Error code: 4

[fdelbene]

Plan

Free

Country

Italy

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Spotify seems to rely on the connection status provided by Windows to check for connectivity.

When Windows shows a "No Internet access", Spotify will refuse to connect with error code: 4.

Unfortunately, Windows connection status is not fail-proof, and will show an incorrect status in several occasions (in my case after I disconnect from a VPN).

All other programs on my PC don't care about the reported Windows connection status and will attempt anyway to connect to the remote server, with success (Windows itself connects to the Internet for updates and telemetry!).

Spotify seems to be the only one to be blocked with the bogus status.

Proposed solution

Let Spotify ignore Windows connection status and always attempt to connect to the remote server.

[Ivan]

Hey there @fdelbene, 

Thanks for reaching out to us about this - we'll be glad to help you out here.
 

We're currently aware of an issue causing the behavior you describe. We suggest you go to this Ongoing Issue and add your vote to it by clicking on the +VOTE button. 

Make sure you follow the steps provided under Status Update as well. 

It'll also be useful to subscribe via the three-dots menu in the top right corner next to the title. That'll make sure you stay up to date with any relevant updates about this.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any more questions. 

[fdelbene]

Hello Ivan,

thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately the issue described in the post you linked is different from mine (the error code is also different).

Spotify normally works on my PC, and there is no firewall or VPN involved.

At least, it works *until* something confuses Windows and make it thinks it has no more Internet access (in my case this happen when I disconnect a temporary VPN, but there could be different reasons as in enterprise networks with complex firewall/proxy architecture).

When my Windows says it has no more Internet access, all my other programs keep working (browser, Steam, email client, etc.) except for Spotify that -I think- doesn't try to connect at all.

When this happen, I just restart my PC to reset Windows connection status and Spotify works again.

[Ivan]

Hey @fdelbene, 

Thanks for getting back to us.
 

Have you tried a clean reinstall of the Spotify app on your PC? In some situations a clean (more thorough) reinstall of the app might be needed. This way you can start afresh with Spotify on your device. 

Check out this help page in order to find the steps for clean reinstall on the affected device. 

If it doesn’t do the trick, do you mind sending us a screenshot showing the error message you see? Just attach the image to your next response to us. This way we can take a closer look at the issue. 

We'll look out for your reply. 

[fdelbene]

Hello Ivan,

I already tried that. I also reinstalled the O.S. a few weeks ago and nothing changed.

I understand that the real bug is on the Windows side (showing an incorrect connection status), but I suggest that Spotify doesn't rely on it (in fact, no other program I use rely on it).

I attached a screenshot (please understand that I edited it to remove several unnecessary parts) that shows my PC while doing an Internet connection speed test and editing this reply, but Spotify disconnected as Windows thinks it has no Internet access.

[Ivan]

Hey @fdelbene, 

Thanks for sending us the screenshot.
 

It seems that what you've observed points out indeed to something wrong with the Windows OS. However, we'd suggest you check if the same happens under a different Internet connection, in case you have this option. This way you'll determine whether the issue might be network-related.  

If it works with another connection, it's best to contact the service provider of the original network for more information. As you mentioned, some shared or public networks (e.g. schools/work/office) might restrict access to certain services, which would explain what happened here.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted. 

[fdelbene]

Hello Ivan,

I'm at home, I fully control my IT environment and my network connection works and allows Spotify.

In fact, as said, I use it without problems, until something "messes" with Windows perceived network status (I tested several times and can reproduce the behavior).

While not really a Spotify own bug, imho, relying on someone else unreliable feature is not completely right, and an improvement would be appreciated.

If you pass my report upstream to a dev, I'm available to further investigation (logs and such).

Thank you.

[ashinglabrar]

This issue is cleary described and it seems quite easy to understand... It would be great if  product managers could take it into account because this is just a very annoying situation.

While as the last post says this is arguably not a "bug" in Spotify code, for an application that only works over the Internet, this seems to me to be broken behaviour.