Spotify freezing without crashing

[trb310]

Plan

Paid

Country

 USA

Device

Dell laptop

Operating System

win10 

My Question or Issue

 Win10 app freezes but keeps playing. UI is unresponsive, but the music keeps playing.

[Nico]

Hey @trb310! Welcome to the Spotify Community. ^^

That's odd.

Have you tried reinstalling your app? If not here's a step by step tutorial.

Let me know how it goes! ^^

Peace

[trb310]

@nico4techno

Yes, I've tried that a couple times. I tried the windows store version and I tried the direct download version from spotify.com.

The timeline for the freezing seems to pretty variable.

I can usually still play/pause the music by hovering over the app icon in the taskbar. Also, I can control the music via the app on my phone. 

[Nico]

@trb310

Could you please let me know the following details:

1. Exact Device  (e.g. MacBook Air)

2. Exact operating system  (e.g. Windows )

3. Spotify app version installed (1.0.2)

4. Are you receiving any Error messages at all?

Thanks! ^^

Peace

[trb310]

Dell Precision 5520

Win10 Pro

1.0.88.353.g15c26ea1 (Windows Store version)

No error message.

[Nico]

@trb310

Thanks!

I've escalated your issue to the support.

I will reply on this thread with help soon. ^^

Peace

[Nico]

@trb310

Could you please let me know the following details:

I know it sounds simple, but does restarting your device help?
Does the same thing happen on a different internet connection, or does re-starting your router help out?
Do you have a screenshot of how the app looks when it's frozen?
Does this happen with all songs/playlists or just a specific song on the app?

Thanks! ^^

Peace

[trb310]

Restarting my computer (or quitting and restarting the app) only helps until the next time it freezes. 

I'm on a corporate network, so restarting the router isn't really an option. I have noticed on both the corporate wifi and on the wired LAN connection. 

I've attached a screenshot. Everything part of UI is frozen and doesn't respond to clicks. The now playing is out of date because the music is still playing. The min/max/quit buttons on the title bar are the only things that respond to mouse-over or click actions. 

The freezing happens regardless of what is playing. Mostly I'm listening to artist or playlist radio stations, but I've experienced this problem with other songs and playlists too.

[Nico]

@trb310

Thanks!

Could you ask your company's IT-department if they know something about this, because every company got different security policies?

Does it work better with other devices, and in other network connections outside the company?

[trb310]

I guess...

There are no firewall rules that would interfere with the Spotify apps ability to send/receive https traffic. What would that even be? And how would that effect the UI and not the actual music?

I'm pretty sure this not a unique issue - https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/Spotify-freezing-without-crashing/td-p/4364070

This person describes the exact same problem. No one on the Spotify team ever followed up with him. 

I am going to do an experiment today and see if another Dell laptop running the same version of the app has the same problem. 

[trb310]

I have discovered and then turned off the hardware acceleration option in setting. This seems to have solved the UI freezing up issue. I will confirm after more testing.

[trb310]

The problem persists. The hardware accelerator option is not a solution.

[trb310]

Does this app have any debug mode that I can engage?

[Nico]

Hey @trb310!

Could you try to use a different computer to clarify this isn't an account issue?

And could you also try to use the web player to see if this works?

If that all doesn't help, please try to ask your company's IT department. ^^

Peace

[egon1024]

I've begun experiencing this issue myself.  I'm on a Linux workstation where the spotify application had been behaving itself just fine for years.  I upgraded the OS and suddenly started having exactly the problem described.  Music will continue, but the UI is frozen and unresponsive.  Some info about my system:

OS: Linux (LinuxMint 19.1)

Hardware: System76, i7-8700, 32GB

Network Connection: (Home) Wired ethernet

Window environment: Mate with compiz

Spotify Client version: 1:1.1.10.546.ge

[philomuh]

Same here. It's been freezing each day like two or three times on multiple work stations.

OS: macOS Mojave 10.14.5.

Hardware: iMac Retina 5K

Spotify Client: 1.1.14.475.g566c8beb

[Alienboy]

Have you checked the advanced settings?

I had exactly the same issue and found disabling hardware acceleration appears to have stopped the problem happening...

[egon1024]

Great question, re hardware acceleration. From what I see in my client, it's not even an option. I suspect this is because I'm on the Linux client though.

[philomuh]

Thanks for your help 🙂

I'm running without hardware acceleration right now, which feels like (for the moment) there's no freezes but everything slowed down to 20% performance.. 😞