[Troubleshooting] Linux Spotify

[Dreadlord]

Having trouble with Spotify on your Desktop app? Here’s what to try first.

• Search the Community

Someone might have asked your question on the Community before.
So type your issue into the search box and have a look.

• Basic troubleshooting

Go through these steps one at a time. They can help you solve most issues on your own.

1. Clear Spotify cache
killall spotify
rm -rf $HOME/.cache/spotify/Storage

2 Check this thread for troubleshooting connection issues.

3 Ask a friend or family member to sign into Spotify on your Desktop. See if the issue is persisting on their account too. If yes, the issue is the device and can likely be solved with more troubleshooting.
4. Change settings within the app: Sync quality, Stream Quality, Gapless Playback, Crossfade. See if a different combination of these settings makes a difference.

• Advanced troubleshooting 

1. Is spotify starting normally?

spotify

1. Can you play a sound?

aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

2. Is the system recognizing your sound card?

aplay -l

3. Is Spotify running on prefered sound card? Change between sound cards in gnome/unity control center.

unity-control-center sound
gnome-control-center sound

4. Nothing works so far? Report your issue!

spotify >$HOME/spotify-dump.txt 2>&1

   or

strace spotify > $HOME/spotify-dump 2>&1

• Report your issue

We’ll need as much information as you can provide. So filling in this template is helpful:

=== START OF TEMPLATE ===

1. Your device and operating system:
2. Type of Spotify account you have (Free/ Premium):
3. The app version of Spotify you’re using:
4. Brief description of the issue:
5. Steps to reproduce the issue:

• First I did this
• Then I did that
• I also did this

6. Attach the spotify-dump.txt ( $HOME/spotify-dump.txt ) from Advanced troubleshooting 4.

=== END OF TEMPLATE ===

Known issues : 

Error while loading shared libraries: libgcrypt.so.11 - fix debian / fix ubuntu.

Spotify on Linux doesn't play local mp3 files - fix.

Tips :

Add Spotify's testing repository:

echo deb http://repository.spotify.com testing non-free | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list

Install Spotify 0.9.17

sudo apt-get install spotify-client-0.9.17

Some information and template is taken from here.

Linux is not officialy supported by Spotify.

[Dreadlord · Accepted solution]

Hey @corvusd,

Can you upgrade your client to 1.19 and see if the issue persists?

Link to the package can be found here.

[Dreadlord · Accepted solution]

Hey @corvusd,

This package is part of the testing repository, so some things may still not work and come up with later patches.

Here is how to add the testing repo:

echo deb http://repository.spotify.com testing non-free | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list

[Dreadlord · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone,

Just a quick heads up that you can still install the old version ( 0.9.17 ) of Spotify via the repository if the 1.24 client is not working well for you.

sudo apt-get install spotify-client-0.9.17

Hope this helps!

[osornios · Accepted solution]

@vazerick I'd recommend downgrading to a previous version, until they iron out some stuff in the current version. I'm using 0.9.11.27 and feels much better with Cinnamon.

[ramedeiros · Accepted solution]

Hi, I have installed ubuntu-restricted-extras, ffmpeg, libavcodec, livavutil, libavformat, zenity but doesn't work.

😕

1. Your device and operating system: Intel® Core™ i3 CPU M 330 @ 2.13GHz × 4, 4GB, 64bit, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
   
2. Type of Spotify account you have (Free/ Premium): Free
   
3. The app version of Spotify you’re using: 1.0.28.89.gf959d4ce
   
4. Brief description of the issue: Local files do not play on Ubuntu 16.04
   

Spotify finds the songs, but don't play and close the app. 

=======================================================

Solved after read this post: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Desktop-Linux-Windows-Web/Can-t-play-local-files-with-current-...

So, I decided publish the solution.

1º) Install some packs: ubuntu-restricted-extras, ffmpeg, libavcodec, livavutil, libavformat, zenity.

sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras ffmpeg libavcodec-extra libavcodec-extra57 libavutil55 libavformat57 zenity -y

New version to packs: libavformat57 libavcodec-extra57 libavcodec-extra libavutil55 

2º) Download some archives: (I put all in the github repository)

--> Download the package: https://github.com/ramedeiros/spotify_libraries/archive/master.zip

Or direct from the terminal: 

git clone https://github.com/ramedeiros/spotify_libraries.git

3º) Put all the files in to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ with root privileges.

cd spotify_libraries
sudo cp lib* /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/

4º) Execute: ldconfig

sudo ldconfig

5º) If show any problem with link, make new links.

e.g.: "/sbin/ldconfig.real: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libavutil.so.52 it's not a symbolic link"

So, execute command:

sudo ln -frs /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libavutil.so.52.6.100 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libavutil.so.52
sudo ln -frs /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libavformat.so.54.36.100 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libavformat.so.54
sudo ln -frs /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libavcodec.so.54.71.100 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libavcodec.so.54

And so on...

