Full screen under Ubuntu 18.04

[djaeris]

Plan

Premium

Country

 Slovakia

Device

ASUS F556U

Operating System

Ubuntu 18.04

My Question or Issue

 If I click the full-screen icon in the bottom-right corner, I do get only a "full-window" mode (I.e. the album artwork is in the middle of the app window, etc., but everything else stays as before - the app is still contained in a window, the desktop is visible...). I'm pretty sure, that in the past the app was able to switch to full-screen mode (the window content occupying the entire screen). What can be done about that? BTW: I'm using the snap store version (1.0.80.474.gef6b503e-7)

[SergioDavid]

Hey @djaeris, welcome to the Community!

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with this. We'll definitely be able to help out though.

Keep in mind that Spotify isn't officially supported on Linux, but does reinstalling the app make a difference?

Let us know how it goes.

[djaeris]

No, reinstalling does nothing to change it.

[RodrigoGarcês]

Try delete spotify window configuration file
Usually delete this file fix interface issues

File is located under (user home)/.config/spotify/prefs

If don't fix yout problem, delete the folder itseft

[djaeris]

Well I'm using the snap version (not the apt version from the spotify repo, or otherwise), so the configuration files are under the ~/snap/spotify directory, but even deleting the whole directory doesn't help with this.

[RodrigoGarcês]

But do you have a configuration file(prefs) in this folder?

(If you delete the configuration folder, spotify will create a new one when you open)
My configuration file is like this
Minux mint 18.3 (cinnamon)(Ubuntu 16.04 based)

(I changed my personal information to asterisks )

[prefs file begin]

autologin.canonical_username="****"
autologin.blob="*****"
autologin.username="*****"
autologin.saved_credentials="{*****}"
core.clock_delta=0
storage.last-location="/home/rodrigo/.cache/spotify/Storage"
app.window.position.height=800
app.autostart-configured=true
app.window.position.saved=true
app.window.position.y=50
app.last-launched-version="1.0.80.480.g51b03ac3"
app.autostart-mode=""
app.window.position.x=60
app.window.position.width=1320
language="pt-BR"

[prefs file end]

In my case (and on ubuntu itsef), to correct full screen issue, only nedd to chance values from app.window.position {.x; .y;  .width} to something "safe" or simply delete this file 

[djaeris]

Yes, I do have a "prefs" configuration file. The entire path is ~/snap/spotify/current/.config/spotify/prefs

And no, deleting the file (or the entire spotify directory, or even a complete reinstall) did not help.

And again: I'm using the snappy version, not a version from any (Ubuntu included) apt repositories.

[RodrigoGarcês]

Sorry for the delay

My home pc have only 4gigs and i are unable to test a vm to reproduce your issue

Well...

I run a vm with ubuntu 18.04 and install spotify via snap, as you described, in order to reproduce your issue. And works flawless.

So i read with MUCH attention your original question and perceive a detail. You say that try to maximize (with window decoration) pressing full screen button on right bottom. So... this seems funny, but this buttom really serves to expand album informations and artwork to complete screen (I think this function is made to use spotify in kiosk mode, like on a store or something like this.)

Spotify linux really don't have a function to maximize screen without border decoration, but mac have (because mac interface does this by default), and windows have a custom window decoration.

I want they implement this function on linux to.

🙂

For now, the only way to really maximize spotify is to edit prefs file and set height to your monitor height. But spotify will bypass taskbar and whatever and will don't have a way to minimize on interface, but you can minimize if you have a shortcut to minimize or use alt+tab.

This only is interesting if you use a separated workspace for spotify.

Modify this line on prefs file 
app.window.position.height=[number] -> set to yout monitor height.

[autusgo]

I had the same issue with the snap version, I just deleted the app.window.position.saved=true line from~/snap/spotify/current/.config/spotify/prefs, saved, restarted the program and it behaves like a normal window now.

[djaeris]

Not a solution. You can't change this behaviour by changing the preferences.

[hperezf]

Can you run this command and show us the output?

for i in $(find / -wholename "*spotify/prefs" 2> /dev/null) ; do echo $i ; cat $i | grep -v autologin ; done

Can you uninstall the packages and run the command again? Is still showing the same?

[djaeris]

First output:

/home/djaeris/snap/spotify/21/.config/spotify/prefs
app.window.position.x=143
app.autostart-mode=""
app.autostart-configured=true
app.last-launched-version="1.0.89.313.g34a58dea"
app.window.position.y=89
app.window.position.saved=true
storage.last-location="/home/djaeris/snap/spotify/common/.cache/spotify/Storage"
core.clock_delta=-1
/home/djaeris/snap/spotify/19/.config/spotify/prefs
app.window.position.x=157
app.autostart-mode=""
app.autostart-configured=true
app.last-launched-version="1.0.88.353.g15c26ea1"
app.window.position.y=96
app.window.position.saved=true
storage.last-location="/home/djaeris/snap/spotify/common/.cache/spotify/Storage"
core.clock_delta=0
/home/djaeris/snap/spotify/16/.config/spotify/prefs
core.clock_delta=0
storage.last-location="/home/djaeris/snap/spotify/common/.cache/spotify/Storage"
app.autostart-configured=true
app.window.position.saved=true
app.window.position.y=111
app.last-launched-version="1.0.80.474.gef6b503e"
app.autostart-mode=""
app.window.position.x=210

sudo snap remove spotify
spotify removed

Second output: (none)

sudo snap install spotify
spotify 1.0.89.313.g34a58dea-5 from Spotify✓ installed

Third output: (none)

Spotify launched

Fourth output:
/home/djaeris/snap/spotify/21/.config/spotify/prefs
app.window.position.x=160
app.autostart-mode=""
app.autostart-configured=true
app.last-launched-version="1.0.89.313.g34a58dea"
app.window.position.y=90
app.window.position.saved=true
storage.last-location="/home/djaeris/snap/spotify/common/.cache/spotify/Storage"
core.clock_delta=0

BTW: Reinstallation doesn't have any effect - full screen mode still doesn't work as expected (and can't: this is not a configuration issue),

[hperezf]

It's seems to be a windows manager issue then.

What desktop env are you using?

Did you have the same packages version when it was working?

[djaeris]

I'm using Gnome (my OS is in the first post). I don't remember that full-screen would work at any time in the past. (BTW it works happily with other apps, GTK, Qt, or otherwise - if it's implemented correctly that is.)