Queue keeps disappearing & other annoyances

[TheAlex]

Spotify seems to get worse with every release. On a Windows XP machine, I still use an old version - no problems, and it's more user-friendly.

Every time Spotify updates on my Windows 10 machine, I Iose my whole queue.

You used to be able to select a portion of an artists catalogue by clicking on a release, holding shift, and clicking on another release (general Windows selection process) > right-click > add to queue. That would only select the highlighted tracks - but now, EVERYTHING from that artists catalogue appears in my queue when I do this (including the top 10, so 10 songs are duplicated). Then if I try and delete the extra tracks that were added to the queue using the same method (holding shift and clicking) EVERYTHING disappears from my queue. I've just lost a queue of new artists and tracks I wanted to listen to, and might not find again. Undo doesn't work. I have to go through the time-consuming process of adding each track individually, or Ctrl+click each one.

It's no longer possible to drag tracks to a queue - it only works if I right-click > add to queue. I can no longer drag local files from outside of Spotify to a playlist or the queue either.

I constantly get "the current track couldn't be played" errors, and when I check, all tracks have been played. So who knows if I'm missing hearing stuff that hasn't actually been played.

It used to be amazing at how fast Spotify was - tracks online that instantly played. Spotify gets slower - streams often aren't instant any more, and the software itself has become clunky.

What's the point of the "Next in Queue" header? Isn't it obvious, considering it's a queue? It takes up so much space, so I can't actually see my queue. Same "Now Playing" - not only does it highlight green, but has a speaker icon beside it. Why the header?

It doesn't make sense to have moved the queue button miles away from everything else - on a touch device it's not so bad, but it's a pain on a desktop.

That's only off the top of my head - there are far more annoyances.The most frustrating thing is losing a queue that's taken some time to build up, with artists I'll maybe never hear again thanks to them disappearing.

On the plus side, at least the names of local files are readable now, but it took a few years to fix the dark grey text on a darker grey background.

[rednblu]

By the way, I really liked your track "Doubts" >> https://open.spotify.com/track/1zFZHFlmz4YVP4W5YZkh4Y <<

that you sent to me-- And I really liked the end . . . .

I commend you, @TheAlex, on summarizing how the Spotify player should work.

Playing the music that you want on Spotify is like playing a buggy instrument-- You have to do "user programming fixes" to make the instrument do what you want-- for example, when your string breaks on stage, you can play around it-- maybe do the riff in a higher position on the string below-- or-- Have you ever made music-- a kind of brushOnCymbal sound out of the broken string against the mike?-- loud or soft-- You can improvise similarly on the whole Spotify "instrument" to get what you need to hear, I suggest.

* For the infuriating bugs in the Spotify queue that you mention, I do the following-- Never use the AddToQueue in the authorized Spotify players for Windows 10; they will break on you at any time-- There are ways on Windows 10 to lockIn fully functional previous Spotify players that, as you say, have no problems and are very user-friendly-- as compared to the authorized Windows 10 players that all have broken strings.

However, when I use any authorized Windows 10 Spotify player, I make the following "user programming fixes"-- I create a playlist called "StableQueue", which I can edit and expand with AddToPlaylist-- where I have "StableQueue" as my first playlist and hence always at the top of the AddToPlaylist menu.

Then I "play my StableQueue"-- And when the bugs in the Spotify player lose track and do the wrong thing, I can easily recover by starting play from the next unPlayed track of "StableQueue", right?

You wrote a great summary of user specifications for how the Spotify player should work for anyone who understands music, @TheAlex.  But most of Spotify's paying customers do not understand music-- And therefore, Spotify in every new version of the Windows 10 player reduces more-and-more the ability of the users to select what they want to hear-- Wouldn't it be wonderful marketing to slowly >> condition << the paying customers to crave only the music from your band?-- (I laugh.)-- Not fair, I know, but that is what Spotify is doing for their favorite business labels, whether purposefully or only reactively to deadly market forces.

Despite all of the above, we have a great and universal music collection on Spotify, including your band!  Spectacular music and perfect on Spotify-- but you have to do your own "user programming fixes" to force the Spotify players to play what you want to hear.  And it is well worth learning to play the Big Spotify music "instrument" no matter what it does when it breaks because of deadly market forces or humidity or sudden temperature drops!  Would you agree?

[TheAlex]

Thanks for your reponse @rednblu - I did set up a playlist I called TempQueue, but I don't always use it. I guess I'll have to start using it all the time.

I can't remember sending you a track?? For some reason, the link to my band's Spotify page gets inserted at the end of every one of my posts - that's not me doing it, unless I added it as a signature option a couple of years ago and don't remember. Thanks for listening and commenting about it anyway. 🙂

Another very annoying thing I've just noticed again - it's no longer possible to sort local files by the date they were added! I'll probably end up reverting to an older version again.

[TheAlex]

And with the latest update, it's been made difficult to select results from the search box using the keyboard! Why is the usability getting worse and worse?

I forgot to mention local files can no longer be sorted by date either. Seeing the latest additions was my most used sorting order.

[TheAlex]

From the queue list itself, I can no longer add the currently playing song back to the queue or a playlist. These changes are bizarre!

[rednblu]

Maybe try the following to get around that bug--

* First, "Add to Queue" some tracks-- And the added tracks go to the bottom of the "Queued tracks" area, right?

* Then, drag the track from the "Current Track" area to the position that you want in the "Queued tracks" area.  Does that work?

[TheAlex]

Thanks - yeah, that's what I've been doing.

My point is that it's ridiculous we have to do these sort of things - that the software keeps getting worse and worse. I find it bizarre. I wish Deezer had a non-browser streaming option.

I can't drag MP3s directly in to Spotify from folders any more - that's something else that used to be possible. There's one at the moment that isn't showing up even though I've restarted Spotify about five times. It showed up initially, and stopped showing up when I edited the tags.

[TheAlex]

Now there's no way to unlink local files. This is annoying as I have versions that are different to tracks that are on Spotify, but now they can't be separated unless the track names are changed. Even if they're on different albums, Spotify is still linking them.

Does anyone at Spotify take any notice of these issues? I've never known any other software to get progressively and progressively as bad as this.

[Simplesimonq]

Well, my queue button has dissapeared, as has the sheffle and repeat button!!

restarted, reinstalled, restarted again!!

Iphone 7 running IOS 11.1.2 and Spotify 8.4.28.1104

Any ideas??