[Web API] Adding tracks to a public playlist requires playlist-modify-private scope

[LostMechanics]

Hello everyone ! 

My use case :

Via the Spotify Web API, I want to create a public playlist and add tracks to it.

My implementation :

I setup a spotify auth flow that requires the playlist-modify-public scope.

Then when I get the auth token I create the public playlist via the corresponding API endpoint (see documentation here) and the API call works perfectly, my new playlist is correctly create, and it's correctly public.

Then i call the endpoint for adding items to a playlist (see documentation here).

But on this call, I get an error (503 - Insufficient Client Scope).

The workaround :

I tried to do the exact same flow but with the playlist-modify-private scope and it's works correctly, the tracks are added to the playlist

Questions : 

I think it's a bug from the Web API, because it's not normal to have the -private scope for updating a public playlist ?

Is it a recent update on the scope management on the spotify side, because it seems to work worrectly 2 or 3 days ago ?

Thank's in advance

[Borkware]

Not really.  Something will break, I'll google the past week and find a bunch of third party developers with the problem. Sometimes someone finds a work around, sometimes not. And then things will start working again.  About the only thing they communicate (for mobile SDKs) is when they've been rewritten (again) and are going to be shutting off access to the old one.

[LostMechanics]

It's working again on my side too ! 

Th'anks everyone who tried to help, and thank's to Spotify developers for fixing it, it would be great if they communicate a bit more on what's they are working on.

[jwmp]

Yep. Working for me too with playlist-modify-private.

[Borkware]

Folks who are having success - did you push out a new version of your app?  My iOS users are *still* getting the 403s 😞

[pauliephonic]

@jwmp I didn't need to add playlist-modify-private. Old code that worked to write to public playlist with playlist-modify-public permission is working again, looks like a bug that was fixed.

@borkware No change to our app at all which was a backend service as opposed to a mobile app. Seems an API regression was fixed.

[jwmp]

@pauliephonic: I was just clarifying that it now works with private playlists again. That also failed yesterday, it wasn't only public playlists that were affected. My guess is that somebody at Spotify accidentally swapped the functionality of private/public scopes.

[blackarcanis]

Hi!

We are still having the issue here, so the problem is back. We are getting "Insufficient client scope" while our integration with the Spotify API has been working great for many years now. No change on our side.

What is going on? Any help from Spotify Devs support?

[Naianasha]

I don't think "Spotify Devs support" exists 

[blackarcanis]

The main issue is we got both private and public sources well added, and that has never been an issue. But now, for a couple of days/a week, it's been happening randomly for some Spotify users. They must do something... And yes, I know there's no "real" support here but what else can we do?

[Borkware]

 Also be sure to double-check your JSON request payload.  It looks like they've switched to stricter-typing.  I had an error where I had a boolean field (the "is public" one), was passing "false" instead of false. (so a string instead of a boolean)

[blackarcanis]

Thank you! But it is not related to the tracks additions to a public playlist owned by the user and having this error "Insufficient client scope" only for some users (which have been well made for years before) 😕

[submithub]

This same issue is showing up for me today, as well. I also had it sporadically back in February. Today it seems to be full-tilt for pretty much all users.

[Top50Clean]

My app has been updating playlists without a hitch for years, including this morning. Then this same 403 "Insufficient client scope" error popped up a few hours ago. It's working again now, though, with no changes on my side. It was definitely an issue on Spotify's side. Hopefully it's fully resolved by now.

[Top50Clean]

I shouldn't have opened my dumb mouth. It's throwing the 403 error again, so the issue is not resolved.

[blackarcanis]

Yes, there's a full 403 Insufficient client scope for a couple of hours 😕 

So don't worry, you are not alone and this issue in addition to not being fixed by Spotify is often happening more and more...