There are only a few things more infuriating than wanting to listen to music or a podcast on Spotify, only to be faced with a “Spotify can’t play this right now” error message. While this happens too infrequently to make a difference, it shouldn’t even happen at all.
But if it happens so often that it starts to impact your experience, you don’t have to live with it. Since there are many causes of this error, there are also many ways to get your Spotify app working again.
In this article, you’ll learn some of the reasons why your Spotify app may be displaying this error on certain songs. Also, I’ll show you the possible fixes to get your Spotify app working correctly again.
Why Is Spotify Displaying the “Spotify Can’t Play This Right Now” Error
There are many reasons why you may be getting this error message when trying to play music using the Spotify app. Depending on the exact reason why it’s displaying on your device, fixing it may be possible or impossible
Here are some of the most common reasons why Spotify may output this error when you’re trying to play a song.
- If the song is unavailable in your location
While geographic restrictions suck, content creators don’t always have the option to offer it to everyone. If a particular song is banned or unavailable in your country or locale, you’ll always get a “Spotify can’t play this right now” error when you try to play it.
If you’ve never played the song on your device, this is most likely the problem. Try searching Google to confirm that the song is available in your country. Copyright complexities and legal bans are some reasons why songs may be unavailable in certain jurisdictions.
- You’ve surpassed the limits
If you use Spotify for free, there’s a limit to the number of times you’re allowed to play a single song. Putting a song on repeat will generate an error on the fifth play, which is another reason why you might encounter this error.
- Player errors or spotty internet connections
Another reason why Spotify might bring up this error is when there’s a problem with the player due to a buggy update. A slow or unavailable internet connection may also prevent Spotify from downloading the audio content properly. This will correctly elicit the “Spotify can’t play this right now” error on your device.
How to Fix the “Spotify Can’t Play This Right Now” Error
While knowing the cause of the error message is helpful, it’s a lot less helpful than knowing how to solve it. If your Spotify app is bringing up this error a bit too frequently, you may want to try some fixes to prevent it from happening further.
Here are some of the best fixes to try to stop your Spotify app from bringing up the Spotify can’t play this right now error:
- Try restarting the Spotify app
In most cases, the error is the result of a minor glitch that isn’t caused by any of the causes outlined above. If that happens to be the case, trying to restart the music may work. You can attempt closing and reopening the Spotify app if that doesn’t work.
To restart the Spotify app on Android or iPhone, you’ll have to exit to the home screen. Bring up your recent apps from the home screen and swipe away the Spotify app to close it completely. Now, reopen the Spotify app and try to play the song again to see if the issue persists.
If it does, you may want to try one of the more complicated fixes below.
- Disable hardware acceleration from your Spotify settings
The hardware acceleration function on the desktop app for Spotify was intended to make it possible for Spotify to use your hardware to speed up the app. While this works perfectly most of the time, some bugs also pop up now and then. One of the very common bugs is the one that makes this feature cause issues for the player.
If your Spotify player keeps popping up this error each time you try to play a song, you should try disabling hardware acceleration. To disable hardware acceleration on Spotify, launch the app and navigate to the settings page. Select “Show Advanced Settings” from the available options.
From the advanced settings, you should see the option to disable hardware acceleration from the Compatibility options. Uncheck the box and restart the app to see if the error message persists.
- Delete Spotify cache files
If you’re experiencing this issue continuously on your Windows PC, you should consider deleting Spotify cache files to remove the error message. This method works well, especially if you’ve been using Spotify for ages without any errors.
To delete the local cache for Spotify on a Windows PC, press the Windows button + R to bring up the Run dialog box. Here, type in %appdata% and find Spotify in the window that pops up. From there, select the Users folder and delete the local-files.bnk file to delete your local Spotify cache.
- Change the streaming quality on the app
If your subscription to the premium version of Spotify expired without you renewing the subscription, your streaming quality doesn’t reset automatically. However, that doesn’t mean it will play your songs in high quality since that functionality is unavailable to free users.
Long story short, the app will start to display all sorts of errors. One error that most users report after their subscription expires is “Spotify can’t play this right now.” Fortunately, you can always downgrade your streaming quality to regain access to the app.
Conclusion
While this error message doesn’t look particularly scary, it quickly turns scary when you can’t seem to get rid of it. There are many reasons why this error may pop up on the Spotify app on your computer or smartphone, and I’ve listed most of them.
After determining the cause, you can figure out the best strategy to fix it. To help you out, I’ve also listed the best ways to fix this error.