Media Keys Don't Work

[12173268984]

Plan

Free

Country

 USA

Device

(Desktop PC)

Operating System

Debian with Unstable Updates

My Question or Issue

 The Media Keys Play/Pause/Next/Previous on the keyboard don't work with the Spotify Application.

The Media Keys work with other applications in Linux such as Clementine and also work with the Spotify Application in Windows just fine. I would think it should be easy to make the media keys work just like they do in Clementine and other media applications in Linux.

[ArtGravity]

I just noticed this today. This is very odd, because the media keys had been working fine for me in both the Debian packaged version, and the snap version, which I have been using essentially since its release. (I removed the Debian version almost immediatley after switching to the the snap version as it was clearly ready for daily use.)

[gumbeto]

Same here, with version "1.0.92.390.g2ce5ec7d-18". I reverted to "1.0.89.313.g34a58dea-5" and the media keys work again, so this looks like a regression on spotify's part.

If you installed spotify with snap, you can rollback to the previous version with "snap revert spotify".

[ArtGravity]

Confirming that "snap revert spotify" restored media key functionality and rolled between the version numbers mentioned below.

---

 wrote:

Same here, with version "1.0.92.390.g2ce5ec7d-18". I reverted to "1.0.89.313.g34a58dea-5" and the media keys work again, so this looks like a regression on spotify's part.

If you installed spotify with snap, you can rollback to the previous version with "snap revert spotify".

---

[12173268984]

I've tried the snaps for Spotify in the past and they would not run on Debian, but the .deb would.

There is one alternative I found which is to use Deezer and instal the Deezer MediaKeys Reloaded extension for Chromium.

[ArtGravity]

That's news to me, since I've been running Spotify as a snap on 64 bit Debian Stretch without issue since the snap version debuted.

---

@12173268984 wrote:

I've tried the snaps for Spotify in the past and they would not run on Debian, but the .deb would.

[Tangram]

Same here with 1.0.92.390.g2ce5ec7d on Ubuntu.

[gumbeto]

Snap updated spotify to 1.0.93.242.gc2341a27-15 here and the problem persists in that version.

[ArtGravity]

---

@gumbeto wrote:

Snap updated spotify to 1.0.93.242.gc2341a27-15 here and the problem persists in that version.

---

Confirmed as I had used 'snap revert' to get my media keys working again, and they were broken today. I had to run 'snap revert' to restore functionality.

Spotify, please get the devs to fix this regression before rolling out another snap and breaking the media keys again.

[pachulo]

I'm also experiencing this problem with the snap in Ubuntu 16.04, but not with Ubuntu 18.04...

[mexicano]

I have this problem too, in snap version on Ubuntu 18.04, used to works before

if it matters I'm using premium and version 1.0.93.242.gc2341a27.

[RadthorDax]

I no longer seem to have the old snap revision on my machine, and spotify wont let us outright specify a revision to install. Is there anything I can do to get hold of a working version?

[ArtGravity]

The problem persists in snap 1.0.93.244.g1e3a05e7-18.

Reverting to snap 1.0.89.313.g34a58dea-5 restores functionality.

*Please* fix this regression so it stops breaking the media keys.

[gumbeto]

Confirm.

I pay for spotify, surely others with the same problem do to, so could we please get a response from someone at Spotify?

[navnav]

I also had the same problem with a recent update, but I've just managed to fix it!

If you remove spotify via snap: 'snap remove spotify', and then install via apt-get (instructions here: https://www.spotify.com/uk/download/linux/) that fixes the media keys issue.

The version that was installed via apt-get, for me, was version 1.0.80.480.g51b03ac3.

With this solution, you won't enjoy the benefits of snap updating your software automatically, but TBH, I prefer it that way.

[ArtGravity]

---

@navnav wrote:

If you remove spotify via snap: 'snap remove spotify', and then install via apt-get (instructions here: https://www.spotify.com/uk/download/linux/) that fixes the media keys issue.

That workaround installs an even older version of the application than the most recent one where the media keys still work (1.0.89.313.g34a58dea-5). Unfortunately it doesn't actually solve the problem of the media keys being broken in recent versions of the software.

Hopefully this issue exists in the dev team bug tracking system and is getting the attention it needs.

[ArtGravity]

The snap updated to 1.0.94.262.g3d5c231c-9 and the media keys *still* don't work!

[gumbeto]

Unfortunately it looks like these forums are just a way to keep us talking to ourselves and pretend that's support

[geca]

Just updated ubuntu 16.04 today and media keys stopped working... Been searching around for more than an hour until I found the thread. The installed version is 1.0.94.262.g3d5c231c-9

Could not find the previous .deb version, anyone knows where to find it? It's really bad not being able to use the media keys!

[valentin_neacsu]

I was able to download a copy of spotify-client_1.0.89.313.g34a58dea-5_amd64.deb (the last unaffected version) from one of the 2 below mirrors:

• http://linuxliteca.3load.com/pool/main/s/spotify-client/
• http://apt.pop-os.org/proprietary/pool/cosmic/main/binary-amd64/s/spotify-client/