It constantly says I'm offline even though I have a secure internet connection

[BrutePuvi]

Plan

Free

Country

Singapore

Device

The older Asus A45V

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

It's constantly saying I'm in "Offline Mode" and that I need to be online to access everything. (Error code:4). It says at the top "No internet connection detected" even though I have a perfectly good ethernet cable running into my laptop. I just downloaded the app a couple minutes ago and I have searched through the questions similar to mine but none of the solutions work.

[Billy-J]

Hey @BrutePuvi, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

Make sure that Offline Mode isn't enabled on your computer. You can check for this by following these steps:

1. Open Spotify.
2. For Mac: In the Apple menu at the top of the screen, click Spotify. 
   For Windows: Click File in the Windows menu at the top of the screen.
3. Select Offline Mode. Select OFF where you see the option to.

If that doesn't work, could you try restarting your PC? If that doesn't help, try a clean reinstall of the app.

If you're still having trouble, can you make sure that your device and app are up to date (which should be after the clean reinstall)? 

Let me know how this goes!

[BrutePuvi]

I've tried restarting my PC, doing a clean reinstall and they don't work. Also, there is no option saying Offline Mode on it. I clicked on the 3 dots in the top left and then clicked on file, but nothing such as Offline Mode is there. I'm not sure if I'm blind and not seeing something ridiculously obvious or if there actually is a problem.

[Billy-J]

Hey @BrutePuvi,

Does this happen when you use a different network connection?

[MStanbrook]

I've been having the same issue for the last week or two. Most days for hours at a time Spotify makes this 'offline' claim. The PC is not offline, the installation is fresh, the cache has been cleared.

It's a bug. Stop trying to dump the problem on users' networks or 'configurations'. Telling everyone to reinstall or restart got old for this problem 5 years ago.

Instead tell us what we can tcpdump or trace so you can fix the bug.

[BrutePuvi]

I don't have a different network connection, but for some reason when I unplug my ethernet cable, it says I'm online, but when I plug it back in, it puts me back offline. I need to have the cable plugged in, as from the part of my house that I use my laptop, if i don't have it plugged in, the Wifi fluctuates way too much. If I have it plugged in, it's perfect.

[Billy-J · Accepted solution]

Hey all,

If none of the steps I provided help, then I'd recommend checking this page out.

You can try following the additional steps provided, and if you're still experience the same issue, vote on it by clicking on the +VOTE button, to help with Spotify's investigation.

I hope this helps!

[MStanbrook]

None of those help. As ever, this is a software bug. I've offered to help debug it with stack traces, dumps, tcp traces. If someone from Spotify wants my assistance, great. If not, I can always vote with my money by using Tidal.

[diegoperl]

I am having the same problem, and no restart/reinstall/praying helps

plan : premium

os: windows 10

country : israel

[NachoNeko]

Same problem in Spotify Desktop App
Network works, NCSI works, Spotify not.
But the web player, Android app within same network works fine, and Spotify Connect works in the desktop app( control other Devices in 'Offline Mode').
This situation occurs irregularly, sometimes it can be 'Online' and able to play when I switch to another Wi-Fi network or just restart the wireless, but soon it back to 'Offline'.


Plan: Premium
Country: Japan
Device: Lg gram
OS: Windows 10 2004 update

[recrudesce]

Same issue.  This **bleep** has been going on for YEARS.

Spotify works on:

1: 7 different Android phones

2: 5 Google Home devices

3: The web player

Spotify does not work on:

1: My Windows 10 PC

Everything is on the same network.  With the same DNS settings.  The same default gateway.  Everything is identical.  The ONLY application that is not able to connect to the internet on my Windows 10 PC is the Spotify application.  I have reinstalled, rebooted, cleared caches, logged out, logged back in more times than I care to count, yet I am still told that I have "no internet connection".

This has been a problem since 2012 - just look at the forums.

SORT IT OUT SPOTIFY.  This is NOT a user issue, this is NOT caused by people's networks.  This is an APPLICATION ISSUE.

See screenshot of me typing this post, with Steam online in the background, Discord online to the right, but Spotify "offline".

[NovaPlz]

I have the same problem, when open the Spotify Desktop APP it goes online, then offline and then online.... BUT when I open the Spotify Web it goes normal, 100% online without any problem.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the app but is NOT working, I even did the FlushDNS and nothing...   And Spotify is not saying anything else besides "their solution" LOL

[MythicDoctor]

Thanks for the comment about the web app... I'm going to do that so I can get back to work. I don't have time to try a hundred debug steps, but based on this thread it seems that this is a software issue.

Installed the latest version of Spotify and it worked for a couple days, but today no amount of restarting the application has resolved the permanently offline issue. At one point it was telling me I had a firewall problem (I didn't) but that message went away after a few minutes.

Spotify works on my android, ios, and mac devices, but not the Windows device.

Device: Surface Pro 7
OS: Windows 10 Pro
Plan: Premium

[devenv]

Same problem here, still... Everything is online except spotify...

[devenv]

Lol, it even shows that I'm listening in the web player, so it does have internet connection... Except it's offline.......

[zeynepaydin]

I also experience the same issue for a week. Spotify desktop app was working completely fine and then all of a sudden it stopped working when I am on WiFi. I can perfectly use my WiFi network in other tabs but the Spotify Desktop app says that I am offline. I can perfectly use the app with my iPhone hotspot but when it comes to WiFi, it stops working. I have done a clean reinstall of the app and nothing has changed. Additionally, I can listen to my playlists even if the songs in them are not downloaded but I cannot reach any online page on Spotify.

Device: MacBook Air

OS: macOS Big Sur Version 11.2.3

Plan: Premium

[Novy]

Hey there @zeynepaydin, 

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community.

We'd recommend checking your firewall and antivirus software/apps to make sure that Spotify is whitelisted or set as an exception. 

We'd also suggest uninstalling any ad-blocker apps. 

Let us know how it goes. 

[zeynepaydin]

I have done everything you suggested and log out. However, when tried to log back in, I got an error and attached it to this reply. In addition, before logging out, Spotify suddenly recognized my WiFi network for five minutes, and it again went offline even though my WiFi was connected and nothing was changed.

[Novy]

Hey @zeynepaydin, 

Thanks for this info. 

Could you give these steps a go in order to check your host files? 

If possible, could you also give it a try using a different internet connection?

Let us know if you notice anything new.

[zeynepaydin]

I have checked my host files and have done all the things you have previously suggested and nothing has changed. I switched to iPhone mobile hotspot and Spotify went online. Then I switched back to Wifi and Spotify went offline again, even though I could use WiFi perfectly on other applications of my MacBook.