7 Spotify Web Helpers Running Simultaneously

[user-removed]

I've always had Spotify Helper running, and i've never minded it. But after the last update, i suddenly have 5-7 of them running, and it's happening to both the mac and windows client. If i forcequit them, they will all start up again. 
It's not like it's taking much process or anything, but is there any reason for why it's running so many of them?

[MichaelJerzak]

have you tried disabling the setting allow Spotify to be opened from the internet?

[marcus00]

Why would you do that?  Isn't part of the functionality of Spotify being able to play songs on the internet?  I hate the browser player and want to be able to open links in the desktop application.  I currently have 5 spotify helper .exe's running simultaneously... 

[Taylor · Accepted solution]

Hi,

There is a topic about this here. It seems to be something to do with the upgrade from CEF1 to CEF3 from the looks of things.

I agree it can be a nuisance as I have it too, but I'm pretty sure there's no real solution apart from the Michaels suggestion, but that only seems to work for some people unfortunately!

Anthony 🙂

[user-removed]

I thought that all the apps might be the reason. I was just wondering, seeing it as the spotify client has gotten really buggy lately. 

[olejon · Accepted solution]

This is actually a good thing. From the release notes of v 0.9.4:

CEF 1 was "single process" and if it got stuck doing something - the whole application would "suffer." CEF 3 is a "multi process" version - this means it can do more things at the same time, and if any single thing that it is doing slows down, the rest of the application can continue normally. CEF 3 also allows us to use hardware acceleration on graphics cards - like the latest browsers, it basically uses the computer's hardware both smarter and faster. Users should see much smoother performance in areas that are graphics intensive, like scrolling through long lists.

Most modern applications work this way, to not block or slow down the UI process while working. Take a look at the number of processes Google Chrome uses, for example. This allows one tab to crash without taking down the entire application, and allows the UI to be responsive even though a tab is using a lot of CPU. So you shouldn't think that more processes means a bad application. It just means taking advantage of your hardware to give you the best possible experience.

[DNO]

Hi,

I'm curious about the same thing.

Dean

[Rollo_]

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@DNO wrote:

Hi,

I'm curious about the same thing.

Dean

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@DNO 

Read the post above your own.

[DNO]

Thanks Rollo!

[kibliss]

"This is actually a good thing"...not it's not.  You have no idea what you are talking about.  It's affecting my performance and I don't like it.  Fix it now Spotify or I will simply pirate the music like everyone has done in the past and just be happy then.

[BlingDiggity]

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@kibliss wrote:

"This is actually a good thing"...not it's not.  You have no idea what you are talking about.  It's affecting my performance and I don't like it.  Fix it now Spotify or I will simply pirate the music like everyone has done in the past and just be happy then.

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Exactly. The point isn't that Spotify is using multiple processes to hog up all of my pc's memory - the point is that Spotify IS HOGGING UP ALL OF MY COMPUTER'S MEMORY. I could give a s**t how it does it, I just want it to stop f***ing doing it. What's so hard to understand about that? I had the same problem with Chrome as well, which is why I no longer use it. Using half a gigabyte of ram is TOO MUCH f****ing ram.  

The developers need to find a way to optimize its memory usage, or Spotify is going to start losing a lot of customers very soon.

[Peter__]

How much memory are all of the Spotify processes using on your system @BlingDiggity ? 

A screenshot of task manager or something similar would be handy. If its over the top massive we can get it reported for you. 

[Rollo_]

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@kibliss wrote:

"This is actually a good thing"...not it's not.  You have no idea what you are talking about.  It's affecting my performance and I don't like it.  Fix it now Spotify or I will simply pirate the music like everyone has done in the past and just be happy then.

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For the benfit of those who really want to know what's going on, and not just complain about it, its not the multiple processes that are the problem.  In fact, just the opposite.

The old way, CEF 1, the entire program would stall out and you couldn't do a thing about it except kill it.  It was totally out of your control.

In CEF 3, each of the apps, the player, the Artist browser, the playlist browser, Discover, Browser, activity feed, apps, everything, all run separate spotifyhelper.exe processes. 

With CEF 3, you can, when it stalls, continue to browse in most instances.  If not, you can kill only the offending process while continuing to play music.  I've yet to see the player itself be the offender.  Trust me, I look.  You can even just leave it alone.  If it's slowing you down browsing Spotify or some other software you happen to be using, just kill the offending process.

Granted, sometimes, especially on older computers, the program will still stall or slow down terribly.  Often in fact.  But there is now something you can do about it, if you know how.  There's Task Manager or Process Explorer that will do this for you.  Process Explorer is a free Task Manager replacement from Microsoft.  I highly recommend it.

As us old people like to say, you're barking up the wrong tree when you blame the CEF 3 framework and multiple processes.  If you'd prefer to go back to pirating, well, that's your call.  DLTDHYITAOTWO.

