Spotify Windows player Discovery screen frozen display

[user-removed]

Hello!

After the recent update, the discovery screen appears to freeze up graphically on my computer. I can still click links that are 'invisible' and even scroll down and things seem to move by (although I don't see any change except that my mouse pointer turns into that pointing hand that normally shows up when you mouse over a link; the locations that it turns into a pointer change). All other sections appear to work just fine in the desktop app.

It seems that the page just doesnt render beyond the point to where it finishes loading, no content shows up at all, but it's there... just not graphically.

Was there some kind of change in how the discovery section renders? Maybe using hardware rendering or something?

Edit: this affects Apps as well, or at least so far the Pitchfork app.

[Rollo_]

If you look at the "spotifyhelper.exe" processes in Task Manager or Process Explorer, do you have one that's eating up a ton of memory?  I found that to be the case with the swarm.fm app.

Just looked, spotify.exe using ~150mb, ONE spotifyhelper.exe process at nearly 250.  I browsed away from swarm.fm to a different app, memory usage back to normal within a few seconds.  But it least it didn't freeze up Spotify 100% like it would in previous versions.

I didn't notice anything unusual while browsing Discover, but, as they say, YMMV.

[user-removed]

I do see 5 spotifyhelper.exe processes running, and tried forcing all to close and reopening. Even tried a reboot just now. The spotifyhelper processes total about 100 megs altogether, which is no worry at all for the system it's running on.

It doesnt appear to me to be a resource related issue to me, more of a change to the way Spotify renders the Discover 'page' and other similar Apps that use the same framework.

I'd really be interested in finding out what change happened between 0.9.4.169.gc0399df6 and the previous version as far as how the Discovery page is displayed.

[Peter__]

@user-removed - There is a little more detail about the 0.9.4 changes in the release notes topic. You are correct, there was a framework change which means the pages are being rendered in a different way and the client now uses hardware acceleration on graphics cards too.

Peter

[Downfall]

Something has gone terribly wrong somewhere recently.

Since today, I'm unable to run Spotify unless it is in compatibility mode (WinXP SP3). If I try to run it normally, it will crash with the message "Spotify has stopped working" and then shuts down. When I run it on WinXp mode the Discovery-page is either blank or only partially loaded but the rest of the desktop-application seem to work fine. The music plays normally and the UI seems quite the same as in the normal mode. The XP mode clearly strips out some portion of the program that causes it to crash immediately after log in if ran normally.

Exactly the same problem occures with Adobe Creative Cloud "application manager", the small program that lists the available applications, updates etc. Immediately after I run it it crashes with the same error message as Spotify. The Creatice Cloud UI seems to use some same elements or framework as Spotify. 

So, what on earth is wrong with what? These two problems are very similar in nature and they occured almost at the same time.

I'm using Windows 7 Pro 64bit with nvidia gpu.

[Peter__]

The most recent version of Spotify introduced hardware acceleration on graphics cards as part of the Chromium Embedded Framework 3. It might be worth making sure your graphics card drivers are up to date with nvidia and see if that helps at all!

Peter

[Downfall]

Thanks for the reply! I did in fact update my graphics driver about an hour ago, but it did not resolve the problem. I also tried to run Spotify with the hardware acceleration disabled nor did it help.

I have a fresh install of Win7 because I just recently put together a new PC, so it's kind of funny that these problems occure right now. It's great that the program still runs OK with WinXP mode, and I've always hated the "Discover" tab so it is not a big loss. Still, it would be nice to have a perfectly running product. After all that's what I'm paying for 🙂

The fact that Spotify used to work alright yeasterday but doesn't do so today keeps bugging me. Nothing has changed on my OS, no updates installed, nothing. It's also weird that only a few users have reported troubles of this nature.

[Greg]

Hey everyone!

Just so we're 100% on this, can everyone try updating their graphics card drivers (If you haven't already) to see if this solves the issue?

If you're still seeing the frozen/blank screen, please let us know your Spotify version number and Operating System.

Thanks 🙂 

[user-removed]

@peter - I thought I recognized the glitch. It explains a lot that Spotify went to hardware acceleration. Chrome had this glitch with my desktop customization software as well (yes, totally guilty of messing with the default windows config). I'm using bbLean 1.17.1 x64 (Forum Page Link) and it conflicts with chromium hardware rendering 😞

I bypass this glitch by turning off hardware rendering in Chrome. I'm gonna go see if I can do that in Spotify and post back.

