[Desktop Win11] Spotify keeps crashing my computer

[casti3l]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Intel® Core™**bleep**
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER

Operating System

Windows 11 Pro

My Question or Issue

[Very lengthy post but the subject is basically the TLDR]

02/28/2022

For a couple of months now, Spotify has been freezing my computer and forcing a restart every couple of days but I kind of ignored it. Then about two weeks ago, it's been skipping songs (it would skip certain songs but happened in different albums and artists), crashing, and freezing/force restarting my computer about every 10 minutes. This issue happened on both my computer and laptop (both Win11) so it wasn't a device issue. This happens on different internet connections (tried cafe wifi, home wifi, school wifi/ethernet, etc.) Initially, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Spotify using both the desktop download and the Microsoft store version of Spotify. Both reproduced the same issues. I tried on the Spotify web player and it didn't have the skipping songs issue but did crash and force restart my computer. I was using this version of Spotify (see below) which was the most up to date version of Spotify at the time.

Spotify for Windows
1.1.79.763.gc2965cdf

I proceeded to contact customer service who gave me a test account. The test account did not reproduce any of the issues and worked fine. I then proceeded to make a new account and it had the same issues. I also made a new account on my iPhone (iOS) and logged into it with my desktop and had the same issues.

A list of different stuff IT suggested that didn't work

First method (Signout Everywhere)

- Go to your own account's overview page here: https://www.spotify.com/account/overview/ (make sure you log into your own original account)
- Scroll all the way down and tap "Signout Everywhere". It will log your account out from all the devices you've logged it into.
- Uninstall the Spotify app, then restart your PC and router
- After restarting, install the app again and log back into your account

Second Method (Safe Mode)

1. Click Start (Windows icon) and tap the Settings
2. Select Recovery and look for Advance Startup
3. Click Restart now button and another Restart now option
4. Once the blue screen appears, select Troubleshoot
5. Click Advance Options, then Startup Settings, then Restart button again, then you'll see some options again
6. Select the number 5 to run it in Safe mode with internet access.

*** I actually was not able to do this method because internet access only works thru ethernet in Safe Mode and I only had Wifi at the time***

Third Method (Deleting entries of Spotify on Notepad)

- Open Notepad as an administrator (right-click - Open as Administrator)
- go to File - Open and navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
- Choose "All Files" instead of "Text Documents" next to the File Name box. You'll see a handful of files. Pick hosts and click on Open
- When the file is open, you will see a block of text with # in front of each line and might see entries like 0.0.0.0 website.com127.0.0.1 website2.com
- Check for any entries with Spotify in the address. Examples may look like: 0.0.0.0 weblb-wg.gslb.spotify.com0.0.0.0
- If you do find any lines with Spotify, please remove them
- Save your changes and restart Spotify

*** I did not have any Spotify-related entries on Notepad***

Fourth Method (Flushing DNS)

1. Type ‘cmd’ in the search bar of Windows 11 (Start). Right-click the Command Prompt from suggestions and select ‘Run as Administrator’.
2. Now you need to enter this command: ipconfig /flushdns
3. Press the Enter key. After a few seconds, you’ll get a pop-up saying the operation was successful.
4. Restart your PC again and re-open the Spotify app

These solutions didn't work so IT told me they would pass it over to the developers and let me know when the issue is resolved via email.

03/01/2022

The day after I chatted with IT, all the previously mentioned issues started occurring on my iPhone's Spotify app.

03/03/2022 (or sometime around this date)

iPhone issue resolved spontaneously.

On my computer, skipping songs issue resolved but still keeps crashing every now and then (ranges from every hour to a few times a day).

03/15/2022

I contacted customer support again. They said, "The iOS app issue is a separate one from your Windows 11 app issue. Due to it being coded for different platforms. The iOS issue is still ongoing, so as a heads-up, you might see it from time to time."

As for the Win11 problem, they had me try these steps:

1. From the Start menu search "Optional feature"
2. Press the "View Features" button on the top right corner (beside the "Add an optional feature" label)
3. Search for "Media Feature Pack"
4. Install it, and reboot

When I tried, I didn't see a "Media Feature Pack" but when I clicked "More Windows features" at the bottom of the page I already had a "Media Features" file that was checkmarked. They told me that the Tech team is still working on the issue and would let me know when they have a solution but no timeframe as to when.

My Spotify still crashes and freezes/force restarts my computer even when not playing a song and just sitting in background. I uninstalled Spotify from my computer a few days ago and it no longer freezes/force restarts which supports the evidence that the Spotify app was the likely cause. I was probably using this version of Spotify (see below) right before I uninstalled it.

Spotify for Windows
1.1.80.699.gc3dac750

If you read this far, thank you. I am now a sad boy listening to Spotify only on my phone which is frustrating because I am usually on my computer with a headset either in video conferences or gaming. Any help/solutions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again.

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for your replies in this thread. We're sorry to hear that you're experiencing this.

There's currently an ongoing issue about this here. You can Subscribe to the thread so that you don't miss any updates.

Let us know if we can help you with anything else in the meantime.

Take care!

