Chrome Browser

[ffc2004]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Windows 10 laptop with Chrome browser

My Question or Issue

For the past week or so, I get the error "Spotify can't play this right now" when listening through web player on Chrome, if I pick a song it will display that error for several songs and then eventually play a different song - never had a problem previously. It works fine on my iPhone app, works fine on Edge browser, but is only happening on Chrome which is my default browser.

[Dessi]

Hi there @ffc2004,

Thanks for reaching out!

As this is only happening when you're using a Google Chrome browser, we recommend checking out this guide that has some suggestions for this specific case and giving everything a try to hopefully get this sorted out.

Let us know how it goes and if you need any further help.

[ffc2004]

Unfortunately none of this has worked!

[Yordan]

Hey @ffc2004,

Thanks for getting back to us. That sounds odd. 

It is worth trying to reproduce the issue with a different account and share the results with us.

On another note, this error message might also be caused by VPN blocking certain networking ports. We'd suggest that you turn off your VPN if you're using one.

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes. 

[ffc2004]

No VPN is running, and no other Spotify account to test with?

[AlejaR]

Hey there @ffc2004,

Thanks for your reply.

We recommend you clear your host files. You can follow these steps to give it a try. 

If possible, you can ask for the account of a relative or a friend to open it on your laptop and check if you can replicate this behavior.

If this behavior persists, we'd like to gather some additional info. Please send us:

• The exact version of Chrome you're running.
• Does this happen over WiFi? Ethernet? Both? Is this happening if you change the internet connection you're using? If possible, you can create a hotspot from a phone and connect your computer to it, to see if you notice any difference.

Keep us in the loop!

[ffc2004]

Hosts file already cleared, I can check the hotspot this evening

Chrome is up to date

Version 144.0.7559.133 (Official Build) (64-bit)

[Maria]

Hey @ffc2004, thanks for following up!

We'll keep an eye out for your update about the hotspot 🙂

In the meantime, we can suggest clearing cache and cookies from the browser, as well as using an incognito window, to check if it behaves in the same way (if you haven't already).

Cheers!

[ffc2004]

I have already tried that 🙂 no luck!

[ffc2004]

New user didn't work, hotspot also didn't

[Paula_Vi]

Hi again, @ffc2004 

Thanks for keeping in contact!

Just to confirm, have you tried opening the web player in an incognito/private window in Chrome? Sometimes Chrome's way of using your graphics card can clash with the audio stream. If it still fails in an incognito window, try following these steps to see if it makes a change:

• Go to chrome://settings/system.
• Toggle off Use hardware acceleration when available and click Relaunch. 

Also, reset just Spotify's Web Player data to fix corrupted cache. While on the Spotify Web Player, click the Lock icon (left of the URL) > select Site Settings and then click Delete data > Refresh the page and log back in. 

Keep us posted!

[ffc2004]

Incognito didn't work, unfortunately nether did resetting the cache or hardware acceleration.

[Ivelina]

Thank you for the input @ffc2004.

Ad blockers and privacy-focused extensions could block the Spotify web player's scripts or audio streams and with this in mind, consider going to Chrome > extensions and toggling off any ad-blockers or script-blockers, then perform a refresh of the web player.

Keep us posted.

[ffc2004]

Still not working unfortunately

[Yordan]

Hi, @ffc2004,

Could you let us know the exact version of Widevine you have installed in Chrome? You can do this by typing chrome://components in the URL bar and searching for 'Widevine Content Decryption Module'. If you haven't already, click Check for update to make sure you're running the latest version available, then restart your browser.

Should the issue persist, consider reinstalling Chrome from scratch to get rid of any potentially corrupted cache.

Cheers 🤘

[ffc2004]

Widevine Content Decryption Module - Version: 4.10.2934.0
I did try reinstalling Chrome completely over the weekend also and still have the issue

[Yordan]

Thanks for the reply, @ffc2004.

Have you noticed the issue after a recent OS or browser update? It's worth making sure you've allowed playback of DRM-protected content in Chrome by heading to Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Additional content settings > Protected content IDs and selecting 'Sites can play protected content' as well as 'Sites can use identifiers to play protected content' as shown on the screenshot below.

While in chrome://settings, check if you're blocking third-party cookies and allow them to see if that makes a difference.

Hope this helps!

[ffc2004]

Third party cookies are allowed, and both of those settings are on

[Eni]

Hey there @ffc2004, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

As a next step, we suggest that you head to the web player, click on the View site information icon that you can find on the left next to the web address   and select Site settings > Permissions. Then, click on Reset all permissions and restart the browser.


 

Should the issue persist, we'd recommend running Chrome without extensions. To do so, make sure to close the Chrome browser and on the start screen, press Win + R, type "chrome.exe --disable-extensions" and re-open the browser again. 

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[ffc2004]

Annoyingly, neither of those have worked either!