Stuttering & Slow Desktop App

[aespy]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 11

Installation Type: Tried both Microsoft Store and Direct Download

The Issue:
I am experiencing severe UI stuttering and lag. This has been going on since October 2025. When I click the volume bar or try to skip through a song (seek bar), the slider stays for a split second and then "snaps back" to its original position. Additionally, clicking "Skip" (Next Track) takes about 30 seconds to actually respond. Waiting for the next song to play automatically is around 2-5 minutes.

Everything I have tried so far (None have worked):

Reinstalled Spotify multiple times.

Cleaned AppData: Deleted folders in %AppData% and %LocalAppData%.

Swapped Versions: Tried both the standalone installer and the Microsoft Store app.

Cache: Changed the location of the offline storage cache.

Hardware Acceleration: Toggled this ON and OFF in Advanced Settings (no change).

Audio Drivers: Uninstalled old drivers and installed the correct ones for the new motherboard.

Windows Settings: Set "Communications" to "Do Nothing" and disabled audio enhancements.

Reset my whole PC and got a clean copy of Windows 11 running.

I feel like I have tried everything, yet nothing works. My other Spotify versions work just fine (mobile, laptop, web, even TV).

[Vasil]

Hey @aespy,

Thank you for sharing your issue with the Community. You've done some very extensive troubleshooting so far, kudos for the initiative!
 

What I'm wondering is if a different account would behave the same way on your desktop app. Would you mind checking?
 

And, aside from this, if the error persists, we'd like to ask you to send us a short video recording, showcasing what is happening on your end. You can upload it here or, in case the file is too large, you can upload it to e.g. Google Drive or YouTube as an unlisted video and share the link with us.

Much appreciated! We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[aespy]

Hi @Vasil,

I logged in to a friend's Free account, and it has been working (mostly, like 99%) fine for around the last 45 minutes! Usually, on my account, after 15-30 minutes, I start to face those issues that make it unusable. The only thing I noticed is that the volume slider "stutters" a little bit. I cannot reproduce it consistently, so I have no screen recording. I will try logging in to my account now and seeing if it goes back to being broken. I will attach a screen recording of the issue if it persists on my account, but think of it as "lag-back" whenever I try to change the value of the seek bar/volume bar. I'll click at a certain point, then it jumps right back to where it was, and after a few seconds, it eventually snaps into the place I wanted it to be.

Thanks!

[aespy]

Hey again,

Now that I am back on my account, I seem to be facing the issues again. I attached a video of what I mean. The issue has gotten worse ever since I screen-recorded this as well. The volume slider is taking a good 15 seconds to actually change the volume, and it snaps back every time.

Thanks.

[Joan]

Hi @aespy,

Thanks for the reply and the video.

You said this has been happening since last October, so did this coincide with any specific change? More specifically, did it start happening after an update to Spotify and/or an update to Windows? If not that, did you change something with your setup, such as adding an external sound card, changing router/network settings or similar?

Let us know so we can narrow things down further.

[aespy]

Hey Joan,

The only thing I can think of is putting my old SSD into a new computer in August & using a new network at my new place of residence. I cannot pinpoint anything specific during October that changed; it was working just fine throughout August to around mid-October. I have updated and verified that my drivers are all fine and even got a clean copy of Windows 11 running. I do use a Bluetooth USB dongle, but I feel like that dongle is likely irrelevant to the issue I am having with Spotify. I have also had no issues with any other software on my computer; it has just been Spotify.

Thanks!

[AlejaR]

Hey there @aespy,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop and for all the info you've shared so far.

As a next step, would you mind trying to run the app in Safe Mode to rule out any issues with your default Windows settings? Give it a try and let us know how it goes.
 

Additionally, we'd like to gather some additional info. Please send us:

• The exact Spotify version you're running.
• Does this happen when you open your account on a different computer? You can ask for the computer of a relative or a friend to open your account and check.
• Does this happen when using the web player?

We'll be around!

[Yo-C]

Just the other day, after restarting my computer, my Spotify has out of nowhere started performing extremely slowly. Any sort of action, such as pausing/playing, skipping, moving the play slider, adding songs to a playlist, opening a playlist, will take far too long (sometimes a few minutes) to work. I particularly notice it when I go to add a song to a playlist and the list itself takes an awfully long time to load.

