Unfriended Facebook friends still showing up

[megaDee]

I recently unfriended some people on Facebook but I still see what they are listening to on Spotify. Is this a bug?

[user-removed]

It surely sounds like a serious security concern.

[czarina1987]

I'm having the same issue.

[Peter__]

Hey!

Welcome to the community 🙂

There is the possibility of a delay between you removing people on Facebook and Spotify synchronising with your friends list. It might update if you want to try logging out and back in again on Spotify 😉

Peter

[Sam · Accepted solution]

Czarina1987 - Hammeh could be right here, have you tried logging out and in?

If not, it may be a cache issue. To get rid of these 'ex-friends', a simple reinstall should work wonders. Just follow the instructions here.

[SteveBrammer]

<rant>

Why doesn't anybody at Spotify support ever know how things are supposed to work? It drives me crazy when you play a guessing game as to why something is not working the way that you expect it to. Someone at Spotify must know how Facebook integration is supposed to work, and that person should be able to tell you exactly what happens in Spotify when you unfriend someone in Facebook. And if it really does required a re-install to fixed this then I think my head is going to explode!!! 😉

</rant>

[Peter__]

If a reinstall is required then I too agree that is madness! 

But new friends get added to my lists without the need for a reinstall, therefore it would make sense if they can also be removed without one!

Peter

[Sam]

Steve - Can we try and keep things on-topic, please. We're only trying to help.

[SteveBrammer]

Sam,

Sorry, and I know you're only trying to help, but I don't think it really does help to just guess at the answer to something or to simply to suggest a re-install every time that you have no better answer. For me it just tarnishes all the other good work that you do and makes Spotify's support look amateurish.

[Sam]

I appreciate a clean reinstall looks basic, Steve. However, to get rid of the relevant cache in the Spotify client and refresh the feed, they're the easiest and clearest set of instructions to follow.

[Peter__]

---

@Sam wrote:
I appreciate a clean reinstall looks basic, Steve. However, to get rid of the relevant cache in the Spotify client and refresh the feed, they're the easiest and clearest set of instructions to follow.

---

And its pretty quick! I can do a clean reinstall in just a few minutes! 🙂

Peter

[SteveBrammer]

Sorry to drone on and on, but there is a serious issue here that is not being addressed and will still not be addressed even if a re-install means that the original poster stops receiving Facebook updates about what the people he has unfriended are playing. The issue that you are not addressing is why is he receiving these updates? It's hard to understand how it's a cache issue since he clearly states he is receiving updates for these people after they have been unfriended in Facebook. And the original poster is right in worrying about the security implications of this.

[Sam]

Steve, please stay on topic. I'm simply trying to help the issue at hand. If you're not willing to try and help, your posts will be removed.

[Rocio]

Hello there,

We are now aware of this and will get back here as soon as we have more information about it.

We are working on it, many thanks for being patience.

🙂 

[Rorey · Accepted solution]

I think we need to "pump the breaks" for a second so we can address to what is outlined by the original three posters in this thread. 

@megaDee @gattler @czarina1987 Would you mind if I ask if you're seeing what someone is listening to "on Spotify" on Facebook itself or in the Spotify application? The difference will drastically affect where the actual issue lies, if there is one.

Second, if you're seeing these updates in the Spotify application, I'd like to know if anyone who is experiencing this can confirm they're still seeing it after they've tried these steps:

1. Logout of Spotify
2. Reinstall the Spotify application
3. Login to Spotify
4. Removing the friends in question from the People page
5. Re-add the friends to the people list, if you wish
6. Logout and login, again

Here's the part for folks interested in a more technical answer. 

To clarify, we know the Facebook friends list will be retrieved from Facebook. However, making calls to Facebook to refresh the list can be slow so we cache the people list until a new list is needed. Many things will be cached not only in the client but also in backend systems. We may be seeing this problem, but of course, we're not sure since we don't have some key information yet. 

Another possibility is that you are receiving these updates because you have added the user to your favorite user list, or subscribed to one of their playlists. You can check if the person is still shown in your list of friends in the 'people' page in the Spotify client. If they are, try right clicking them and choosing 'remove this person'. Also check if you are subscribing to their playlists or if they appear in the 'favorites' list, above the feed of what your friends are listening to.

As far as I know, we're not aware of any "serious" problems with the Facebook friends list. Of course, we would love to be able to use words like "definitely", "always," and "for certain" when helping out but the possibility of bugs and corner cases will almost always exist.

Thanks for the help everyone!