Desktop: New Your Library sidebar

[MattSuda]

Spotify is introducing a new Your Library sidebar in the desktop app and Web Player.

The new Your Library sidebar improves navigation and makes it easier and faster to collect and retrieve all types of content, bringing new features to desktop that you're already familiar with in the mobile app. The new sidebar is also more customizable than before to meet different preferences.

You can read more info about the new desktop experience in the Spotify Newsroom post:

➜ Spotify’s Desktop Experience Gets a Brand-New Look With Redesigned ‘Your Library’ and ‘Now Playing’ ...

This thread is your go-to destination for learning what's new, asking questions, getting help for issues you might have, as well as to share your feedback about the new Your Library sidebar for desktop. Also, do you have any tips for other users on how you are using the new Your Library sidebar? We'd love to hear them.

What's new in the Your Library sidebar?

• See your entire collection and all of the content types (not just playlists)
  
  
• Filters for your collection (Playlists, Artists, Albums, Podcasts) that can be combined with other filters (By you, By Spotify, Downloaded)
  
  
• Sort options for your collection (Recents, Recently Added, Alphabetical, Creator, Custom Order)
  
  
• Chosen filters and sort options will be remembered in the sidebar across restarts of the desktop app
  
  
• Search through your collection in the sidebar
  
  
• Pinned library items to find your favorites, faster – current limit is 4 (Playlists, Playlist Folders, Artists, Albums, Podcasts)
  
  
• Art covers are now shown in the sidebar
  
  
• Compact library layout (no art covers) is available as an option in Settings to increase content density
  
  
• Dedicated + (plus) button to create Playlists and Playlist Folders
  
  
• Flexible Sizing: A collapsed library view (with only art covers) to maximize the browsing area, a regular width view, and an expanded view for more focused library management and curation. (you can also drag to customize the size)
  
  
• In the expanded library view, you have options for list view, compact view, and a grid view. The list and compact views show you more details in 2 columns, Date Added and Last Played, and the grid view allows you to see larger art covers.
  
  
• Playlist Folders can still be expanded into the sidebar in a tree view, and now when you click on them, the sidebar only shows the Playlist Folder and what's inside for a more focused view.
  
  
• Menu option to move a playlist to a folder (with search)

Note: The Your Library sidebar experience will be the same for the most part in the Web Player. However, the Web Player does not support all of the features found in the desktop app. To be able to use all of the features, you can download the desktop app right here.

Tips to get started:

If you need a familiar experience to help you get started with the new Your Library sidebar, here's how to get it as close as possible to the old sidebar that previously only showed playlists:

• In the left "Your Library" sidebar, click on the "Playlists" filter at the top.

• Then, in the drop down menu select "Custom Order" under "Sort by". You will then see your previous playlist order and be able to move your playlists and folders like before.

• Your currently chosen filters and sort options will be remembered across restarts of the desktop app.

• If you would like to only see text in the Your Library sidebar (no art covers), go to the drop down menu and at the bottom of the menu click on "Compact" under "View as".

• Flexible Sizing: You can drag the Your Library sidebar to different sizes. Fully expand the sidebar by clicking the arrow button at the top, and fully collapse the sidebar by clicking on the "Your Library" heading to see only art covers.

• At the top, you can scroll through the different filters with your mouse scroll wheel for faster navigation when the sidebar is set to a smaller size. 

Walkthrough of the basics:

Sidebar List:

You can now see your entire collection and all of the content types (not just playlists) in the sidebar list. At the top, click on the filters to filter the content you want to see, and click on the drop down menu to change the sort order or view of the list. To create a new Playlist or Playlist Folder, click on the + (plus) button at the top right corner of the sidebar. To search through your collection, click on the search button.

Filter Options:

At the top, click on the filters to filter the content you want to see. You can scroll through the different filters with your mouse scroll wheel for faster navigation when the sidebar is set to a smaller size. 

To remove the filter, click on the X or the currently selected filter and then choose another filter to see another type of content. Having no filter selected will show all types of content mixed in the list.

• Playlists
• Artists
• Albums
• Podcasts & Shows
• These can be combined with other filters: By you, By Spotify, Downloaded

Sort Options:

At the top, click on the drop down menu to change the sort order of the list under "Sort by".

• Recents
• Recently Added
• Alphabetical
• Creator

When the "Playlists" filter is selected, you have the option to see your playlists in your own custom order.

• Custom Order

When the "Podcasts & Shows" filter is selected, you have the following option:

• Recently Updated

View Options:

At the top, click on the drop down menu to change the view of the list under "View as".

