Many people have trouble hiding and unhiding songs on Spotify. In this article, you’ll learn what to do if either the “Hide Song” or the “Unhide Song” feature is not working.
Why is Spotify’s “Hide Song” not working?
The “Hide Song” feature is great when you don’t want to listen to a specific song. However, there are some people who claim that the feature is not working. Here are a few reasons why.
1. Hide song is device-specific
One thing to keep in mind is that the “Hide Song” feature is available, but there’s a difference in what you can and cannot hide depending on the device you’re using.
On the Spotify mobile app, you can hide songs from playlists created by Spotify and other users. Tap on the 3 dot icon next to the song name, then select “Hide Song”.
On desktop, however, you can hide songs from playlists that are made for you, like the Release Radar and Discover Weekly. Click on the minus icon (-) next to the song’s name to hide it.
Currently, the “Hide Song” function is not synced across devices. So you may see a song that you’ve hidden on Spotify Mobile while playing music on the Spotify Desktop app.
If you hide a song on Spotify mobile, the song might still be made available for streaming if you log in through the desktop app, regardless of the playlist you are listening to.
But, if you log in on mobile after that, those songs should still be hidden and unplayable.
2. Hide song is playlist-specific
You also need to keep in mind that the “Hide Song” feature is playlist specific. This means that the Daily Mix, Release Radar, and Discover Weekly count as different playlist versions.
Not only is the “Hide Song” feature device-specific, but it’s also playlist-specific. This means that the hidden songs can still show up on another playlist.
This means that if you’ve hidden a song in one of your playlists, the song may come up again the next time you play a different playlist, or one of those playlists gets regenerated.
3. You can only hide songs on personalized playlists
At the moment, the “Hide Song” feature is only available on personalized playlists, such as Discover Weekly or Daily Mixes. But it’s not available in regular playlists.
This seems to be one of the changes Spotify has recently made.
At Spotify, they’re always testing new improvements and features to give their users a better experience. This means you may have access to features that only you can’t see.
One workaround you can try is to go to the Artist profiles of artists/songs you don’t like hearing. Then, click the 3-dot icon and select Don’t play this.
This will prevent all content from that artist from being played on every device. I admit, this is not the best solution, but until Spotify upgrades its features, this workaround is good enough for me.
If you have a suggestion for Spotify, you can submit an idea here.
4. Hide song doesn’t work on Spotify Blend
If you are paying for a family plan, you might have used Spotify Blend, which is a feature that lets users create a playlist with family, friends, and artists.
Unfortunately, the “Hide Song” feature only works for your account. Hiding a song in a Blend playlist will only affect your playback and won’t hide the song for all users of the playlist.
5. A bug can cause “Hide Song” not to work
If you get the “something went wrong try again later” message when trying to hide a song, it could be a bug or an error that needs to be fixed from Spotify’s end.
There was a time when the “Hide Song” button did not respond at all. Spotify did an investigation of the issue and its developers were able to fix the problem.
Another time, there were several people trying to hide songs while playing Spotify through SONOS. They can hide songs on mobile, but not when Spotify is playing through SONOS.
So I contacted Spotify and asked about the issue. They said that the “Hide Song” feature isn’t available yet on Spotify Connect (which is how Spotify connects to SONOS).
However, I think how I play Spotify, whether it’s on my phone or through a SONOS system, shouldn’t affect whether a hidden song could be played or not.
The song shouldn’t be played if it’s hidden. In my opinion, this isn’t a case of “this feature isn’t available yet”, but it’s a case of “this feature doesn’t work properly”.
In situations like these, there’s nothing you can do other than wait for an update.
Why is Spotify’s unhide song not working?
Please keep in mind that you can’t undo disliked songs in the Daily Mix. If you feel like the unhide song feature isn’t working on Spotify, here are a few things to consider.
1. Unhide song is a Premium feature
If you use Spotify free, you won’t be able to unhide a song, so make sure you don’t accidentally hide a song. Once a song is accidentally hidden, there’s no option to unhide a song.
To fix this, log in with your account on a different device, find the song you’ve previously hidden, and click the heart button next to it, then click the heart button again.
If you don’t have Spotify on another device, go to the playlist the song is on and swipe right, you can “like” the song and then unlike the song. It will get rid of the hidden button.
2. The “Show unplayable songs” is turned off
To undo a song you disliked, switch Show unplayable songs on. If the switch is turned off, you may not be able to undo a song you disliked or hidden.
On iOS, go to Settings then navigate to Playback. Switch Hide unplayable tracks off. Then, go back to the playlist and tap the “ban” icon again. The song is no longer hidden.
On Android, go to Settings then navigate to Playback. Switch Show unplayable tracks on. Then, go back to the playlist and tap the “ban” icon again. The song is no longer hidden.
On the desktop, Click the drop-down button in the top-right and select Settings. Under Display Options, switch Show unavailable songs in playlists on.
Then, go back to the playlist and tap the “ban” icon again. The song is no longer hidden.