Announcements
The Spotify Stars Program: Celebrating Values Week!

Help Wizard

Step 1

NEXT STEP

[Desktop] Spotify doesn't play anything

Solved!

[Desktop] Spotify doesn't play anything

Plan: Premium Family

Country: UK

 

Device: Macbook Pro 2018

Operating System: MacOs Catalina 10.15.7

 

My Question or Issue

Nothing on my spotify plays. No playlists, no songs. Nothing reacts or clicks. The play area at the bottom doesn't have any minutes for the track displayed, instead it displays NaN:NaN on both sides of the track (presumably where it should show the song length).

The Spotify App on my iPhone SE works perfectly fine. No problems. I've tried full/clean uninstall and reinstalls using various appcleaner software to make sure I'm removing everything, but still nothing works.

Has something been limited on my account for some reason? I don't know what else to try doing.

Many thanks

Reply

Accepted Solutions
Marked as solution

Hey @twigdip,

 

Thanks for getting back to us and for the screenshots.

 

We recommend that you check your hosts file for Spotify entries and remove any you find. Here's how:

  1. Open Finder and, in Finder’s menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder. In the box, type the following location: /private/etc/hosts and press return.
  2. A new Finder window will open and your Mac’s hosts file will be selected. Click and drag it out of the Finder window and drop it on your desktop. 
  3. To open it, simply double-click and it will display the file’s contents in TextEdit .
  4. Check for any entries with Spotify in the address.
  5. If you do find any lines with Spotify, please remove them
  6. Save your changes and restart Spotify.

If that doesn't do the trick - could you ask a friend or family member to log in to their Spotify account on your Mac and see if the same error appears. Also - are you able to use our web player on that device without issues? 

 

Let us know how you get on. We'd love to investigate this further. 

Mihail Moderator
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate an answer, maybe give it a Like.
Are you new to the Community? Take a moment to introduce yourself!

View solution in original post

10 Replies

I just encountered this same issue after upgrading Spotify desktop on MacOS, googled "nan:nan", and found this post. At that point, the app version was  1.1.54.592.gc0b20638. Whilst looking in Spotify > About for this version info, I noticed a link to download a new version. Doing this fixed the problem. New version: 

1.1.56.595.g2d2da0de

Hi thanks for your reply. 

I have the latest version of Spotify (1.1.56.595.g2d2da0de) and it still doesn't work. Also, I have in the past tried to install Spotify (older versions) and never managed to make it work. No idea what's going on. I thought I'd post a question on here to trouble shoot it. I have done full uninstalls (removing files from Library etc. etc.) and reinstalling, and still nothing plays or clicks

Hey @twigdip,

 

Thanks for reaching out to the Community.

 

Just to confirm, have you tried a clean reinstall of the Spotify app on your device? We recommend the steps in that guide, as they’re very thorough and make sure no damaged leftover files remain. These changes tend to solve issues like the one you're experiencing. Give your device a quick restart as well before you open the newly installed app. 

 

If that doesn't fix things, could you send us a couple of screenshots of what you see at your end when you start up the app? The fact that your account works correctly on your smartphone indicates that the issue is related to the setup on your pc. Also, did the issue appear after a specific event, such as installing a new app or update?

 

Keep us posted. We'll be on the lookout for your reply. 

Mihail Moderator
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate an answer, maybe give it a Like.
Are you new to the Community? Take a moment to introduce yourself!

Thanks for your help with this. I've done clean deletes and reinstalls about 10 times - following the instructions your linked to as well as many others which are similar/the same, as well as using AppCleaner. It didn't work on my previous MacBook either - which makes the mystery even stranger.

I have attached some screen shots. Nothing works. The only thing that brings up something is the Podcasts, but not Liked songs or Albums, and none of the playlists do anything - I click them and nothing happens.

Screenshot 2021-04-07 at 11.40.19.png
Screenshot 2021-04-07 at 11.39.38.png
Screenshot 2021-04-07 at 11.40.12.png
Marked as solution

Hey @twigdip,

 

Thanks for getting back to us and for the screenshots.

 

We recommend that you check your hosts file for Spotify entries and remove any you find. Here's how:

  1. Open Finder and, in Finder’s menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder. In the box, type the following location: /private/etc/hosts and press return.
  2. A new Finder window will open and your Mac’s hosts file will be selected. Click and drag it out of the Finder window and drop it on your desktop. 
  3. To open it, simply double-click and it will display the file’s contents in TextEdit .
  4. Check for any entries with Spotify in the address.
  5. If you do find any lines with Spotify, please remove them
  6. Save your changes and restart Spotify.

If that doesn't do the trick - could you ask a friend or family member to log in to their Spotify account on your Mac and see if the same error appears. Also - are you able to use our web player on that device without issues? 

 

Let us know how you get on. We'd love to investigate this further. 

Mihail Moderator
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate an answer, maybe give it a Like.
Are you new to the Community? Take a moment to introduce yourself!

Many thanks. That sorted it! The only step missing from your list was that I need to copy the Host file I've dragged onto Desktop back to the hosts folder after changing it (and replace the old one). 

There were a few lines in there for Spotify - must be from an old version from years ago. It now works perfectly!!!

Many thanks again for sorting this out and for your help.

 

Hey @twigdip,

 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

 

We're happy to hear that the issue got resolved for you. If there's anything else we can help out with, just give us a shout.

 

Happy listening 🙂 

Mihail Moderator
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate an answer, maybe give it a Like.
Are you new to the Community? Take a moment to introduce yourself!

MacBook Pro 2018

macOS Big Sur 11.1 (20C69)

 

I'm having for many weeks the exact same problem. I have Spotify Premium and i'm unable to use it. 

 

I've tried to uninstall and reinstall safely the Spotify app on my mac (version 1.1.58.820.g2ae50076-a) multiple times, I've tried to log out and log in multiple times, and I've checked the hosts multiple times too, but it has nothing written about Spotify on it. Nothing plays, unless I'm using the Spotify Web Player. I also tried to log in my account on my friend's macbook, and it was working well. 

For some days I had "NaN:NaN" written on the play bar instead of "00:00", but now I don't have it anymore, but everything is still not working. On my android, I had troubles too, at the same time I had on my Mac. I was trying to solve both problems, and on my phone I think I did something that worked, but not completely, because sometimes it works fine, sometimes it doesn't, appearing the "No Internet Connection" problem.

Hope someone can help me, it has been really frustrating. 

Hey there @ines4444

 

Thanks for getting in touch about this. 

 

Just to confirm, to reinstall the app and to clean your host files have you followed the exact steps @Mihail sent previously?

 

On another note, could you try again using a different internet connection to check if that makes the difference?

 

We'll be waiting for your reply.

EniModerator
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Like.
 
“Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.”– Maria von Trapp

Hello

Thanks for reaching out

 

Yes, I've followed the exact same steps to reinstall the app.

 

The other mac I mentioned before that I've tried to login and everything was working fine, was with the same internet connection as mine, since this person is my housemate, and my others housemates have no problems with the internet or Spotify.

I haven't had the opportunity to test it with another internet connection yet, but I'll do it as soon as possible, and give you news.

 

 

 

 

Suggested posts