Windows 10 crashes when changing offline storage or trying to add a source

[wombat1369]

Premium

USA

Windows 10 Pro Version 20H2 OS Build 19042.867

Spotify has a bug when using the browse folder UI control to change a setting.

Spotify immediately crashes when trying to change the offline storage location or add a local source. Everything else in Spotify works fine.

- First had the Spotify installed from the website and got the immediate crash issue when trying to add a local source.

-Uninstalled Spotify and installed from the Microsoft Store, same immediate crash when trying to add local storage.

-Uninstalled Spotify and manually deleted anything Spotify related from the file system and Windows Registry. Rebooted Windows.

-Installed Spotify from the Windows Store, immediate crash when trying to change offline storage or add a local source.

- Started Spotify and downloaded a playlist. Go into offline mode, downloaded songs play fine.

- In Local Files settings enabled show songs from Downloads and Music Library. MP3 files in those locations show in "Local Files" and play fine.

- Run Spotify.exe as Administrator, immediate crash when trying to change offline storage or add local source.

- Run Spotify in Windows 8 or Windows 7 compatibility mode, immediate crash when trying to change offline storage or add local source.

I've done the clean install, reboot, check hosts files, blah blah blah, still immediately crashes. Again, everything else in Spotify is working fine, it's only when using the browse folder UI control in settings does Spotify crash.

[Jeremy]

Hey there @wombat1369,

Thank you for your post here in the Community and for letting us know what troubleshooting steps you've taken so far.

Can you turn off hardware acceleration and also check if you have a firewall that might be blocking Spotify's access?

It would also be great if you can start Spotify in safe mode.

If that doesn't do the trick, can you let us know which version of the app you have?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Cheers!

[wombat1369]

None of the suggestions worked for me.

The Windows 10 Pro computer with this Spotify issue is part of my company's
AD. Even though I have local admin right I suspect an IT security policy is
causing the Spotify issue. I spun up a standalone Windows 10 Pro not joined
to any organization. Spotify on that computer does let me successfully add
local files without crashing.

I don't have a solution yet for the one computer but a good idea of what's
causing the issue. When I have time I'll dig into the event viewer and
policies to see if I can find a solution.

[Ivan]

Hey @wombat1369, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

In case you don't observe the crash when using Spotify on another PC it's possible that this issue is specifically related to the particular device. 

Let us know if you manage to find a solution after checking the event viewer. We'll be glad if you share the details with us here in this thread. 

Stay tuned! 

[wombat1369]

Still haven't found the root cause but have a workaround and now Spotify can access my local MP3 files without crashing.

Spotify always let me add my Windows 10 "Music Library". MP3 files copied into the "Music"folder would show and play fine from Spotify's local files library.

I have a NAS on my home network with gigabytes of MP3 files. Copying all those file to my "Music" folder would be one option. But I didn't want to use up local disk space on my C:\ drive. Instead, I created a symbolic link in my "Music" folder that maps to the NAS MP3 files directory. It's been working fine so far. The symbolic link could also point to another local drive/folder.

In case anyone else wants to try this, here's what I did:

1) Open a command prompt as Administrator

2) In the command prompt window type this to check what types of symbolic links are enabled:
fsutil behavior query SymlinkEvaluation

3) For me the remote to local links were disabled, I enabled them with:
fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation R2L:1
fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation R2R:1

4) You need the exact path to your user's "Music" library. If you don't know that this should work:
"%userprofile%\music"

5) You need the path to the directory of your MP3 files. My files are on a NAS, with a path like:
\\192.168.1.200\data\mp3s

6) In the command prompt window create the symbolic link:
mklink /d %userprofile%\music\NASmp3s \\192.168.1.200\data\mp3s

If the command is successful, open your "Music\NASmp3s" folder and you'll see all the MP3 files. If your Windows "Music" library is added as a local source Spotify should show them in Library > Local Files.

Works fine for me, maybe it will help someone else.