topic Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4 in Desktop (Windows)

Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

Johny_W — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 12:17:14 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Operating System

Windows 10, Windows 11

My Question or Issue

It worked for a long time that setting "Close button should minimize" worked for Alt-F4 keyboard shortcut as well. With some recent update, this shortcut closes the app. For the Spotify has an explicit Exit command with Ctrl-Shift-Q shortcut, I suggest the general Windows close window shortcut should behave the same as clicking the close button.

Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

Joan — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 08:06:50 GMT

Hi @Johny_W,

Thanks for reaching out. We'll be glad to clear up the functionality for you. When the "Close button should minimize option" is turned on, the close button will close the Spotify window, but the app will remain open in the system tray, meaning you can still reopen it quickly. To keep the window itself open, you should use the minimize button.

Hope this clears things up.

Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

Johny_W — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 08:23:38 GMT

Hi @Joan,

definitely, the option's name is misleading (I would say it was named properly in the past, but I'm not sure). Apart that, my concern is precisely "hiding the app to system tray" for I don't want the window to be present in the Alt-Tab list.

So back to the issue report: the app accepted Alt-F4 as the 'close button click' in the past, but that has unfortunately ceased to work recently (currently it terminates the app). I would be glad if this feature were back.

Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

Susan_GP — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 21:29:46 GMT

Hi there @Johny_W,

Thanks for your reply and the info.

We understand you'd like the combination Alt + F4 to work as the Close button should minimize the Spotify window option. However, right now pressing that shortcut will completely close Spotify. Nevertheless, thank you for the feedback and for letting us know. We always aim to improve, so we’ll get this passed on to the right team.

If you have any questions or need anything else, the Community is here for you.

Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

sonnyb — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 13:27:29 GMT

I guess it's debatable but Alt-F4 should behave like the top-right X close button, so it'd be nice if Alt-F4 also followed the "Close button should minimize the Spotify window" setting.

For example, Slack and Skype minimize to tray on Alt-F4... though there are counter-examples too like Discord...

Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

facvndo — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 12:58:58 GMT

+1, please fix this. We all understand what Spotify aims to do, we just think it's the wrong approach.

Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

vuthanhdatt — Fri, 03 May 2024 02:36:30 GMT

+1 pls fix this

Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

Regnareb — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 12:24:09 GMT

8 month later this bug is still present.

Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

RSAsterix — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:05:31 GMT

For all intents and purposes, on Windows, Alt+F4 should be absolutely synonymous with clicking the window close button (top right cross).

That means the current behaviour is a bug.

Saying "yes Alt+F4 has different behaviour to clicking close" is acknowledging a bug.

Fix the bug.

Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

Yarix — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 17:06:56 GMT

2025, They haven't fixed it. I prefer use only keyboard and this bug drives me mad 😄

Re: Close button should minimize and Alt-F4

Johny_W — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 14:51:57 GMT

After a time, I've come across this issue for I've already forgotten I had reported it because of a workaround using AutoHotkey. For those interested, following ahk script works fine for me:

#IfWinActive ahk_exe Spotify.exe

!F4::

; WM_CLOSE acts as close button click

SendMessage, 0x0010, 0, 0, , A

Return

#IfWinActive