Spotify Freezes my entire Macbook Pro!

[HayleyJoh]

So I just downloaded spotify, it logins and opens, but then whenever i try to click anything it just freezes my WHOLE LAPTOP. I can't even click force quit, i have to force restart EVER SINGLE TIME. I have the newest model of a macbook pro, this shouldn't be happening. Please help.

So I unistalled spotify, re-started my computer, re-installed it and the same thing happened.

So I unistalled spotify AND adobe flash, re-started my computer re-installed everything and the same thing happens. What gives??

Thank you for reading! I hope you can help...

[bsholtojones]

legalphoenix15....
if it helps, I uninstalled spotify using appcleaner, re-downloaded, re-installed and rebooted... have had no problems since on lion... hope this helps
Bill

[bsholtojones]

....started doing it again.... 😞

[bsholtojones]

....and now it's added cutting in and out to it's repertoire....

[legalphoenix15]

Yeah i did the same exact thing. I don't know what is going on. I refuse to install spotify until there is another update or something. Because this problem has rendered me from not trusting my macbook pro.

[kaseyfoley]

mines doing the same exact thing. so frustrating. I even deleted and redownloaded spotify

[rama]

I have kind of the same problem. After I start Spotify, the dock, finder and Safari freezes. VLC Player still running. force quitting safari worked, but the finder not. tried to restart by pushing the button, but nothing. had to turn off and on again. 😞 

my configuration: MacBookPro Late 2008. Running 10.6.8

this issue happens NOT everytime tough, but often enough that I stopped using it. 

[fgiammatteo]

All,

After much testing, updates and so on mt computer now stops freezing while using Spoitfy. I found that it is two things which cause this (for me). If you are using Little Snitch, update to 3. The google updates go away. They seem to be one of the issues. The other issue has to do with RAM, obviously. Overloading (running spotify, graphics apps and broswer) 3GB of RAM, eitherway I get the beachball of death, then its all crap from there on. But upgrading to Little Snitch 3 helped big time! Before I'd be running just a browser and spotifiy, the next thing I know BBOD, everything freezes, then I have to force restart.

I hope this is helpful.
Stay well

[danelewis]

I have been having the same problem.. I find if I delete the file ~/Library/Application Support/Spotify/Users/**********-user/local-files.bnk before opening Spotify, it will open instantly, then slowly get slower and slower until after 15 to 30 min it becomes unusable and needs to be force quit and the file deleted and Spotify re-opened.

I have created an Automator script which deletes this file then opens spotify to make things easier, but it's becoming a joke.

How much music do you others have in iTunes? I have a large iTunes library (around 5500 songs), and the local files "refreshing" arrows are forever spinning. I wonder if this has something to do with Spotify's local music cataloging service being poorly written and causing issues on computers with a large local catalogue...

Computer Specs:

MacBook Pro

OSX 10.8.2

2.66 GHz Intel Core i7

8GB DDR3 Memory

[lasthunter]

Macbook Pro 5,5 Specs:

OSX: 10.6.8.(Snow Leopard) in 64bit Kernel Mode   (Faster than both Lion &  Mountain Lion on my Macbook pro model)

2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

8GB RAM

128GB SSD OCZ Vertex 4 (main-drive bay)

320GB HDD Hitachi (optical-drive bay)

Spotify Premium

I was having the same problems which led me to this thread. These are the steps I took to get completely get rid of the slow down. Maybe these will help you also.

Spotify CPU usage NEVER goes above 10% for me anymore 🙂

- Uninstalled Spotify using AppZapper (removes related .plist & preference files)

- Restarted Mac

- Downloaded & Installed Spotify

- I unchecked EVERYTHING in Spotify Preferences, EXCEPT:

1. High Quality Streaming
2. Hide Unplayable Tracks
3. Automatically use no more than 10% free disk space (Caching)
4. Don't open automatically
5. Hide on What's New page

- Disabled All Spotify P2P Functionality with Little Snitch Software Firewall ( 😕  I know Spotify P2P is how spotify essentially works, but sorry way too much uploading for me)

- Made All of my Playlists available offline

- Always running Spotify in Offline Mode

p.s. this is a bit overkill but I couldn't stand the freezing, I need my other applications to run fast with Spotify Open

[thirstforwine]

Well, I've got the same problem, have done all that has been suggested and things have got worse.

