topic Re: Can "former followers" of a now private playlist still access it? in Your Library

Can "former followers" of a now private playlist still access it?

delusionallovestein1 — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 14:28:55 GMT

Operating System

(iOS 10 and Windows 10)

My Question or Issue

Hey everyone, I've have recently switched several playlists that used to be public to private. Those playlists had followers but now that they are on private the follower count of the playlist next to the playlist information has disappeared. It reappers when I make the playlist public again.

On many other threads here people said these followers can still access the playlist, even when it is on private. However, I have created another account to check that out, followed the playlists, put them on private again and I couldn't access them from the new account. It says that the playlist is not avaible anymore.

Does that mean that contrary to most sources the other followers cannot access the playlists anymore as well? That would be amazing actually since I do not want them to be able to do that.

Re: Can "former followers" of a now private playlist still access it?

ThisCommunitySucks — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 00:39:00 GMT

Hi @delusionallovestein1,

Thanks for posting in the Spotify Community, and welcome!

The “Make Public/Make Secret” playlist privacy command was renamed “Add to Profile/Remove from Profile” last year; this recent change came with Spotify’s new playlist privacy settings that have already been added for the mobile app.

Previously, a playlist that you set to “Secret” wasn’t completely private; since even though not shown on your Spotify profile, followers of the playlist (or users for whom you shared the link to it) could still access the playlist. This may be why you’ve come across earlier threads on the Community that refer to “private” playlists still being accessible to users who are following them.

In contrast, the new “Make public/Make private” setting that’s available on the mobile app controls whether a playlist can be accessed by Spotify users other than its creator—even if other users had already followed it, or the playlist link had been shared with them. However, note that this setting has not yet been added for the desktop app.

So to answer your question, the current “Make private” option for a playlist will indeed prevent anyone but you from accessing it—even if other users had previously followed the playlist. This option also hides the playlist from search and prevents other users from accessing it via a link that was shared with them.

You can also read about setting playlists to be completely private towards the end of this FAQ article, under “Can I make my personal playlists private?”

Let me know if you have any other questions, and have a good day!

Re: Can "former followers" of a now private playlist still access it?

Jsno — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 13:10:10 GMT

Have you tried deleting the playlist whilst keeping it private to see if it says the same message because when I add music to playlist there are many private playlists with people I made with which I’m not in anymore but there’s still an option to add music too it which won’t actually work but still is listed

If I send the link to a playlist I removed from my profile, is it visible?

YourLocal_Madness09 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 21:18:44 GMT

I removed a playlist from my profile, but can others still see it and listen to it with the link or with previous access through my profile?

Re: If I send the link to a playlist I removed from my profile, is it visible?

MikeL27dmv — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 23:58:17 GMT

yes. Only if you set it to private specifically will they lose access