I've tried everything I can think and everything I can find on other posts, to no avail. For example, I've tried:

• Restarting the app
• Restarting the computer
• Clearing the cache
• Reinstalling the app
• Clean reinstalling the app
• Reinstalling the app from both the Windows Store and directly from the Spotify website
• Disabling/enabling hardware acceleration
• Searching for any remaining "Spotify" files
• Searching for any "Spotify" host files
• Running off mobile hotspot

Some of these appeared to have worked initially, but after adding one song to a playlist it was right back to being slow again.

I've also tried using the web player, which runs faster but it does not give me access to my local files so it is not helpful. Speaking of which, I have also tried turning off my local files. It then runs smoother, but once I turn them back on, it starts to lag again. I can't imagine the local files are the issue though, because it had been working perfectly fine with them before. In fact, I changed nothing since the last time it worked (literally less than a week ago), so I can't understand why it has suddenly started going so slow and nothing I do seems to have any effect.

[Yordan]

Hey folks,

Could you check if there are any third-party apps linked to your Spotify account here? If there are, I'd suggest removing them & clearing the desktop app's cache again from the

Three dots menu > Help > Troubleshooting > Reset App Data & Restart

at the top to see if that makes a difference.

In case you're using a VPN, I'd suggest disabling it as well.

Cheers 🤘

[aespy]

Hey there! Sorry for the late reply. This only happens on my desktop PC in the application. My laptop (web+app), TV, and phone work just fine. Running Safe Mode did not allow me to open Spotify. I would attempt to run it, and nothing would happen. I am running Spotify for Windows (64 bit) 1.2.84.476.ga1ff6607. I have tried both the Windows and direct Spotify downloads.

[aespy]

Hey Yordan,

I cleared all the apps linked to my Spotify account. I cleared the cache as well, and now I am letting it run for a while to see if the issue comes back. As of right now, it seems normal minus some volume slider stuttering, but it always seems normal for a while after I restart my computer. I'll update you in a bit!

[aespy]

It's back to acting buggy; not sure where to go from here!

[Joan]

Hi @aespy,

Thanks for the replies.

Consider trying to start the app in compatibility mode for Windows 10. Might seem like an odd step given you're on Windows 11, but it helps to narrow down the possible root causes and get to the bottom of things.

Let us know how it goes.

[starscreamaut]

almost the same issue
it stops responding after a few clicks or playlist saves

already deleted the 14 GB cache

yes i have maaaaany playlists - using spotify premium since 2011 - but it never was such a pain to use ever

[Joan · Accepted solution]

Hi @starscreamaut,

Thanks for the reply.

While the app can handle plenty of content, the more it has to handle, the more the performance is likely to degrade. This of course also depends on the device and other aspects of your setup. In any case, if you can streamline the amount of playlists, consider doing so. If you have a lot of liked songs, try downsizing the list or splitting these across playlists instead.

If none of this helps, consider trying the various steps from this thread thus far, starting from the ones mentioned in the original post.

Let us know how it goes.

[starscreamaut]

i have it on my gaming machine with more than enough power - its the same on my notebook at work
its 100% the amount of playlists

[Yo-C]

I tried clearing my third-party apps and again it seemed to be okay for 1 song and then went right back to being slow again.

For now, I have removed all my local files from the folder and will slowly start adding them back in. Hopefully by the time everything's back in, the app will be used to having it again. I still don't understand how the local files make a difference, because it was working perfectly fine with the same local files one day, and then all of sudden couldn't handle it anymore.

Also, please don't suggest reducing the amount of local files or playlists I have. The whole reason I use Spotify is to be able to listen to my local files in tandem with online songs and to sort all my songs into various playlists.

[starscreamaut]

i dont even use local songs and its barely usable - everytime i put a song in any playlist - even in new ones - the app isn responding for almost a minute - then it pauses the music before it continues

[starscreamaut]

ok i found a solution

clear the cache,
deinstall,
reinstall over the microsoft store

i dont know why - but this helped
reinstalling with the downloader from the official site didnt help

[Yo-C]

Clearing the cache and reinstalling didn't work for me. I tried from both the Microsoft store and the website