Spotify lowers soundquality when switching windows

[frEz1]

Hi! 

So i'll try and explain this as good as I can since the problem is quite weird. 

I have Spotify open on a second monitor, when the Spotify window is selected (changing songs, switching playlists or just having it marked) the sound is the way it should. As soon as I mark another window (no matter what window) the sound quality drops. Not only the quality but aswell the sound. If I then go back to marking the Spotify windows the quality and volume bumps up. 

This has never been a problem before and the troubleshooting i've done is: 
Restarted computer and Spotify
Reinstalled Spotify
Mixing with sound settings in windows (no sort-of "Allow other devices to take full control") 

Googling for other issues and tried that solution. I've also looked through the spotify settings and I can't find any solution. 

The PC is a Lenovo T570 in a Lenovo Ultradock running Windows 10 64-bit. 

Let me know if you need anymore info! 🙂 

[Sebasty]

Hey @frEz1

Have you looked into Windows Audio settings too?
The audio enhancements:
1. Go to Taskbar, find and click on the speaker icon. Click the speaker/device icon again on the volume slider popup.
2. Go to Sound Enhancement tab and disable them.
3. If there are additional tabs like Dolby or similar, try disabling these too.

The Communications setting:
1. Find the speaker icon on Taskbar again. Right-click on it and select Sounds.
2. In the opened window go to Communications and set Windows to do nothing.

The second one might be what's causing this issue 🙂

Keep me posted!

[frEz1]

Hi! 

I tried both and no difference. 

Any more ideas? 🙂 

[Sebasty]

@frEz1

You can also try reinstalling in a more thorough way:

1. Close Spotify and uninstall it.
2. Go to %AppData% in Windows Explorer, and delete any Spotify folders you find in Local and Roaming folders.
3. Restart your computer.
4. Install Spotify.

Sometimes computers may come with some preinstalled audio software. I suggest going through installed programs and Control Panel, maybe you'll find something.

Did it start happening after the latest Spotify update? 🙂

Let me know how it goes!

[frEz1]

Huh, it fixed itself after a normal reinstallation (didn't fix it last time..)

Not after an update, it just started randomly after a restart of the computer. It's fixed now however! 🙂