Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it

[lukaswil]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Desktop

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

When I try to play a song I get the following error message "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it"

I have tried all the fixes I have seen:

Reinstalling app.

Using version from Microsoft store.

Disabled hardware acceleration.

Disabled crossfading.

Changed speaker options.

Deleted local files.

I've had this issue before and it was fixed by using the version from the Microsoft store but this isn't working now.

Spotify works on my phone and my laptop, web player also works only the desktop app doesn't work.

[MusicMedium]

Hi,

I upgraded Spotify from free to premium, and ever since then, I can no longer play anything in the Safari web app. For each and every song I find, any attempt to play the song results in "Spotify can't play this right now".

It would be good to know definitively if this is known and expected. If others can confirm they get the same result.

I prefer not to run another application if I can instead play music in a browser tab. I'm not using Private Browsing Mode. Just a day ago (and for well over a year), attempting to play songs succeeded just fine in Safari, so the main change seems to be subscribing to a paid plan.

For this to work before when I had a free plan and then not allow me to play any songs through the web interface while switching to a paid plan seems pretty counterintuitive.

I'm connecting from the US, and this is a Mac (Apple Silicon), latest OS.

[Nexrotic]

@nl3_wr-nh2gi

I'm having the same issue as you as well and have tried everything you have tried without success. I've been testing it in various different ways with various different settings for Spotify and Windows in the sound options.

I've been in a support chat with an agent who did her best to help with it and has now escalated it. I'll be waiting for an email for further news. I seem to have found the guaranteed trigger for the issue in my case at least.. It has a chance of occurring if I browse an artists discography, playing various songs.. Then I click onto my playlist on the left hand side and then use my mouse's back button to return to where I was in the discography. After this process, the error occurs. I was given a customer service test account temporarily as well, it happened on this account as well.

Hopefully we'll have a fix soon..

[user-removed]

I can't play any tracks and get that "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer, you can import it".

On my Android phone, my web browser, I can play normally without any problems.

My Spotify version 1.2.60.564.gcc6305cb (from Microsoft Store).

[KevinsRandom]

I think I have found a temporary resolution to this issue. Turn off "Smart Shuffle" then play the songs you cant play. Then turn "Smart Shuffle" back on and the songs should be playable.

If you have shuffle turned off, cycle through the shuffle options then play your song that was unplayable. The app seems to lag or freeze for a second then recover after this action when the issue is present.

[sherabgashon]

The error message "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it" kept appearing when I was trying to play songs on DESKTOP from my LIKED SONGS playlist.

I reset the App data and restarted, but the issue persisted. 

Steps I took to fix the problem were:

1. I selected a song from outside the LIKED SONGS playlist

2. I turned off all my shuffle and repeat settings

3. I played an older song on my LIKED SONGS playlist

Things worked fine after this. I'm not sure if step 3 is necessary, most likely any song from the LIKED SONGS playlist would work. But that's what worked for me.

[saymyname20202]

I found that unplugging my speakers from my computer and plugging back in reset the audio jack and this worked only

[other8055]

Had the same issue, and tried everything from reinstalling multiple times and playing around with any and all settings on Spotify and Windows PC. Just fixed it after days by changing the Sound Output from 48 to 96, test your speaker though as higher than 96 gave me bad quality for output. Attached the instructions I used, nothing else worked for me including unplugging jack and using in other ports, turning on/off Smart Shuffle, crossfade, hardware acceleration, etc. Hopefully it stays working, not sure why it stopped as it worked before. For whatever reason, if it doesn't work by simply changing Output Format, toggle Spatial Sound for Windows Sonic for Headphones to ON (only option my PC has). 

To change the speaker output format, navigate to your system's sound settings and adjust the "Default Format" or "Sample Rate" settings. You can typically find these options in your operating system's audio settings, or within the properties of your audio device. 

Steps to Change Speaker Output Format:
Windows:
1. Access Sound Settings:
Right-click the speaker icon in the taskbar and select "Open Sound settings," or search for "Sound settings" in the Windows search bar. 

2. Choose Output Device:
Ensure the correct audio device (e.g., speakers, headphones) is selected under "Choose your output device". 

3. Advanced Settings:
If needed, click on "More sound settings" or navigate to the "Advanced" tab in the "Sound Control Panel" to adjust the "Default Format" or "Sample Rate". 

