[Windows 7] Spotify.exe -- Unkillable Zombie Process

[lsass]

Plan

Premium

Country

 US

Device

Desktop PC

Operating System

Windows 7

My Question or Issue

Recently, this issue started occuring quite frequently; but, it began about a week to two weeks ago. Spotify will hang for no apparent reason for minutes, hours, and more until I close it. Then, I can't restart the application because, when I do, I receive a popup warning that says "The Spotify application is not responding," and then the program quits. Also, I can't go into task manager to kill the process because it's a zombie and doesn't respond to any kill/force quit signals.

The only solution(as far as I know) to this problem is to restart my PC. Going through a whole restart requires closing all of my work, trying to finish doing as much as I can, etc. and is just in general a tedious, annoying process. It's especially annoying because I know that a few hours after rebooting my PC and starting Spotify, the same issue will happen again.

I haven't seen any topics about this issue directly that have been recent enough to be of any substance; however, I hope this issue is resolved. I've been a customer for years and this is the first time I've experienced a problem that almost entirely ruins the Spotify application for me.

[Loxer]

Hey, thanks for reaching out.

I know it sounds simple, but it's often overlooked. Could you try restarting your device? If that doesn't help, try a quick clean reinstallation of the app. Just follow the steps here.

If you're still having trouble, could you let me know the exact version of Spotify and the exact version of the operating system you're running?

I'll see what I can suggest!

[DennyEMufc]

Once again, please please stop doing copy/paste answers that make it clearly obvious you're not reading the question? He doesn't want to keep restarting his devices! Also in task manager why does it show that 3 Sptify processes are running? Its consuming too much RAM! The old versions (the best) just had ONE exe running!

[batenswytch91]

I am having the exact same problem. Didn't start until the most recent update (Earlier this week, I think)

This is a work desk top. I can't just restart the darn thing every time Spotify pitches a fit.

I've tried killing the process, the process tree... and short of killing it with fire, or constantly restarting, I'm out of options.

Also, yes, I have a paid account, so yes, I feel I can complain.

[NinjaCat93]

I have the exact same issue. It started recently, probably after the last update. 

I've shut off my homegroup sharing, as that have worked for people earlier as far as i could google. But it does nothing for me. Now spotify freezes mid playlist, and when i close it and try to restart i get the "spotify is already in use" and the zombie process that is unkillable is there when i go to task manager... 
I am really tired of having to restart my computer up to several times a day... This is not what i'm paying premium for.

I am also using Windows 7, as i can't stand windows 10. 

[Fnok_12]

Consantly Restarting isnt a fix. I have also just run into this problem in the last few weeks and since have found loads of old forum posts dating back to 2013 from people having the same issue.

[Sebasty]

Hey all!

That sounds really odd!

I'd suggest clean reinstall. Try this:

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.

Another thing that might be worth a shot is making Spotify not open automatically after startup. You can find this setting in menu buttons - Edit - Preferences. Scroll down to Advanced Settings and you'll see 'Startup and Window behavior'.

Let me know how it goes 🙂

[NinjaCat93]

I've done both of those things, does not help.... 

[batenswytch91]

Did all that last time I posted about this.  Guess what?

It's still doing it.

Worked about a week, then yesterday, here we go again.

I simply cannot restart my office computer every time I want to listen to Spotify at the office - that would be every single day.

If I weren't PAYING for premium, I wouldn't be aggravated, I'd just chalk it up to it's free, can't gripe.

[Sebasty]

Hey 🙂

That's honestly really strange that the process is unkillable.

I suggest turning off both hardware acceleration (in Spotify: Menu dots - View - Hardware acceleration) and local files (Menu dots - Edit - Preferences).

Switch off all locations for the local files.

I'd run some malware scans as well just in case (for example with Malwarebytes).

Let me know what happens 🙂

[Dragoshade]

Hi Sebasty,

I have the same issue, on 2 different computers. Both have uninstalled and re-installed. 

Seems more prominent on the one I leave running 24/7, spotify is usually open, on a discover playlist or daily playlist, computer locked. When not in use, account is used on other devices, phone, sonos, other computer. Maybe its something to do with the interaction of the "other devices" part of the app and what is being played on them?

Thanks

-Chris

[Sebasty]

Hey @Dragoshade

I'm looking this error up. I've learned so far that:

1. The unkillable task seems to be the result of unfinished i/o request to a driver, and the driver never finishes it. This Technet blog describes it quite well and provides a way on how to figure out the cause

2. For taskkill command /T kills the child processes too. Type taskkill /? for more information in console.

There's a powerful tool named Process Explorer (released by Microsoft) which may be helpful with terminating the process. You'll need to start it as Administrator to see everything (information on system processes for example).
You can read about it and download it here.

You may also try reinstalling in safe mode. Download this offline installer and then do that:

1. Hit Windows logo and R keys and type msconfig into the box. Hit Enter.
2. Go to Boot tab, put a tick in Safe Boot box and select the Minimal radio button. Hit OK. The system will ask you to either restart or exit without restart. Restarting will boot into Safe Mode, exiting without restart will bring Safe Mode the next time you start the machine.
3. Do the clean uninstall I described in my first post in this thread.
4. Install Spotify using the offline installer.

5. Go back to msconfig to remove the tick from Safe Boot box. Now you'll be able to enter normal Windows again.

That's quite a lot, but I hope any of this helps you all 🙂

[batenswytch91]

I'm not new to this. I've done all of this, long before I came here seeking help.  This is a problem that's surfaced many times over the years in various iterations of the program.  Whatever bug this is, they apparently can't figure out how to get rid of it and NOT build it back in down the road.

Thanks for the Turn it Off and Turn it Back On Again help though.

I'll just wait and see if they figure it out and get it out next time they update.  Until then, I'm seriously questioning if I need to pay 120.00 a year for a service that won't work unless I run their web player.

[supernama]

I've got the same thing going on and a Google search showed this has been happening to people on in off for a few years now but nothing that seems to fix it from Spotify. The common solution seems to be upgrading the OS entirely which is not practical.

Restart seems to fix it albeit temporarily and the rest of these fixes make no difference. There is no other program I've ever used where I encountered an unkillable, zombie process. This is certainly unique to Spotify.

[supernama]

Let me add some addtional details:

It can't be killed using Process Explorer, a reinstall didn't help, and when I check my firewall, I see that it's stuck on a CloseWait with an outgoing connection to 104.154.126.176 port 4070 which is a Google User Content address. I'm not sure why Spotify is connecting to Google but it seems that when this issue occurs, this outgoing connection to a Google User Content IP also occurs. My firewall is showing no other connections from the Spotify process. Is the Spotify software being pulled from Google?