• Compact (view text only without art covers)
• List
• Grid (bigger art covers)

Flexible Sizing:

You can hover over and click on the right edge of the sidebar to drag it to your preferred width. You can also fully expand the sidebar by clicking the arrow button at the top, and fully collapse the sidebar by clicking on the "Your Library" heading to see only art covers.

In the expanded library view, you have options for list view, compact view, and a grid view. The list and compact views show you more details in 2 columns, Date Added and Last Played, and the grid view allows you to see larger art covers.

FAQ:

This section will answer your frequently asked questions and will be updated with the latest answers.

Related help articles on the support website:

• Your Library   • Sort and filter   • Keyboard Shortcuts

Can I view the Your Library page in the main browsing area like before?

• Unfortunately, the old Your Library page in the main browsing area is being discontinued with the release of the new Your Library sidebar. You can adjust the size of the Your Library sidebar to be bigger and you can also enable the "grid view" if you would like to see bigger art covers.

How do I see only my playlists in the sidebar like I used to be able to, I can't drag and move my playlists or folders anymore?

• In the left "Your Library" sidebar, click on the "Playlists" filter at the top.

  
  Then, in the sort options drop down menu select "Custom Order". You will then see your previous playlist order and be able to move your playlists and folders like before.

  
  Your currently chosen filters and sort options will be remembered across restarts of the desktop app.

I don't want to see art cover images in the sidebar, how do I turn them off?

• If you would like to only see text in the Your Library sidebar (no art covers), go to the drop down menu and at the bottom of the menu click on "Compact" under "View as".
  
  

How do I get the album art to expand in the bottom left corner like before? When I try to expand the album art, it opens the Now Playing View sidebar to the right.

• Unfortunately, that is no longer possible. When you expand the album art in the bottom left corner of the app, it will no longer hover over the Your Library sidebar. Instead, the new right sidebar will open up. You can resize the Now Playing View sidebar to your preferred size.
  
  

  You can read more information about this by going here.

How do I play or shuffle play a Playlist Folder now? (I don't see dedicated pages with play / shuffle options anymore)

• Right click on a Playlist Folder and select the "Play" option. To shuffle play, make sure to turn on the shuffle mode first before selecting the "Play" option in the right click menu.

How do I get to my Local Files now?

• In the left "Your Library" sidebar, click on the "Playlists" filter at the top.

  
  Then, in the sort drop down select "Custom Order".
  
  The "Local Files" playlist will be near the top of the list under your pinned items (if any).

Feedback:

Where can I give my feedback about the new Your Library sidebar in the desktop app?

• We welcome your feedback about this change. The best way to share your feedback is to comment here in this thread.

[anon518]

Why, just why?

[Ikkus]

I absolutely hate it. Is there a way to use the old UI still? If not, I'm probably going to switch to a different service. New UI is that bad.

[ckralowicz]

The new UI both on the desktop and app are very user restrictive.

On the desktop, the only option being the compact library visually is very unpleasant. The previous fullscreen library view was visually and mentally extremely calm and helpful in letting me browse what I have saved without any distractions. Now with the compact library, it's visually too active and makes it hard to try and look through the albums I have saved. The spacing of the old layout was perfect.
As for the app, get rid of the endless scroll. The former UI worked great, showing recently played, my saved shows, recommended from my library, as well as new recommendations. The endless scroll makes me 100% less inclined to browse through new suggested music.

[Merowinger]

I prefer the bigger album art view and with the new sidebar, the cover just lays on top of the sidebar, which looks really cheap If you ask me. Look at it, the text peeks out from behind.

[ArbustoSeverini]

I don't mind the change. It ads some convenient functionality, and with the "text only" settings on it takes as much space as the old one. It is MISSING ONE FEATURE though. Before, I could click a PLAYLIST FOLDER and play that directly, and shuffle among a collections of all songs within multiple playlists. Nothing about the new design makes that an impossibility, the feature was probably lost by accident. Please re-implement that. Its very useful.

[ArbustoSeverini]

It works like that as it is, depending on where you click. If you click on the NAME of the playlist folder, the contents open in place, without the full tree/hierarchy that you want. But if you click exactly on the ">" arrow at the right-end side of the playlist, it does behave exactly as you requested.

[laurin12121]

On desktop "New Episodes" for podcast is missing. Why? Do I really need to check shows manually?!

Suggestion up for vote:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Podcasts-Bring-back-new-episodes/idc-p/5583888#M262017

[mariozaizar]

Please revert the latest UI changes (May 2023). 

It is pretty disorganized and confusing.

[maxpesos]

The new sidebar moves my folders and playlists around as it pleases. It is not easier to find in it, on the contrary.

