External monitors disconnect when opening Spotify

[jackspencer]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Operating System

Windows10

My Question or Issue

Whenever Spotify is active my monitors will constantly disconnect and reconnect (and my bluetooth mouse). This happens with the web player, the desktop app, and on webpages with embedded Spotify songs. 

[jackspencer]

The fix is going to depend on your cabling setup. HDMI to HDMI should be fine, but where you will confuse Widevine is using HDMI adapters to things like USB-c or Display Port. Widevine is not smart enough to tell the difference between this and a video capture device, so it overreacts. Buy a cable that states it is HDCP compliant and you can probably get use of your monitor back. 

Of course Spotify could also just not use Widevine DRM on these short loop video streams, or at least admit they are doing it and prompting for opt-in, or even updating their TOS if using DRM is now required. Like I said, solving this was hard because Spotify made it a mystery, unlike other Widevine using services that are upfront about it. 

[Vishera]

This just started happening to me today. Whenever I open spotify or the web app, 2 of my 3 monitors go grey and don't respond. The only way to get them back is to end task on spotify, and then use Windows + P and select a different monitor setup, then go back to "Extend". But if I open spotify again .. poof. I checked the Event Viewer to see if an error log pops up, nothing.

Windows 11, all up to date. wth is going on???

I've seen other posts with MULTIPLE users having the same issue.. and yet crickets from Spotify! We demand answers!

[kondraschovAnV]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Processor AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX with Radeon Graphics 2.50 GHz
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Operating System

Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 23H2
Installed on ‎8/‎3/‎2024
OS build 22631.3958

My Question or Issue

Whenever I open Spotify, whether it's the desktop app or the web app, all of my monitors (internal and external) go black. I've seen other posts about this issue, but none seem to offer a solution.

Here's what I've tried so far:

• Reinstalled the desktop app
• Cleared the cache on my web browser
• Turned off hardware acceleration
• Updated all GPU drivers and firmware for my external monitor

Unfortunately, none of these steps have resolved the issue. I’ve discovered that the problem is related to the looping small videos (Canvas) that play with some songs.

However, it seems the option to toggle Canvas off is no longer available.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know why the Canvas toggle button has disappeared, or how else I can turn off Canvas to fix this issue?

[Vishera]

Still no response from Spotify on this issue. I posted it on their Reddit and they REMOVED the post. How slimy is that? Dare I say it is time we all start migrating away from Spotify. Lots of better options out there with developers that actually listen to their users. Deezer, Amazon Music, Tidal and even ... Apple Music...

[PatMathews]

When is Spotify going to fix this obvious known and current issue?  All drivers and firmware are up to date, uninstalled and reinstalled spotify and still no change.  Please get it together and get this one resolved.

[Yordan]

Hey everyone,

Our tech folks are still looking into this. In order to aid us in the investigation, could you please share the exact brand/model of the docking station / hub you're using (if you haven't already)? If you aren't using the built-in speakers for the monitor, could you try disabling the audio device in Windows' sound settings to see if that helps?

Keep us posted on this. Cheers 🤘

[ail0il0]

I am using a ThinkPad Universal Thunderbolt 4 Smart Dock - US Part #: 40B10135US and 2 of my 4 monitors gray out when opening Spotify on Windows 11, this just started this week.  I have disabled the built-in speakers, uninstalled and re-installed Spotify and made sure all my drivers are up to date.

[PatMathews]

I just figured out that while playing music in the desktop app, if the Now Playing view is turned off, which is what shows the album cover or little video for each song, the screen flashing stops while in a session.  The screen flashing was happening when a song with just an image was showing of the album, then going to a song with a visual loop (video) was playing in the now playing view.  Still no change when opening up and I've turned off the settings for "show the now-playing panel" and "Display short, looping visuals".  Video was sent to Kristel with Spotify support.

[ᵴᴛᴇᴠᴇ]

As everyone here is having problems with their second monitor, check the onboard HDMI settings and turn off CEC if availble.

Worth a shot.

[ThomasMa]

Same here. Windows 11 and AOC external screen. Opening Spotify disconnects the screen from my computer. After 15 to 20 seconds it gets connected again and I can use Spotify.

[enistoja]

LG 19M38A, connected directly to my laptop using HDMI cable. Speakers are connected to my laptop using the headphone jack, this happens regardless of whether i have speakers, headphones, or using built-in speakers.

I should not have to turn off my speakers to prevent spotify from blacking out my screen when i happen to scroll past a post on tumblr or twitter with a spotify widget on it, regardless.

[in42615]

This issue has gotten worse and has been happening to me for months now.  It used to be that whenever I opened Spotify my external monitor crashed, but could be resolved by unplugging/plugging back in the HDMI cable, after doing it one time I was able to continue using Spotify.

Now however, even after unplugging/plugging in my HDMI cable, Spotify continues to crash the external monitor, both the application and the web version does it.  I'm completely unable to use the Spotify app.  I'll plug in the HDMI again, the screen will display for a second or two, then go black again so long as anything Spotify is open.

