Spotify Premium stops playing between each song

[sarasound]

I've seen a few other posts on this issue, but none seemed to have a satisfactory answer.

In essense, Spotify (I have a premium account) stops playing between songs, sometimes randomly, sometimes between every song. It will display the next song in the queue, but the progress bar will be blank, and toggling play/pause makes no difference.

Some idiosyncracies I've noticed:

• Seems to happen more commonly on playlists that have a lot of local files.
  On playlists that have ALL local files, it can get so bad that Spotify will play only one song, and then stop, until I select another. It seems to happen less commonly on playlists that are all streamed songs. However, this is by no means reliable, and can vary in either case.
• Spotify can continually play anywhere from one song to about 30, but it rarely plays continually for longer than a couple hours without this problem occuring. 
• This is not a problem on my phone, only on my Windows 7 computer. 

Steps I have tried to troubleshoot the problem (all failed):

• Offline mode
• Deleting/remaking playlist
• Changing disk location of local files (problem is temporarily fixed sometimes, reappears quickly)
• Deleting song from the playlist and re-adding it (problem is temporarily fixed sometimes, reappears quickly)
• Thorough uninstall of Spotify (using Revo); deleting all cached files and registry entries; restarting computer; reinstalling
• Reinstalling sound drivers, disabling certain drivers
• Reinstalling Quicktime drivers
• Changing physical location: I live in Switzerland. I visited the United States for the holidays. The internet connection or even country does not seem to make a difference - this is a local problem with my install.

Temporary fix that I have found:

• Skipping the song that is failing to play will often play the next one. So, if I right click on the song that Spotify is hung on and select "add to queue," then press "next," Spotify will play that song. However, when the song ends, it just gets hung up on the next one, etc.

Technical Details: 

• Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1, clean install
• Intel i7-3610QM (2.3Ghz), 8GB RAM
• Standard Intel Display Audio driver, 7.1 surround sound
• Telecom: Swisscom, Switzerland, ~10mbps
• Spotify version 0.8.5.1333.g822e0de8 (editorial note: really?)
• Spotify user: 122301898

I would really like to be able to leave a playlist on in the background without having to constantly manage the music player. Thanks.

Bonus screenshot: 

[schmangell]

I have this EXACT same problem except I have Windows Vista.  I couldn't have written the problem as precisely as you have.  I'm BEGGING for an answer to this problem.

It doesn't seem to matter the length of the playlist either.  I do short hour long playlists and I was just trying to listen to a 4 hour list.  Very frustrating and diminishes the value of Spotify.

[schmangell]

Also, why is there no tech support?  I can't find it anyway...

[Peter__]

Hey guys 🙂 

You can contact the offical spotify support at any time using the online contact form.

As for your issue, in the above screenshot, you appear to be in offline mode. Does this happen in both online and offline mode? 

Also have you tried a clean reinstallation of the client? (Stupid question, but gotta ask :P)

I also want to thank you for posting so much detail, it really helps community members debug problems!

Peter

[sarasound]

Thanks Peter, I'll try the online contact form.

I think I answered both of your questions in my post - yes, this happens in both online and offline mode, and yes, I've done a clean reinstallation (used Revo to really make it a clean uninstall). Thanks for the suggestions though.

Bonus screenshot #2! (Not in offline mode)

[sarasound · Accepted solution]

Alright, one fix I've found that's worked for me: 

- select all songs in the playlist

- rightclick and select "unlink track"

     -- this will cause Spotify to "forget" the location of songs on your HDD that are already available on the Spotify servers; instead of playing them from your computer, Spotify will stream them. If you have premium, you can also download the playlist if you prefer not to stream songs, and Spotify will keep a cached copy.

The problem seems to only happen when I have a local copy of a file that Spotify also has on its servers; if this problem is happening for you when streaming songs, this solution won't work.

Good luck!

[1294487776]

I was thinking the same thing. I am spending way too much time trying to figure out a solution to this problem. My problem is that it stops playing after EVERY song no matter what I do. 

[1294487776]

When I right click on a song I don't see that option. Also, it won't let me select all the songs. 

[Peter__]

---

@1294487776 wrote:

When I right click on a song I don't see that option. Also, it won't let me select all the songs. 

---

Would you be able to post a screenshot of what your spotify screen looks like when you can't select all the songs? 

Peter

[1294487776]

It seems to be working now which is wierd because it hasn't worked the whole time I've been using this site. All I did was comment on a few posted about the issue I was having. I still can't select all the songs, but that doesn't matter now that the player is actually working. 

Here is the screenshot of the layout I am seeing anyways. 

[Peter__]

Sorry for being vague with the screenshot, just wanted to double check something and I was right 😉 

You are actually using the web/desktop preview client rather than the official stable desktop client. 

If you ever want to use to the full client which contains a host of extra features not available in the one you have you can download and install it from: http://download.spotify.com/Spotify%20Installer.exe

Peter

[jakebathman · Accepted solution]

This thread is 2 years old, but if anyone else comes here looking for a solution like me in the Windows desktop client, you can simply:

1. Select all of the tracks in your offline file playlist (or press Ctrl + a to select all)
2. Right-click and press Add to Queue
3. Enjoy!

The only downside is that the queue won't repeat the playlist. Oh well. Add it multiple times if you wanna hear it again.

Here's a screenshot.

[Lpmorenoc]

But it should not be necessary. I have the same trouble and before I did not have to add all the song to the queue. Why has not spotify identify the problem after 2 years?

[BrettV]

I know this may sound like to easy of a solution, but I had this problem and tried eveything to get it fixed, all of my playlists would pause after every song.

What ended up working (so far, for a few hours now) was simply turning off the "shuffle songs" button within my playlist. I listened to the songs in order after and then tried the shuffle button and haven't had it pause since. 

I know some peoples problems might go beyond this, but i had tried everything suggested and this is what ended up working for me (at least so far it has). 

[htobon]

I disabled the shuffle songs, and the problem persists.!

[Morphea]

Thanks, this solved the issue for me!