4. Select Format:
Choose the desired audio format (e.g., 24-bit/96kHz), and click "Apply" or "OK" to save the changes. 

5. Test Audio:
Test your audio device to ensure the new format is working correctly. 

[Doobs67]

For me, I had to go into my windws PC : System, Sound, All sound devices, Properties, and turn OFF "Audio enhancements"

[randydodd530]

Windows 11. Realtek Audio device. Using external speakers connected with audio jack. I was able to fix this by accidentally discovering I needed to turn on "Windows Sonic for Headphones" in the Spatial sound setting.

Start> Settings> System> Sound> Speakers/Headphones> Spatial sound> set to "Windows Sonic for Headphones". If it is set to "off", you will get the error from Spotify: "Spotify can't play this file right now.".

Of course, there is no documentation anywhere about this, and you have to wonder why Spotify can't fix their product to work properly.

You can also set the "Audio Enhancements" to off.

Start> Settings> System> Sound> Speakers/Headphones> Audio Enhancements> off.

You can try both ways and see what sounds the best.

Looks like it might be some type of a conflict with the Realtek audio drivers that Spotify has not resolved.

[Beast0]

Holy heck, I just tried that and it works. But I don't use headphones lol I use speakers connected with an optical connector

Thank you.

[nl3_wr-nh2gi]

Thank you, but this didn't work for me. ☹️

[HERBMERB]

The windows application is constantly getting shittier. To be honest, it never worked that great and I'm surprised I pay for such garbage. These days a large percentage of songs I click on to play just say "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it". To me, it seems like the app should only show songs it can play. 

[m4ttt]

The web version of Spotify still has this issue where I cannot play anything from my Liked Songs.

[bellatrix2545]

Similar issue. Liked Songs are not playing on MacBook. Gives error "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it. 

It's not the first time such a bug has occurred, especially after switching from playing on the mobile app to the desktop app. On mobile all works. 

[Lanciano007]

Why do most of us blaim find solutions and talk about the audio settings to solve a SPOTIFY 'can't play this song' bug started after an Spotify update because they had huger plans? The message notes: "Spotify" can't play this ..... It doesn't say: Your  audio settings are wrongly set for years. I have a feeling that I have to disable things from other basic 'products' constantly after an update to use a platform that already worked fine and isn't transparant what's included in their updates.

Spotify or any other company need to stop break in and interferring with their users settings and keep out of their pc's/mobiles. None of these updates have to do with security, functionality or privacy. These are the only purposes where updates should be paid for while a product already works...and I have a feeling that most Updates from many companies nowadays do opposite. Updates come with functonalities that nobody wants or need and break the existing functionalities, security and play with consumers privacy searching or even crossing borders wherever they can.

Same as last year when Spotify also broke the discography section and the "can't play this" messages appeared after new **bleep** was integrated in the app with their unwanted updates. 

Does this mean the problem is finally solved again after may 15th?

https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-api/reference/get-audio-analysis

[EDM1234]

I disabled smart shuffle and everything started working...

[KIM_TAELEE143]

it says "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer, you can import it"

[Lindsay35]

I have been experiencing this randomly for months. Such unreliable software. Meaningless error messages makes it hard to know what is causing it.

[Lanciano007]

 @Kim_Taeleee143

"Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer, you can import it"

Weird message, right? We pay a platform a lot to listen music, and they ask us if we have the songfiles on our computer....

Mostly they blaim our (audio) settings we didn't touch, but i have a feeling it's a (data/memory)consuming and connection problem. With connection I mean implementing stuff connecting our devices with apps and clouds without bluetooth, permissions etc. And it seems Spotify (and other Big Tech related/affiliated companies) just monitors and wait for feedback from their testpuppets...Sometimes I have a feeling i'm a Beta-user, while I'm not.

