(Desktop) Playback issues with local files

[Maria]

We're receiving reports of users experiencing playback issues with local files. This seems to happen specifically on the desktop app, where playback stops at 0 seconds after every song.

[Maria]

Hey guys, 

I've tried out a temporary fix mentioned before and thought I would share it here:

This was mentioned before but I thought I would elaborate with a step by step guide - the 'corrupted' audio files will have a sample rate of 48000, when you want it to be 44100. You can check what the sample rate is by right clicking your file and looking at properties, under 'Details' it will say "Audio Sample Rate" with a number. If it's 48000, write it down because you'll need to change it.

Open up the Audacity software and dump in your corrupted audio files, then immediately hit export (you don't have to do anything yet!) Before you export it will show a couple options on how to export (mp3, mp4, etc) - ignore everything except for the "Sample Rate" section, and select 44100 in the dropdown. 

The file should now work. 
It sucks that we have to resort to these methods but I hope this helps at least a couple people.

Good luck, 
Bloodtraitor

[coadyp]

Same issue was happening to me, and has been for a while. I only recently found out the issue was replicable when the two subsequent songs differed in sample rate (44800 to 44100 and vice-versa). Turning off crossfade and normalization didn't work, and neither did clean installations.

Rather than converting random parts of my 800-song personal library one at a time, rolling back to version 1.2.53.440.g7b2f582a is my solution until this issue is fixed.

[SveinnKingOfTheIsles]

I did the same as you @coadyp aka downgrading and all my songs work perfectly now, So it just proves somewhere in the latest updates it has broken local files and liked songs

[Rexic137]

I tried going back to a earlier version but spotify auto-updated to the current not working version. How do I prevent that?

[coadyp]

EDIT: Updated my Spotify version, seems like things were fixed, program crashed and the error's still there. Oof.

[SveinnKingOfTheIsles]

@Rexic137 I did stuff to stop it updating but it seems Spotify bypassed what I did and forced itself to update which is a pain I really hope this issue gets fixed soon it been ages since dealing with this annoying issue -.-

[NullReferenceE_]

I've been having this same issue for at least the past month or two. I have a few playlists with some local files sprinkled throughout (instrumentals and demos, for example). They all worked fine for the past 2 years, up until recently, now it's freezing nearly every day when trying to play more than a few local files.

The issue:

I've noticed that Spotify can freeze with any local file, but I still haven't figured out the exact conditions to reproduce the bug, except that it only happens sometimes when trying to play a Spotify song (whether cached or not), while a local file is currently playing. A couple months back I had an issue where nothing would play through my speakers due to a sample rate discrepancy (unrelated to this issue, and was fixed by changing the sample rate on the speaker). It's possible that it's a sample rate issue for files, but that doesn't explain why the behaviour is so random, since the files still work normally sometimes.

After the program is frozen, I've tried:

• Enabling/disabling hardware acceleration (doesn't work)
• Disabling local files (sometimes works)
• Restarting my computer (doesn't work)
• Clearing cache (doesn't work)
• Reinstalling Spotify (sometimes works)

When frozen, there is no way to reopen the app without ending the Spotify task(s) from the task manager -- otherwise it just opens a dialogue box with "the Spotify application is not responding". HOWEVER, this doesn't fix the core issue, as the same song is usually still frozen when the app reopens. It's like the current local file takes over, and the app loses all event listeners for its playback (pause/play, skip, time scrub, change song, etc).

Temporary Solution:

The only way I've been able to escape the freeze loop is to end the task (from the task manager or resource monitor), then play a Spotify song (not a local file) from my phone, then reopen Spotify on the computer (they need to be on the same account, so the phone can take control). The apps should sync when it reopens, and show as "playing on device" (the phone), then switch it back to the computer.

A bit of a PITA, especially when I'm working, but so far it's the only decent solution I've found that has consistently fixed the freeze for the past few weeks.

Version Info:

Spotify for Windows (64 bit) - Standalone (non Windows Store)
1.2.68.528.g50f97d42

Spotify Premium

Windows 10 Pro for Workstations (19045.6093)

Rant:
I don't really understand how updates that break functionality get pushed to production so often. Over the past 5 years I've used Spotify, there have been countless bugs like this (especially on Windows), that take upwards to a few months to be fixed. It's not just Windows though, I feel it's just as bad elsewhere.

• Local files don't even run on Linux, I'm guessing it's a codec issue, I haven't looked into it too much though.
• The Spotify app on Android Auto is a hazard to use while driving. The interface is too cluttered and unintuitive -- for some reason there are tiny buttons that require other tiny buttons to open and close sub-sub-menus -- terrible UI design. I can't sort by added-date, which makes it damn-near impossible to get to the bottom of the playlist while driving. For years, I've been having to use shuffle magic and luck of the draw to find a song from the bottom of the playlist, then disable shuffle.
• Additionally, playlists with over 300 songs don't show the latter half of the playlist on Android Auto.
• Why can't I delete my 'recently played' after all these years? I've read it used to be a thing.
• The home page used to freeze the Windows client until a few months ago. It's been fixed, but all the bloat is still there with all the playlists and podcasts... I don't listen to any of that stuff, let me disable it. I've installed Spicetify in the past which has helped, but Spotify always pushes an update that breaks it days later.
• Why does Spotify still use the godawful shuffle that isn't actually random? I end up hearing the same few songs every couple minutes, to the point where I have to remove them from my 600-song playlist because it can't seem to freshen up the queue.

Conclusion:

I really hope this local file issue gets fixed though. It renders many of my songs and playlists useless, and even worse, randomly kills the app. I'm very close to building my own music client to just stream Spotify through the API, and bypass the bug terrarium that is the Spotify client. I don't post on forums often, but this is getting ridiculous. Hopefully that (temporary) solution can at least help somebody, and the conditions I listed can provide the Spotify developers a bit of insight into the issue.

-- NullReferenceException

[saucyross]

how is it even possible for the "leading" music app to be so terrible?

how can Spotify fail to deliver one of the most basic functions of a media player application, which is to play local files of music we literally purchased already? especially a basic feature that has worked for so many years...?

it simply isn't worth paying for a premium subscription anymore. i will gladly be cancelling my subscription as this is the final straw. 

[Tukes]

The fix that I did was by downgrading to an older version of Spotify (Just Google Search "Older versions of Spotify" and click on the uptodown.com link for Windows; I used the one from February). Then I set it up so that it won't auto-update, so it stays on that version forever. I did this by installing Spicetify and setting a command there to do it. After I did these steps, all of the auto pausing that I was dealing with for the past few months went away.

[Rexic137]

@Tukes how did you keep it from auto-updating with spicetify?

[Tukes]

@Rexic137, There's a command line prompt you can do in windows powershell once you have Spicetify installed that stops it from updating. I believe the command line that I used was "spicetify spotify-updates block".