Spotify PC desktop app "cannot play this right now" - mobile app and web version work normally

[ATSMajestic]

Plan

Premium

Country

Poland

Device

Desktop PC

Operating System

Windows 11 24H2 build 26100.3775

My Question or Issue

Since Spotify was out of service for 1+ hour yesterday, I cannot make the desktop app (Win 11) work, no matter what.

Attempting to play any song returns the dreaded "Spotify cannot play this right now (...) local file (blah blah blah).
What is unusual is that both the iOS app and the web browser version work normally.

What I've tried so far:

(1) Restoring the desktop app to default, clearing its cache and local data.

(2) Uninstalling and reinstalling from scratch - both from the Spotify official website and the Windows Store.

(3) Deleting everything left over from the Program Files folders after deinstalling and reinstalling from the website-downloader.

NONE OF THIS WORKED. The hack of descaling from 19200 kHz output does not work at all (it's in the forums here).

I can only force the desktop app to work when I open the iOS app/web browser interface, play a song from there, and switch to the desktop app from there. Any attempt to, say, click and play another song in the desktop app throws back the said error message.

This is insane. Everything I have on the PC is updated. What the heck is causing this?

[AlejaR]

Hey there @ATSMajestic,

Thanks for your reply here and welcome. 

Kudos for the troubleshooting you've tried so far. Would you mind trying to run the app in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking to rule out any issues with your default Windows settings and basic device drivers? Give it a try and let us know how it goes.
 

Other things you can try are:

• Clearing the host files of your device. You can follow the steps in this article to do it.
• Do you use a VPN service on your device? If yes, try switching it off. Keep in mind Spotify doesn't officially support VPN. This means that issues with the app while using VPN are expected behavior.

If none of the above does the trick, please send us the exact Spotify version you're running there.

Keep us in the loop!

[ATSMajestic]

Hey there,

Thanks for your input.

Safe Mode w/Network: didn't work.

Host file troubleshooting: no Spotify/Fastly-related IPs found in the file. (So, it won't work...)

VPN: none used.

I'm running Spotify for Windows (64 bit) 1.2.61.443.gc51c574b

[Vasil · Accepted solution]

Hey @ATSMajestic,

Thanks for letting us know! We did some digging and there's a few more things we can try here.
Let's begin by launching the app as an administrator and disabling the app's Hardware Acceleration as shown here:

You can also click on "Reset App Data and Restart" for good measure afterwards.

If that fails to make a difference, try starting the app in compatibility mode with Windows 10 or even 8:

Spoiler

To run an app in compatibility mode on Windows 11, open Start and search for the app, right-click and select “Open file location,” right-click the executable and choose “Properties,” and in the “Compatibility” tab, check “Run this program in compatibility mode” and select the Windows mode.

In case the issue persists, if possible, try using a different network. It's also a good idea to see if your Firewall isn't blocking the Spotify app in any way.

Should the error remain, check if logging in on the desktop device of a friend or relative would bring any change. If the issue is only present on your own desktop device, I'd recommend going through the steps for a complete clean reinstall one more time but, before the last step where you install the app, make sure to remove any old Spotify-related registry entries. This can be a bit tricky to do on your own if you've never done this before but there are third party apps that can remove all unused registry entries for you 🙂 

When the process is complete, install the app again and things should hopefully start running smoothly again.

Hope this helps! Keep us in the loop, we'll be on the lookout for your reply 🙌🏼

[ATSMajestic · Accepted solution]

Alright, I'll admit it, it took me some time to return to this thread.

The problem solved itself -- mysteriously enough -- about two weeks since my first post.

The desktop app would list certain songs unavailable ("Cannot play this right now") __completely at random__.
I've tried a clean reinstall several times, as instructed by Vasil, I also ran a Windows registry purge to delete all leftovers. No joy, the problem would stay there, until Spotify simply decided to stop going haywire like this, as if of its own will, LOL.

Note that this issue comes back again, although much less frequently and affects the desktop app only.
The iOS app can access what the desktop app lists as "unavailable to play right now", so I'm using it as a 'force remote' to play content on my PC when I need to.

[SonicTonias]

Sorry for the late reply.

Hey folks, the only thing that helped me so far was resetting the speaker settings to the Windows default (assuming you have Windows). I've tried everything else, including:
1. Reinstalling Spotify
2. Logging in and out several times
3. Setting Spotify settings to "Default"
4. Restarting the device
5. Deleting the local host settings
6. And everything else you can find in support and online on this topic
I hope this helps all of you who have this problem and have a great time with Spotify
Best regards, J.