 Original link: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Desktop-Linux-Windows-Web/Linux-Local-files-do-not-play-on-Ubu...

[jooon · Accepted solution]

---

@eiGhee4j wrote:

I just updated to 1.0.32.94.g8a839395 and scrolling has become extremely sluggish and I also get screen tearing while scrolling. I believe this is related to smooth scrolling which was shipped in chromium recently but which can be disabled there. Can you please provide an option to disable smooth scrolling in Spotify?

---

Very likely related.

Some of the chromium options are available in Spotify as well, but since there is no chrome://flags/ page you have to set it from the command line.

spotify --disable-smooth-scrolling

It is unlikely that this will become a toggle in the settings menu.

[jooon · Accepted solution]

---

@corvusd wrote:

This important linux website is inform that spotify support is end.
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/08/spotify-web-player-desktop-integration-ubuntu

This forum is alive this months back... I can't understand what happens. Is true that situation of the not support? 

---

Spotify has never supported the Linux client, so support for it has not ended, but it has also never started. For a long time, the Linux advice was "Run the Windows client with Wine". A few years ago, the native Linux client was released. It shared a lot of code with the Windows/Mac client. Last year, a new version of the native Linux client was released. It shares almost all code with the Windows/Mac client.

I think that the word support means different things for different people. What I mean with Linux client not supported is:

1. The customer service team at Spotify does not answer Linux desktop related questions. The customer service team is the one building the FAQ at https://support.spotify.com and they are answering questions at https://twitter.com/spotifycares and https://www.facebook.com/SpotifyCares/ and here on the community forum.
2. A new feature that breaks the Linux client, will not hold back Windows/Mac release.
3. There is not a team of developers focusing only on the Linux related features of client.

@we do however have a few dedicated helpers here in the forum, thanks @Dreadlord and all others answering Linux questions! Even asking questions help, because it will usually bring people googling for the same problem here and maybe help them, seeing others with the same problem.

If code changes that affect the Linux specific parts, care is taken, not to break it. However, if the Linux client ends up being very buggy, and can't be released at the same time as the Windows/Mac version, there is usually enough attention inside the company to help bring it back on its feet again.

I have been working very slowly triaging and fixing bugs and implementing new linux specific features on my hackdays. A hackday is basically one day every other week when you can dig in and work on other things you normally don't work with, to learn new things, help others, and in my case, make that tiny change you always wanted, that never get prioritized enough. I find it quite fun.

Spotiweb looks cool! Nice integration with the web player.

[dowcet · Accepted solution]

The value is set for 2 actually... Apparently that means "always active".

I installed SpotiWeb, which worked fine right away, and now the Web Player is working in Firefox again as well. Mysterious, but problem solved I guess.

[ndrededu · Accepted solution]

Yoh have last version.

See here for updates.
http://repository.spotify.com/pool/non-free/s/spotify-client/

[gvl · Accepted solution]

I'm powering off my Lubuntu machine with a physical power button (shutdown -P) and Spotify doesn't save the last volume level setting. iirc the shutdown sequence sends a signal (SIGTERM ?) to all running processes telling them to die and it seems that Spotify doesn't save the volume when it exits afer catching that signal. Anyone knows if there is a signal I can send during shutdown to make Spotify save the volume level before it exits? This machine doesn't have a monitor attached to it, so can't close the app interactively. Perhaps I can add a shutdown hook to close it via the windowing system basically simulating a mouse click. Any other ideas?

[jooon · Accepted solution]

---

@mfonville wrote:

The latest version of spotify for Debian/Ubuntu is missing its dependency on libatomic1. If that dependency is not installed, starting Spotify will fail with:

spotify: error while loading shared libraries: libatomic.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Please fix by adding the dependency to the package

---

Thanks for the report. I quickly tried to push through a new build. It should be fixed in 1.0.64.407.