"Couldn't load the lyrics for this song" error on desktop

[ThugaPT]

Plan

Free

Country

Portugal

Device

Multiple

Operating System

Windows, MacOS

My Question or Issue:

Whenever I'm on either my MacOS device or my Windows device, I have the lyrics button available, but by clicking it I get the lyrics screen with "..." for a couple of seconds and then the message "Couldn't load the lyrics for this song. Try again later." This has been going on for a while. It happens on every single song I try to play. When I play those same songs on my Android TV device or my mobile Android device, the lyrics are available and appear, so they are there in the database. Both applications and OSs on my Mac and Windows are up to date with the most recent version, and there's no connectivity issues, in the same network I can access the lyrics on the other Android Devices. Anyone knows what's going on? Did Spotify discontinue the lyrics option on both their desktop clients?

[Dessi]

Hi there @ThugaPT,

Thanks for reaching out! 

We've moved your post to a separate thread, since it was a bit different than the original one. Hope you don't mind!

This might be a sync issue so we'd recommend logging out and then back in a couple of times in a row to see if that makes a difference. Another thing worth checking is if this happens with a different account - you can ask a friend or a relative to log in on one of your PCs. This way we can determine if it's device- or account-related.

In case you're using any VPN services, make sure they're off while you're using Spotify. Clearing the hosts file might also be worth the shot, since it might be corrupted - here's how.

Keep us posted.

[ThugaPT]

Greetings @Dessi,

first of all I'd like to thank you for the fast answer.

I did all the suggested steps and here are my findings.

Log-out/Log-in: I tried logging out in the application, logging in again(redirected to browser) logged out in the browser, logged in on the browser again, login the app, approve in the browser. I followed these steps a few times in a row and then started to play a song I know I'm shown the lyrics to when I'm listening on the AndroidTV with the same account, and no lyrics showed, just the same error.

Different account: I created a brand new account using another email address I have, logged out of my account, logged into the new account, played the same song, still no lyrics and the same error.

The fact that when using a new account I still get the same error, would lead me to believe that it would be a device problem, not an account problem(which would be confirmed by the fact that I can access lyrics on AndroidTV with the same account), but at the same time, it doesn't make much sense to be device related, since I was using a Windows PC previously and had this error, and now I got the Mac device, installed everything from scratch(it was a new laptop) and the error persists on the Mac device. It seems like it's a problem with the desktop client(for both windows and MacOS, maybe the core for both desktop applications is the same, or the way they reach out to musixmatch API for the lyrics is the same).

Not using any VPN services.

Any suggestion or ways to further investigate this issue?

Is there a local log file that I can consult to see if an error shows up and what it is?

Thanks in advance

[AlejaR]

Hey there @ThugaPT,

Thanks for your reply here.

Just to confirm (and to continue isolating this behavior), are you using the app while offline? Keep in mind that lyrics work only while online.

Now, we'd like to gather some additional info. Please send us:

• The exact Spotify version you're running on your computer.
• The model and exact OS version of your computer.
• Does this happen on the web player?
• Would you mind sharing with us one of the songs in which you noticed this behavior? You can share with us the link to it.
• Are you using an external device to play Spotify from your computer, such as smart speaker?

Keep us in the loop!

[ThugaPT]

To answer your questions:

• The exact Spotify version you're running on your computer.
  • Spotify for macOS (Intel)
    1.2.7.1277.g2b3ce637
• The model and exact OS version of your computer.

  • Apple M3 Pro

  • 36GB RAM
  • 1TB Storage
  • OS: macOS Sequoia 15.5 24F74
• Does this happen on the web player?
  • On the web player the lyrics also work like they should
• Would you mind sharing with us one of the songs in which you noticed this behavior? You can share with us the link to it.
  • Example: https://open.spotify.com/track/0O26gtfjuscAOnQobjNPPL?si=75bad09d445d4b32
• Are you using an external device to play Spotify from your computer, such as smart speaker?
  • Nope, all on the computer

Thanks in advance.

[Ivelina · Accepted solution]

Appreciate you returning with these details, @ThugaPT.

Since what's happening seems to be isolated to the apps both on Windows and Mac, test with disabling hardware acceleration in both by going to Help (in Windows, you have to first click on the three dots in the top left corner) > Troubleshooting > Disable Hardware Acceleration to test if that would make any difference.

Additionally, you can also run Spotify as administrator. On Windows, locate the Spotify app's installation folder, depending on where you installed it, right click > Run this program as administrator. 

We'll be on the lookout for your response.

[ThugaPT]

I did what you asked and after I disabled HW acceleration and restarted, it started showing lyrics properly. I them enabled HW acceleration again, and to my surprise, the lyrics continue showing properly, so I have no idea what happened, but the good thing is that it's working now.

Thank you very much to all the replies that allowed this problem to be isolated and solved

[OscarDC]

Hey @ThugaPT,

Thank you for keeping in contact. 

We're glad to know that everything is working fine now. We appreciate the time you took following the processes and sharing what works for you. Hopefully, this tip will help other users too.

In case you need anything else, remember that the Community is just a post away.

Cheers!

[1blackthunder1]

I'm playing music on my desktop PC, but it displays “Couldn't load the lyrics for this song. Try again later.” and won't show the lyrics. This didn't happen on my iPhone. I tried restarting the app and the PC, but it didn't fix the issue.

[sunny4143]

Hi! I've been having the same issue, only a couple songs load lyrics immediately and all others pop up with the 'cannot load lyrics. try again later' message. however, disabling the hardware acceleration did not fix the issue