New Library search doesn't work?

[Pwg56]

Plan

Premium

Country

us

Device

iphone se 2

Operating System

ios 14.5.1

My Question or Issue

When I search my library for "Radiohead" I would expect to see all songs by radiohead in any playlist I have.  All I get is a playlist that has Radiohead in the title.

When I search for a song title I would expect it would return that song and the playlist it is in.  It returns no result.

Am I misunderstanding how this new improved search is supposed to work?

[Mihail]

Hey @Pwg56,

Thanks for searching for the answer you need here.

While you're typing in the search console, you should get the most popular results plus different categories (artists, playlists, episodes etc.) displayed a bit bellow them. If this feature doesn't act as expected it's a good idea to clean reinstall Spotify on the device where this occurs. This step lets you start afresh with the latest app version by removing any corrupted files from previous installations.

If that doesn't fix things, could you share a couple of screenshots or a recording of the search process from your end? We'll be happy to take a closer look.

Keep us posted. Cheers! 

[Pwg56]

I did a clean install following the instructions in the link you provided.

I then searched for Radiohead which I have songs from in a number of my playlists.  It only returns a playlist I have with Radiohead in the name.

I have a song called Sugarfix in my liked songs.  I search for Sugarfix and get no results.

Am I not searching my library of playlists? Should it not return results showing what is in my library's playlists?

Screenshots attached.

[Novy]

Hi @Pwg56, 

Thanks for your reply. 

If possible, could you ask a friend or a family member to log in to their personal account using your device to see if they can replicate this? 

Also, could you send over the exact Spotify version you're currently running?

We'll be on the lookout.

[Pwg56]

I'm on 8.6.26.1174

Another account using my phone behaves the same way.

Another account on a DIFFERENT phone... iphone 11.. on a different version of Spotify (not sure of which just know it is different than mine...behaves the same way.

This seems to point to a more widespread issue.

[Novy]

Hi again @Pwg56, 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop. 

We've taken a look backstage and can confirm that this is an expected behavior. Currently, this search will only show playlists, artists, albums and podcasts, not songs. 

If you'd like to search these specific songs, we'd recommend doing it inside of your Liked Songs playlist.

We really value your feedback as it helps inform our decisions going forward, and we'll be sure to pass it on to the right folks. 

If anything else comes up, we're always a message away. 

Cheers!

[Pwg56]

Ok I have a question then.

In this article

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2021-04-29/listeners-can-explore-their-spotify-collections-faster-and-e... 

it says

"we know it’s crucial to be able to quickly find what you’re looking for, jump back into your latest discovery, or rediscover a beloved track you saved years ago."

I'm wondering how you would find a beloved tracked you saved years ago if the search results wouldn't return a track.

Further there's a video as part of this article.  At the 13 second mark, the user searches for "Wardell" and the results show the Wardell artist, an album by Wardell without Wardell in the album title, a playlist with Wardell in the title, and a SONG by Wardell without Wardell in the song title.  How is the SONG result happening?

(screenshot from the video attached for your convenience)

[Novy]

Hey @Pwg56, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

We understand where you're coming from. However, we can confirm that the way to explore songs and podcast episodes is directly from the Liked Songs and New Episodes playlists. 

This is because the search bar in Your Library will only work for albums, shows, playlists and artists. 

Apologies for the inconvenience. We'll be here if you have any other questions. 

[öäüß]

Do you, as a moderator, really not understand how Spotify works?
The threads and posts of users having exactly this problem are countless, and it's easily replicable:
Try to find a not liked song in the library. It is just not possible.

[öäüß]

Would someone please be so kind to explain WHY the search in Your Library will only work for albums, shows, playlists and artists?

What is the intention behind taking away one of the most basic search functionalities?

[Ver]

Hey @öäüß,

Thanks for getting back to us.

We didn't mean to mislead anyone. The reason why we tried troubleshooting first is a purely human one - misunderstanding and the difficulties involved when trying to help others remotely. We tried to confirm on multiple occasions that currently, the search in Your Library does not search for songs and that this is currently only supported in the playlist search itself and will take this opportunity to do this again.

As far as we're aware this has always been the case and hasn't actually been removed as a feature. On the contrary, the library search functionality has been expanded, but it indeed still doesn't encompass songs within playlists.

One of the reasons as to "why" this hasn't been implemented yet was the focus on removing any "hard" limits on saved items in Library. It is technically not that easy to implement a track search on very large libraries, without leading to waiting times and app slowdowns.

We will however make sure to pass the feedback on and will look into the discrepancies between the information available.

