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.

[ManMachine]

I think that is the core of the problem.  Trying to force a single user experience for all users, however great the diversity, with little or no configurability.  That's not going to fly IMO.

Just add some simple configuration options, for instance for this library, and a choice where to put artist, in-between every song title or on the side.  And please make everything scalable, there is so much empty space on my set up it's hard to get an overview of what's what.

[Lukes42]

So recently like a month or two again I received an update to my Spotify account. It totally renovated the main menu and gave me notifications on who liked my playlists and such. Thought the update was alright. However just today it was reversed to its previous look. Where there is only my profile. I tried looking for answers all over the web and I couldn’t find any. The update Doesnt say anything happened… it’s so frustrating 😂 I feel like I’m going crazy.

[pastelpajamas]

I cannot access ANY of my playlists (except the ones on my own public profile), only my saved podcasts and Liked songs. As someone with 50+ playlists, this is a problem! 

[braedonsz]

Quick update after spending a few weeks with the new experience: it still sucks.

Vote to fix it here:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Move-the-Library-experience-out-of-the-side-bar/idc-p/55...

[thomasmills89]

Hallelujah, I hope I'm not speaking too soon but I just updated and see now that it looks like the previous version again. Thankyou for listening! ❤️ 

[stra03]

Your latest update is the worst ever!

[jkd-_ewbre0p]

I don't listen very often, so it tends to be a while before I even open Spotify.  Imagine my surprise upon opening Spotify and seeing it completely changed!  What the heck?  Change is one thing.  Change for the sake of just changing because some programmer or whomever decides this and thinks it's a good idea is another.  It's horrible!  I was happy just using the desktop version; it worked well for me, and I'm sure others, too, based on some of the responses here.  I have no need for mobile or whatever else.  Now you done gone and messed up the desktop app and made it non-user friendly.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  I guess that doesn't apply.  

[saucyg]

Plan

Premium

Country

United Kingdom

Device

M2 MacBook Air

Operating System

MacOS 13.3 Ventura

My Question or Issue

Since the new UI update, Spotify now leaves a black bar at the top of the screen during general usage. I've drawn some boxes on the screenshot to show where this area is, the area above the red box is where the notch is on the laptop and is blank in most applications when in fullscreen. The area beneath is screen real estate that isn't being made use of by Spotify anymore. 

Essentially, Spotify doesn't scale entirely vertically when in fullscreen mode.

[theodosiaprevost]

@pastelpajamas

Exact same thing happened to me a month ago. I made a thread about the issue, which still hasn't been fixed or addressed. Spent literal hours talking to customer support, complete waste of time.

In the meantime I found this workaround, it might work for you:

• Create a new folder
• Search for a missing playlist by name in the "My library" search bar (NOT the main search bar!)
• Manually move each playlist to the new folder

This "solution" takes ages and is really frustrating given how tiny everything to do with the library is now. Hopefully an actual fix will happen at some point.

[ManMachine]

@ManMachine wrote:

Not sure if this was posted clearly enough, but this thread is the official continuation of the closed thread here: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Community-Blog/The-New-Desktop-App/bc-p/5575863#M22851

For some reason that link no longer works.  The blog post is still on the link below and states 2290 comments, but none of those comments show up, what gives?

https://community.spotify.com/t5/The-Blog-Vault/The-New-Desktop-App/ba-p/5175848

There were a lot of good suggestions in there, and they relate to the classic pre-april-2021 UI which was taken away may 17th so they are very relevant today.

[Duellator]

I put up with this idiotic sorting system where random sht is thrown into my playlist list on mobile because I'm mostly a desktop user. I don't want to have to "filter" down to playlists to be able to view my library, that is just how it should be by default.

If this stays on desktop I'm cancelling my subscription and never coming back.

[future-pixels]

How do I fully remove a playlist from a folder now? Currently, it looks like I only have the option to move a playlist to the top of the folder tree but not to fully remove it from the folder.

[HiImBrayden]

Plan

Premium

Country

Australia

Device

iMac (2017 21.5in)

Operating System

MacOS Ventura

My Question or Issue

As much as I love the new Your Library layout, one thing that I always did with my library is having the choice to move the folders around in the library section as I saw fit, as alot of my playlists are specifically set in an order, which has since been disrupted with the new Your Library layout, which no longer lets you move around folders to specific spaces among other folders. This feature if a pretty important feature personally. Does anyone else think it should be reimplemented or have maybe noticed other inconveniences with the new Your Library layout?

[SiDawg]

It's heaps better now after update ~28 May! "Good Afternoon" section can be reduced to a small sidebar so I can focus on my albums 🙂 I cant remember if its better than before you updated at all, but i think so! I think the albums section is now bigger than it ever was

[Xarsis]

Unbelievably bad change. The people who designed and implemented this should be ashamed. The origination is a mess, the large padding and buttons take up too much space, main content is now has a tiny square, playlists aren't sorted how I pinned them like it used to be (by default). I could keep going but whats the point like you guys ever listen to a thing we say. What an awful update, not even specify can fix this. Not only does this want to cancel my premium but it makes me want to switch platforms entirely. Shameful, corporate and utterly disgusting design. 

[XiloX]

SHIFT + ALT + 3, You are a godsend and i like you very much right now 🤗
I really don't mind about the changes for the new UI, but removing the full app screen browse of my own library??? cmon' that's just plain dumb...
And the tiny "big" floating cover is trash too...

[Puglifiled]

Recents? Resents what? Who uses the word RECENT all by itself, as a noun? NOBODY. It's an adjective 99.99% of the time. Sheesh. Come on Spotify...

[Puglifiled]

With this new "drill down" approach to folders, I also found it extremely annoying to have Liked Songs stuck on the top level. Fortunately, there is a keyboard shortcut for Liked Songs. Alt+Shift+S

[Puglifiled]

I enjoy keyboard shortcuts. They are very helpful, but they should never be necessary for functionality. I've found a couple of instances where I got navigationally "stuck", but was able to use a keyboard shortcut to get "unstuck".

Simplicity and Consistency are paramount. Someone is overthinking the sidebar.

[ZapWap132]

I like the new update, this is literally SO much better than the other one that got tested a few months ago! My only gripe is that the DJ should STAY in the bottom right menu so I can quickly hit it and change genres. Also, please let us move the sidebars so we can look at lyrics on the right while we browse 🙂