Core Application Feature Missing After Update

[quinnmct]

I was forced to update and can no longer send songs to my friends. I can't even access my inbox. I use Spotify for this reason. I cannot find the messages. I can't find them on my Mac Spotify desktop app and I can't find them on my Android Spotify mobile app. Where did all my messages go? 

did they delete all my messages? How can I access all the messages & songs that I sent to friends over the last five years? Are they gone?

[dinomight]

Hi, thanks for your post. Unfortunately the inbox/messaging system has been removed due to low overall use and the high maintenance resources to keep it operational. Please see this post for more details.

For the time being, sharing music will have to be done via your social networks.

There isn't a way to recover the old messages, but if you'd like to see the messaging feature return, please visit this idea and add your vote and comment!

[quinnmct]

Wait, all the messages I have sent and received are now gone? Why wasn't I given any warning! this is the main reason I use Spotify .. and there is no way to recover?

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@dinomight wrote:

For the time being, sharing music will have to be done via your social networks.

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Are you impying that the Development team is building a new system to share music from one Spotify user to another without having to use some external social media platform? What is the ETA on this new sharing feature?

Why was this removed? I feel like every single app I've ever used in the last 15 years has had a form of messages / Inbox. Why would you remove it without any warning? I send messages to my friends, siblings, tons of songs my mother has been sending me.

Is there a derived playlist that contains all the songs that I have received through my inbox? I am very disappointed that this feature was removed without warning. If there is not way to recover my messages then I have no reason to be paying for your services.

[dinomight · Accepted solution]

Well, you might still be able to temporarily access your old messages from this link. If not, the only other way I could think of would be if you had access to an old version of Spotify. If you are able to access the messages, I would just recommend backing them up in some way, whether that means saving any songs you want to keep to your own playlists manually and/or copying any messages that you would like to keep.

As far as why it was removed, the team at Spotify watches how various aspects of the service are being used, and they just determined that the inbox was not one that received enough attention to continue devoting the surprisingly high number of resources/manpower needed to keep it working.

The good news is it will be possible to at least request a playlist of songs from your inbox, so if you only need the songs and not the messages themselves, Spotify can help. Please just visit this thread, and scroll down to the solution from @Rorey for full details and further answers to commonly asked questions about the inbox removal. You can email Spotify by contacting them here if you would like to request this type of playlist be added to your account.

[quinnmct]

Thanks. The link you sent me is dead, so I guess it's safe to say all my mesasges are gone.

Hopefully I can recover the songs, but losing all my messages just feels really weird to me. Facebook wasn't built for chat messaging, but if all of a sudden they deleted everyone's historical Facebook messages without any warning then people would be pissed!

I'm pissed, I don't care if other people didnt use the messages. Other people don't pay for spotify, other people dont have 200+ playlists over 5 years. I just feel violated for having all of my personal messages deleted without warning.

[dinomight]

Dang, I hoped it would be as simple as going to that link. Still works for me. I would still try emailing support though, as I'm pretty sure they will be able to make that playlist for you, but I don't have any more ideas on getting back the actual messages.