Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it

[lukaswil]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Desktop

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

When I try to play a song I get the following error message "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it"

I have tried all the fixes I have seen:

Reinstalling app.

Using version from Microsoft store.

Disabled hardware acceleration.

Disabled crossfading.

Changed speaker options.

Deleted local files.

I've had this issue before and it was fixed by using the version from the Microsoft store but this isn't working now.

Spotify works on my phone and my laptop, web player also works only the desktop app doesn't work.

[ControlTheNarra]

same issue here...
works on all devices but the pc... also tried everything with no luck

[MafeG]

Hi folks,

Thank you for posting on the Community and welcome.

Please follow these steps to clear the Hosts file from your computer and try to play music again. Does it make a difference? 

If the issue persists, go to your app's settings and make sure "Hardware Acceleration" is disabled. 

Let us know how this goes.

[lukaswil]

There was no reference to Spotify in the hosts file and disabling hardware acceleration doesn't fix the issue.

[Alex]

Hi there @lukaswil,

Thanks for the reply.

Can you try lowering the sound like described in this thread. 

Let us know if that helps.

[lukaswil]

Sound settings are already below 192kHz, its set at 24bit 48khz.

[MafeG]

Hi @lukaswil,

Thank you for keeping us in the loop. 

Please run a clean reinstall once again, but this time download the app from the Microsoft Store.

If this doesn't do the trick, go to this thread and check the solutions, especially the ones that indicate how to tweak your PC's sound settings. 

Let us know how this goes!

[lukaswil · Accepted solution]

This solution from LuckasKings fixed my issue finally. 
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/quot-Spotify-can-t-play-this-right-now-If-you-have-...

[haiz85]

i have the same problem :
i have tried to :
- reinstall apps
- disabled hardware acceleration
- delete local file
- install from windows store
- clean reinstall

the only thing work if change speaker output to HDMI and back to my external DAC which is from NVIDIA High Definition audio to NuPrime uDSD output everytime i open spotify. It is so frustrating to do that everytime, any solution?

Ok, I found solution for my own problem, change the usb port where the usb dac is plugged solved my problem , now i don't need to change output everytime i start spotify, fiuhhhh

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community.

@lukaswil and @haiz85 - it's nice of you all to share what worked for you 🙂

Let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Take care!

[2daysforthisFix]

Solution for me: Disable speakers in [Playback] and enable them again ...

[Shawc]

Thanks ! This worked for me (every other solution did not)

[Vinnie2500]

This problem only appeared recently on my computer. Used to be able to play until about a month ago. Tried deleting ad re-installing. Looked at a few fixes on this thread, but nothing seems to fix this. Whether I download the playlist to the computer or not, can't play anything. Internet connection is fast, so I should be able to play direct on line, but keep getting the same warning. Very frustrating 

[MihailY]

Hey @Vinnie2500,

Thanks for reaching out.

Can you please confirm you've reinstalled the app using the steps under Clean reinstall in this guide and that you've checked your hosts file?

If yes, please try using a different internet connection like a hotspot on your phone.

Keep us posted.

[12167035018]

I was in the same situation. I was able to play local files from my computer to my phone until it stopped recently. It will say "Can't play this right now, the song isn't available on your device." I tried all the solutions above and it didn't work. I fixed the issue by uninstalling Spotify and installing the Spotify app straight from my Microsoft Store app in Windows. That resolved it.

[eule_7834]

Recently I was confronted with this issue too: "Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it".

*I tested my connection several times, it is always more than fast enough, and no other load. (It's 50MBit Downstream, and ping is reasonable too.)

*Problem occurs in Mac Desktop app.

*Problem manifests like this:

There's a bunch (like 20) songs that I have just added to a playlist.

I want to listen to them, so I click onto them, listen for 10 seconds (5 at beginning,  5 at center of song), then proceed to the next song.

My setting for quality is set to "very high", but I have never had the issues decribed It is clearly a bug and not due to the high quality or the bandwidth (for why, see later).

Some randon songs won't start and instead ""Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it" is shown. It does not help to click another song, and then the problematic song in the hopes it will then work. It will not. Other songs (that are just as new as the problem song) will work and start to play immediately). Even when I go to the album of the problem song, the problem song will not play, but all the others in that album will play. THIS PROVES IT IS NOT A BANDWIDTH OR HIGH QUALITY ISSUE.

- After a certain waiting period (perhaps a minute), the problem song WILL play and the problem will be "solved" for THAT song.

- After some more listening to other new songs from that playlist, inevitably some other song will exhibit this problem.

- It's highly disruptive because I have to keep track of songs that did not play, to revisit them. It is also disruptive because upon not playing the song, Spotify will skip it and play some other song. Super annoying.

- I have restarted the App -- will not help, problem will re-occur with some song soon after, just as if I had not restarted the app.

- Please look into this.

UPDATE: Sometimes, the time it will take to play the song is short, i.e. after 5 seconds it WILL work. In sum it looks to me like a performance issue, with data not being downloaded fast enough. I believe a solution might be to prioritize download of a song that the user has just clicked on, and pause any other downloads of other songs.

[tyostaja]

I was able to fix this problem by changing my output format to 48khz, any higher than that seems to cause the issue.

(2023, windows 11)

[ServiusTheBear]

I am having this issue. I have restarted the computer that didn't work. I uninstalled Spotify which was downloaded from the website and it still does not play the songs. I have updated my drivers and that has not sorted the issue out.. I still can not play any songs on my PC Windows 10 Pro system. They will play fine on my Tablet and my phone. 

[darpost]

no me sale nada de spotify en hosts, simplemente se me para la musica cada 40 segundos pero no me sale que no este disponible. y pos eso en hosts no me sale nada de spotify

[A2020]

Plan

Free

Country

Argentina

Device

Desktop

Operating System

Windows 11

My Question or Issue

I know this has been asked, but many of the question don't address this issue for the browser instead of the Desktop App.

When I try to play songs I see a pop-up with:

"Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it."

Until one song starts playing, but then it goes silent again.

I found the issue, but have no idea why it happens.

I tested with Brave Browser and Edge Browser.

Replicating is really easy.

Access to Spotify with any of this browsers, make sure everything works as intended.

Now close the browser and create a symlink to move browser files to a different drive like so.

First rename C:\Users\---\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge to something else.

Create the symlink:

mklink /d "C:\Users\---\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge" "F:\Cache\Edge"

Now copy the contents of the renamed folder into the one linked.

Open the browser, go to Spotify and the error starts to happen.

Is there a fix for this?