Announcements
The Spotify Stars Program: Celebrating Values Week!

Help Wizard

Step 1

NEXT STEP

"Spotify can't play this right now." Songs stop after seconds.

Solved!

"Spotify can't play this right now." Songs stop after seconds.

I have tried everything I've seen here: deleted the Library files, restarted the app, reinstalled the app.
Mac OS Mojave 10.14.4, Macbook Pro 13-inch 2017.Screenshot 2019-04-22 at 19.58.42.png

Reply
139 Replies

I have this same issue. I uninstalled and reinstalled Spotify several times over the last week. The web player and app on my phone play the songs fine. I randomly noticed yesterday that when I switch my ip address using a VPN the songs start playing normally on the desktop app.

Hi there!

I know it sounds simple, but it's often overlooked. Could you try restarting your device? If that doesn't help, try a quick clean reinstall of the app. Just follow these steps.

If you're still having trouble, could you let me know the exact version of Spotify and the exact version of the operating system you're running?

 

Please Like!!!

If it works mark as solution please

I'll see what I can suggest next!

This is happening to me too, today for the first time. One weird thing is that when I restart my program I can listen to pre-downloaded music; but when I try playing Kid Cudi songs (who I never listen to), the problem re-starts. A bad look for Spotify - I'm surprised they don't have internal alerts for this type of thing. Their software team should tackle this ASAP.

Premium, Win10 Desktop, 3 devices

 

So for a few months on one of my devices i can't download songs or playlists. Also when i try just streaming songs they stop after 5-10 seconds. Furthermore my friends and my other spotifydevices are not showing. I'm all out of ideas how to fix this. Can anyone help?

 

Hi thanks for the reply,
Yes i have tried re starting my device and i have just tried a clean install following the instructions you provided. Unfortunately its still happening.

OS: Windows 10pro version:1809
from the about spotify window: 1.1.5.153.gf614956d

Hi, I am having the same problem, Spotify Premium does not play any songs. A clean reinstall did not help, the Windows Store version is not an option since I am on a corporate PC where the store is deactivated.

 

OS: Windows 10

Spotify client: 1.1.5.153.gf614956d

Spotify is unusable for me right now. I'll cancel my subscription and go to Google or Apple. Bye 👋🏻

Hey all, 

 

Can you please try on a different network and see if the same error occurs? 

 

If that doesn't work, download a few songs on your desktop, then switch on Offline Mode and try playing those offline songs to see if the same error occurs.

 

@nochaser what's your device, Spotify version and OS?

 

Thanks!

BittencourtSpotify Star
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Like.
Note: I'm not a Spotify employee.

Hi, I'm on Mac OS 10.11.6. (Old Mac, no newer version available) and in the last weeks Spotify got slower and slower. In the meantime I can't open or play many playlists. When there is a playlist starting after a while, often the song stops after half a minute and starts again later or after one song Spotify stops playing completly.

At the moment Spotify doesn't makes me very happy. 😞

Hey @fozzy343.

 

Thanks for getting back to us.

 

It does sound like something might be up with your account. It shouldn't happen however that when you cancel your subscription, you lose the ability to use Spotify. You should still be able to use all features until your Premium expires, After which you'll still have all Free features.

 

There is one thing we'd like to try and it involves editing your host files. Here's how:

 

 

  1. Open Finder and, in Finder’s menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder. In the box, type the following location: /private/etc/hosts and press return.
  2. A new Finder window will open and your Mac’s hosts file will be selected. Click and drag it out of the Finder window and drop it on your desktop. 
  3. To open it, simply double-click and it will display the file’s contents in TextEdit .
  4. Check for any entries with Spotify in the address.
  5. If you do find any lines with Spotify, please remove them
  6. Save your changes and restart Spotify.

Hope that helps. Let us know what the result is.

 

Have a nice day!

 

Hey @benmuggsy@Mars92@nochaser and @Abering,

 

We had an issue recently which was related to Spotify-related entries in the host files. Could you try removing these to see if that solves the issue?

 

Here's how:

 

  1. Open Finder and, in Finder’s menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder. In the box, type the following location: /private/etc/hosts and press return.
  2. A new Finder window will open and your Mac’s hosts file will be selected. Click and drag it out of the Finder window and drop it on your desktop. 
  3. To open it, simply double-click and it will display the file’s contents in TextEdit .
  4. Check for any entries with Spotify in the address.
  5. If you do find any lines with Spotify, please remove them
  6. Save your changes and restart Spotify.

Hope that helps. Let us know what the result is.

 

Have a nice day!

Hey all,

 

Thanks for dropping by!

 

We've been receiving your reports of the "Can't play this song" error message. If you are experiencing this, please try the following first if you haven't yet:

 

 

  • Reinstall the app using these instructions
  • Make sure the latest audio drivers drivers are installed and reboot the PC
  • Try a different network
  • (if possible) Try a different account

If this didn't help, please send over the following:

 

  1. Country
  2. Device model
  3. Device OS and version
  4. Spotify app version
  5. Which of the above troubleshooting steps you tried
  6. (Optional) Your Internet Service Provider (ISP)

We will have the right team looking into this and will keep you up-to-date in this topic.

 

Thanks and have a nice day!

 

@Guido, thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately there was no spotify entry in the host.

Country - US

Device model - Macbook Pro

Device OS and version - macOS Mojave / 10.14.4

Spotify app version - 1.1.5.153

Which of the above troubleshooting steps you tried 

  • Uninstall / Reinstall
  • Review hosts file
  • Switch to different IP address using VPN (this works)

Webplayer and iPhone app work on same network as laptop.



  • Country - US
  • Device model - Mac
  • Device OS and version - Sierra 10.12.6
  • Spotify app version - 1.1.5.153
  • Which of the above troubleshooting steps you tried
    • Uninstall/Reinstall
    • Review Host Files
    • Switch Internet Connection

Tried this, no luck
UK
Windows 10pro version 1809
Desktop PC
Software downloaded form your website,, the about window says 1.1.5.153.gf614956d
ISP British telecom

Look forward to a fix!
Thanks

@Bittencourt and others, I have tried the solution suggested by Guido in this merged thread, the one about deleting the Spotify entry in the host file and that fixed the issue.

Hey @martinapugliese, that's great! I'm glad it could solve the issue for you 🙂

BittencourtSpotify Star
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Like.
Note: I'm not a Spotify employee.

  1. Country: Costa Rica
  2. Device OS and version: Windows 10 Pro
  3. Spotify app version: 1.1.5.153
  4. Which of the above troubleshooting steps you tried: followed Windows and Windows 10 steps. Uninstalled, clean cache, downloaded again, restart, log in.

I tried several times and none of them worked. I have spotify in another devide (laptop with w10 an it works). I had to install version "Spotify 1.0.84.344" and it works with it. I can't update until this is solved 😞 

  1. Country USA
  2. Device model Windows 10 Pro
  3. Device OS and version
  4. Spotify app version 1.1.5.153
  5. Which of the above troubleshooting steps you tried Uninstall and reinstall

This is a work computer for me so I'm not comfortable messing around too much, honestly. The web player works, so I'll just use that from now on. But I think it's truly stupid that the app is broken so thoroughly that for over a week, I haven't been able to play a single song. I wish I was signed up for Premium, just so I could quit again. 

Suggested posts