Spotify GUI freezes in Ubuntu 19.10

[Giannii]

Plan

Free

Operating System

Ubuntu 19.10 on Laptop and double display with HDMI cable

My Question or Issue

Hi,

I'm using Spotify on Ubuntu 19.10 and since I installed the software (some days ago) I noticed an annoying bug: the window of the program is freezed and so non-interactable, but music goes on and even keyboard insturctions (play/pause, go on, go back) works normally. I said that the window seems to be freezed because even automatic reshaping  does not work)

It happens very frequently and the only solution that I found is to close and reopen spotify (the close button 'X' works).

[impugnatis]

I'm a ZorinOS user, and I'm having the same issue. The interface gets partially blank, I can not click on anything, but the music still plays. 

[ilparra]

I've found a workaround that works for me in Manjaro about 80% of the time, while it is a bit sinful for any Linux user:
If the screen hasn't turned white and unresponsive yet and is still just frozen, you should be able to do some basic stuff like pressing play or pause as long as you don't resize or minimize the window. To unfreeze the window, click on the advertise, that will open a tab in your browser and will refresh the Spotify client.

This makes me think the problem is triggered by an error on the advertising system. I guess a console log should be inspected to check that.

[ndm13]

Another user posted that they could unfreeze the UI by dragging the song title in the now playing. This works for me at about the same frequency (~80%).

I have Spotify Premium, so I can't confirm that it's ad related, but I think interacting with certain UI elements unfreezes it for some reason. Might work with other parts of the UI, maybe playlists or friends list? I'll have to experiment next time.

[marecki123]

spotify premium here, same problem. Dragging the title from "Now Playing"
section works, but it's just terrible UX for a "premium" poroduct

[___so]

I have this problem too, UI freezes but the client is still responsive to clicks and music keeps playing. Reinstalled and tried snap instead but the problem persists. The trick of dragging the song name works for me to unfreeze, thanks for the tip!

[Iwalk500miles]

I had the same issues on kubuntu 20.04. No matter what I tried with the snap build (e. g. disabling opengl) etc., I could not get it to work.

In the end, I removed the snap build and installed spotify from the repository http://repository.spotify.com/pool/non-free/s/spotify-client/spotify-client_1.1.26.501.gbe11e53b-15_....

Now the issue has disappeared. I suppose the snap ships libraries that don't work well together with the current graphic stack.  

[impugnatis]

Thanks! I have done the same as you, removing the snap and installing the deb from that link, and it worked just fine!

[braindropz]

I noticed that too, about the dragging drop trick... if you click anywhere inside the spotify window and move the mouse (like drag-drop) - even when the screen blanks - it just back to normal. Thats very weird, but its a reasonable workaround meanwhile..

[pesce36]

Same here in  Ubuntu 20.04 as soon as it's running in the background it crashes.

[aardvarko]

Same here on Ubuntu 18.04.

[gobannond]

I'm having the same issue using Debian 10 with KDE. 

The desktop app freezes after a little time normally listening to anything, for sure isn't a RAM issue because I have 12gb of free ram. 

Using the latest stable version from snap: 1.1.26.501.gbe11e53b-15.

And seriously Spotify? Zero replies from developers or community managers? 

[cHDMmFRE]

From their website: https://www.spotify.com/de/download/linux/

Spotify for Linux is a labor of love from our engineers that wanted to listen to Spotify on their Linux development machines. They work on it in their spare time and it is currently not a platform that we actively support.

The number of linux users can't justify a real support. 

I suggest installing it without snap and see if it helps.

[gorzas]

Another user with the same problem in Ubuntu 20.04 😞 and I use it like a lot, but I want to use it while I'm working. Do we have any chance to have an answer soon?

[11122980968]

As always. Linux user we're on our own.
Let's gather information.
It might be due to desktop environment.
My information:
System:
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal
Desktop environment:
Gnome 3.36.2

[hmollercl]

This "Drag" workaround works for me and I have premium service, so no add should be present. However I still can't found what makes this happen. At this point this workaraound of "dragging" in any window place during freeze appears to be the best solution since .deb is behind snap, 1.1.10. vs 1.1.26.

[flameyy]

Running Linux Mint 19 here and Spotify is insanely slow. GUI takes a while to update or freezes for a bit. Song switching seems to take ages to update in the now playing bar. I turned off the desktop notifications and reinstalled to the latest version 😛

[whuijten]

Same story here on Kubuntu 18.04

GUI becomes unresponsive after a few minutes of playing.

However music continues playing and key controls keep working.

Spotify build is 1.1.26.501.gbe11e53b

[Iwalk500miles]

As said, the issue should disappear using the .deb, not the snap package. Not that this is a great solution, but it's better than nothing. It did so for me on kubuntu 20.04, while other system that extract the binary off the .deb (but are not debian) work fine too.

Unquestionably, spotify could be a little bit more helpful in this matter, given most of their infrastructure runs linux most certainly. Assigning one guy, at least from time totime, to make sure the Linux app, snap package or not, is not completely broken would be the least they could do.

[ilparra]

The problem is not all of use ubuntu or debian 😞 The last time I tried the one in the AUR, it gave me its own set of problems. I guess I'll try to build it when I can.

[cHDMmFRE]

With what money? I mean the number of linux users just don't justify that. Not to mention, the number of rude comments in this forum from linux users. I now understand why people don't make linux version of their games/softwares.

I'm afraid soon or later, they will get tired of this and just shut down the whole linux version of spotify.