisen more recently, not alongside the install of Windows 11.

Have attached a screenshot of most recent version used, and a small video of the problem in action.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

OscarDC — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 19:31:31 GMT

Hey @AranFielder,

Thank you for keeping in contact.

We appreciate the information you've sent and the video showing the issue. We want to let you know that we've already passed this information on to the right folks and they're currently working to solve this as soon as possible. We don't have a specific time for this to be resolved, but we hope it will be as soon as possible.

We'd also recommend having your Spotify app updated, so you don't miss any improvements coming your way.

If anything else comes up, don't hesitate to ask.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

k8962c — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 10:34:12 GMT

I have the same issue sporadically.

I'm running windows 10, and a forced Spotify update has broken it all.

Was working perfectly well before, then immediately after the spotify update; playlists fail to download to local, non-downloaded content is greyed out and can't play, sometimes nothing works at all. (As if I've got no internet, except internet is working fine.)

If you're going to force updates on everyone, hopefully you're making some people beta test them for you first?

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

Alex — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 12:25:09 GMT

Hey there @k8962c,

Thanks for the post.

Can you let us know the current version of your Spotify app?

Cheers.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

Poroyalty — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 08:52:45 GMT

I have had a similar problem both with my phone and my desktop. Button gets greyed out and I can't play any playlists that I have not created myself or albums. Tried rebooting the program, clean reinstall, all that. I may have found the most stupid way to fix it, or at the very least it's something that works for me and is something you could try. Add whatever playlist you are attempting to listen to your library. That's it. You can remove it afterwards. Maybe it will help you too.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

AranFielder — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 14:38:47 GMT

The issue has cleared for me since the last update, thankfully.

Yes, this is how I was working around it, but this isn't a solution. This is
just making the best of something that is broken. In the short term it's
fine, but for something I'm paying for, I would not have put up with it for
much longer.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

Poroyalty — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 15:03:47 GMT

Oh, absolutely agree. It's a workaround and nothing more for a problem that
shouldn't happen but does. When this happens to me it would force me to
listen only playlists I had made, sometimes for the rest of the day. I had
not seen anyone mention the trick about adding the list to your library
when googling for help so I decided to mention it in order to at the very
least have the workaround out there.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

Southpaw90 — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 09:10:26 GMT

I am having the exact same issue as described above. Running the most recent version of Spotify.

Is there any way to download and run an older version, and to prevent it updating?

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

dannybodros — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 18:55:40 GMT

I have the exact same issue. What's the point of having Spotify if I can't listen to any of the songs? I'm contemplating cancelling my premium and using Amazon Music instead.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

ebrian — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 16:41:05 GMT

I'm encountering this same issue with the browser version of Spotify.

Spotify has got to be one of the most un-intuitive and bug laden programs I've had to deal with. It seems that every time I try to do something with Spotify I have to research a problem/functionality issue or perform some corny a$$ workaround to get things to work.

Seriously, Spotify is a multi-billion dollar company and as long as the app has been around, users shouldn't have to contend with these lingering issues in 2023!!!!

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

kefabean101 — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 13:23:41 GMT

I just had this issue....super frustrating. Similarly restarting/reinstalling the desktop app failed to resolve the issue. What fixed it for me was initiating playback on another (IOS) device logged on to my account then switching the playback back to the desktop machine. Play button was no longer greyed out after this.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

DeannaM2 — Mon, 06 May 2024 15:22:02 GMT

I see this error as well, no explanation after trying all the steps that others tried.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

shepSixty6 — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 11:17:29 GMT

This worked for me.
Open the Spotify app on your mobile device.

At the bottom left select device, in your list of devices, select your windows computer. This should start playback on your PC/laptop which enables the play/next/prev buttons.

Re: [Desktop] Music won't play, button greyed out.

nicholasdgoodman — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 14:07:39 GMT

Thanks!

Had to read this entire thread of worthless advice before finding the actual fix to the problem! Wild that not a single mod or Spotify rep had any idea what to do. Played a song from my phone to a speaker in my own house, and suddenly the desktop app was grayed out. Only way to fix was to do as suggested: go back to my mobile phone and say "play on my computer", and now my full controls have been regained.