[user-removed · Accepted solution]

According to this doc here, which shows Chromium switches, the following spotify.exe switches can be used to switch off various hardware/GPU accelerations in Spotify. This might be handy for anyone who has experienced issues after latest version switch to 0.9.4.169.gc0399df6

Here's a few that I started with,

--disable-accelerated-video
--disable-accelerated-plugins
--disable-accelerated-overflow-scroll
--disable-accelerated-layers
--disable-accelerated-fixed-root-background
--disable-accelerated-compositing
--disable-accelerated-2d-canvas

You can make a shortcut with the switches or a batch file.
You can also just run the following from Run or a CMD prompt. If it fixes your problem, remove a switch one by one and then you'llknow exactly what needs to be disabled.

%APPDATA%\Spotify\spotify.exe --disable-accelerated-video --disable-accelerated-plugins --disable-accelerated-overflow-scroll --disable-accelerated-layers --disable-accelerated-fixed-root-background --disable-accelerated-compositing --disable-accelerated-2d-canvas

Using all of these spotify.exe switches fixed it, so I whitled it down to the culprits; these here:

--disable-accelerated-layers

--disable-accelerated-fixed-root-background

obligatory edit: added spotify version

[Downfall]

The post above this post resolved my problem completely. I added " --disable-accelerated-layers --disable-accelerated-fixed-root-background" to the end of the shortcut's path and voilá: Spotify runs just like before. No crashing and Discover-page looks normal again. Thank you!

It would be nice to know which part of the system confilcts with the new Spotify configuration: the GPU, OS or what?

Once more, thanks a lot. Saved my day.

[Peter__]

@user-removed - That is excellent work! 

I would imagine you have made quite a few peoples days - I will make sure this gets passed over to the Spotify teams. 

We are also getting several reports that updating your graphics card drivers from your vendors website will fix this issue. 

So it is probably a good plan to find out what type of card you have and hitting up nVidia/ATI/Intels site for an update 😉 

Peter

Edit: Adding driver details. 

[Rollo_]

Really, awesome.  I've started Spotify from the command line, but never bothered to look for any switches.  How did you find them?  Traditional methods don't seem to work.

[davidsteltz]

I am having the same issue described here...light blue blank screen on artist pages, discover page, etc. Spotify Version 0.9.4.178.g259772ba

I tried using Robt_Jamin's switches to no avail, and yes, my GPU driver is up to date.

Has anyone found any other solutions?

UPDATE:
The issue seems to have resolved itself for me; not sure what did it exactly, but I assume the update fixed the bug, as I am now running version 0.9.4.185.g7545a404 so thanks, Spotify!

[ewilah]

I'm also having this problem for ~3 weeks now, except instead of light blue my Discover and Radio pages are both black. The links are still there, though, since the mouse cursor changes when i hover over the blackness. They're just not graphically visible.

So far I've checked that my graphics card drivers are up to date and reinstalled spotify. I've also been in contact with the tech support about this but so far they haven't come up with a solution. I tested today and web player seems to work just fine. I have also tried logging in using a different account but the blackness remains there as well.

I'm running spotify unlimited version 0.9.4.178.g259772ba on a 64-bit win7.

I also didn't really understand the possible solution about the switches, so if anyone would care to explain a bit more about those I'd be happy to try them out 😄

[westside_Frog]

Hi Greg

I have been experiencing this problem since the updated version of spotify had been released.
I have this kind of problem even if tried to reinstall it twice.

I really do not understand what can I do next...

My spotify version number is 0.9.4.185g7545a404

My operating system is Windows 7 64-bit

Thanks for the help !

edit: I also did the disabling thing but none of them seemed to work...

[mollygauss77]

I am having issues sharing music as I am getting a white box popup everytime I click "Share to" and came across this post. It seems like you were having a similiar problem. Can you please assist me with how you fixed this? THANK YOU!

[Joe]

Have you tried adding the switches mentioned earlier in this thread to your spotify shortcut?

[DJSmooth]

I am having the same problem, my share button gives me a white/blank box, I've reinstalled but still not working, going on 2 weeks now. this is a work computer running windows 7, any help?  As a premium user i'd like tho get this sloved and working properly.  Thanks for the help 

[Peter__]

There is an update of the client rolling out from today which will hopefully (my fingers are crossed) fix this issue. Just click on the restart to upgrade banner when the rollout reaches you.

Peter