OS:  Win11

Monitor connected via a USBC Hub with an HDMI cable plugged into it.

[drbigfish123]

Having this exact same problem. Been looking all over the internet for a fix and the closest thing I've found to what sounds like a solution is this. The fact that this issue is so prevalent and Spotify isn't doing a single thing to fix it in almost 3 years is absurd. This is not a small problem and you can't keep blaming the HDMI. The HDMI being bad wouldn't explain why the issue only happens when opening the Spotify app. If you believe that, you shouldn't be allowed to work IT. I'm not going through the hassle of having to run CONSOLE COMMANDS to prevent it from causing issues either. This app is basically malware and is forever off my computer 

[Simitus · Accepted solution]

An update for anyone still having this issue. By way if introduction I do a bit of IT contracting and cyber security on the side, I am a full stack dev by day. I found that this only effected a monitor connected by an HDMI to USB-c converter. Specifically, an older converter that does not communicate the security level of HDCP it can handle. At runtime, the Spotify app, encrypting its video streams with HDCP, detected an unsecured display and Widevine DRM then masked the output to that device with 0,0,255 (straight blue). The same behaviour I'd been noticing from streaming services like Disney+. In those cases, my extended desktop still showed a preview of what should be on that screen on mouse-over, and a 0,0,255 mask is pretty unique behaviour that is different than being outright disabled. So, this seemed fishy to me.

Next I had to do more digging, apparently I and half the planet missed that W3C implemented DRM at the browser spec level, and now the browser can query your display interfaces to determine what HDCP level they satisfy. It can't actually mess with your displays in this way though, only Microsoft can expose that kind of vulnerability in your OS to whatever application happens to want it. To this end, they provide software called Widevine that does the enforcement side of this DRM solution in Windows clients. You've likely installed Widevine without thinking much about it because a while ago services like Netflix required you to or they wouldn't play on your desktop.

To test this hypothesis I turned Widevine off and the app behaved normally. Finally, I bought a newer converter that does communicate its HDCP level and the problem went away for good. 

This leaves me feeling raw for a couple of reasons. 1, Microsoft has made no effort whatsoever here. 0,0,255 tells me nothing. I feel they least they could have done is put some text on the screen telling me what has done this and why. Second, I'm upset with Spotify because DRM is overkill for this use case and unlike Netflix they never prompted an opt-on for that DRM. They just updated their client to play video and bang, extended / mirrored desktop users are toast. 

Pretty disappointed overall with this situation. It took a long time to solve and none of the parties responsible are being honest, they're gaslighting and redirecting this to drivers or other unrelated issues wasting everyone's time. It's not an issue with your monitors, your drivers or your OS. It's an issue with your cables that wouldn't be an issue if the video stres weren't encrypted or at the least, Spotify had been honest about the use of DRM. 

[enistoja]

Thank you Simitus for your in-depth and thorough response! This clarifies a lot of what's going on. I am unsure what we on the receiving end can do (especially people like me who don't use spotify and just made an account because spotify was making my general internet experience worse), but knowing what the problem is must be helpful on some level.

[Simitus]

The fix is going to depend on your cabling setup. HDMI to HDMI should be fine, but where you will confuse Widevine is using HDMI adapters to things like USB-c or Display Port. Widevine is not smart enough to tell the difference between this and a video capture device, so it overreacts. Buy a cable that states it is HDCP compliant and you can probably get use of your monitor back. 

Of course Spotify could also just not use Widevine DRM on these short loop video streams, or at least admit they are doing it and prompting for opt-in, or even updating their TOS if using DRM is now required. Like I said, solving this was hard because Spotify made it a mystery, unlike other Widevine using services that are upfront about it. 

[FacePunch-FU]

Having the exact same issue. I have 3 monitors and one goes completly off when I launch the Spotify desktop app.

[enistoja]

I have a monitor with a VGA output that i am plugging into my computer with a VGA-to-HDMI adapter. Getting a new adapter to stop spotify from shutting my monitor even when not on spotify's website should not be on me.

[ThomasMa]

Thank you! This is the solution indeed. I used a new displayport cable to HDMI. Crazy find! How is it possible that Spotify is the only software that uses this? @Spotify, please fix this.

[Twski]

In my case, the issue only happens when I use a DisplayPort cable to my dock to my monitor. And restarting the video driver (Ctrl+Shift+Win+B) once seems to make the issue disappear until I reboot/suspend/reconnect to dock. Before, I used HDMI and had no problem.

My setup:

Laptop with Thunderbolt 3 port (with DisplayPort connected to Nvidia dGPU) -> Lenovo USB-C Dock (I don't think it's Thunderbolt, just USB 3) -> DisplayPort cable -> Philips 242V8 monitor

Changing the DisplayPort cable to HDMI = no issue.

[Yordan]

Thanks for the phenomenal post @Simitus! I've forwarded the information to the team investigating this.

Cheers everyone 🤘