topic Preview doesn´t play audio in Desktop (Windows)

Preview doesn´t play audio

Faith_Of_Sin — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 15:01:14 GMT

Device

PC - Desktop App

Operating System

Windows 10 Pro

My Question or Issue

Since a while when I click on the preview button in playlists there is no audio being played any more. The window opens and the little sound symbol is going off on the upper right, but the playbar in the middle doesn´t fill at all as well. If I play a song it works completely fine, it is only the preview function. It also works in browser, but not in the app.
I already checked all the settings in spotify (like for example hardware accelleration, norm. audio, etc.) as well as all my windows settings. I didn´t change anything, it just doesn´t work any more suddenly.
I even tried downloading different versions of the desktop app, from 2.5x up to the newest one 2.81, but everywhere it´s the same

Re: Preview doesn´t play audio

Eni — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 08:20:18 GMT

Hey there @Faith_Of_Sin,

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

Kudos for the troubleshooting steps you've tried! As a next step, we suggest that you perform a clean reinstall of the app by following these specific steps to get rid of any cached files that might be causing trouble.

If the issue persists, we suggest that you disable any antivirus or ad-blocking software that might be active on your PC, and turn off any VPNs if in use.

Additionally, make sure to remove the host files by following the steps here.

Lastly, it's also worth checking if the drivers are up to date.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

Re: Preview doesn´t play audio

Faith_Of_Sin — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 06:58:16 GMT

Sadly I already did a clean reinstall several times - every time I installed another version. Removed all the files after the deinstallation in appdata, restarted my pc, and so on.
The link for deleting the host files you sent doesn´t work. "Access denied. You do not have sufficient privileges for this resource or its parent to perform this action."

Re: Preview doesn´t play audio

Faith_Of_Sin — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 08:18:49 GMT

edit: if you mean entries in the host file in system32/etc, there is nothing with spotify in it

Re: Preview doesn´t play audio

Yordan — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 09:34:05 GMT

Hey, @Faith_Of_Sin,

Yeah, exactly. Thanks for checking and for the heads up. I've updated the link just in case so it should work now.

Anyway, you mentioned using another version, but have you tried installing Spotify from another source? For example, if you downloaded the app directly from our website, try installing it from the Microsoft Store instead and vice versa.

Something else that comes to mind is flushing the DNS cache for your PC to see if that helps:

In Windows’ search bar, type “Command Prompt” and run it as an administrator.
Enter the following command: ipconfig /flushdns.
Restart the Spotify app.

Let us know how it goes 👍