New desktop UI, how do I change it back to the old?

[KingGodCurse]

Plan

Premium

Country

US 

Operating System

Windows 10 

My Question or Issue 

I signed out of all accounts and came back to my desktop app looking like the Web Player Version, when right before it was the old interface. I can't stand this new interface and have already tried to change it in the "prefs" file, but I may not have entered it right. Is there any way I can get back to the old UI, I despise this one as a frequent Spotify Desktop user since 2013. This UI is much more difficult to roam. 

[dinomight]

Hey there @KingGodCurse, your feedback on the UI is appreciated, but I'm sorry to say there is not a way to revert to the previous design. Please feel free to continue to comment on any changes you'd like to see, and especially to vote on or submit ideas about the new UI here. 

[IAmGilipe]

As this board is preventing my from sharing a URL, Google "reverting_to_the_classic_desktop_ui" to find the answer.

[KingGodCurse]

Thanks for that! This works. 

[RealNC]

That is not correct. You can switch to the classic UI in the prefs configuration file.

[acidjunkie]

How does that work? 

I love Spotify but this new UI is absolutely garbage.

Search functionality often fails.

Super difficult to find out what albums an artist has. 

[RealNC]

I added this line:

ui.experience_override="classic"

To the "prefs" file of Spotify. On Linux, the file is in the folder:

~/.config/spotify/

On Windows, it should be in:

%APPDATA%\Spotify

[bluntestpick]

I loath the new UI too. Why approve such a downgrade, Spotify? I hope that workaround posted won't be blocked.

[acidjunkie]

Confirmed that this works - great to have the old UI back 🙂

Thanks a lot!

[multi]

YES! Thank you!! That new UI was making me nuts

[sbebiwan]

Thanks a lot !

[n1kke]

You're a lifesaver! The new UI is missing playlist filtering when adding a new song to a playlist. In the old UI you could just type the first few letters of the name of the playlist and it only showed the matching playlists. The lack of filtering makes adding a song to playlist a nightmare when you have dozens of playlists..

[cethlol]

It's an absolute disaster from a User Experience point of view ... not sure why I should pay if this UI continues like this....

[acidjunkie]

Could not agree more. New UI is just a step back in all areas:

- super hard to figure out what albums an artist has

- can't view the entire discography in one list

- search functionality is hidden away 

But anyway, happy that with a simple one line hack, can go back to the old UI. Works for me 🙂

[tlh119]

I, too, switched back to Classic mode.  I would list out everything I despise about the new UI but I don't have all day.  I'm sure the developers will remove the ability to use classic mode soon  (Spotify is good at removing features).  I will just have to enjoy it while it lasts.

[ranoa513]

This is absolute gold, thank you so much!
btw, the location on Mac is
/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Spotify/prefs

[CheckTheFlo]

Ahah THAAAAAAANKS!! It works!! 🙂

[Visben]

Many thanks!

Windows users should look after the .../AppData/Roaming/Spitfy/prefs file.

[tn1197]

And for those who installed from Microsoft Store:

%localappdata%\Packages\SpotifyAB.SpotifyMusic_zpdnekdrzrea0\LocalState\Spotify\prefs

[Nonoyerbiznez]

It appears when you make the change to the mac version and save the file and reopen Spotify, it removes the newly added ui.experience_override="classic" from that file. This is sucking so bad.