Spotify Unusable after updating

[LatentTwist]

You broke Spotify!

I just updated the desktop app and Spotify lost pretty much all practical functionality in a matter of seconds. 

Both in the web browser version and in the updated MacOS desktop app, there is no longer any option to sort/filter anything. When I click on "liked songs" or "your library", all I see is a bunch of album art tiles, randomly laid out in no particular order. They take up much more space than the previous list format (It makes it impossible to browse down the list to find specific artists/songs), but that's a post for another day.

My current issue is that without the ability to sort/filter or scroll through a list format of any of my liked/saved songs/artists/albums/playlists/podcasts, Spotify is basically useless now.  I found the 3dot sorting option on my android app, but in the desktop and MacOS versions there is no option to sort, not alphabetically, not chronologically, not by album/artist/playlist.

Nothing.

You broke it.

Thanks for that.

Is this something that will be fixed in an imminent update or is Spotify just a waste of money now?

Judging by other peoples posts and lack of response, Spotify doesn't **bleep** about user experience. Prove me wrong?

Plan Premium family

Country US

Device 

(Macbook pro, macbook air, Android Galaxy s7)

Operating System

(Catalina, El Capitan, Android V8)

Web Browser/App

(Chrome, Safari, App version 1.1.33.569)

[Ivan]

Hey there @LatentTwist, 

Thanks for searching for the answer you need here! 
 

Spotify is often testing improvements and new features. This means you might see something on the app your friend doesn’t, or get a new feature to only experience it temporarily. We suggest you check out this help article for more info on our test features.

You can also go to this Live Idea created by other users and add your vote by clicking on the +VOTE button. New ideas and feedback are important to us as they help us gather users' thoughts and opinions and improve the app. Here you can read more on how exactly our ideas work. Worth knowing is that the higher the number of votes an idea gets, the more likely it is for the idea to be implemented.  

Hope you'll find this useful. Let us know if you have any more questions. 

[LatentTwist]

Well, their "improvements" have made the updated version unusable. And forcing paying customers to beta-test non-functioning features against their will without being able to opt out is just a poor customer service strategy. I'm sure there's plenty of people who would opt in for beta-testing if spotify just asked.

Luckily, I found an older version, replaced the supposed "improved" version, and it works fine again without the "improvements and new features".  Seriously, removing functionality is a "feature"? wth?

Thanks for responding, but you didn't actually help at all, other than confirming that spotify is deliberately forcing unsuspecting paying subscribers to "upgrade" to an inferior untested version.

[Michael_swaying]

I experience the exact same things on my desktop. It’s useless. I can’t even change positioning of songs in queue!? It’s a joke, definitely no improvements to be seen

[polipol]

I've actually got the same problem. My spotify app was updated and I don't like it one bit. No filter options in playlists, the friend feed is horrible and i can't even follow people. How/where did you find the older version? I just want to change back, the older version was way better.

[LatentTwist]

Apparently "Posting unofficial links to Spotify downloads goes against the Spotify Community Guidelines".  I wonder if instructions on how to use google count as "links"? Let's try this again and see.

1. Google "spotify older version".

2. Go to site: One of the first on the list is "uptodown", that's where I went. They have all the older mac/windows/android versions. (The first site is actually filehorse, but it looks like they only have the latest version) 

3. Download an older version. On Mac, I found that version 1.1.24 was the last one that actually worked, don't know about the Windows versions. You'd need to try them one by one to see which still worked...

4. Delete "current" version, install "old". (I don't know if it makes any difference w autoupdates or not, but I like to change the name of older versions and also keep a copy of the file, in case they can force an update)

5. Problem solved.

[Michael_swaying]

Thanks for the tip, it works for me now.. Only question now is, how do I prevent the application from updating automatically? Thanks!

[LatentTwist]

I haven't had a problem with it updating so far. On one computer I have an old spotify version that hasn't updated since 2016.

I don't trust that forced updates will be an improvement, especially since I have a couple older computers that just can't handle the updated versions of some applications.

So I have auto-update turned off on my computer,  The setting should be somewhere it your system preferences. Then you just don't manually update Spotify if it prompts you.

Another thing I did as backup, although I don't know that it actually makes a difference, is to go into my applications folder and change the name from Spotify to Spotifyold, so if it does accidentally download an update it can't just automatically replace the old app because it has a different file name. I also make a copy of the old version as double backup in case I need to reinstall, although you could also just download it again too.

Oddly, on the computer I tested all the different versions on, when I open the old version and go to "About Spotify" up in the menu, it says it's the current version even though it's clearly not. Strange ghostly remnants of a broken update trying desperately to not disappear into the aether?

[themaluna]

Yup I agree. There is absolutely no personal agency when sorting out how to view music anymore. The first update getting rid of alphabetical artist sort was awful but I adjusted because I thought it would eventually be fixed. But now there is no easy way to organize my music. It takes much longer to find the song or artist I want to listen to and since I live in NYC and use Spotify on the go means I spend a much longer time than necessary looking at my phone and has actually caused some near miss accidents. I think this is the last straw for me and I'm going to have to close my Spotify account and download Apple Music. I can't continue to support a company that willfully ignores its consumers needs.