Spotify Community

Peter__ · ‎2013-03-17

I have noticed an increase in posts recently relating to people who wish to deactivate their Facebook accounts, but if they do so they will also loose access to their Spotify account, since it was created using their Facebook details.

There should be an easy way to change your Spotify account, from a Spotify account which is tied to Facebook, to a Spotify (email only) account without the need to go through the quite long process outlined in my tutorial here.

This relates quite closely to being able to change your username idea, but I think this is different issue!

Please please please implement this!

Peter

Stupify · ‎2013-03-17

It's actually not different from the "change your username" idea at all. The reason you can't disconnect an FB-made account from Facebook is because the username is unchangeable - the account's username is a string of numbers. How is a user supposed to remember that?

In my opinion, Spotify really really screwed up with their Facebook registration process. They should have asked users for a username when they first sign up using their Facebook account. Also, they should never have done that absolutely stupid decision to require FB in the first place.

The biggest screwup is in Spotify's database design. Any public display names should never be unchangeable. Someone really screwed up back when Spotify first started.

jdkleckner1989 · ‎2013-03-18

I think this can be streamlined with an actual "unlink" option. This can be done with an option that you would click and it would send an auto-reply to change your password to a spotify account. Then, when the password changes, it would re-compile account information such as name, playlists, and preferences to a spotify only account. The friend activity would evidently dis-assoiciate from the unlinking from the facebook account.

Peter__ · ‎2013-03-18

It's actually not different from the "change your username" idea at all. The reason you can't disconnect an FB-made account from Facebook is because the username is unchangeable - the account's username is a string of numbers. How is a user supposed to remember that?

Glad you posted here, since I don't really understand the Facebook system. So can you clarify, if someone deactivates their Facebook account, can they still log into Spotify using their digit username?

Peter

jdkleckner1989 · ‎2013-03-18

@Peter.

I don't think its possible to use the digits to access because once an account disassociates, the password would disassociate as well. Spotify could create a special permissions that would pull your info from facebook into the database and then allow you to assign your own password. Sites like Pinterest allow dual associations, I don't see why Spotify doesn't do the same

SteveBrammer · ‎2013-03-18

Instead of speculating, why don't you get someone from Spotify to explain how it works?

They must know, otherwise they have serious problems.

Stupify · ‎2013-03-18

So can you clarify, if someone deactivates their Facebook account, can they still log into Spotify using their digit username?

No. A Spotify account can have two methods of logging in: either through Spotify username/Spotify password or Facebook email/Facebook password.

When a user logs in with Facebook for the first time, a new account is created. Its username is a string of random numbers and its Spotify password is blank. There's no Spotify password on a Facebook-made account at all, which makes a Spotify login impossible.

Adding a password is not a problem - in fact, it's already possible through the "device password" website option. Device password = Spotify password. The real problem is with the username. Because it's just a bunch of numbers that is entirely unchangeable, it will be hard for a user to remember this. Also, this bunch of numbers will be what they're known as for other people inside Spotify.

Marco · ‎2013-03-23

Rorey · ‎2013-04-15

Thanks so much to everyone!

At the moment, we're unable to implement the idea suggested above for a few reasons. As a few of you have noticed, our system currently doesn't support the changing of usernames since playlists are tied to usernames. Many folks who created accounts via Facebook before we implemented an email registration option would like the option to "transfer" their account to another.

You can indeed follow the instructions in Peter's aforementioned guide to transfer your account. Moreover, we understand the want for a simpler way to move to an email created an account instead of a Facebook created account. However, we won't implement an option to "transfer" your account at this time.

If you have any questions about how to transfer your account, follow Peter's guide for the quick fix or contact customer support.

SteveBrammer · ‎2013-04-15

A more cynical person than me, might think that the reason Spotify isn't doing anything about this is because it would absolutely ruin the statistics on how many subscribers they have. Forcing all users, who don't want to authenticate using Facebook, to create a new account leaves the old Facebook account dormant in the system, but it will nicely boost the number of subscribers in statistics given out to the press and investors.

atQAG33k · ‎2013-07-06

Here is another workaround.

Spotify creates for you a mobile username and allows you the ability to create a Mobile password from their account page. Once you've created a password you can safely deactivate your Facebook account and log into all of your devices as well as desktop apps with your mobile username and password.

The only con being that you cannot change or select your mobile username. It's normally a bunch of numbers. i.e. 11223345

Hope this helps someone else!

Remove Facebook from a Facebook created Account