Firewall Blocking Spotify Error Code auth:16

[mattyg88]

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

United States

Device

MacBook Pro, Mid 2012

Operating System

macOS Mojave

My Question or Issue

As I've seen many people posting about here, I too seem to have fallen to the "firewall may be blocking Spotify" problem that many others are having.

I started off by deleting the app, clearing all cache and other Spotify files in Library, restarted, then tried to do a fresh install from Spotify's website. From there, I continuously got a "Download Failed" followed by an "Installation Failed" message. After searching through the forums, someone else posted a .dmg file that could be downloaded, and that at least worked to get the app reinstalled.

From the fresh install, I got the same firewall auth:16 message again. I then tried changing the Firewall settings to no avail, tried changing the "host" file to no avail. I have restarted and reinstalled at least six times.

Anybody from Spotify actually going to help us out with this? I have been a Premium member for years and this is making me want to cancel because you clearly don't care about customer service. 

[Elena]

Hey there @mattyg88!

Thanks for reaching out to us.

We'd recommend starting off by clearing your hosts files with these steps:

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 your issue persists, you can try connecting your desktop to the internet via a mobile hotspot. Should the app work through it, consult with your router's manufacturer.

Hope this info helps. We'll be here if you have any other questions.

[Pavel_Khokhlov]

Hey. 

I had the same problem as well. The problem is in app caches.
1. To solve it, you have to remove app.
2. After that open Finder and look at top menu. There you need "Go->Go to folder" and put "~/Library/Caches" to the line.
3. Then find "com.spotify.installer" and "com.spotify.client" folders.
4. Delete it. (I'm not sure what folders exactly need to be removed so I removed both installer and client)
5. Install the app again, it have to work.

[mattyg88]

Sorry, no this did not do anything. I did not have any instances of Spotify within the "host" file.

[mattyg88]

No, this did not help for me at all. Is there anything else you did to get working again?

[stellaellaella]

I just resolved this issue for my daughter.

On our MacBook, we have two profiles:
1: I have a "parent" profile where I control my daughter's screen time (app access and limits).
2: My daughter has a "child" profile where she has to request access for various sites, screen time, apps, etc.

The below can be done on either profile as long as the screen time passcode is known. 

I went into system preferences, screen time, content & privacy and noticed the "music profiles" profile was unchecked. I clicked to create a check next to it as to allow it.

I went back to Spotify, and she was able to log in.

So, it was a simple screen time setting issue for us.

That was it. I hope this helps someone!

[mattyg88]

I'm not even able to get into my account to change the settings that you mentioned, nor am I able to access those settings through Spotify's website. So thus far, none of the solutions that have been proposed have helped in my case.

[Marcolokolus]

Did you ended up ever fixing your issue? Im having the exact same problem and none of the advise above seems to work and literally ran out of options. At this point im thinking about subscribing after 8 years of being a prime member.

[mattyg88]

No, unfortunately all of the responses did nothing for me. It seems that most people here didn't even read the steps I had already taken. So basically I just can't use the Spotify app on my MacBook anymore. Like you said, I'm pretty frustrated by the lack of real IT support when I've spent hundreds of dollars in a premium membership over the years.

[Elena]

Hey there @Marcolokolus, @mattyg88,

Thank you for your posts. We're sorry to hear you feel like this, and we'll do our best to help you further.

We'd suggest you go ahead and give all these steps a go and let us know what you've tried if your issue persist. 

If that doesn't do the trick - would you mind letting us know which version of Spotify you have?

Keep us posted. We'll have an eye open for your reply.

Cheers!

[mattyg88]

These directions appear to be for a windows computer. I am on a MacBook Pro
13", mid 2012. Operating system is version 10.14.6. and I don't know how to
tell you what version of Spotify I am using because the software won't even
let me log in to go to "Preferences".

So to answer your question, none of the directions you have provided or
that anyone else has provided have been able to resolve my issue. Again,
extremely frustrating and disappointing.

[Marcolokolus]

Update:
The firs time i deleted the app i followed the directions given by spotify and tech support to delete from the "root" every single file etc. When i reinstalled again I was having the same issue. I when ahead and gave it another change thinking i must of missed something. Re-Read the instructions and carefully deleted every single file they were asking for in the guide. Re-installed and this time it work. This is from the delete the app completely guide. 

[Mihail]

Hey @mattyg88,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop. We'll do our best to help you resolve this issue.

Could you give the steps that @stellaellaella suggested a go? Note that they are related to your computer profile, not your Spotify account. It's a good idea to also check if Spotify is added as an exception to all firewall and anti-virus apps you might have installed.

Also, have you tried connecting to a different network to see if that makes a difference?

Keep us posted, we'd happily investigate this further!

[rukletsov]

I have a similar problem with my Mac running Mojave 10.14.6 and a premium account. The Spotify app worked fine until recently; then at some point, some controls stopped loading and music did not play. I logged out and now can't log in back with the "auth:16" error code. App reinstall, cache cleaning, network change, and other steps did not remedy the situation for me. I see some related messages in the system's Console but nothing sticks out to me.

It's the 21st century: there must be a way to debug the issue further locally or at least get some logs / diagnostic info to shed light on the reasons behind the "auth:16" error. Can we please escalate this to engineering and get the debugging steps to get to the root of this?

[Ver]

Hey @rukletsov,

Thanks for reaching out to us and welcome to the Community 🙂

The troubleshooting steps that you've tried so far are very good. We'd suggest you also head here and try the steps mentioned in the article. 

If the issue persists, you can share with us the device + OS version and the exact Spotify version. We'll look into this further.

Keep us posted! If you have more questions, we are here for you.

[rukletsov]

Hi Ver,

The device version is stated in my previous post and Spotify version is the latest one from the website (can't tell you the number: About Spotify is greyed out on the login screen). The other guide you linked is of little relevance: the error code is different and so is the OS.

Could you please shed some light on how one can debug the reason for the error?

[Alex]

Hi @rukletsov,

Can you let us know what troubleshooting you've done so far?

This will help us give you more relevant advice.

Also, can you let us know if you can play music normally from the Web player?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply 🙂

[rukletsov]

> App reinstall, cache cleaning, network change, and other steps did not remedy the situation for me. I see some related messages in the system's Console but nothing sticks out to me.

Alex, I'm afraid we're going in circles here. It feels that every replier only briefly looks at the last message and answers with standard, not even relevant steps, ignoring any previous information and concrete questions.

I appreciate fast responses but maybe we can finally look into why and when "auth:16" error is emitted and go through the possible causes?

[Alex]

Hi @rukletsov,

Thanks for the quick reply.

This error is usually caused when there are issues with the host files regarding Spotify on your system.

The very first reply by @Elena in the thread describes how to clear those. We'd assume you've run through all the solutions mentioned by other users in this thread.

Can you confirm that the steps provided by Elena have not helped? Also, did you try the Web player, as on some systems host file issues will cause the web player not to work as well.

We appreciate the time you've spent on this 🙂

[rukletsov]

@Alex,

I do not have any Spotify-related entries in "hosts". Moreover, I've commented out everything else there for the sake of experiment and that did not help.

The web player works fine, as every other application and service on this machine.