Black screen on macOS Monterrey Spotify app

[daniel-jack]

My Question or Issue

Hello,

for months already, I cannot use properly the Spotify app on my Mac. The workaround is to delete the profile file before launching Spotify app. 

Can anyone work on this issue please? music quality is really bad on the web player so I would like to have access again to my macOS app.

Plan

Premium

Country

Czech Republic

Device

Macbook Pro late 2016

Operating System

Monterrey 12.5

[Dian · Accepted solution]

Hey @daniel-jack,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

Could you try performing a clean reinstall of the app and let us know how that went for you? Here is how to do one. 

Do you encounter this issue if you're using a different account on the Mac?

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[peodepitte]

Similar problem but on M1 Max,

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Mac/Macbook-M1-Max-Black-Screen-Unable-to-quit-Something-We...

Did reinstall fix the problem? It does for me but only temporarily for a week, then back to the same behavior.

[daniel-jack]

Hello, I found the solution given by Dian worked for me. I did try reinstall it but not a clean reinstall as explained in the link Dian provided. My problem was not as bad as yours, peodepitte. Let's see if this solution works longer than 1 week. In any case, the app is fast and it does not crash when I close it. I am sure you tried the clean reinstall right?

[daniel-jack]

Thanks Dian for the reply, it worked out perfectly!

[peodepitte]

No, a clean install does not fix the problem. Only a deep clean install in safe mode did but the problem re-appears after about a week's usage. 

It has been like this since the introduction of the Apple Macbook Pro M1 Max, unfortunately.

So we are coming up to almost a year with no working Spotify version for Monterey and M1 Max.

[William241]

Check Internet Connection. The most common Spotify black screen issue is the internet connection. ...
Run App as Administrator. 
Delete Duplicate App Processes. 
Allow App to Communicate through Firewall.
Allow App to Access Controlled Folders.
Perform a Clean Reinstall of App.

Regards,

Will

[peodepitte]

Hi Will,

The web player and iPhone app work straight away connected to the same network so it is not the internet connection.

My Intel Mac does not have the black screen connected to the same network, which seems to M1 related

No firewall on

Access to all folders

Tried to run the app in safe mode (same problem)

Reinstall fixes the problem for a day or two then it creeps back

Nothing in my host files that is blocking Spotify.

I have flushed the DNS through the terminal.

Delete duplicate app processes, what is that could you elaborate on that, I can try it?

[MatteoMadrid72]

I am experiencing the same issie on iMac 2020. I solve it for a few days by cleaning and then…back to the same black screen. Really frustrating. 

[peodepitte]

Still have the same problem here continuously, I just did a deep clean reinstall. The problem gets fixed for a day, then back to being unable to quit Spotify if not force quit. Again black screen on starting Spotify for about 20 seconds. The black screen will stay longer per every day of usage after a reinstall. Up to almost a minute.

[rennatyellek]

This has been an issue for way too long, and now seems unfixable. I used to go into the prefs folder and delete the code, but the folder seems to be completely gone since updating my mac. Has anyone else found another solution?? 

[appmusicmckamo]

I have the same problem.  Black screen, but I can use the menu buttons (however, can't select any songs).  At first, I would restart my computer and it would solve the problem, but now, nothing is working.  On a Mac mini M1.

[Bluevurt]

Same problem here.... I sometimes find wiggling the mouse up and down works! But not always... and that's hardly a good solution... On an iMac with Monterey 12.6.3

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

Thanks for your replies.

We'd like to forward the issue to the relevant team here at Spotify and for this we ask you for the following info (if you haven't shared it already):

• Your MacOS version.
• Your Spotify version.
• The troubleshooting steps you've tried so far.

We look forward to hearing from you.

[lavfrekvent]

I think they should roll back to an earlier version so we can use the app again. We cn not keep paying for months when it doesn´t work.

[Veloscente]

I am on Mac OS 10.15.7 (newest OS my Mac Mini Late 2012 will run) using Spotify for macOS (Intel)
1.2.5.1006.g22820f93.

Like other posters here, I have tried: turning off hardware acceleration, turning off crossfading, deleting all downloaded files, deleting cached files via Spotify settings. Deleting both the local-files.bnk file under ...Library/Application Support/Spotify..., and the ...Library/Application Support/Spotify... folder in its entirety.  Every one of these steps was followed by rebooting my system and restarting the Spotify app.

I then deleted the entire Spotify app and reinstalled it, which did no more than deleting the cache by any of the methods described above.

Not one of these measures has allowed me to restart the Spotify app more than two times before the Black Screen error reappears, lasting at least 30 seconds each time I restart the app.

The black screen issue is relatively new for my machine: I was not experiencing any notable startup delays until about a month ago.  I have zero delay issues with my iOS app on my iPhone 11 pro operating on the same wifi network, both my wife on her iMac 27 and my daughter with her MacBook Air are able to run their Spotify for Mac apps with zero black screen issues. 

Spotify has changed something in the way the app loads that clearly is not just at odds with Apple's new M1 architecture.  I have run previous versions of this app on this same machine for years with zero issues.

[peodepitte]

Hi MihailY

This post explains the problem further and steps taken to try and fix it which does not work

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Mac/Macbook-M1-Max-Black-Screen-Unable-to-quit-Something-We...

The problem has been occurring since November 2021 and Spotify support has said that there will be a M1-Fix for it since.

Best

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

Apologies for the lack of responses on our side.

@Veloscente, thanks for sending over this info!

@lavfrekvent and @peodepitte, can you please share the details we've requested so we can forward them for further investigation?

Cheers,

[peodepitte]

Hi @MihailY

Here is the problem and the troubleshooting I have done together with Spotify support

Every time I start Spotify I am greeted with a black screen that takes somewhere from 30 seconds to a minute to disappear.

Every time I quit Spotify it takes about 3 minutes before Spotify quits. Shutting down my computer with Spotify running can not complete either as Spotify is non-responsive and has to be force quit by the system after 2-3 minutes.
  
I spoke to Spotify support before about this and after trying a lot it was suggested to do a deep uninstall, removing all Spotify files from the computer (dig out everything in the Library folder). That worked for a day or two, then the behavior is back again. I have done 8 deep complete uninstalls now and the problem still persists.
 
My other older Mac Laptop (Intel) 2013 Spotify Desktop Version works flawlessly but not on the MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) M1 Max
 
Updating Mac OS X Monterey does not help either, the problem started at 12.0 and I have updated each version up to 12.6.3 with the same Spotify problems.
 
Nothing in my host files that is blocking Spotify.
 
I have flushed the DNS through the terminal.

I have cleared the cache within the program.
 
All other programs and system work flawlessly on the M1 Max MacBook Pro. Only Spotify has this behavior. Spotify works on my iOS device with no problems.
 
After 3 hours of discussing with support, reinstalling Spotify in Safe Mode fixed the problem... temporarily

After a couple of days the problem comes back again. I did several full reinstalls in safe mode and the problem is just coming back.

Spotify support says they are working on a fix for this, their temporary solution is to do a complete reinstall once a week in safe mode.. It has now been a year.

Spotify for macOS (Apple Silicon)
1.2.7.1277.g2b3ce637