[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.

[11158120486]

Linux mint - no taskbar, no window options, cannot close, minimize, maximize. 

[mornaruser]

Implement minimize or close on system tray in Linux, why not implemented this?

[edaubert]

Hi,

I have two linux laptop. One is my media center and the other is the one I used around the house. In addition I have an android phone. Both have a spotify app installed.

If I start playing on one laptop, I see it on the android phone but I don't see it on the other laptop.

Then if I start playing on the second laptop, the two of us are playing differents songs. In addition the android phone lost the first laptop and see the second one.

Finally if I stop playing on the second laptop, after some times, the android phone sees the first one which has disappeared previously.

Same happens when I use the web API to get the list of players. I also test it using the web player and the same happens

The two laptops have differents IPs. There is no firewall running inside the network and they are on the same network.

Both laptops have the same version of the spotify app (the last stable one :1.0.72.117.g6bd7cc73 ) and the issue was already there with the previous one.

Any idea ?

[normyp]

1. Your device and operating system: Dell Inspiron 7559 - OS: Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS
   
2. Type of Spotify account you have (Free/ Premium): Premium
   
3. The app version of Spotify you’re using: 1.0.72.117.g6bd7cc73-35
   
4. Brief description of the issue: Spotify doesn't launhc.
   
5. Steps to reproduce the issue:Run command 'spotify' in terminal.Produces this message:Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "overlay-scrollbar"
   Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "gail"
   Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "atk-bridge"
   
   (spotify:3396): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0

I have tried installing a package called libgcrypt11 but that had no effect. Thanks!

[normyp]

Ok, it launched now. I haven't changed a thing.

[fyrkrans]

Filtering a playlist doesn't work for me.  Does it work for you folks?

edit: What about the compose key?  Does it work for you folks?

[frankx20]

1. Your device and operating system: Ubuntu 18.04 - Gnome 3.28.1
   
2. Type of Spotify account you have (Free/ Premium): Free
   
3. The app version of Spotify you’re using: Snap latest version
   
4. Brief description of the issue: Spotify broke when I upgraded to the 396.24.02 Nvidia driver.
   
5. Steps to reproduce the issue: Install Nvidia 396.24.02 from the graphics-drivers ppa.

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

    sudo apt update

    sudo apt install nvidia-driver-396

 https://pastebin.com/t34FscC4

[sleeksorrow]

confirmed here. Spotify window opens, but never fills with content, just hangs.

#  echo $XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP
KDE

# cat /etc/lsb-release |grep DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

# snap list spotify  
Name     Version                 Rev  Tracking  Developer  Notes
spotify  1.0.80.474.gef6b503e-7  16   stable    spotify    -

# glxinfo |grep "OpenGL core profile version string"
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 396.24.02

#  nvidia-smi -L
GPU 0: Quadro K620 (UUID: GPU-37f1ca95-4b19-bd4a-3bae-ffc85d9001b8)

EDIT: Workaround is to start without GPU Acceleration:

# snap run spotify --disable-gpu

[user-removed]

I'm on a Samsung Chromebook plus, which now has support for android apps. Is there any way I can get the spotify desktop version on it? It has an ARM processor.

[Lorenzo_NGG]

---

@fyrkrans wrote:

Filtering a playlist doesn't work for me.  Does it work for you folks?

edit: What about the compose key?  Does it work for you folks?

---

No, filtering is not possible. This issue is related to the fact that mouse selection is badly broken (try for istance to click on Settings in drop-down menu under your account...). This is the most relevant bug imho.

[fyrkrans]

It seems to be badly broken, yes.  (It works for me, if I click like a zillion times on the search bar and type on the keyboard at the same time.)

[sleeksorrow]

---

@fyrkrans wrote:

It seems to be badly broken, yes.  (It works for me, if I click like a zillion times on the search bar and type on the keyboard at the same time.)

---

I'm using the Snap version on Ubuntu 18.04 and don't have these issues anymore, tho I had them in the past. But back then the workaround with clicking on "settings" was easy. Open the drop down menu by clicking on it, and then use arrow keys and enter to select what you need.