[Pwg56]

My biggest problem now ( and then ) is that the messaging and the video highlight being able to search for a song and it simply isn't possible, and they're still there a year later. It's not able to be replicated in the wild. And the moderator just said "we know where you're coming from", and moved on.

[öäüß]

Sorry, Ver, but there has been a time when finding a saved song in your library was as simple as typing it into a search field. 

"As far as we're aware this has always been the case and hasn't actually been removed as a feature. On the contrary, the library search functionality has been expanded, but it indeed still doesn't encompass songs within playlists.

One of the reasons as to "why" this hasn't been implemented yet was the focus on removing any "hard" limits on saved items in Library. It is technically not that easy to implement a track search on very large libraries, without leading to waiting times and app slowdowns."

If I recall correctly, there was an automatically generated playlist "songs", which just contained any saved song.

Furthermore there was a list of saved songs of an artist appearing whenever you clicked one of the artists in your library.

Your argument with hard limits is futile - to be polite: Whether I LIKE tenthousand songs manually or automatically doesn't make ANY difference.

Seriously, would you consider thinking before writing? Similar question to the devs: Consider thinking before coding?

I don't know how much you have been reading through the community forum, and when you first touched Spotify, but it can't have been a lot and it can't have been for long, if you boldly state that countless users complaining about a removed feature must be dreaming up something that never really existed.

You're killing me ... seriously, which parallel universe is your logic and perception taking place in?

Ok, sorry, that might have been rude ... Please, let's just try that again, perhaps I'm just hallucinating: Show me the difference in size of a playlist of liked songs to the same number of saved songs, and then convince me I'm just dreaming that I was able to find a saved song in my library.

Thanks for your efforts!

[öäüß]

The Spotify library had an auto generated playlist "Songs" containing all saved songs. Visible on the left in this post's screenshot: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/How-do-I-remove-songs-from-my-library/m-p/4772596#M152336
Why did Spotify scrap it?
Real answer, please, as the argument with "hard" limit removal is futile?
Please, please, please - and one more please with cream and a cherry on top!

[leonardofratini]

Man, I agree with you but you don't have to be such an ass.

[Aristotle1000]

What nonsense is this? When can we get a proper search???

[AeroZ]

Probably never. It would make search too useful. Just imagine being able to find songs within your saved playlists. That’s too advanced. Or maybe in 2030?

[OvB]

Actually he does - because "being an ass" is the only way to **bleep** a straight answer from the Spotify people.
It's a very simple issue (searching in your OWN library for a song), and countless people have reported it - so it shouldn't take writting novels to make the moderators "get it"...but really, that's NOT the issue HE(Roadie) was complaining about...

The REAL issue with the Spotify people is the BLATAND hoodwinking & OUTRIGHT bamboozling=shwoing them that something is "black" (read: broken, or missing, or not working, etc.), and yet they claiming it TO YOUR FACE - the user, that "no, Sir, it is white; and it has always been white, and you, Sir, are probably dreaming"...:
1. all the beating about the bush, pretending not to understand the issue, then
2. admitting to the issue (ONLY when caught red-handed, with screenshots and what not), but claiming it is actually an improvement (?!?!?) or a safeguard ("for YOUR own user good, Spotify decided to remove this, or break it", OR
3.  claiming it was actually never there, NOR can it be there, again "for YOU own good"...
It's practically a strategy - when dealing with JUSTIFIED customer dissatisfaction (i.e. they know VERY WELL what they are doing), of absolving the company of any responsibility at ANY costs - EVEN if that means turning the tables on the users to make them sound crazy/high/oblivious to reality.

And when that's the case, it is US who haven't been "asses" enough with them - because if we had been, they wouldn't do it anymore...

[TechRemarker]

Reported this issue to Spotify on Twitter. They confirmed it's a current known bug that they are actively working on fixing in an upcoming release. But of course no timetable if that is soon or far far away. So perhaps this is an old post and was never updated with the feature being added, and then perhaps later it stopped because of a bug? I've sent Spotify Twitter this thread and asked again to 100% confirm they understand the issue I'm talking about, and to confirm Spotify does consider it a bug that they will be fixing (at some point) and not intended behavior as noted early in this thread. Coming from YTM I search constantly for music in my library. Having to click library then liked playlist then slide down to search each time is certainly a hassle, not to mention of course that will only find songs I've liked. Meaning I guess one should like every song in their library, but always assumed liking (heart) was for songs you love, and that tells the algorthmn its more important than just songs you add to a playlist.

[Pwg56]

2 years later, video is still there showing functionality and results that don't happen when you use the product