topic Remove Now-Playing view in Desktop (Windows)

How to turn off playing now view permanently?

WarQueenLola9 — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 13:36:23 GMT

I hate that the playing now view pops up every time I switch playlists. It gets in the way. If I wanna see what's next I'll look at the queue or manually turn it on. The automatic pop-up is soooo irritating!

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

Yordan — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 06:10:44 GMT

Hi @WarQueenLola9!

You can toggle off this feature in the Settings menu under Display:

Cheers!

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

WarQueenLola9 — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 13:16:26 GMT

AHHH!!! yes!! Thank you! This helps my ADHD brain immensely.

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

tomsabin — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 10:42:38 GMT

Thank you, I hate this feature so much.

Stop making the "Now playing view" panel pop up on default when I hit play (desktop app)

thoughtbrain — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 09:38:57 GMT

There have been many changes with the app, which I know apps evolve. I'm okay with change, but some of the changes just seem unnecessary. Maybe it's for metrics, maybe it's to let me know that this exists. But some of these changes are just like, why? Why are you making this more frustrating to use? Maybe you should do more user testing. I'm sorry for ranting but I just want to play a song and that panel always pops up. Today it really got to me. I close it always, it's just an annoying extra step I have to take now when playing a song. /rant Enjoy your day.

Ok i just discovered there's a setting to turn this off, so maybe in the messaging let me know I can turn this off.

Re: Stop making the "Now playing view" panel pop up on default when I hit play (desktop app) - Status changed to: New Suggestion

Luan — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 09:38:57 GMT

Updated on 2023-10-12

Thank you for sharing your feedback with the Spotify Ideas Exchange.

Your suggestion has been marked as a New Suggestion and will be reviewed by the Spotify staff once it receives enough votes. We appreciate your contribution and look forward to your continued support of this idea!

For more details about how the Ideas Exchange works, please refer to here.

Re: Stop making the "Now playing view" panel pop up on default when I hit play (desktop ap

Karhuvaari — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 09:38:57 GMT

Hi Spotify,

That setting won't work and I dont like to see now-play panel - please fix it instatly as some of us hate that feature. Thanks.

Regards

Vaari

Re: Stop making the "Now playing view" panel pop up on default when I hit play (desktop app) - Status changed to: Unspecified

wingee — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 10:39:27 GMT

Please Give Us The Ability to DISABLE The Now Playing Side Window

tunedIN — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 22:40:19 GMT

Dear Spotify. I appreciate that you have created the "Now Playing Side Window". However, I do not enjoy having it forced upon me each time I change from one playlist to another, between Windows, or when the song playing changes. As a playlist curator, I appreciate that I can use multiple screens with multiple windows which is a function that no other streaming service can do. However, with no On/Off selection, this function is a major distraction that slows my workflow, as I sort through various New Music playlists, including my Release Radar. Please give users the ability to use this function when WE want to. Please DO NOT FORCE it on us.

Thank you.

Re: Please Give Us The Ability to DISABLE The Now Playing Side Window

tunedIN — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:42:45 GMT

I appreciate you showing me which button to turn off. I couldn't find it on the web player or the mobile app. However here is a screenshot of my Settings in the Web app. As you can see the 'Show the now-playing panel on click of play' is off. However the 'now playing panel' is not going away. I can't work as a playlist curator with this happening. I restarted my computer and have the latest version of the web app.

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

tunedIN — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:46:52 GMT

For me, this problem has not gone away. My issue is not closed

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

tunedIN — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:49:38 GMT

You can see I have the switch off but the now playing windows are open. If I play a different song the windows will switch to that song.

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

Elena — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 08:02:41 GMT

Hey @tunedIN,

Thanks for reaching out!

From your screenshots I can see that you're using both the desktop app and the Web Player. The "Show the now-playing panel on click of play" option is turned off for the desktop app, but it looks like it isn't in the Web Player. Can you turn it off from the settings there as well? That way, the Now Playing view won't reopen unless manually opened.

If you want to open/close it, you can also click on the Now playing view icon:

Let us know how it goes.

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

tunedIN — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 19:45:13 GMT

Thank you, Elena. I am eternally grateful. This issue has now been fixed by turning off in the app and web player, ❤️

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

Ivelina — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 08:36:07 GMT

Thanks for letting us know @tunedIN 🙂

The Community's always here if you need help with anything else.

Have a good one!

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

catchs0meZZZs — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 20:20:26 GMT

Edit: I think I posted this in the wrong place lol

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

benpaulk — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 17:22:10 GMT

I still have this issue. Primarily, when I switch from my phone (iPhone13pro) to my Macbook Air. Most of the time when I switch between the two, the Now Playing view comes back up on my Mac. It’s very frustrating.

This might impact it: I listen to a lot of podcasts. Those seem to activate the NowPlaying view most often.

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

nebulae-music — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 20:11:58 GMT

This setting does not persist in MacOS when you reboot. The Now Playing and video snippets turn back on and do not remain off. I super hate that panel, as it is distracting and totally useless.

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

goldian — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 20:39:28 GMT

Same thing here, turning off the setting does not persistate after rebooting the app. M1 MacBook Pro from 2020, mcOS Sonoma. PLEASE do something, this useless panel is driving me crazy.

Re: How to turn off playing now view permanently?

deshittification — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 17:08:19 GMT

it would be amazing if these product owners would just stop enshittifying every product instead of putting in some busted ass annoying feature and degrading the quality of the app for months or years until a small handful of users finally find the toggle to roll it back to when the app was designed around its core purpose.

like if you have to put the toggle in the settings... maybe you should take that as a cue that its not that great of a "feature"