Windows 10: black screen

[Chris1997]

I upgraded to Windows 10 recently. When I now use Spotify, I get a black screen after a couple of minutes so that Windows isn't usable anymore. Just the taskbar, the start menu and shortcuts like Ctrl + Alt + Del are working. The black screen does not disappear until Spotify is closed via the taskbar for example. I already tried to turn off hardware acceleration and to launch Spotify from a command line using the command

%APPDATA%\Spotify\spotify.exe --disable-accelerated-layers --disable-accelerated-fixed-root-background

but it did not help. Has anybody an idea how to fix the problem?

[TJ_V]

Have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling spotify yet, it sounds like it was an issue transferring the app from Windows 7/8 to Windows 10.

[exonic]

First of all,

Sorry for that mad reply. I'm just being mad about this happening while I want to enjoy my playlists.

I reinstalled it many times. Done the things OP said and I even re-installed Windows 10 and formatted my PC

[TJ_V]

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Desktop-Linux-Windows-Web/Troubleshooting-Windows-amp-Mac/td-p...

Read that forum post, it appeared to fix the same issue you were describing for many people.

[tumpin2]

Same for me and that forum post didnt help. Giving up now.

By the way that forum post shouldnt have a space between App Data, it should be one word AppData. Not being pedantic or anything but if you are typing the path and you put a space then you will get not found error. As its a hidden folder it might confuse some people.

[esvargot]

Spotify launches but my screen is all black except for command bar [file/edit/view].

None of these solutions have helped. Reinstalled Spotify, disabled the hardware accelerator, launched from the command line. Nothing has helped.

I am not comfortable reinstalling Windows 10 - I am feeling like the Spotify tail is wagging the Windows dog.

Very frustrated. 

Help

[DFNg]

Try to click "View" -> disable "Hardware Acceleration". Then restart Spotify.

It's work for me

[jmhbuss]

This worked for me. Thank you!

[snowfall]

I wish it was that easy for me.  Round and round we go.  

[durbintl]

Spotify still has this issue from time to time, especially on corporate networks where the user's profile is stored on a server and not the computer. So to assist those still having the issue now and in the future, install Spotify from the Microsoft Store instead of from the Spotify Website. 

Link to Spotify on the Microsoft Store: https://www.microsoft.com/store/p/spotify-music/9ncbcszsjrsb

[amauryn]

if reinstall didn't work, uninstall the latest windows update from control panel, programs and features, updates

[Deadstronaut]

Stop hardware accelerator,

Press ctrl + 0,

Hope it will work...

Cheers...

[Mihail]

Hey folks,

Just jumping in here to add some extra info to what @Deadstronaut suggested.

Such issues are indeed solved in most cases by performing a clean reinstall. You'll find the necessary steps here. 

If that doesn't fix things, you should also check your Windows hosts file for Spotify entries. This Spotify Answer has detailed instructions on how to do this.

As @durbintl suggested, you should also try with both the version of the app from our website, as well as the one from the MicrosoftStore. 

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get on.

Have a great day!

[snowfall]

Thank you, do not know why however everything came back sometime ago and I
admit I did nothing technical. Just lucky I guess?

[jdtoo]

Plan

Free

Operating System

Windows 10

My Solution:

There is a lot of false and erroneous information in this forum and elsewhere on the Internet regarding the solution to the problem of getting a black screen with no login when you launch Spotify.exe.  Here is the real solution to this problem:

Run Spotify.exe with the "--no-sandbox" command-line switch, i.e.

Spotify.exe --no-sandbox

That is all you have to do.  For those that are concerned about security, yes, disabling the sandbox is generally not a good idea in a Chromium-based web browser, but the Spotify app is not a general purpose web browser so the risk is minimized.  Plus, this is the only solution I could find that would actually work after much research and trial-and-error.  There are plenty of other Electron-based apps which use --no-sandbox by default.

By the way if anyone from Spotify reads this, in a future version of the Spotify desktop app, please include an option in the preferences to manually disable the sandbox without having to use a command-line switch.  That option is needed for apps which integrate with or launch Spotify because none of the apps I have tried allow using custom command-line switches to launch Spotify.exe.

[NICOLASANGEL]

Hi! 

The SOLUTION for black screen is: 

- Execute Spotify

- Open spotify "window" 

- Right click over the spotify window

- On pop-up menu, Disable "Hardware Acceleration" 

- Accept on new windows options

That´s all ! 😉

[Technicyan]

This worked, thank you !

[faezeh_gh]

Thanks, really help

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for your replies in this thread.

We're really glad to here that everything works as it should for you 🙂

Let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Take care!