[odkrys]

Plan

Premium

My Question or Issue

I am very very serious.
I've been using Spotify since 2016 and it's been 7 years this year. And for the 8th year, I have already purchased and registered a 1-year gift code from amazon.
But I have a very strong desire to stop using Spotify.

I'm trying version 1.2.6.863 since Spotify stopped supporting versions prior to 1.1.59. Because there was another stupid GUI change in version 1.2.7.x.

It is inconvenient to see because the artist name and song title are attached. Also I think showing album art in the playlist is unnecessary too. They are a waste of cpu and network traffic.

Why is "search" a button and not a tab in the playlist? I can not understand. Have you ever been so short of space? Is it Spotify's way of wanting customers to be uncomfortable?

In addition, the amount of information displayed on one screen has been significantly reduced compared to classic gui.

Another serious problem is where are the songs when I click on the artist name? Do I have to click "Discography " once again to hear the songs? I want "listen to this singer" not "look at this singer".

Are you sure Spotify is a company that offers music streaming?
Show me the songs please. I use Spotify to listen to songs.

[odkrys]

I installed apple music, tidal, amazon music BUT All of them don't show me the songs. Shows only the top songs or popular songs.

They hide the singer's "songs" to show "other information" such as "featuring, fan also likes, appears on, discovered on".
I can't believe everyone designs like this. It would have been enough for them to just add a "to the end of the page" button. It's obvious that I'm behind the trend.
I already miss spotify classic gui where scrolling shows all the songs by that artist.

I've installed Deezer and there is option. Grid or List. However, this setting is not remembered. I wish Spotify would add this option and remember the setting.

[electricwizard]

It's laughable that that Spotify chose to make the desktop UI even less functional right around the time their CEO announced that he wants to hike premium plan prices. It's almost like they want us all to flock to their competition.

[kano777]

Can we have the old sidebar back, at least as an option? Thank you.

[zidders]

The new UI is terrible. It makes it so much harder to find my playlists and get to my music. I have a LOT of playlists and have been an ardent fan of Spotify's previous design for years. Now I hate using it and am considering finding a different service. One that has more ways to customize the interface. It's one thing to give people a choice of layout. It's utterly unacceptable to push changes on people they can't easily revert back to the way they want things. 

[ItsModern1525]

I highly agree with this!! They better see it because the album art sucks now 

[ItsModern1525]

In the recent UI update, you guys changed the way the album cover shows up. It went from having its own section to the right of the screen, to just being a floating, non-sizeable mess in the bottom left. It doesn't look good. I don't like the floating album art, it is no longer resizable and side-scrolling depends on the zoom, resolution, and size of the left bar. Please:

• Either add back that bar to the right where it featured the album cover/artist info
• Make the album cover resizeable 
• Give us a way to go back to previous UI's in the settings 

[Mataksas]

New sidebar and album cover looks bad. First of all it's not scalable, here's how it looks when made the smallest it can be:

It's a problem because song's title and the artist text is already cut when Spotify takes half of a screen: 

Also, I don't think that this looks really bad from UI design side (Album cover shouldn't overlap with other parts, especially titles):

But it also can be too small and doesn't take more space when it can:

Honestly, it just amazes me how this design could have passed through testing phase, but it shouldn't even have gone to that since this new design is terrible all around.

[Concerned_listener]

Dear Spotify team,

I have the luck to be a product owner of an application, which includes being responsible for its ui/ux, and my partner is a ui/ux designer.

Please find the person responsible for the latest update and [redacted due to any modern forum guidelines].

They are NOT doing a good job. 
I mean, they might be, if their objective is to lessen the userbase.

The latest updated is an abomination, and I am not using that word lightly. It REALLY is.

Did they ever wonder, why desktop apps and mobile apps look different? Could it be that they are used with different input methods and on different screens, with different sizes (unique to each user in their usecase)?

I am not even talking about fundamental **bleep**ups like the icons being the same size as the play button.

Yes, I know, ACCESSIBILITY. But do you yourself use hearing aid in your desktop OS if your hearing is fine? Do you force that on all users?

Then why on Earth would someone think this is a good idea.


Please investigate that person on the subject of working for a competitor. I am not kidding. 

This just screams "bad job on a purpose".

[Concerned_listener]

i mean, talking about reliable metrics

do you see how many new users flocked to this forum just of sheer frustration? 
how bad does it have to be in order for this to happen?

[odkrys]

Desktop is desktop and mobile is mobile. The two have different usability and different purposes. Don't bring the mobile version's ui to the desktop. You're making a mess. I'm going crazy.