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.

[lukaswil]

Hey everyone,

Thank you for sharing your solutions! We've shared them with the team investigating this 🙏

In the meantime, we have an Ongoing Issues thread on the topic where we'll keep you folks posted as soon as we have any updates, check it out 👍

Cheers!

[Egg17]

Whenever I try to play the beatles blue album 2023 edition it will say "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it." Then it will play a song for 0.1 of a second and then skip to the next one, still displaying that message. It eventually reaches a song which at first seems it is able to play, but then it stops playing audio at 10 seconds in. Please help, this is happening on no other devices and a clean reinstall isn't possible as I am on web player.

[ccccookies]

I have the exact same problem on the web browser. It worked fine when the album first came out, then I started getting this issue too. The Red album plays fine. I tried logging out, updating drivers, system recovery... Nothing works. Pretty annoying.

[explrrw]

if you have the file import it

[Brad61]

Same

[JimGeers]

same

[yaquyphdwrto0erjguid]

It than says "Spoitify can't play this right now" asking me if I have local files of the music

Pls fix this, I tried everything, but no mather what it skips an entire album in my playlist and I do whatever to stop Spotify from skipping it but on each song it says it cannot play this and skips it.

It's ridiculous at this point 

[Steamalec10]

Greetings,

I have a problem with my podcast playing on Spotify on Google Chrome. I have tried everything from making a clean uninstall to clearing the cache, and it keeps saying, "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file, you can import it." I think it has something to do with Google Chrome because the episodes work fine on Safari and other podcast sites like Apple podcasts. I do not know what is happening, so some advice would be appreciated.

An example of the problem is attached here.

[nicobonder]

I receive this message:
"Spotify no puede reproducir esto en este momento. Si tienes el archivo en el ordenador, puedes importarlo"

[SleepiestGemini]

After a few months; this is happening to me yet again. I'm using the browser version on firefox. This is the only site I have issues with.

[alisria]

Using the WEB BROWSER (Firefox) version of Spotify. Every single song I attempt to play returns this error. I've tried restarting my browser, running in incognito, etc. Every search I do for this error gives me people using the app, but I'm using the website.

EDIT: 8 days later i am STILL HAVING THIS ISSUE. i literally cannot listen to music at all.

EDIT 2: It's now two months later and Spotify is still completely unusable. I'm just giving up and switching to a different platform.

[Dauntlet]

Some song start to play, then it suddenly stop and I get a notification that says " can't play this song " After a while it plays again and stops a bit further again with the same notification.
This has been going on for a few month now!!

[Natsurr]

I got this to work after I plugged in the headset I had previously plugged out. Started playing - it worked - and switched playback device from my headset to speakers. Worked!

Could plug out my headphones as well afterwards without any issues.

[in_bloom]

I'm having the same issue with the webplayer too, but only with Firefox (updated to latest version - 119.0.1).

I tested the webplayer on Chrome and Spotify works just as fine, no issues at all.

[Bansheehc]

what can I do to spot having this issue? web browser spotify works good, but both PC and Windows Store apps do not play a single song displaying this error. i've tried reinstalling, disbaling hardware acceleration and changing the output device.

[trenchfoast]

Having the same issue myself, win11 windows store app.

[TG35]

Same issue for me. Uninstalled and reinstalled. Cache clear.

Edition Windows 10 Home
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎7/‎9/‎2021
OS build 19045.3693
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19053.1000.0

Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.24.756.g7a7fc7f0

[Elena]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community about this. 

Kudos on the troubleshooting you've tried so far, here are a few things you can try to get this fixed:

• Disable any antivirus or ad-blocking software, and turn off VPN if in use.
• Remove host files. Head here to find out how - often times this solved the error message 
• Update your audio drivers for the PC.

In case the issue persists, it'd be great if you could tell us the exact operating system, as well as your Spotify version. We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[trenchfoast]

Looking at audio drivers solved my issue, thanks. I was using NVIDIA HD audio (through display port cable into my monitor), and instead of fixing that I just plugged my speakers into a different output.

[Lapin_Lumineux]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Macbook Air M1 2020

Operating System

Ventura OS 13.2.1 (22D68)

My Question or Issue

80% of the time when I click on something, the song will not play and I will receive an error message saying “Spotify can’t play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it." Once it displays the error message, it will shuffle through a random assortment of songs endlessly, shuffling to a new song about every 2 seconds. There is no way to stop the shuffling, and none of the songs have audio.

Sometimes even when it does begin playing music without glitching, after about 30 minutes it will pause and start doing the error / freeze / shuffle all over again.

If I begin playing music on my phone and switch the listening device to my computer, it will also do this even though Spotify plays without issue on my phone.

I have tried clearing the cache, reinstalling my web browser, etc, and it does not impact the failure rate of the web player. Nothing fixes it.

Issue has been persisting for several weeks now.

[TG35]

This did not work for me, unfortunately.

Edition Windows 10 Home
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎7/‎9/‎2021
OS build 19045.3693
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19053.1000.0

Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.24.756.g7a7fc7f0

The web app works fine, desktop app shows the error message : Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it. 

Connecting to web player through the desktop app works. Connecting to desktop through the web player does not.