What's up with this new desktop UI?

[tetre]

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10

I don't know where else to post this, but the new desktop UI is terrible. I'm running version 1.2.7.1277.g2b3ce637 and have tried the methods to revert the UI I've found elsewhere in the community (like changing prefs file, which I had to dig for), but none have worked.

The UI is just the complete opposite of what I'd want on desktop- very noncompact, difficult for no reason, and generally looks to be modeled more for phones than for a desktop.

If anyone knows a way to revert the update, please let me know.

[tetre]

Hey folks,

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 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.

• If you would like to only see text in the Your Library sidebar (no art covers), go to the Spotify app Settings ➜ Library ➜ and turn on "Use compact library layout".

• 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. 

Hopefully this info helps!

Check out my help guide for more help:

Desktop: New Your Library sidebar

[michaelf1986]

Yeah this new update to the UI is terrible.  Looks like it would work perfectly fine on a phone but not for a desktop computer.

Even if you wanted to keep a similar look to the app between devices it has been laid out quite poorly in this version. 

For instance I have 10 playlists that I drag and drop song into the side bar, playlists for various styles of music I am wanting to collaborate.  Sometimes songs go into multiple lists so I like to be able to see all 10 at once.  Having them in a specific order that is customisable (like it was) worked well.

Now in order to see all 10 playlists I have to zoom out so much that I can't even read the text! I also can't remove the top two playlists of "liked songs" and "your episodes" from the top of the list so they're always getting in the way for two useless playlists that never get used.  If I select custom then make it customisable, not half customisable...

The playlist issue though is really just an indication of everything wrong with the new UI all across the program.  There is just soooo much negative black space everywhere. Somehow even though the playlists are predominately horizontal in format, they can't fit on a horizontal screen. It's like the whole section has been design for a vertical screen, which again, great for a phone but useless for a desktop screen.  Even the home screen has so much space between all of the text and between the images.  It's like someone clicked lines spaces at 3x and forget to unclick it for this version.

For goodness sake, it's a different operating system so treat it like one. It can still have a similar look and feel without being jammed into a one size fits all design philosophy!

[Scrapp3r]

How can I hide merch and tour sections? I'd rather buy the record to support them. This just takes space in the rightside bar

[bubbinsmcgee]

After the most recent update I cant reorder my playlists or remove them from folders, it picks the playlist up as a actual computer file not like before where it was drag and drop. you can move it from the folder to the main playlist menu by hovering over the back button but you cant drop it only put it into another folder. ngl this shit sucks ass when trying to organize new playlists for different occasions, genres, or themes, shit like that.

[Miwer92]

My post has been moved to this thread, but I don't complain about new interface.
I just want a fix to the poor dpi scaling and accessibility 🙂
Not everyone have a high dpi screen or 4k macbook or retina display.

[Yordan]

Hi folks!

Jumping in here to highlight @MattSuda's post which explains how to reorganize your folders and change the order of your playlists with the redesign of Your Library. Here are some visual cues:

1. Set the filter to Playlists.
2. Set the sort order to Custom order.
   

You should now be able to drag & drop playlists outside of your folders as well as change their order.

Note that you can also pin items by right-clicking and selecting Pin artist/album/playlist/podcast/folder so that they'll always appear on top. You can have up to 4 pinned items at a time.

Hope this info was useful. Cheers!

[michaelf1986]

Hi Yordan,

Unfortunately this only half solves the issue. I had it on this exact setting previously however I cannot seem to remove the "liked songs" and the "your episodes" playlists from the top of the list, even when it is in custom order.  If I select custom I would assume I can customise the entire order, not just the ones spotify allows me to.

The pinning option also doesn't work as you can only pin 4 playlists, which I would also assume most people who want to customise the order have more than 4 playlists.  Why it would be limited to 4 I have no idea.

None of this solves the issue of the playlists just physically being too tall. They're currently designed like big fat buttons that a finger would touch, not a mouse and keyboard. Now that the search bar is moved into this column and there's all the other drop down boxes popping up as well there's no room left for the actual playlists.

I've changed it to the "use compact library" option which does alleviate most of the issues, however it does look pretty bland with this as it removed playlist artwork.

I know it is a niche issue, but as I mentioned previously it's really just highlighting the overall problem of the new UI in that it has clearly been designed for a phone or touch screen, not a horizontal desktop computer.  It's like the design was changed to aesthetically match the phone UI without anyone actually testing it on a computer to see how useable it is.

[Gargantu4]

Never wrote anything in almost 10 years I'm using Spotify , I always loved the progressive changes, but this one is something that bothers me a lot.

