Announcements

Help Wizard

Step 1

NEXT STEP

Desktop: New Your Library sidebar

Solved!

Desktop: New Your Library sidebar

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:

 

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.

 

 

Desktop: New Your Library sidebar

 

 

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.

 

Sidebar Tips.png

 

 

  • 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".

 

Desktop Sidebar Compact View.png

 

 

Compact Layout.png

 

 

  • 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.

 

Sidebar List Options.png

 

 

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.

 

 

Expanded Library.png

 

 

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.
MattSudaSpotify Star
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Like.
Note: I'm not a Spotify employee.
Reply
1,051 Replies

click "playlists" button to filter out and see only playlists. You can also enter settings and choose compact view in library settings section.

Still black screen on startup: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Linux/spotify-not-starting/m-p/5611674

 

No reaction from spotify whatsoever, are you there?

This new design is pure jack s***. My name should also validate my opinion.

Make the album covers on the left and the library on the right, its otherwise extremely distracting. Who tf thought this would look good? I find myself using Spotify less and less due this this unintuitive change. 

 

If you didn't already, check out the post in Live Ideas 'Move the Library experience out of the side bar' and vote for it. Maybe the only way spotifydoesntcare will pay attention to this failure.

 

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

I'm just so astonished about how utterly broken this customer support flow really is.   How is it even possible?

I just hate it, It's really difficult now to get to the liked albums and bands. The folders don't expand like it did before. Generally, compering it to the previous one, now I just have to click more to do something.

 

Can't see the albums from this view:

michapyr_0-1690092288413.png

 

Have to click back from the folder view:

michapyr_1-1690092359627.png

 

And wth is this view!!! I just can't stand it:

michapyr_2-1690092409167.png

 

 

 

I don't mind the main sidebar with library, but please REMOVE the sidebar Now playing with other artist info/gigs.

It's total mess with 3rd scrollable sidebar... Even on phone I am not interested in artist info/gigs.

One can click to their profile to see... on the other hand it's just takes real estate/too much information/confusing.

So now I got an email that the premium price is increasing "so that we can continue to invest in and innovate on our product offerings"?

Stop inNoVaTiNG! Revert these changes! Regress!

 

Also, bumping this for visibility:


@thomasmills89 wrote:
If you didn't already, check out the post in Live Ideas 'Move the Library experience out of the side bar' and vote for it. Maybe the only way spotifydoesntcare will pay attention to this failure.

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


@Rimšiakas wrote:

So now I got an email that the premium price is increasing "so that we can continue to invest in and innovate on our product offerings"?

Stop inNoVaTiNG! Revert these changes! Regress!

 

Also, bumping this for visibility:


@thomasmills89 wrote:
If you didn't already, check out the post in Live Ideas 'Move the Library experience out of the side bar' and vote for it. Maybe the only way spotifydoesntcare will pay attention to this failure.

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


I just got the same 'we're jacking your prices while we make our product worse' email. absolutely brutal. 

Breaking the UI on a product that used to be state-of-the-art, completely ignoring community feedback for months, and then bumping up the price to justify all these teams working on breaking the product that used to be great, it's just too much for me.

 

Leaving Spotify after being a paid customer for 12 years.

wth, indeed I also just got the email about the price rise. "For the service" are you kidding me???!

Did I mention the login procedure sucks b@lls?   Very tedious with the constant logging in through the browser on each startup, and the previously mentioned requirement to edit .config/spotify/prefs each time.

Ummm, why do you edit prefs?

Good 2 know. Personally I would not count on them fixing anything on any linux. They care only about web version, then mobile and mac, then windows and linux is in basement tied to heater 😐


@Piotrek wrote:

Good 2 know. Personally I would not count on them fixing anything on any linux. They care only about web version, then mobile and mac, then windows and linux is in basement tied to heater 😐


In the basement together with the customer support I gather?

 

I do pay for the service and the price has recently been hiked, I expect at the very least a reply.

 

Any progress in the hack to force this truly terrible Spotify player to list all tracks in every sub-folder of any folder?--   We all could do this before December 01, 2022, right?

 

* Spotify for Windows 10 (64 bit) 1.2.16.947.gcfbaa410   --- right now,  July 25, 2023  17:47:47. 

 

 Can you Find and Play the music that you want to hear on Spotify any more in this truly terrible UI?

 

I am ready to start adapting that Microsoft Office solution that many here have suggested-- In any case, we real users need a Wiki somewhere that we the real users control with Wikipedia-type user control-- We need our own editable operation instructions for how to 1) Find and 2) Play the music that we want to hear on Spotify-- We cannot even find and update our working instruction sets on this forum from the past-- Any suggestions?

 

Thanks for your help . . . . .

 

Something that helps make it slightly bearable is to zoom out on the interface (command -). Just like on a web browser. Still a hot mess though.

I really hate the new desktop app design. It's ugly, hard to use and with the new price, I'm really considering apple music.

 

Hi,

I can see that the library recently changed on desktop (OS X).

It now seems to be in a non dedicated view and only accessible via sidemenu.

 

If I am not mistaken could you please change it back. I just relaunched it and I had to pinch myself 😛

 

If this is following Youtubes and other platforms which are maximizing recommendations space and minimizing Library UI... I don't think it's a good idea. If the recommendation engines would be perfect, I'm all for it. But they are not. In the case of Spotify I actually find it damn good, but it's the organization that I find slightly off... at best a user should be able to make his own "Home" page, and otherwise be able to customize it a bit. For example, I miss the row of "Track IDs" Spotify library/whatever, and I would have prefered it higher on the homepage, as it's more important to me than other rows.

Thanks for reading!

... and please at least enable an option to switch back the library dedicated view! It's.. almost a dealbreaker honestly.

Suggested posts

Let's introduce ourselves!

Hey there you,   Yeah, you! 😁   Welcome - we're glad you joined the Spotify Community!   While you here, let's have a fun game and get…

ModeratorStaff / Moderator/ 5 years ago  in Social & Random