Spotify repeatedly skips the current playing song in any playlist after 1-2 seconds

[TerranRich]

Premium account, U.S.A.

MacBook Pro 2018 with Mac OS High Sierra

No matter what playlist I use, or how I try to search for songs, whenever I try to play a song, I get "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it." When in a playlist, the next song plays. Then the next. And the next. Only playing 1-2 seconds of each song when doing so.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling then restarting. I've tried switching speaker/headphone device and restarting the app. I've tried everything I can think of, and still the problem persists.

[TerranRich]

Wow. This is even happening on my phone, too. When I try to control my laptop Spotify through my Android Spotify, it does the same skipping nonsense. The only way I can get it to work on my phone is to play it directly through my phone (and not controlling my laptop app).

The problem must be with my laptop, but I can't figure out what. Reinstalling the app did nothing, changing the default audio device and restarting did nothing, and restarting my machine did nothing.

[TerranRich]

Another update: Spotify only works if I control Spotify on my phone from the app on my laptop. I can't control my laptop from my phone, but I can control my phone from my laptop. Strange.

[nochaser]

I am having the same issue. All songs will play less than a second then skip to the next song. After a few songs the app will stop playing and display the same error you are seeing. I have uninstalled and installed the desktop app multiple times, including removing all associated files and still no luck. I can play songs through the web browser and the app on my iphone just fine.  At this point I am using the desktop app to control the web player. 

[TerranRich]

That's a good idea for a workaround, using the desktop app to control the web app. I'll try that.

This issue seemed to happen quite a bit in 2015 (from my searches of this forum), then it died off, and now it seems to be making a comeback. A real fix would be nice. 🙂

[ashtontiarn]

I'm having the exact same issues too. I have tried deleting and redownloading the app, refreshing everything - still nothing. 

So annoying! I will try and see if I can use my phone app, which is a pain in the **bleep**. 

[TerranRich]

I have never seen a platform that obfuscates its bug reporting capabilities quite like Spotify does. Do the developers even read this forum? I feel like I need to cancel my premium membership as a result of this. Spotify is virtually unusable.

[TerranRich]

(Disregard. I repeated something I already said.)

[Mars92]

Started having the same issue today, and I'm contemplating cancelling as well and switching to Google Play Music like I should have done a long time ago.

[randolando]

I am also experienceing the same error on my spotify.  But mine doesn't even play the songs, it just clicks through the songs then stops working. and then the blue bar pops up on the top with the error "spotify can't play this right now. If you have the finle on your ocmputer you can import it." 

[nochaser]

I randomly figured out what the problem is. For some reason Spotify doesn't like my office IP address. I switched it using a VPN and it started playing the songs normally. And what is even stranger is that it works on my phone even when connected to the same network, with the same IP address. I have no idea what to do at this point since there is no direct way to contact someone at Spotify.

[Mars92]

You're right, that fixed my issue too. Unfortunately, I can’t work with a VPN on as it stops me connecting to databases I need for work. Strange that it's doing this though, the web player is still fine and I have no issue on my phone which is also on the same network, and none of my colleagues are having this issue.

[tuanngocptn]

With the same issue and switch to website version currently. (_ _!)

[mauliksoni]

Yes, I too have found this issue related to my office IP address, I switched to my phone Hotspot and the songs started playing, my colleagues don't have this issue!

[TerranRich]

@randolando, that's pretty much what happens to me. I might've been generous with my "1-2 seconds" estimate. It's more like "0.1-0.5 seconds" if I'm being accurate.

[TerranRich]

Didn't notice all these replies on the 2nd page. Yes, none of my other coworkers are experiencing this issue. When I talked to somebody working for Spotify via live chat, they asked if I was on an office computer, which I am.

Thing is, I thought about IP addesses and potential blacklists, but since none of my other coworkers are experiencing this issue (same as many of you, it seems), I had ruled this out personally as a possible cause.

The Live Chat representative had me log into a test account of theirs, and when I logged in with their credentials, all songs started playing normally, and Spotify seemed to work just fine. I logged back into my account, and the issue persisted.

That also made me think it couldn't possibly be my IP. I cannot use a VPN either, for various reasons (our security is locked down pretty tight), so I guess I'll have to use the website version for now.

Thanks for the responses everybody! Keep them coming, maybe Spotify will find something useful in the responses that will help them fix this issue.

[TerranRich]

OK, so I just fixed it, and here's how I did it. I am on a workplace internet connection that is secured. When I switched to our "guest" network, then switched back, Spotify started working correctly again. So far it seems to be a permanent solution, at least for me.

For anybody else who is also on a work connection, if you have a guest connection, try switching to that, then switching back to your regular network. It worked for me, and I hope it works for you.

So, a few minutes after trying the above, the issue started happening again. Woe is me. Nothing seems to work...

[Katerina]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for posting about this here in the Community.

If possible, we'd suggest trying all the steps provided in this Spotify Answer. 

Further, for some users it sounds like this is a network related issue. Keep in mind that some shared or public networks (e.g. schools/work/office) restrict access to certain services. If the desktop app works with no issues using a different Internet connection, we recommend contacting the service provider of the original network for more information. In addition, if you use a firewall, make sure that it has Spotify set as an exception.

If another account works for you, like @TerranRich mentions, it'd be a good idea using that new account. You can follow the steps provided in this Spotify Answer if you want to have your music and people you follow over to your new account.

On another note, this sounds like this Ongoing Issue that our tech teams are currently investigating. If a different account or network connection don't do the trick, we'd suggest heading over to that thread and adding your +VOTE and requested info there. We'll make sure to pass on any updates regarding this on that thread so make sure to subscribe to it.

Hope this helps clarify things! If there's anything else we can help with, don't hesitate to give us a shout.

Have a lovely day 🙂