[lokiShouse9]

Hi.  I hope you managed to get the problems fixed, especially with your PC Desktop.  I was going to ask if your PC was running 16GB RAM or not.  My ancient computer has only 8 GBs of RAM, and usually works fine, but so many things have been crashing my computer lately, and I'm getting a new one very soon.  But, that is beside the point. I read your article because for the last 3 days I have had a problem on my Desktop Spotify app where it won't start playing an album until I "add to library", and then not necessarily.  Also, albums that I already have saved to my library are doing the same thing, and this frustrates me.  I am someone who always plays "an album" or a playlist, and I have never encountered this issue before.  Most of the Premium features are working fine on my phone (Samsung, Android ) but when I am home and turn on my desktop app it is almost like nothing will play ...the transport buttons at the bottom of the screen stay greyish and look like I haven't chosen anything.  Anyway, I am just replying to tell you I understand your pain! I haven't figured out my problem yet, it persists even after I logged out and updated my instillation of Spotify Desktop...

[AndresM]

Hey @lokiShouse9,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community and welcome. 

Could you tell us what troubleshooting steps you've followed so far? Also, let us know if this happens when using the web player.

Lastly, we recommend that you subscribe to the thread suggested by @Jeremy earlier. Any update will be posted there. 

Remember the Community is here in case anything else comes up.

Cheers.

[alexb6]

Hello, I believe to have the same issue, but it started after a while from my upgrade to windows 11 so I'm not really sure it it's related. Now each time I open up Spotify it crashes on me after a few seconds without any errors or popups, I have tried installing Spotify as a PWA from chrome, with the SpotifySetup.exe provided on the website and also from the Microsoft Store, each time with the same issue.

[Jeremy]

Hi there @alexb6,

Thank you for your reply. We're super sorry to see that you're experiencing this.

We can confirm that our team is investigating this at the moment. In the meantime we recommend that you subscribe to the ongoing issue to make sure that you don't miss any updates.

Take care!

[alexb6]

Good to know you are working on this, hope you'll be able to solve the issue, in the meantime I'll be blasting my music on the browser player

[Ghosteez420]

same issue here just stopped working one day tried doing everything like clearing cache and reinstalling nothing worked

[CarlosE]

Hey @Ghosteez420,

Thanks for posting on the Community 🙂

This issue is already being investigated in this thread. In the meantime, we suggest you provide the info we're asking for in the Status. Feel free to add your vote. You can also Subscribe to it in the three-dot menu, that way you can stay up-to-date with any relevant news about this.

If you need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[alexb6]

Hello,
Been using the spotify app from microsoft store and it hasn't crashed for a while now, things seem to be back to normal

[Ghosteez420]

thank you spotify team it works

[Kiril]

Hey there @alexb6 and @Ghosteez420,

Thanks for letting us know that everything is working fine now.
 

Remember to always keep your app updated, so you don't miss any fixes or new  upcoming features. Don't hesitate to give us a shout if you have more questions.
 

Have a good day and stay safe!

[constantines]

Can confirm issue is reoccurring in latest updates of Windows 11 and latest Spotify updates using Windows Store app . The issue is occurring for past more than 3 months. Tried anything that OP posted in first message. 

[Joan]

Hi there @constantines,

Thanks for the reply. Since it has been a while since this thread got resolved, it's unlikely to be the same issue. Could you send us the exact app version you have and a screen recording of the behaviour so we can investigate this? If the files are too large to attach here in the Community, you can send them to us via Google Drive or as unlisted YouTube videos.

Keep us posted.

[constantines]

That was a mistyping because it is not exactly that issue, the issue is that the app itself is crashing. Have created a new topic for that. Thanks for replying

[Aerials92]

Dude i got the same issue since 2024-05-01. So it seems that the application particulary has a main issue in the core system. Even tho when i try to open the spotify web-player via brower my highhend Windows 11 PC starts to freeze. I cant explain how an website can have such an impact of the hardware of my pc.

[Yordan]

Hey folks,

Thank you for the replies.

Something that may help here is using the System File Checker tool to repair potentially missing or corrupted system files. You'll find a detailed guide on how to use it in this article.

Let us know how it goes 👍

[Aerials92]

Didnt help at all. I suggest not to focus on the clients systems rather your spectacular spaghetti code.
I Still got the same issue and im wondering how long it will take until this problem is getting fixed.
Older spotify Versions seems to work but they automatically update to a new version after 2 or 3 system restarts. After all the webbrowser version does not seem to work aswell. You released a critical bug in your live version and your clients want to get this fixed as soon as possible!!!

[MihailY]

Hey @Aerials92,

Thanks for your reply.

The ongoing issue that was linked in this thread has been resolved, so if you're still having trouble, we'll need to start a new investigation and for this we'll need a following info:

• The OS version and Spotify version of your device.
• A detailed description of the issue along with a short video of how things look on your end. If the web player is also affected, make sure to include its behavior as well.
• The troubleshooting steps you've tried so far.

If you're experiencing lagging when on the Home page, note that this is currently being investigated here, so please post the above details in this thread instead.

We'll be on the lookout for your response.