Option to make playlists public/private from desktop disappeared

[Lian206]

PREMIUM

U.S.A.

MacBook Air

macOS Catalina

The option to make my playlists public or private from the drop-down menu on my desktop has completely disappeared.  It's not even grayed out or unavailable...it just simply isn't there.  It's still available from the app on my phone, but it does not work - the playlists remain private, even if I change them to public from my phone.  I seem to be having issues with making playlists public since the new update - please help! 

[Lian206]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community with this one. 

We can confirm that the feature was renamed to add/remove from profile to more accurately describe it, but otherwise it remains the same functionality. 

@jorgegdv keep in mind that the way collaborative playlist work is that anyone who access them can edit them. That's why they were secret/ removed from your profile by default. It seems however that other users also requested this to be changed and posted this idea.  We recommend that you +VOTE it to show your support. We'll share any updates on the matter there, as soon as there are any, so it's worthwhile that you also subscribe.

Hope this info is useful. The Community is here for you if you have any questions!

[PeraMia]

This is the exact same issue I'm having! I'm on Windows 10 and since Spotify updated the make public/private option has entirely disappeared and marking a playlist public on the Android mobile app doesn't actually make it public. It's so frustrating!

EDIT: I managed to find an older download for the May version of Spotify and installed it. The option is there, again. It's definitely the new update that's caused the missing options.

[jorgegdv]

I reached Spotify support and after doing a lot of tests, they accept is a bug in the last update. They suggest to wait until a new version is released to see if it's fixed.

PeraMia:

Do you mind to share the older download from May in the meantime? It is an important feature for my projects and I'm stuck now.

[Lian206 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for this update - glad you were able to get a response from support.  I also need this feature for work and so I was also in a pinch.  However, in the meantime, you can try this...

A co-worker pointed out to me that you can select the option "Add to Profile" - this now acts as making your playlists public.  And to make playlists private you can select "Remove from Profile."  If this was a deliberate change that's part of the update, it's not very intuitive and obviously causes confusion, especially since these were options when "Make Public/Private" options were still available (I believe they were, right?).  Give that a go and see if that helps - I tried it yesterday and it worked for me.    

[jorgegdv]

Hi Lian206,

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, it seems to be an update of the feature and may be it will be the new way to call it. I tried and worked fine, except when you have a collaborative playlist, you cannot add it to your profile, so it doesn't shows in you Public Library. Not sure if they're going to correct it or create a new category in your Profile for Collaborative Playlists. Let's keep an eye on it.

[Mihail]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community with this one. 

We can confirm that the feature was renamed to add/remove from profile to more accurately describe it, but otherwise it remains the same functionality. 

@jorgegdv keep in mind that the way collaborative playlist work is that anyone who access them can edit them. That's why they were secret/ removed from your profile by default. It seems however that other users also requested this to be changed and posted this idea.  We recommend that you +VOTE it to show your support. We'll share any updates on the matter there, as soon as there are any, so it's worthwhile that you also subscribe.

Hope this info is useful. The Community is here for you if you have any questions!

[PeraMia]

Why on earth was this change made in the first place? That seems so arbitrary and unnecessary. The new wording is far more vague and has created a lot of unnecessary confusion amongst users so clearly it doesn't better describe the feature. When it's worded like "remove from profile" that makes it sound like it's going to permanently delete it or archive it so you, the creator, don't have to see it. It in no way reflects that the change is to your PUBLIC profile rather than your personal profile/homepage. "Make public" is simple and easy to understand and "make secret" could easily be changed to "make private" if added clarity was needed. 

[MattSuda]

For now the feature is only in the mobile app. It will be coming to the desktop app in the future.

I found an answer to this on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/comments/ocav9h/ability_to_make_a_playlist_private_exists_on/h3thy8...

"It's a little more complicated. Historically, there was a "make private" command, but it didn't really apply any kind of access control, it just removed that playlist from your public profile. Anybody with a link to it could still get to it. That command was recently renamed "remove from profile", which is a much more accurate description of what it does. It's still available on both mobile and desktop.

Meanwhile, we (Spotify; I work there, but not on this) implemented a new private-playlist feature that applies actual privacy. That new feature is now what the "make private" menu command does, and the new feature has been rolled out to mobile first. It'll get added to desktop, too, eventually, but I'm not sure when.

So it's not obtuse design, just scheduling, but because the new feature reuses the old command wording, it definitely looks like a feature was removed!"

[l_xl3u-r5u6ia]

Updated spotify. 

Make public and make private buttons have disappeared on mac and web. 

Android app shows make private button but it doesn't do anything. 

Playlists are not collaborative. 

[mrsmagnuson]

I just realized that this change had taken place, thanks for the explanation.

But here is a weird thing: I became aware that something had happened because some of my playlists, which I wanted to keep private, suddenly had become public. This was while I was on my Android device, so I made them private again.  When I wanted to check their status using the desktop app, I realized that there had been a change there. And now, the option to "add to my profile" had disappeared from those lists that I had made private!

So I opened the app on my Android device again, and now the new functions have been implemented there as well. I can now add my private lists to my profile, but only on the Android device, not in the desktop app! Arrghh! So to change them back to public I have to do it in Android. Very inconvenient, although manageable.

[MafeG]

Hi folks,

Thank you for your replies.

After removing a playlist from our profile on the mobile app, we were able to add it again from the desktop app and vice versa.

@mrsmagnuson Could you send us some screenshots showing all the options you see when you right-click on a playlist? This way we can take a better look at the issue. 

Keep us posted.