Whenever you want to listen to a song again from the beginning (before the song has ended), Spotify allows you to hit the “back button” to conveniently rewind a song.
However, for some people this back button is greyed out, for others, it’s not working.
A quick way to replicate the bug on your end is to pick a song, any song. Let it play for at least 6 seconds (so that when you hit the back button it doesn’t go to the previous song).
Then, click on the back button again, let the song play again for 6 seconds, and rinse and repeat. After a handful of times, you will encounter the error.
Here are a few things you can do to solve the Spotify “back button” problem. This applies to you whether the back button is greyed out or simply not functional.
You’re not subscribed to Spotify Premium
If the Spotify back button (to rewind or go to the previous song) is greyed out, it means you don’t have a Spotify Premium membership. The back button is a Premium feature.
You can rewind or go to the previous song only if you have the Premium version of Spotify.
After doing a fair amount of research, I’ve discovered that Spotify has made the back button available exclusively for Premium subscribers since 2018. It’s extreme, but it is what it is.
When you start a new account, you’ll get some Premium features for free but only for a short period of time. Once the period is over, you won’t get access to Premium features.
This includes the back button, which would be greyed out.
It’s frustrating for free Spotify users because most of the features are locked. It’s just the business model to encourage more people to upgrade to Spotify Premium.
Close and reopen the Spotify app
If you are subscribed to Spotify Premium but the back button isn’t working, then the first thing you should do is to close and reopen the Spotify app. It sounds simple but effective.
I’ve had this happen before and was able to fix it, but I don’t remember how. All I remembered was closing and reopening the app, and for some reason, the back button started working.
Log out and log back in TWICE
If closing and reopening the app doesn’t work, then you’ll need to log out and log back in, but you’ll need to do it two times in a row in succession.
What I did was log out from my Spotify account and then log in. Then, I would do it again and for some reason, it triggered some sort of resync (don’t ask me how it works, it just did).
Give it a shot if your Spotify back button isn’t working. I guess it’s a bug on the Spotify app and logging out and logging back in specifically twice solved the issue. Hope this helps.
Update to the latest Spotify version
Occasionally, you’d often find the back button missing or replaced with something else entirely. There was a time when the back button was replaced by the “heart” button,
The Spotify developer team is always testing new features and different functions so they may remove a button or two, including the rewind/previous button.
If this is the case, there’s nothing you can do other than wait for the next software update. The best course of action is to keep your Spotify app updated whenever there’s a new update.
It’s been a constant hassle between the developer team and Spotify customers for many years. I hope the Spotify developer team doesn’t remove crucial functionality in the future.
I just wish I can provide you guys with a better solution, but unfortunately, we are all at the mercy of Spotify regarding the available features on the app. Good luck to you.
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