Spotify keeps switching from grid to list view

[Tjet]

Plan

Premium

Country

Sweden

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Currently having a really annoying issue with a new update. Since I've always hated having to scroll through every song of every album to get to the specific one I want, I always use grid view to click on the album I want. The issue now is that whenever I click on an album, maybe to move a song to a playlist, and then go back to view the albums again, it's back to list view. So I have to switch to grid every time I enter an artist page. Why can't it just remember my settings?

[Viraemia]

"The reasoning here is that if someone wishes to view an album, they want to see the album's tracks and start playback, so the list view is toggled by default for you to be able to do these things."

Yes exactly, which is why it makes less sense that the ENTIRE discography is opening in list view, as opposed to only the album that was clicked on. I feel like there is still a disconnect between the bug we are describing and what the staff is addressing.

[sormaniac]

I finally got the update on Windows 10, looks like the issue is fixed at last.

[violetcities]

Do I have to toggle this individually for every single artist? It defaults to whatever the new thing wants to be unless I click on grid view. What a mess.

[cabaret]

"Yes exactly, which is why it makes less sense that the ENTIRE discography is opening in list view, as opposed to only the album that was clicked on. I feel like there is still a disconnect between the bug we are describing and what the staff is addressing."

Exactly. I specifically click on the album, so show me the album. Not the entire discography.

EDIT: Messed up the reply. Added manually what I'm replying to since I can't delete my comment apparently.

[SqueegeeMcGee]

I can't speak for the other users in this thread, but when I click an album from the "See All" menu, I only want to view the tracks from that album. Viewing the artist's entire discography all at once is excessive, and more to the point, not what I'm trying to do. Having to click on the album again while in List View is redundant.
This wouldn't be a problem if Spotify just remembered my preference for Grid View, but it doesn't.

EDIT:
Pardon the typo, clicking an album from the "See All" menu does show only the tracks from that album - but my point still stands.
Either way, this is requiring an extra button press that wasn't necessary before. Either I have to click the album twice (once from the Artist page + once from List View), or I have to click "See All" before selecting the album, even if it's already visible on the Artist page.
Again, if this was a setting I could change, I'd have no complaints. Why isn't this navigation method optional?

[ravage928]

Why isn't the staff here understanding the problem? This is now one of my biggest issues with the app on top of the utter nonsense that is artists hopping on other peoples names to get listens on Release Radar. It's literally unfathomable that this can happen and has been happening under certain artists for months/years.

[Mario]

Hi everyone,

We have some more updates and info to share with you.

To start off, we’d like to confirm we heard you loud and clear when you say that having an artist’s whole discography displayed in list view while only trying to access one of their albums, even if that happens from the discography section, is not what you're expecting.

On these grounds, we reached out to the relevant teams and passed your feedback on. Since doing so, we have been in extensive conversations to make sure the situation is acknowledged and reevaluated.

For the time being, we wish to reiterate how you can view a single album while in list view:

When the full discography (including the selected album) opens, click on the album title. This will open only the album you mean to focus on, without the rest of the discography.

Once we have any further updates, we'll make sure to post again and let you know.

Take care!

[onlyskin]

God this was a horrendous redesign. I still don't think Mario understands what SqueegeeMcGee is saying. List view is horrible. No one likes it. I would like for the app to remember grid view, not having me to click on "Albums" and then "See All" to force it to keep grid view. 

[samritt]

I think Mario and the team understand the flow SqueegeeMcGee described perfectly. This partial quote from Mario is exactly what he was describing - "...even if that happens from the discography section..."

Thank you to the Spotify team for sticking with this - whether the grid vs. list view changes that resulted from the new discography section update were intentional initially or not, you guys have been very patient in working out the full scope of the issue and responsive to user feedback on this. Kudos to you guys.

I will add since you mentioned it's being reevaluated, count me in as a vote for single album view only instead of full discog list when selecting an album from the artist page straight from discography section

[MungDaal]

This issue is still present on windows

It seems a straightforward fix on client side to default to the last used grid or list mode, same with popular releases

This causes extra stress on the app and clicks to have to load lists several times rather than saving the last category selected for each artist and retrieving that upon opening the artist page

Whoever executes decisions for these small redesigns everywhere should get a grip and not have to make the user make extra clicks and loading, test your UI before launching

[gregswallow]

Using the Mac Desktop app (version 1.1.81.604.gccacfc8c), if I scroll around in an artist's discography, select an album to listen to, then go *back* to the discography, Spotify keeps changing my view of the artist's discography from "tiled view" back to "thumbnail view".

It never did this before.  I prefer "tiled" view, and having to switch all the time is a nuisance.

[MattSuda]

I like the way it works now. My vote is for keeping it like it is right now.

If I click an album in the row from the main artist page it goes to the full discography list where that album is and then if I want to go to the actual album page I can just click on the title there. This is as close as we have to the way the artist pages worked in the old desktop app. Remember, this is a huge upvoted idea to be able to see every release on the main artist page in the new desktop app just like the old desktop app. I don't think this will be added back in the new desktop app because the artist page loads faster when the full discography is on a separate page. By clicking on an album in the row, you can easily see that album when it brings you to the full discography and then just continue scrolling on the page to see the rest of the discography. If this were to be changed to go to only the album page when you clicked on an album, it wouldn't be easy to see the full discography anymore. I would have to mouse over to "view all" each time.

Some things will require an extra click yes, but I like the way it is right now. I mainly want to view the full discography and if I want to go to the actual full album page, I can just click the title.

To me it seems like the developers at Spotify struck the right balance here with the way it works right now.

And it still will remember the "grid view" if you click on "view all" from the artist page. This was a temporary bug that was fixed.

[comradechrome]

No, the bug is not fixed.

[MattSuda]

@comradechrome 

Make sure your app is updated to 1.1.83 or later. The issue of not remembering list vs grid view preference has been fixed in this version.

Before April 2022, there used to be 2 rows on artist pages, one for singles, and one for albums. Now there is just a single row with filters to choose from: Popular, Albums, Singles & EPs. If you click one of the releases shown, it will take you to the full list page and the filter at the top right corner will be based on what filter was chosen from the main single row.

However it only remembers the "grid view" if you click on "view all" or on the "discography" title. If you click on a release from the single row, it will always take you to the list view. This is currently the expected behavior so that it can show you the list of songs from the album you clicked on.

[Martinls2009]

Me too! This is so annoying. List view is the dumbest idea Spotify ever had.

[Martinls2009]

Well, it remembers grid view when you click see all but if you click on one of the popular releases it just takes you to the list view.

[onlyskin]

Yes, I'm updated and it does remember grid view, but it's still a horrible redesign. If I click on an album, I don't want to be taken to a list view of the entire discography. I would like to see what I clicked on and what I clicked on only. Why this was a huge upvoted idea is beyond me, but it's a terrible design.

[violetcities]

Something else I noticed: You used to be able to click the album cover in the bottom left corner and it would take you back to the currently playing song within its album or playlist. Not anymore! It just goes to the artist page now when you're playing directly from an album.

I have version 1.1.84.716.gc5f8b819 and nothing is fixed

[Viraemia]

@violetcities

This is a separate issue that is driving me crazy now. Pretty sure this warrants its own thread. This has to be a bug and not an "intended design choice," as it only happens some of the time. Still trying to track down what exactly causes it. 

[violetcities]

Ah, I thought it might be related because it started at the same time for me, I thought it's because it doesn't register the songs as being played from the album anymore since it's all one big thing now