With its user-friendly interface and around 82 million active users, navigating and playing your favorite tracks on Spotify could not get any easier. It’s precisely why it gets annoying when an error message pops up stating, “Spotify can’t play this right now.“
Surprisingly, Spotify doesn’t voluntarily come up with this information stating this error unless you navigate its community pages or user forum on Reddit to find a solution.
Well, you do not need to worry or search deeply for a solution. We have shared various ways ways to fix this Spotify can’t play this right now error on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android error.
Spotify Can’t Play This Right Now Error: Working Solution
The “Spotify can’t play this right now” error can occur for various reasons, ranging from copyright restrictions to outdated software. Let us go down this write-up and try different ways to fix this issue.
Restart Device
When your computer or mobile device is slow, does not respond accurately, or malfunctions, you should restart the device that is causing the problem. After you have restarted your device, all the background apps will be stopped automatically, which will clean its RAM. Once the RAM is clean, it will run in a clean state, allowing your device to be glitch-free and more responsive.
iOS
- Press the power button on your iPhone.
- Toggle right on “Slide to Power Off” on your screen (iOS).
- After the iPhone shuts down, wait for a few seconds.
- To restart, tap the power button one more time.
Android
- Press the power button on your iPhone and Click on the Restart button
- Wait for a few seconds; your android system will start.
![Spotify can't play this right now](png/restart.png)
Desktop
- Click START > POWER > RESTART
Update Spotify App
One of the important troubleshooting methods is to update your Spotify app and the desktop program to the updated versions. Make sure you have stable internet connectivity before starting the process.
Desktop:
- Open the “Spotify” desktop app.
![Spotify can't play this right now](png/spotify-1024x804.png)
2. Click on the ellipsis (…) appearing at the top left corner of the app.
3. Click Help > About Spotify.
4. Your current version will appear in a dialogue box that opens. A button with a download link will show up just below the app version number if your app needs to be updated. To get the update, click on the provided link.
iOS:
- Open the App Store.
- Click on your Apple ID, appearing at the top right corner.
- If an update is available, Spotify will be on the list, and Tap’ UPDATE’.
Android:
- Open the Google Play Store and search Spotify in the search bar
- There will be an “UPDATE” option if your app is updated.
- Tap on update and finish.
Disable Hardware Acceleration
Hardware acceleration is generally enabled by default in Spotify that offloads processing tasks in GPUs. However, disabling the hardware acceleration in Spotify is one way to fix this error. To disable it, follow the steps below.
Windows/PC
- Open Spotify on your desktop, click the ellipsis (…) and select “View.”
- Click on the checked “Hardware Acceleration” on the submenu.
3. Select OK on the window that calls forth you to restart Spotify.
MacBook | macOS
- Open the Spotify app on your desktop and click the ellipsis (…) at the top left-hand corner.
- Select View to uncheck the label Hardware Acceleration.
- A warning notification will appear stating, “Spotify might run slower“. Click OK to confirm.
- Restart Spotify to see if this fixes the issue.
Change High-Quality Music Streaming Settings
The high-quality streaming feature is available only to premium members or those with a Spotify subscription. If you are using the free version, then you won’t have access to this feature. Besides, it will reduce the quality of the songs that you play.
You can follow the steps below to adjust your streaming quality.
- Open the Spotify desktop app and then tap on your username in the top right corner.
- Go to Settings from the drop-down menu and scroll down to audio quality.
- Then move to Streaming Quality and change it to Automatic from the given options.
Delete Spotify Local File Cache
The cache is quite helpful in restoring the songs temporarily. When a user requests a song, it is retrieved from the cache and played on their device. But when the cache is overloaded with songs, it totally affects the app’s performance and starts malfunctioning. There, deleting the cache will ask you to log in, delete songs, and then reset the settings.
Now follow the steps mentioned below to clear the Spotify cache.
[Note: Make sure to keep 1 GB Storage free for better performance]
iOS
- Go to Spotify, Home, and then navigate to Settings.
- Scroll down to Settings and Tap on Storage.
- Now tap on Clear Cache to clean storage.
Android
- Open Spotify and Click on the Settings Icon on your phone.
- Scroll down, Tap on Storage, and then on Clear Cache.
- Click on OK and finish.
Windows/PC
- Open the Spotify app on your window, and click on the Username.
- Choose Settings from the drop-down and choose “offline storage location” to see where your cache folder is stored. [note: remember this location]
- Open ‘File Explorer‘ on your taskbar and navigate to the location of your file.
- Select all the files and delete them.
Mac
- Open the Spotify app on your window, and click on the Username.
- Choose Settings from the drop-down and choose “offline storage location” to see where your cache folder is stored. [note: remember this pathname]
- Open Finder from the Finder menu, and select ‘Go‘.
- Click “Go to folder” and type the pathname to approach the Spotify cache folder.
- Select all the files and delete them.
From Author’s Desk:
This concludes this discussion about the Spotify can’t play this right now on Windows, macOS, Android and iPhone error. We sincerely hope you find this guide useful about this error. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Kudo..!
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