I can not create collaborative Playlists

[PatricioMarino]

Account:

Family Plan - Premium

Country - Argentina

Devices:

Xiaomi Mi 9T; Macbook Pro M1 2020, Windows 11 PC, iPhone 13

Operating Systems:

Web player (Chrome), MacOS Client, Windows Client, Android Client and iOS Client

My Question or Issue:

I can not create collaborative playlists.

From the apps I can invite collaborators, but they can not add songs to the playlist.

I'm attaching a screenshot of what I see on the MacOS app/client.

Also, I have older collaborative playlists that I can edit, but as with the new playlist, nobody can add songs to it anymore other than me.

[PatricioMarino]

Hey there @Slagathor,

Thanks for the post.

Can you make sure the playlist is not marked as 'Private'? Currently there is no option to 'Make Collaborative', you just need to click add collaborators, which should allow the person with the link to add/remove songs from the playlist.

If that still doesn't work, let us know if you can create a new a new playlist and try to make that one collaborative, like described above.

Cheers.

[Dian · Accepted solution]

Hey there,

Thanks for the replies.

It is important to differentiate between the desktop app and the web player, as it is currently not possible to add songs to a collaborative playlist from the web player. You'd need the desktop app for that. Could you confirm you're using the desktop app?

@xQUlZit

On the Friend Feed issue you've described there is a thread here. You can find a lot of relevant information in the linked thread.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

[xQUlZit]

Hello @Dian
Yes, we've tried on two android phones, we tested on a desktop and on a laptop on both app and web player. We also did clean reinstall and still the same.

PS: Neither of the playlists are private. We made them private just to check if this way works, but nope. We made them public again, same old s.

[xQUlZit]

Wait..was there a hotfix or something?
Yesday i made fresh-clean reinstall. Today (5mins ago) while i hade the app open, i got a notification that i had to update the app. When the update finished, i restarted the app and BOOM..collaborative playlist is working like a charm O.o

[Eni]

Hey there @xQUlZit, 

Thanks for getting back to us and letting us know. 

Fantastic news! Give us a shout if it starts misbehaving again; we're always here to help.

Have a good one 🙂

[SillyG]

We're having the same issue with collaborative playlists, links just take us to the home page. 

My friend has tried being the creator. I have tried being the creator. All using mobile apps. My link takes me to my own home page, her link takes me to my own home page. .

The playlists are not set to private. 

[AlejaR]

Hey @SillyG,

Thanks for your reply in this thread and for the info shared 🙂
 

In this case, to start, make sure both your devices and apps are up to date. Once you've done that, try the following:

1. Create a new playlist.
2. Send the link to your friend to invite them to collaborate.
3. Instruct your friend to copy that link.
4. Once they've copied the link, they have to paste it directly into the app's search bar on their mobile device and hit search.
5. Then, they'll see the playlist and the option to start adding songs to it.

Keep in mind, your friend has to hit "search", so the app can search for the playlist. Let us know how it goes.
 

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

Cheers!

[bronto346]

I am not fond of this change. I am a teacher, every week I send my students a playlist based on the theme of our lessons and encourage them to collaborate. In the past I used the 'make playlist collaborative' option for this. I don't want to invite 100 students to collaborate every week.

[Steven182]

I found this method to work for me

1. Owner needs to share the created or existing playlist to the intended collaborators

2. The collaborators then need to add the playlist to their library by clicking the heart icon

3. The owner then needs to invite the collaborators

4. The collaborators the will be asked to join the playlist as a collaborator after clicking the invite link

Hope this helps

[polarbear4_lol]

Me and my brother were trying to make a collaborative playlist, he invited me, sent me the link, invited me 2 more times, etc. and NOTHING worked. 

[Alex]

Hey there @polarbear4_lol,

Thanks for the post.

Can you let us know what happens when you try opening the link - do you get any type of error message?

Cheers.

[zilson87]

As a software engineer, I tend to think of myself as tech-savvy. Your collaborative playlist feature is janky and all just around bad UX. It took me way too long to get one working 2 months ago, and here I am again having trouble with it. Should be as easy as having correct versioning(I do), setting to public(it is), and sending an invitation link(i did). Anyone with the private link should be able to add songs.  Original creator should be able to remove and delete ANY song as they are the originator and source of truth for this playlist.

[Vensae]

it is just sending them to a link to the playlist but doesn't actually let them join the playlist or add music to it

[Lyubka]

Hey @Vensae,

Thank you for your reply in this thread.

In this case, we'd like to gather as much info as possible. Would you mind letting us know what exactly the person that you've invited is seeing when they try to join? Any screenshots you can provide would also be helpful. This way we can get a better understanding of what's going on and advise you better how to fix it.

We'll be on the lookout for your response.

[vandernaaten]

For me it is impossible to add a track to a collaborative playlist in one way ore the other.

[OscarDC]

Hey @vandernaaten,

Welcome to the Community and thank you for joining the conversation.

This type of issue, when you cannot add or remove tracks from a collaborative playlist, is commonly related to an error joining the playlist. In this case, we'd recommend unfollowing the playlist to remove it from your library and asking the owner to invite you again by following these steps.

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.

[Vinoses]

Spotify intentionally broke public collaborative playlists, now collaborative playlists can only be created private.

403 You cannot make public playlists collaborative.

Currently if you made one before the breaking change you can have one...

So Spotify probably decided the feature was too complex for it's users. 

Not that they are calling us users stupid.

Probably they just want it easily usable by toddlers. 

[bell17]

Hi,

I tried to add my friend as collaborator for my playlist but unable to do so. So i tried various ways to send the link on other platforms. Finally, she was able to be added as collaborator. However, her playlist become like this? Any idea how to solve this?

[Maria]

Hey there @bell17,
 

Thanks for posting in the thread!

Could you ask your friend to unpin the playlist and then remove the playlist from her library? Once that's done, make sure that she's been removed as a collaborator from your end. You can then try sending her a new invite. It's possible that this will help resyncing the playlist info.

Another option is to add the songs to a new playlist and then send your friend a link to that list instead, to see if it makes a difference. In the desktop app, simply right-click the original playlist > select Add to other playlist > Create playlist. A new list with the same tracks will then be added to Your library.

Should the issue persist, could you double-check if she's able to invite you to a collaborative playlist from her account?

Let us know how you get on!