[BlingDiggity]

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@Peter wrote:

How much memory are all of the Spotify processes using on your system @BlingDiggity ? 

A screenshot of task manager or something similar would be handy. If its over the top massive we can get it reported for you. 

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At one point yesterday when the program was actually still working, I checked my task manager and the main "Spotify.exe" app plus it's 12 or so "helper" processes was using right at about 500mb of RAM. Which is fairly ridiculous on any computer, at least as far as I'm concerned.

After I had to manually uninstall Spotify last night, I downloaded the setup file from the website and tried to re-install it, but the setup program kept giving me some weird corrupt file errors and wouldn't finish the installation process. Although I'm fairly certain this has more to do with the spotty wifi connection I was using at the time when I downloaded it rather than the setup file itself. Gonna try re-downloading later today and re-installing again. If by chance I managed to actually get it installed, I'll provide a screenshot asap.

[Rollo_]

Try this link to the full installer

http://download.spotify.com/Spotify%20Installer.exe

12 spotify.exe processes is more than I've ever seen at once.  8 or 9, maybe.  Usually one will close itself anytime it gets past 6 or so.  Not doubting that it has happened, though.

You don't say what your computer specs are.  500mb of ram usage isn't all that much out of the ordinary anymore.  Yes, its a lot.  But there are a lot of other applications that use the same or more.  Have you looked at what happens when you use the Smarm.FM app?  Try the current version of Photoshop sometime.  You mentioned Chrome. 

Normally, Windows should take advantage of paging memory.   But if you're using Windows 7 with only 4 gb of ram, and do a lot of multitasking/gaming/photo/video editing, then I can see having a problem.  4 gb is cutting it close on Win7.

But I agree that the developers could do a better job of coding to prevent overuse of both ram and cpu.  I've often said, beginning at least 10 years ago or more, that as computers get faster and ram becomes cheaper, coders get lazier.

My first PC ran DOS and had 1 mb of ram, and that was an upgrade from 640 kb.  It had a 50mb hard drive and used 5-1/4" floppies to save files for a business app I was running.  There was no internet access back then.

All the different apps that Spotify loads by default is what is contributing to the problem.  Some computers are not going to be able to handle continual app browsing, the activity feed, artist browsing, and still play music efficiently. 

All the more reason to take a minute and check out my idea thread below., which will cut ram and cpu usage to likely 25% of where it is right now  Please add your kudos.

[user-removed]

500mb of RAM is not okay for a program like Spotify to use. Even though RAM gets cheaper, 500mb usage from a music player is not cool at all. A major company can't just expect their users to have 8gb+ ram installed. Personally i get at most about 110mb. But 500mb does not sound normal - you  could try to do a clean reinstall, and try to look manually in %appdata% for some left-over files from an old spotify version. 

If you do not like the desktop app, you can always use the browser version.

[Rollo_]

Yer preachin to the choir, Arne.  But also take into consideration that it's not just a music player anymore. Support my Idea thread below.

Fact remains that high ram usage it has become common place, and will continue to do so.  I run my current version in Sandboxie.  Its always clean, and I reinstall it with every version update.

[user-removed]

Of course, i am aware of the slow and steady course it has towards to becomming a social media platform (or at least trying to become).

Speaking for myself, i don't mind it taking much ram, i have plenty to spare, but i'm just saying i can see why people would like there to be an option to go back to how it was before.

Just for the record, if you have many apps in your client, it will most likely make spotify require more spotifyhelpers/the sx taking more ram.

[Rollo_]

LordArne wrote:

Just for the record, if you have many apps in your client, it will most likely make spotify require more spotifyhelpers/the sx taking more ram.

Take a look at Task Manager, or preferably Process Explorer.

Spotify initially opens with just the helper processes.  Once the display appears, another 2 or 3 will load.  Normally, as you browse the apps, when a new one opens, an older one closes.  It appears some will stay alive regardless, likely the very core music player apps, including the artist and playlist browser apps.

Saved apps don't seem to load until you view them.

All are somewhat difficult to identify, every time they open there is a different PID for the same application.

For the record, I see 0.8.3 using about 200 mb of ram.240 with last.fm running, 250 with Legacy., sometimes brief ram spikes when loading, sometimes some CPU spikes, always settling down.

0.6.5, OTOH has no apps other than very rudimentary What's New and Friends list, a basic genre radio and a few other minor things.  It runs with less than 100 mb.  Take out those two main apps and you're probably down to around 50.

[Oh_well]

Spotify use to be a great program but it just keeps getting worse and worse.

I don't want a Facebook account.

I don't want commercials after every third song.

I don't want pop ups will I'm searching for music.

I want my PC performance back.

I think It's time to switch back to Pandora.