Spotify problems fall into a predictable set of categories: the app won't open, music stops mid-song, the app says "offline" even when you have internet, or the desktop app gets stuck. Most of these are not outages — they are fixable in a few steps.
Check if Spotify is actually down
Before troubleshooting your device, verify the issue is local. Check WebsiteDown and enter spotify.com — if our probe reaches Spotify's servers, the problem is on your end. Spotify's own status page at spotifystatus.com provides official service status updated by Spotify's engineering team.
Real Spotify outages are rare. The platform experiences genuine downtime only a few times per year, and when it happens it is usually brief. Most reports of "Spotify not working" are local connectivity or app state issues.
Spotify says offline but you have internet
This is one of the most common Spotify complaints. The app shows an offline indicator even when your internet connection is working fine.
The fastest fix is to toggle Spotify's own offline mode. In the app menu, look for an "Offline Mode" option and make sure it is not enabled — it is sometimes toggled accidentally.
If offline mode is already disabled, the issue is usually a stale app state. Log out of Spotify, force-close the app, and log back in. This clears the connection state and forces a fresh authentication.
Spotify songs skipping or not playing
Tracks that skip immediately or show a play cursor that does not move are usually a cache problem. Spotify stores a local cache of audio files, and when this cache becomes corrupted, playback fails.
To clear the cache on desktop: go to Settings (gear icon) → Storage → and click "Clear cache." On mobile: Settings → Storage → Delete cache.
If clearing cache does not help and the problem is specific to certain songs or playlists, those tracks may have been removed from Spotify's catalogue in your region.
Spotify desktop app not opening
When the Spotify desktop app crashes on launch or shows a blank window, try these steps. First, fully uninstall Spotify and reinstall the latest version from spotify.com — not from a cached installer. On Windows, also delete the Spotify data folder at %AppData%\Spotify before reinstalling.
If reinstalling does not work, try the Spotify web player at open.spotify.com as a temporary alternative while the desktop app issue is diagnosed.