Why is my spotify often so slow?

[bartnawer]

I open spotify, let it load for a bit and when I try to search for an artist, the whole program lags ridiculously. Won't let me search, and when it does search, loads them so slowly. Albums for the artist take several minutes to load and then they stream very poorly.

The internet is not the problem as every website works quickly and youtube loads very quick.

Why is my spotify so slow and laggy? I have the latest public version, Windows 8. Restarting it doesn't help the issue. I often have to wait it out a couple hours.

[wolund]

Spotify has been working fine for me for the last three months already. I no longer have any problems with it 😉 In fact I'm very pleased with it now

[DodgeyGeezer]

Mine is still very very slow

[tomjez]

Absolutely inusable for a few days. Minutes to get to "listened to recently" and be able to search whatever. Never saw an app do that. Or a software. Ridiculous.

[stej01 · Accepted solution]

Just in case anyone else is still having this issue (I was), I found a post somewhere that did solve it for me, from what I can see.

http://alexlitel.tumblr.com/post/53154780770/what-to-do-if-spotify-is-running-slow-on-your

The link explains how to delete your AppData:

"For Mac Users:

1.  If you do not have hidden files set to display by default: in Finder, press the Alt/Option key to access the Library folder under the Go menu. If you do have hidden files accessible: in Finder, just go to the Library folder in your user directory.

2. Go the Caches folder and look for the com.spotify.client folder.

3. Delete everything inside the Storage, Data and Browser folders, but not the folders themselves. You can select all of the items by pressing Command + A.

For Windows Users:

1. Paste C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Spotify\ into the directory bar of Windows Explorer.

2. Delete everything inside the Storage, Data and Browser folders, but not the folders themselves. You can select all of the items by pressing Control + A."

If it wasn't already obvious, close Spotify before you try this. I learned the hard way, and my computer had a little panic.

I didn't restart my machine after doing this, just started Spotify again, and it seemed to load a LOT quicker, and opened links on Spotify it would ususally take either ages to load, or not load at all. 

Hopefully this helps!

EDIT: I just found another way to drastically improve the speed of the Desktop app that just helped my app too. MrCircuit take note, this may help you also! 

Go into your settings in Spotify Desktop app, and try unlinking Local Files - 'SHOW SONGS FROM' - iTunes, Downloads, Media player, Music Library. This stops Spotify from trying to sync to your computer, which instantly improved the loading whenever I searched for anything on the Desktop app. Hope this helps you guys further!

[ulkesh]

For Linux: ~/.cache/spotify/Storage/

[MrCircuit]

It kills me that this is listed as a solution. Because while it does help for a little bit, Spotify goes right back to being slow soon after. This is a workaround, not a solution. It's pretty amazing all these topics have been around for so long without even so much as a peep from a Spotify developer.

I really want to like Spotify. But I've since moved on to another service because I don't want to give them my $10/month or contribute to their ad revenue in any way until this is addressed. But seeing as how it hasn't even improved a bit, I'm not hopeful.

Also, you know what's a good music streaming app? Literally every other one I've tried. Okay, iTunes is iTunes, but that's been garbage since it came out.

[Sillyrabb]

Hey Spotify,

WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT THIS ISSUE??

Paying Premium is starting to be a waste of money. The desktop app is annoying and UNUSABLE.

If what we want is JUST BEING ABLE TO LISTEN the music we want, SPOTIFY IS NOT DELIVERING.

[Sillyrabb]

Hey Spotify,

What are you doing to solve this issue??

Paying Premium is starting to be a waste of money. The desktop app is annoying and UNUSABLE.

If what we want is JUST BEING ABLE TO LISTEN the music we want, SPOTIFY IS NOT DELIVERING.

[IamDavid]

HELLO FROM THE FUTURE ! ... 2016 to be exact and yes Spotify is still slow to load !

I use a up to date fast cell phone, a reliable fast 4G connection and also a fibre home line to connect, but still whenever I need to use Spotify it is slow to load playlists, suggestions, searches and even when downloading !

I have put up with this for so long, well not anymore ! it is really embarrassing that in 2016 I can't have fast access to music... I hate having to wait for things to load - and I want to confirm this is NOT MY FAULT, it is the service.

I have a theory that is it because I have the 50% off student account ( NUS discount ) , and it seems we are not important enough to Spotify.

Useless and very very rude Spotify ! ... bye !

....oh also, I did erase my cache of songs and downloads, reinstalled spotify and downloaded and still I have this problem.

spotify playlists slow to load, slow to load, spotify slow, spotify app slow to load, slow to start

[spoelio]

Thx, it works for me. Linux Mint 17.3

[filistiny · Accepted solution]

I tried all the solutions listed and none of those worked for me.  What worked in my situation was turning off the hardware acceleration option in Spotify.

Edit > Preferences > Scroll to bottom, Show Advananced Settings > Scroll to bottom, uncheck Enable Hardware Acceleration

[imacattack]

Did this. Now views for some popular artists appear as <1000 when they shouldn't. Not sure if this caused it or not. I might try uninstalling and reinstalling the app I guess, unless someone else had a fix for this problem?

[oddopolis]

Yeah, none of those tips work. Horrible desktop experience

[rhodespdx]

I tried this tip for Mac and it seemed to work - restarted the desktop app and everyting promptly loaded. Hopefully it continues to work! I bookedmarked this page just-in-case:) Thanks!

[ikarvs]

Hey! Do we have any update from the Spotify team on this topic?

Netflix, Youtube, iTunes downloads... all of these services works fast on my iMac. It's not a network problem, my desktop Spotify client has been launched from about 5 minutes now and still hasn't been able to load the 'artists' tab since then... this is beyond annoying! gosh...!

[user-removed]

Spotify desktop app is just a big joke...horrible user experience compared to Tidal etc...

It could take 15 minutes or longer before i can even search anything, usually i just leave spotify running and start doing something else and then go back if there's any activity on app, usually not. And all these solutions suggested here, DOES NOT WORK!

Using Mac version.

[JackSparrow]

I am really frustrated. I use about 13000 local files. In earlier versions when the indexing was done (which often crashes the app and makes a restart necessary) Spotify started quickly (SSD based system) and was usable.

Now with the most recent version of the Windows client (1.0.52.725.g943b26a8) the app takes 20-30 secs to start and isn't as responsive as it was before.

Delete the app > after that it works BEFORE I added the local folder again. As soon as the local music folder is added, even when indexing is completely finished - the app is just sloooow. 😞

EDIT: Turning hw acceleration on or off doesn't help here.

[dr10071]

This whole spotify performance issue has turned into a huge inconvenience. Spotify has, at worst, become unusuable, and at best....a pain in the rear.  It takes way too long to load on my phone - sometimes doesn't load at all. I'm only able to successfuly search for new music 50% of the time at best. The other 50% of the time I'm watching a spinning wheel that never stops. And it's not a hardware issue or mobile connectivity issue. I have tested all those items. My computer basically grinds to a halt when Spotify is running. Again - not a hardware or connectivity issue.  I moved from Rdio to Spotify when Spotify acquired them. I was initially pleased. Now - a couple of years later - I guess I have to look for another streaming service. Boooo!

[tetsuohiryu]

Same here. Too slow !  

[capillaries]

clearing the cache did wonders for my spotify desktop app, it's not at all as slow anymore.