Revert back to Spotify 0.8.5 on Mac

[user-removed]

UPDATE 3/14/15: This solution works for reverting to ANY previous version of Spotify. Just replace the application with the desired version, 0.8.5 or otherwise. I have successfully used this trick to revert to 0.9.15.27 and 0.8.5.133. Also, APPS continue to work in these previous version. Attached is a screenshot of 0.8.5.133 artist pages, clean, simple, cohesive, text a bit small, and SEARCH function still in tact. 0.8.5.133 also runs MUCH faster on my Windows and Mac machines. 

The "Horrible update [0.8.8]" thread has begun to bury the work arounds for those of us NOT happy with the 0.8.8 update. Here is a guide to reverting to 0.8.5 for Mac. Spotify support has NOT provided a way for us to do this, despite my many attempts.  Hopefully it will help some people who visit the forum.

If you already have upgraded to 0.8.8: (if you haven't upgraded already, start with step #3)

1. Find and download a copy of 0.8.5 here
2. Mount the image and replace the application in your Applications folder with the downloaded one
3. Now to make sure Spotify doesn't auto-update:
4. Go to your ~/Library folder - you can do this in Finder by doing shift+cmd+g and typing "~/Library" without the quotes and hitting enter
5. Go to Application Support/Spotify
6. Delete Spotify_new.archive and Spotify_new.archive.sig (if they are there)
7. Now open your favorite text editor, I used TextWrangler
8. Make two blank documents and save them as "Spotify_new.archive" and "Spotify_new.archive.sig" - without the quotes, the same file names as the ones you deleted
9. Right click each file and go to "Get Info"
10. Check the "Locked" button on each and close the info window
11. You should now see a small lock icon on each file
12. Restart Spotify and enjoy 0.8.5 without auto updates to 0.8.8

Let me know if you have any problems! This has worked for me on OS X 10.8.2. Thanks to th80 for the help on this!

Removed link, not allowed to post links to download packages outside spotify site. hpguru

(Possible security risk removed by Rock Star)

[angelfire4xx]

It will (I did) you just have to be careful to save as plain text without a file extention

[user-removed]

---

@angelfire4xx wrote:

Bit of a problem with OS X 10.8.3 - the folder is hidden. Spent a while learning how to reveal hidden files but Apple seem to think we don't need to access very many and they were simply not visible through Finder. Accidentally found them with Appcleaner and managed to follow your instructions. Thanks so much!

---

You should be able to shift+cmd+g on 10.8.3 just like it was explained. Directing this to ~/Library will take you there regardless of the folder being hidden in Finder. Glad you found another way though.

[angelfire4xx]

Hmm, I did try shift command g and entered /Library but got a bit stuck as nothing much happened. I couldn't work out how to type the tilde sign as it's not on my keyboard 😞

[user-removed]

---

@angelfire4xx wrote:

Hmm, I did try shift command g and entered /Library but got a bit stuck as nothing much happened. I couldn't work out how to type the tilde sign as it's not on my keyboard 😞

---

The tilde directs to the current user's user folder. Alternatively, you can do /Users/yourusername/Library - where yourusername is your actual user name on the computer. That should solve your lack of tilde problem.

[angelfire4xx]

Aagh, after all that I just found the tilde... All the way over on the far left. Didn't know it was there! Feeling annoyed at being an idiot and wasting so much time!

[angelfire4xx]

Thanks! I did find my user folder but its library folder was hidden. I guess Apple think we're too stupid to be allowed to see it any more (and maybe they've got a point... 🙂

[gerb]

Thanks for taking the time to write this out. 0.9.0 was suffering from networking issues and this resolved it for me.

[gerb]

Open Terminal and enter these:

touch ~/Library/Application\ Support/Spotify/Spotify_new.archive.sig

touch ~/Library/Application\ Support/Spotify/Spotify_new.archive

chmod u-w ~/Library/Application\ Support/Spotify/Spotify_new.archive*

[gaz8080]

Good thing about doing this is you can run different versions of the client t- I have 0.8.5 and 0.9.0 and can choose between the two.

[HapJac]

Add my thanks for the instructions posted here. Worked a treat, I made mistake of looking for my computer as opposed to user-specific library folder - couldn't find spotify folder at first.

[exographicskip]

Thanks for posting this! It handily fixed what 0.9.0 broke 😄

[mosmi]

Fantastic! Thank you so much. 0.8.5 loads in seconds, and contains none of the catastrophic design and feature removals that have happened in subsequent versions. 

[ICB]

Thumbs up: this seems to solve my problems! Many thanks, and I hope Spotify will fix this kind of problems very soon...

[askanevsky]

I used these instructions back in March and it worked... however this morning I woke up to a newly upgraded Spotify. I performed the operation again and have since downgraded. Just wanted to give the community a heads up!

[user-removed]

If you ever shut down Spotify, it will update to the latest the next time you turn it on. I did this three times before I just gave up. Now I'm used to the new layout (which still sucks, but at least I'm used to it) and the streaming errors seem to be mostly fixed. I can't emphasize enough, though, if the Spotify team is paying any attention: the new layout sucks. Less is not more here. It's needlessly complicated and over-clicky to do simple stuff. In their effort to make it seem more "simple" they made it more complicated. That is the definition of bad design.

[Jihel-HELLER]

I've done the trick one month ago, and everything was fine …

and suddenly today Spotify 0.8.5 started to crash … !!! ???

I suspect the very clever programmers of Spotify to have changed something …

AND I AM VERY VERY VERY ANGRY !!!

if they don't improve that bull**bleep** of 0.9 , I'm going to QUIT AND STOP PAYING FOR THOSE STUPID FELLOWS !!!

AND MAKE THAT KNOWN ALL OVER THE WEB !!!

AND RETURN TO DEEZER !

tell me if you have the same problem

[Jihel-HELLER]

thanks @Absolute…

I may not catch right well your comments, because I'm french, and my english is not so perfect.

but thanks a lot for your links

I was preparing a kind of "tuto" for my friends who use Spotify, because I noticed that they did'nt come any more on Spotify, that I loved until now …

and I was searching an old program for windows users .

but now I don't feel so well to recommand that program that is going CRAZY !

( Soooooo Looooonnnng to charge ... and NO MORE FILTER on albums ! )

[AbsolutelyNoFB]

No worries about your English. It's likely a lot better than my French -- I spent only a short while in France when I was a child. I remember the sounds, but not the meanings 😉

The latest updates (v0.9.0+) are very slow that is for sure. I don't like them for that reason and a few others. I was happily using the v0.8.5 client until this latest problem caused by Spotify. Sigh.

Hopefully they will fix it quickly.

[thumper]

*sigh* Another os 10.5.8 user who is having the WORST time with Spotify. Had the issues with the program not even loading, followed all of the steps in this thread and it worked for a good while, happy to be using Spotify again with a subscription. But now today, it won't load again.

I love Spotify when it works and have recommended it to so many people, but this is getting exhausting.

I don't care about new "features" and sharing and facebook integration and all of that crap.

Can I please just listen to music?

[AbsolutelyNoFB]

@thumper

The version 0.6.3 upgrade mentioned a few messages ago is working for some of us. It might be worth a try. There is no telling when, or if, Spotify will fix things for the v0.8.5 customers.