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.

[MattSuda]

Hey everyone,

Thank you for participating in this thread and sharing your feedback about the new Your Library experience on desktop.

Before anything else, we want to assure you that we're reviewing your comments and forwarding each individual user's feedback to the relevant team here at Spotify.

We'd also like to address some of the most common issues we've noticed being mentioned here:

My playlists are out of order after the update (mentioned by @Sylis_ca, @oauo, @sergioro, and others)

• As outlined in Matt's comment here, you should be able to see the original order by selecting Playlists - Custom Order in the filters section of your sidebar. Once this is selected, you can rearrange your playlists in whatever way you like.
• Please note that you can't reorder Liked Songs, Your Episodes or Local Files - they will always be at the top.
• You can "pin" items at the top of the list above these items though - this is currently limited to 4 items.

I'm unable to move playlists/folders out of a folder (pointed out by @RectangleSquare, @Hencraft, @thisisgok, and others)

• To move playlists and folders, they don't have to be sorted by Custom Order, but it may make it easier to understand where it's being moved to.
• You can open a folder using the arrow to the right of the folder. This can make it easier to drag something out into a new location.
• You can also drag a folder/playlist and hover over the sidebar back button/arrow (at top of Library) and this will update the visible structure, allowing you to place it in the desired position.

The Library sidebar has limited width

• We're happy to announce that after sharing your feedback, this was changed to make it wider.

Once again, thank you for sharing your constructive criticism and helping to make Spotify better!

[#3]

I want the previous layout where upon clicking the queue it is seperate from the main view

[saturninesoul]

Totally agree with "f19ty" above. What a disaster this is. Just subscribed to Apple music, they have a usable library.

[j00nis]

same here - the new queue as part of the main view looks really cluttered and the album cover thumbnails next to the songs are way too large and distracting imo

[saturninesoul]

This thread has not even 40 likes, but 1000 replies, nearly all of them negative (and a lot of them with three-digit likes). But does Spotify care? Nope.

[Annihlator]

How asinine to still merge topics into this one, but not respond to the content... (the new user post 2 days ago was a seperate topic originally)

Why put all criticism in one place if youre not gonna look and respond there anyway? apparently the mods are well aware of the existence of the thread...

[sj585]

Agree. Like a closet shelf where they can stuff everything away so they
don't have to deal with it.

[Annihlator]

Absolute gold... asking for feedback in a popup and only after typing in giving an error it should be within x characters...

So yeah when someone actually has feedback, you don't actually want it? how can that look oh so similar to the example of the opening of the post and the lack of actual result?

If you don't sincerely care about the platform/service/app that much, how about you finally refund since my first post here? if you do care, do something about it.

Here are the contents of the feedback i wanted to leave and will refer you to it with a url in the feedback form. *Please* wake the frig up.

---

Mods/devs should be required to respond to criticisms in a fashionable manner and time; this subject has been ignored and ignored and that's unreasonable towards the (after all, still paying no matter wether through ads or directly) customer.

Mainly in the context of UI/UX decision making there's loads of utter incompetence (At least as far as a user which has experience with old and more efficient UIs can judge based on the lack of improvement and plenty of regress in these regards.)

Spotify recommends to leave feedback in these topics, but the feedback is completely ignored; completely disingenuous.

Change this or at least consider to pay back all users affected since their original posts to maybe give a hint of sincerity you take your own platform and business anywhat seriously besides cashing in.

---

[reg091]

Agreed. I started a new topic about the UI that was nothing to do with the sidebar, didn't even mention it, and for some reason it was added here.

[Annihlator]

I mean, i'd be half-okay with them doing such a half-assed job if there were any way for me to customize/change the ui. but they dont even provide choices/options to any extent.

As a dev:
It's just a glorified weblet so just expose the css/xml and i would never have to have complained and users would probably have fixed the problem for then a bazillion times over in the timespan it's taken now.

[saturninesoul]

Apparently I am not allowed to link to the thread on Reddit.

So withouit link. On reddit there is a big thread called "Spotify Support/Complaint Megathread" which also seems collective, but as futile as this one when it comes to Spotify reacting to problems/issues/complaints.

[rednblu]

   >>  "Apparently I am not allowed to link to the thread on Reddit."

Yes, that poor Reddit work area was taken over by the ... ... whoever they are who keep interfering with us making Spotify actually work for us.  And those ... ... whoever they are on Reddit have jammed all of the work items on Reddit into a junk area Megathread-- yes-- like unto this one here on our current SpotifyCommunity where we real users cannot update the solutions that we real users can provide for each other--

Consequently, we need some new work area that we real users control-- not the ... ... whoever they are.

Where can we real users re-organize our working work area-- Yes-- in the style of that used-to-be-working Reddit area?

[sj585]

I just read that Reddit did a lot of cleanup prior to them going public.
That seems right in line.

[saturninesoul]

I am also not allowed to post in the reddit group due to low posts.

[thomasmills89]

Spotify is done, they don't care about us users or this 50+ page hatefest. They actually expanded this design, I just cannot reason with this cowboy team.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Return-expanded-queue-view-not-only-sidebar-for-desktop-...

[saturninesoul]

Yep, looks like it. I am quite happy with Tidal, I only miss the podcasts, but there are other apps for this. So yeah, after 12 years of Spotify I am out.

[hoodstomp]

Chiming in to share my dislike of this UI. Why is everything so big? I am using a desktop computer with a mouse, not a touch screen/tablet. My current solution is to zoom out with "ctrl + -" but it's just ridiculous.

At default zoom level, the Spotify UI has the largest elements compared to any other app on my PC. I have a 1440p monitor, but it has a zoom level as if it's 720P. Looks really bad.

[fredericc]

So the awfull sidebar is back again ?
Albums and Artists get all listed in the sidebar instead of main panel ? All this nice thumbnaisl restricted in this tiny sidebar ? But Home is displaying big content. SO Do I need to enlarge my sidebar ? If I do so I can scroll easealy in my library but Home beacom useless and Actual song is displayed in a tiny place.
It is all broken, multi billions company and still not listening to UI/UX experts.

Here we go again, shity UX as last year. ;_; 

[ocpoz]

This is outdated information. As of 6/8/2024, the "Playlist" filter is no longer available, therefore the "Custom" order is no longer an option. 

[soufianeg96]

Hello it is a very nice feature to customize the way to view and display the side bar however each time reopening spotify it resets all the features and I have to recustomize each time I reopen the app. May be in the future spotify ui will remember our custom display ?

[Inudesu]

I think this might be of interest to those who have been motivated enough to post (or read) this thread.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/why-i-finally-quit-spotify?utm_source=substack&utm...