Now instead of simply crashing, the songs stop and start all the time and it is INCREDIBLY annoying to try and listen to a single song.

Has the main issue been diagnosed? I've read elsewhere that it is related to a crash report - so maybe spotify slowly fills up the memory, causes a crash, then the crash report ties up OSX and the whole machine then grinds to a halt?!

[carrieabanner]

So you haven't redownloaded spotify? Has it had problems now that you have just taken it off? This has been happening to me too and I didn't realize it was spotify until I read these posts.

[GaryDonut]

This is happening to me as well.

Started a few weeks back with songs randomly stopping mid-song, and sometimes a song just wont start.

Now for the past week Spotify has not been starting up properly. I get the SBBOD and if I'm lucky the program starts up after 3-4 minutes.

I have followed the steps in this thread but the problem persists..

[N96934]

+1

I started using Spotify about two months ago.  It took me a little while to notice that it gradually made my Mac unusable.  I like the idea of Spotify, but as a music player it should be invisible on my system.

I have installed it on three different Macs and the problem affects all of them.  I noticed that David was trying to be helpful for the first three months of this thread, but has simply disappeared since last June.  I am curious.  Are there any Mac users who DO NOT have this problem?

If this can be resolved, I will be back in the happy camp, but if not I will have to cancel my subscription and go back to iTunes.  I am not interested in installing and configuring custom firewalls or other workarounds.  The app should work without magic.

Thank you in advance to any Spotify rep or fellow user who can help.

[asimplerway]

I have a HUGE iTunes library (25,000 songs) and had the same problem of it pretty much freezing my entire machine when I installed Spotify for the first time. I went to preferences and turned off Local Files for iTunes, Music, and Downloads. That pretty much took care of the problems. Now Spotify only uses 10-20% of my CPU as opposed to 90%

[allansturm]

Get off the Flash crack pipe please...

[allansturm]

On slightly older Macs (Intel), Flash doesn't play nice... it likes to hog system resources. Apple and Adobe/Flash don't like each other...

[JessicaAf]

I have been having the same issue until yesterday when my 2013 Macbook pro running on Mountain Lion started blue screening. About an hour later my hard drive crashed. Spotify attacked my computer even after I completely uninstalled it and reinstalled it, it had memory that the last time it was used I had force quit.

[Peter__]

---

@JessicaAf wrote:

I have been having the same issue until yesterday when my 2013 Macbook pro running on Mountain Lion started blue screening. About an hour later my hard drive crashed. Spotify attacked my computer even after I completely uninstalled it and reinstalled it, it had memory that the last time it was used I had force quit.

---

I didn't even know Macs did blue screen. 

Its pretty difficult for an application to completely crash any computer, never mind a UNIX based one without another underlying cause, either in the OS or in hardware. 

Had this happened more than once? 

Peter

[pattybueno]

HI, I have the same problem, I have a MacBook Air, I'm running Mac OS X 10.7.5, I have tried everything you have posted, and nothing works. My computer still freezes every time. I'm new to Spotify and I have Spotify Premium. What else can I do? thank you!

[NickSmith]

Can someone from Spotify please help me with this. I've been struggling with the same problems for months now. Having tried all the above mentioned solutions (and gone through a Genius Bar consultation - Apples feedback was very clear 'it's a problem with Spotify, we can't help') I have now resorted to removing Spotify from my computer and accessing it only through my Sonos controller. As a premium user this is not a long term solution and I can see no other option than to quit the service altogether. I see from the above that I am far from alone with this problem. There has to be a solution to this - please provide some practical support before I have to throw the towel in.

Thanks
Nick