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Spotify on Mac is shockingly slow and freezes

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Spotify on Mac is shockingly slow and freezes

Ive seen a few similar topics from a while back and wondered if Spotify actually ever reads these!!  Is anyone else having same issue?

 

Basically:

Spotify freezes alot

Ive cleared my cache several times to rectify but am bored with having to do this.  I dont have to on my windows PC or apple phone - ipad......

Is there any other thing I can do?

 

 

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95 Replies


@tdag wrote:

Dismissing "Hardware acceleration" (hahaha!) just works at the moment you do it - and perhaps the next 2-3 times. Then it comes back again to its pathetic unbearable slowness. Not only te Spotify app is slow. The whole computer is frozen. Spotify clearly does nothing to fix it. This is so huge and so reproductible that it should be easy for a developper to understand and fix the problem. If I would not be annoyed to loose my playlists, I would have quit this UX-offendering service


WILL you lose your playlists? I figure if you re-subscribe they'll still be there


@AlaskaJaxx wrote:

A few folks mentioned specific builds, but if you’re having issues, be cool to list your build (computer specs) and OS build (whether you’re using public beta, older builds or current system/current OS updates) 

 

im using 2014 & 2015 MacBook Pros without issue, a 2017 27” iMac - no problems. And it’s a base build w/8GB RAM. I just got it and will add more soon but I’m floored how well it’s running on a fusion drive iMac. As well, no issues with using third party apps (dJay Pro) and Spotify libraries ‘on the fly’. 

 

I’m certainly not questioning the validity of your challenges but macOS and iOS versions of the app have been essentially flawless for our playback needs (10-14 hours straight). 


The irony is the iPhone app worked GREAT for me. Like night and day with the iMac

YES! I got it to work greatly:

I did a reset of the app and then reinstalled it (both with CleanMyMac).

Then I did a clean installation and right-away went to the Spotify app settings where I have turned off the all "local files", this might possibly have been interfering...

Thank you!!! It's kind of a pain, but this worked for me.

Let me tell you my 5-minute solution.  Worked for me—was able to reboot from 0 to playing in <30 seconds!  

 

  1. Close Spotify
  2. Finder ("Desktop")
  3. Choose 'Go' from the top menu, with the option button held down, choose Library
  4. Search for Spotify in the top right corner
  5. A bunch of hits come up, but one is a Spotify folder.  (It's invisibly in /Library/Application Support)
  6. Delete the folder.
  7. Reopen Spotify.  You'll have to login again, but won't lose any playlists—I didn't even lose my facebook connection or my last.fm connection!

Maybe there's more to it, but so far it's been gold and only took me 5 minutes.  That was conceptually just a quick-and-dirty clean reinstall.  I didn't even have to close any other apps (I have 74 chrome browser tabs open and the whole office suite and acrobat, etc.)

THANK YOU, the hardware acceleration thing worked.

Spotify is SO rubbish on my Imac, not only does spotify freeze, my entire computer stops performing if i even try open spotify and trying to force quit it to get on with my normal work takes 15 minutes cos of how slow it makes everything go. 

 

It drives me crazy! So many people especially students have macs and macbooks these days you would think it would be spotifys top priority to sort this out. Why offer a discounted rate for students when half of us cant even use the product comfortably without risk of computer crashing and losing all of our work! 

I'm a week into my trial with Spotify in November/December 2018 and can confirm that the app is still not useable! Multiple freezes on searching for artists which forces me to force quit the app. Sometimes it will work for an hour or two but then I have multiple issues every couple of minutes. Browser window it is..

 

 

I cannot understand how a supposed "TECH" company can make such a BAD APP...

But then on top of that, IGNORE the problem for years on end.

I agree with users, the minute there is a better platform for hearing music, I AM LEAVING MY SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE.

 

SHAME ON YOU SPOTIFY FOR HORRENDOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE

SHAME ON YOU SPOTIFY FOR YOUR HORRIBLE APP

AND SHAME ON YOU FOR NOT LISTENING TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. 

 

OK so I just posted about having the same issue on my iMac app but I might have found a solution and/or the cause of the problem. After being traumatised by the App after the switch from Deezer and using Appcleaner I removed Spotify from my computer entirely - there were loads of files and folders, much more than I expected. I had installed Spotify for a different project using a different email and it looked there were loads of legacy files. It was messy.

 

Once my machine was completely Spotify free I then downloaded the app again and hey presto it worked like a dream for a couple of weeks of really intensive use. Just now I clicked on an embedded Spotify playlist link in an end of year list and it gave me the option of opening the link and using the App, which I did. Cue the same problems as detailed above. So I've now removed Spotify again from my machine using Appcleaner and redownloaded and I'm back to a full functioning, responsive app that allows me to search for albums galore and skip through hundreds of tracks whilst auditioning.

 

I'll keep the thread posted with how things progress.

 

 

I personally am a mac user and I can agree with you guys about how the Mac spotify application has become significantely slower as it sometimes freezes but the music continues and if you wanted to search up another song you'd have to restart the application.

I have deleted fully and reinstalled numerous times. I do it approximately
once a week and even then Spotify is capricious. I am a premium customer.
I certainly have no idea why Spotify takes so many sick days!

I posted this before but my post seems to have mysteriously disappeared. Considering how harsh some of these posts are here, I can't imagine it was purposefully deleted since it was tame in comparison. But just in case let me rephrase

 

I have stopped using Spotify, instead I am listening to music in a more stable, less frustrating way. If the desktop app is ever rehabilitated, it would be great if someone posted that in this thread and maybe I can get back into Spotify. Thanks in advance!

Scratch that, it was only a brief fix. This seems to work, though, as others mentioned earlier: https://alexlitel.tumblr.com/post/53154780770/what-to-do-if-spotify-is-running-slow-on-your

Spotify seemed to work way better when I bumped 4GB memory to 8GB. 

I have 16Gb, nothing else running, and Spotify is still deathly slow.   My guess is that it's slow because Apple makes it run slow to drive Apple Music subscriptions.  There is no other plausible explaination for a quad-core i7 with 16gb, doing nothing else, to be deathly slow running a music app.

I stopped in here to check the messages to see if it's just been me. Lately (within the last month or so) Spotify has been painfully slow at start (it always has been, but even more than usual). What's been happening recently is upon startup, I just an greeted by a black screen (sidebar loads ok). I'f I'm patient and wait (approx 3-5 minutes) the icons eventually show up. During this time, I can't play anything either. When the icons finally load (like my "made for you" favorites), when I click the play button there is another long delay (1-2 minutes) and then finally it starts to play.
I'm on an older imac, but have a 100GB internet connection and 12MB of ram. Can't figure out what changed in the last month or so to make this so painfully slow.

The more you use it, the slower it gets. There was a post about clearing out it's cache folder a while back. That worked pretty well for a while. I've given up using it on my mac minis. I just use my phone and ipad now. Good luck.

I AM SO GLAD I AM NOT ALONE.

This is absolutley ridiculous. I am having this issue on my personal iMac at home & my work iMac in the office. I have had to start using my mobile for Spotify at all times, which is super annying because it is much harder to sort my tunes into my playlists etc. 

SPOTIFY CHANGE THIS. Surely they can understand that a huge part of their market is on Mac. Its certainly a cache & RAM issue that builds up over time. Seriously not good enough guys. Ive been on Spotify for 5 years and listen to approx 6-8 hours of music a day. HELP!

This is probably a Mac problem (and probably an intentional one), but it seems like Spotify should demand an answer from Apple.

 

Does Spotify ever chime in on this forum?  I'd like to hear what they have to say about it -- both about what they think is causing it and what they are doing about it.

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