Sadly I got the new interface for MacOS. It is extremely inefficient, it doesn't help me discover new music and it is very confusing. The really bad part is that the min window width takes up so much space hence I need to do several actions before reaching what I want to do. In short I don't have anymore the control I had before.

  I consider this a downgrade, I want my old interface back 😞

[anthonyhaze]

This new UI is terrible for anyone with a large library. I love to listen to albums specifically, so I have a lot of them saved. being unable to scroll through them efficiently, and have a permanent other tab fill up part of the screen, makes the library practically unusable.

[bhead9318]

I joined the forum today after a decade of happily using Spotify just to voice my feedback on the new design.  The new Now Playing view is atrocious.  I'm a simple man, I want big album art above a song and artist title on the bottom left, AS IT WAS.  I can no longer do that after this update.  Clicking the Expand Cover Art button just displays this new Now Playing panel on the right.  At the very least please give us a toggle to use the old interface.

[jillbfit]

Thanks MattSuda, you're a life saver! It would have taken me hours to figure this out. 

[Shaminator]

I love Spotify because it takes my work stress while trying to manage thousands of windows using rectangle mac. Back-to-back favorite songs which automatically come from the Spotify algorithm make my day. 

[hhibiscuits]

Plan

Premium

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Is this an intentional part of the new UI design? -- I really hate that I can't fullscreen my library tab anymore. Why is it forced to be split screen? Is there any way I can get it to go full screen again? Please help I'm genuinely upset by this lol it's making it really hard to organize my playlists, even with the library tab as big as I can pull it...

[mg14central]

I think this qualifies as the worst interface update ever.

Who in the right mind would put the current album cover you are listening to in the TOP RIGHT corner so that it completely blocks your friends list? I havent even looked at the other "improvements" and closed it right away.

And of course there is no option in the settings to switch between the old and new style...

Spotify had the prettiest User interface on PC. Refined over years. And now someone randomly decided to **bleep** it all up?

[88papi]

I really dont know what to say. This interface is totally trash. I am a simple man. I dont like to see that complication stuff. We listen to music. We are here to listen and discover musics like before. Now you distract us with some tiktokish interface. AND ALSO , We need an update to have a button to ABLE/DISABLE the LYRICS on mobile version. That is soo annoying also. You gave us on computer version but not on mobile. THAT IS WHY I SWITCHED TO THE APPLE MUSIC. But I HAVE HOPE THAT ONE DAY YOU WILL CHANGE THOSE THINGS. THANK YOU!

[pyriteheart]

I've been using spotify for somewhere around a decade and this update to the desktop is so intrusive, hostile, and upsetting I'm thinking of scraping all of my (potentially hundreds of) playlists and taking my subscription money to another service. i've seen it said that they're doing this to 'make it easier to find music' when it's literally never been a problem for me. They made other updates in the past like adding discovery playlists and the radio functions. I started listening to music I would have never heard of otherwise using these simple, unobtrusive functions.

I was just sitting down to do some work on something and got completely derailed because I can't even find my own stupid playlists behind the giant 'now playing' album art.

I really wish I could put into words why i feel like my intelligence is being insulted with this update but frankly i'm just so disappointed that i'm at a loss for words at the moment.

[halvardlar]

Plan: Spotify Premium

Spain

MacBook Air late 2017

MacOS Monterey 12.6.3

When I first opened Spotify after its last update about a week ago, I could still see the big album art on the bottom left corner instead of its current view. It allowed me to change it to the current iOS-like "Now playing" view, which I do not like, by clicking on a button.

However, I cannot revert that change and the new UI is frustrating. I preferred seeing the big album art thing instead of this new Now playing bar taking over the Friends' activity bar.

[Ba1tuks]

That is some terrible UI. Now home page is unusable mess I hate so much it ruins the experience of using spotify... Gigantic tiles which, one of them in 7" screen looks stupid, cannot find daily mixes, my Playlists got messed up now. Please fix this BS. This is definitely not what customers want. Old UI was perfectly fine as it is, just minor tweaks required, but not complete dumpsterfire... And no way to actually customize that dumpsterfire...

[kenblu24]

Steps to reproduce: Close the expanded album art in the lower left corner if it is already open/expanded. Disable "Show the now-playing panel on click of play" in settings. Close the now-playing panel and attempt to expand the album art in the lower left corner. The Now Playing sidebar opens instead.
First noticed this after the new UI update.
Spotify for Windows
1.2.8.923.g4f94bf0d

[spotbye]

I swear i’m the only one that actually likes it. It makes sorting songs into playlists so much easier! All you have to do is look at the playlist cover beside it.

[#22]

i want to get the new spotify user interface in my windows 11 application but i can't get it, i updated the program to the lastest version, and i have premium suscription