topic Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible in Desktop (Windows)

High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

Intelli32 — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 10:08:18 GMT

I have noticed high CPU usage when the "Now playing view" sidebar is visible, even when no music is actively playing. It is 100% reproducible. Closing the "Now playing view" makes CPU usage go down to 0% while idle.

It uses 10% of my CPU (Intel i7-9850H). This is my client version info:

Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.32.997.g4c6498b6

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

olimex338 — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 08:51:45 GMT

This happens to me too

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

Joan — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:09:34 GMT

Hi there @Intelli32, @olimex338,

Thanks for reaching out. Could you please provide us the following:

Is this on all devices or only on specific one(s)?
When did this start happening?
If you haven't tried already, perform a full clean reinstall. It's possible some sort of corrupted data is causing this and such a reinstall can remedy that.

Let us know how it goes.

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

Intelli32 — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 08:12:01 GMT

Hi,

I reinstalled Spotify and I am now on this version:
Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.34.783.g923721d9

CPU usage is lower now but still at 5% while idle (no music playing). What I notice is that I get high CPU usage if there is a scrolling animation of the song title/ album name. If I play a song with a shorter title the CPU usage drops and is close to 0% while idle.

Might be worth looking into the animation of the text.

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

Ivelina — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:45:36 GMT

Thanks for the update @Intelli32!

What you can also try is to uninstall the app version you're currently using and download the one either from our website or from the Microsoft Store (whichever version you weren't using so far). As they can have different behavior, you can give it a test.

In addition to that, check if you've got Local Files enabled in Settings and if it's so, try with disabling them to see if it'll make any difference.

If anything else comes up in the meantime, we're here.

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

DO_jws — Fri, 31 May 2024 06:17:05 GMT

I thought I'd comment to say:

- same problem, same solution (turn off "now playing", or choose a shorter song, or make the window big enough)

- totally repeatable with the issue apparently only being the scrolling text on the song name

Surface Pro 7 i5, all up to date. Spotify app from website...

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

Susan_GP — Fri, 31 May 2024 19:03:13 GMT

Hi there @DO_jws,

Thanks for your reply in this thread and for the provided info.

Could you check if enabling/disabling hardware acceleration from the Spotify app's settings makes a difference?

On another note, a previous user performed a clean reinstall of the Spotify app and the usage decreased. We'd recommend giving it a try.

Lastly, send over the OS on your device and the exact Spotify version you have installed.

We'll be here!

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

DO_jws — Fri, 31 May 2024 21:40:25 GMT

Did a clean reinstall (from MS Store) - same issue: Spotify for Windows (64 bit) - 1.2.38.720.ga4a70a0e

Hardware acceleration makes limited, if any, difference (maybe slightly better with off). It only happens when the text scrolls. I can't be certain, but I think there is a CPU hit for each bit of scrolling txt (so worst case is a super long song name, in a long playlist name with the "Now playing" window open), and this includes the song name to the left of the controls (bottom left). If I get three bits of text scrolling I can push over 25% CPU utilisation.

It also drops CPU usage if you minimise the window (or maximise / choose songs and playlist that don't scroll).

Also tried installing from website (same version). Same issue.

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

DO_jws — Fri, 31 May 2024 21:51:35 GMT

Out of curiosity I checked - same behaviour on my gaming PC, but smaller % CPU utilisation as its a Ryzen 5600.

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

Maria — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 14:44:44 GMT

Hey @DO_jws,

Thanks for all additional info and for reporting this behavior!

While we can't give you a specific time-frame for when this will be looked into, we're always working on optimizing the app and to improve the user experience. In the meantime, we recommend keeping both the app and the device(s) OS up-to-date.

If anything else appears, we're just a post away. Cheers!

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

jaweinre — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 16:47:25 GMT

Well this is an unexpected find.

Same ridiculous behaviour on my windows 10 laptop.

CPU while app is focused, the now playing thingie is closed:

CPU while app is focused, the now playing thingie is open:

Wow.

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

Yonatan69 — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 19:35:48 GMT

EDIT : The clicking sound is not related with the problem, it was a headphones problems.

Hi Maria,

I confirm the follwing : Spotify GUI uses a lot of ressources when it's maximised on my Windows 10 laptop.

The audio started to "click" with the latest updates of Spotify.

I confirm that I'm using Spotify version

Spotify pour Windows (64 bits)
1.2.42.290.g242057a2

With some system info

Processeur Intel(R) Core(TM)**bleep** 2.21 GHz
Mémoire vive installée 32,0 Go (31,6 Go utilisable)
Type du système Système d’exploitation 64 bits, processeur x64
Dedicated Geforce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q mobile

This behaviour is very annoying!

I also confirm the following :

- when the song name is long and "playing now" make the song name to slide from left to right, it does take A LOT of CPU for a simple animation like that. (8-10%)

- when the song name is shorter, it take less CPU, still high from my standards! (5-6%)

- when Spotify is minimised, Spotify very few CPU (0-1%)

Nonetheless, sound "clicks" are heards in whatever situation described over.

I also confirm the following :
- If i use Chrome Browser to listen the music from open.spotify.com, the roughly same CPU usages apply.

- 6-11 % when maximised

- 0-1% when minimised

- Still hearing some clicking sounds!

Hopefully that get fixed!

Best regards,

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

fowled — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 12:28:36 GMT

I have the exact same problem. Scrolling through a playlist causes extreme amount of lag and high CPU usage.
Disabling hardware acceleration doesn't do anything.
Windows 11 Pro 23H2

See here: i.imgur.com/kom2WY2.gif

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

robiiiin1999 — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 09:46:06 GMT

I have exactly the same problem!

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

BladeDash — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 16:46:11 GMT

This is horrible, I'm using the latest version downloaded from their own website, spotify consumes up to 25% of CPU just by scrolling on the main page or watching the playlists, has a fatal performance even activating the hardware acceleration, I can move games in ultra at 144fps but Spotify looks less than 30, it has been like this for a while and it seems that with each update is worse.

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

sezr12 — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 13:15:35 GMT

ok so i found something weird when i dont put a song on repeat or one repeat the cpu usage goes normal

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

grrrrrrrr0 — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 03:34:40 GMT

Re: High CPU usage on Desktop Windows client when "Now playing view" is visible

grrrrrrrr0 — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 03:37:28 GMT

I have found a decent fix for Windows users using the app, if you open the Spotify process tree in Task Manager then set the one using high CPU to efficiency mode along with disabling Hardware acceleration in spotify settings, the CPU usage will be fixed.

Spotify uses way too much disk.

retake — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 10:30:11 GMT

I usually have spotify open while I play games on my computer. And sometimes my game starts lagging a ton. I check the task manager and I see that spotify is using over 90% disk. Why is this and is there a way to fix it?

High CPU Temp

Autrii — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 00:48:04 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device : PC

Operating System

Windows 11 Pro

My Question or Issue

So as of today my temps will get high (75c) when a song with a scrolling name plays. Any idea why?