Desktop app stuck on black screen

[Maria]

Some users have reported performance issues with the desktop application. Users are able to log in to their accounts, but the app then displays a black screen. This is being investigated.

[iqwild]

Spotify für macOS (Apple Silicon)
1.2.29.605.g66a43ceb

App still spawns 2 Spotify Helper (Renderer) processes, after killing both only one restarts and then the GUI is visible.

[petersj1982]

Wrong thread, sorry!

[MW1234]

Same issues on a Mac that I cannot seem to resolve

[SomeOtherNerd]

This is definitely a frustrating issue for several months now, especially since it is very easy to reproduce.  Surprised Spotify have not fixed this urgently.

Issue:

Spotify displays a completely black screen after starting it, completely unusable.  Quitting and restarting does not fix.

Setup:

MacBook Pro 2019 64GB RAM

OSX Venture 13.5.2
Spotify for macOS (Intel)
1.2.29.605.g66a43ceb

Steps to reproduce

1. Start Spotify (Command+Space "Spotify" Enter)

Current work arounds

1. Delete the ~/Library/Application Suport/Spotify/prefs file. Restart. Relogin

2. Start Spotify (black screen appears). Using Activity Monitor kill all Spotify Helper (Renderer) processes, Spotify will start working correctly

Both of the above are just work arounds, the 1st is particularly painful since it requires you to delete a file, start Spotify and then re-login

[tauchris]

Nice post, @SomeOtherNerd  -- and spot-on!  Killing the renderer immediately resolves the black screen of futility.  Giant pain in the **bleep**, though.

Hey Spotify -- does this feel like a helpful bit of info?  If I were debugging this, I'd try to find what's different about a renderer started by the app during initialization, versus one started after initialization, when the app detects the renderer has died.  Smells a lot like a race condition -- perhaps the renderer needs something from the app that isn't yet available when the app first start that thread (like the handle to the window being rendered, perhaps??).

[azucenacarmela]

I have a mac on 14.2 and every time I open the Spotify app on my mac it only shows a black screen. I have deleted the application, in finder, applications, and in the trash multiple times and it has not resolved. 

[Jhenstra]

You should try installing an older version of Spotify until they resolve this.

[hellafied]

Black screen for me on MacOS 12.7.3. I tried the suggested fixes to no avail. I should not have updated. Pretty embarrassing fail on your part lol, looks like this has been ongoing for some time. Imagine being the worlds largest music streaming platform and being unable to maintain a basic desktop skin for your app.

[patrickwspencer]

I'm on Windows 10 and still experiencing the black screen issue with the most recent version of the app. When the app does feel like turning on (less than half the time), there's always other very annoying issues, like music randomly playing and stopping, buttons not doing anything (especially the play/pause button), and various graphical elements never loading (usually the "recents" pane on the left never loads). It's basically unusable and I can't justify paying for it anymore if it doesn't get fixed soon.

[user-removed]

Happening from Macbook Air M1 ('Ventura 13.0)

1. Happens when I start from app the bottom bar

2. No hardware acceleration setting

3. Have tried maximize.

4. Cannot set startup mode as screen is still black when selecting Settings..

I have solved this before by deleting a Spotify prefs file. I can no longer find this file.