I use Spotify for their music database and a bit for their algorithms, but not for their player. There are better alternative musicplayers that you can use more personalised, do what they should do, and don't break their songs while updating marketing and their (addictive/manipulative) design related (background) items (implementing stuff like nervous pushy visuals, pic-in-pic/popup screens, adgenerators, datacollecting/sharing, voicecontrol, new non-related products, AI and Super AI 'spyware'/ASI, data-sharing, and cloud connectivity etc. and things on pc's that could work on tablets and mobiles but not on pc's...) and messing around with our settings toggling on what we switched off before, or let us downgrade settings we need or want in our devices to continue using their product. Moving and splitting stuff up (with new unwanted default settings), take the already set options away or make them visible but unavailable taking away your permissions to use them, move them to an existing or even new section they came up with so you can't find it anymore (they leave old info on the web with different names and locations etc without any transparancy about new updates/installations and make it almost impossible for users to know or find out what is happening and how much we get abused nowadays) or they just give functionalities/software another name (like Microsoft, Google, Meta, Oracle and Apple often do to get entrance, data and permissions). To do the same tricks...again and again. 

Spotify paid 150.000 dollar to thank Trump for his AI Act and the freedom they got while he is in power.

While Spotify started as a Swedish company, it has international investors such as Sean Parker (ex-Facebook and a long time 'friend' of Peter Thiel) and Spotify has partnerships which include Facebook (Meta), Microsoft, Apple and Chinese Tencent. China, where Spotify is mostly unavailable, but Spotify teamed up with Tencent (QQMusic) to be the biggest inland musicplatform. Censured and restricted ofcourse. They swapped shares. 

Don't want to be to much political and talk about economics here, but what i'm thinking of is that Trump and his ex-Paypal crew (AI and crypto-investers/developers and Cyber evangelists, Paypal announced long time ago having their marks set on eliminating cash money economy/industry) are only trying to push crypto into the world and AI to control us. AI is 15 minutes 'late' to predict our emotions. The new Super AI (ASI) is trained to predict our thoughts and emotions even before. Your device sensors are used for this too. Just by touching your device, you are telling them when you have 'time', what they will use to 'fill in'. Next steps you'll do on your device, will tell them 'why' you have time and what your emotions (reasons) are. At the end you are dependent to do your usual stuff, (emotional) addicted, 'guided', 'forced', and will need a hundred subscriptions (only for the rich who can afford it) to continue living. Unique selling points. And in reality, we don't 'own' anything. Subscriptions will get pricier, and offer us less in the future. You'll just need another extra subscription, an upgrade and pay a few added fees while confirming your payment, to use what you 'had' before. Everything with online payments, of course. 

Super AI will be used for facial-recognition on street cams, shops, devices etc.(goal is set on the year 2030, Larry Ellison says). Camera's on Tesla's (and General Motors) are specially built-in for this purpose and are used to have a 'sight' on the world. Tesla cars for example, have 8 camera's with a 'powerful vision', with a 360-degree view, installed. Their boardcomputer system is connected with (Starlink) satellites for 'experimenting' and developing 'other features'. Waze (Google) and Google Maps (NSA history), same principle. Google is busy with ideas replacing our mobile phones for AI Glasses with camera's rollin' 24/7 and has voice-recording connectivity. Nice, for the people around you. Location tracking (now between 5 and 20 meters/16 and 65 feet).

You can have a look what companies as Clearview AI and Palantir do, and who are investing and behind them. To give a 'clear view'...and have a look at the address of the (Meta) Facebook headquarters how 'funny' everything seems to be. Things that come up as a next step are biometric authentication; iris scans and fingerprinting scans, ... and collecting them.

The era that you were using the internet is already wayback. Now, the internet uses you. It's not only your data, but about 'total control'. They are designing their own computer game. Hopping in their rockets, and push the buttons from outerspace. Many of them have a huge fascination for science 'fiction' and Star Trek. Welcome to their Cyber World...

In my experience this 'Spotify can't play this right now ' appears after new updates where Spotify implements new unneeded and unwanted stuff. It happens often and takes months (a few updates) before they will fix things. Happened last year exactly the same. First they are busy continuing finishing their own goal... Be PAYtient..

Update (middle of May 2025), all together now 😞: 

Have you noticed, sometimes people advise to re-install your app when you have a problem/bug, and use another source to install it? Can you imagine why?

You will notice some other 'new' (planned) thing. I advise you to Check your settings on your account (online):

Who do you think is the real 'Spotify' now?

[januaria81]

Spotify is the dominant music streaming service, consequently, they have very little incentive to fix bugs on a timely basis. Ultimately, we users are the Beta testers.