Spotify Video Player Not Working (Solved)

By / Apps and Software, Spotify

In short: If the Spotify video player is not working, make sure you’ve disabled the Audio Quality and Download Audio Only toggles. Also, remove the local files cache from your computer.

The Spotify video player allows you to watch music videos, documentaries, and exclusive video series, all from within the Spotify app. But sometimes the Spotify video player is not working.

Here are a few reasons why. Please keep in mind that I will be talking more about videos associated with a song and podcasts, not Canvas (short looping videos on tracks).

1. Videos are not available in your region

If the Spotify video player is not working, it could be that videos are not available in your region. For example, some videos for podcasts are only available in the United States.

The content availability, including Spotify videos, mostly varies due to license-related reasons and these are in the hands of the artists themselves.

The artist can decide whether their video is available in a certain country or not. So, if you don’t see a video for some episodes on Spotify, it’s because of the country or region of your account.

2. You are using a VPN

Are you using a VPN? If you are, the VPN could be the problem all along. This is true whether you are trying to play Spotify videos on a desktop or mobile.

I was having trouble playing Spotify videos. After going back and forth with the Spotify Cares team to figure out the problem, it dawned on me: my VPN has been on this whole time.

Then I realized that some apps, such as Hulu, don’t work when my VPN is on. So, I turned off the VPN, restarted Spotify, and my video podcasts started playing right away.

Spotify does not work properly with a VPN.

3. Your Spotify app is not up to date

Make sure your Spotify app is updated. Spotify videos, including Canvas, may not be working because you are using an older version of Spotify. Try updating your app and try videos again.

Once the app is updated, try logging out and then logging in again. As simple as this sounds, logging out and logging back in just might do the trick to solve videos not playing.

4. Incorrect Spotify settings

If the Spotify video player is not working, make sure you’ve disabled the Audio Quality and Download Audio Only toggles. Both can be found in Settings.

The Audio Quality setting specifies that enabling it will disable videos in some versions of the Spotify app, but that isn’t made clear in other versions of the app.

5. Not all songs and podcasts have videos

If you’ve already checked those settings, make sure the song or podcast actually has an associated video on Spotify. Videos aren’t available for every podcast or song.

If you aren’t able to view a video for a specific song or podcast, but you can for others, that specific content probably doesn’t have a video on Spotify yet.

The only thing you can do is wait. It’s up to the artist to add a video to their songs and podcasts at a later date. It could also be that Spotify is still in the process of adding videos.

6. The local files cache needs to be removed

If you are still having this issue on your computer, please try to remove the local files cache. This causes issues with video playback sometimes. Here’s how to do it on Windows:

  1. Close Spotify.
  2. Open your file browser.
  3. Navigate to “C:\Users\#USERNAME#\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\Users\”.
  4. There should be a folder named similarly to “1111111111-user”.
  5. The numbers will be different, however.
  6. Delete the file named “local-files.bnk”

You can also delete the “local-files-desktop.spa” file from the apps folder located at “C:\Users\#USERNAME#\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\Apps”.

Do that if you want it to auto-update when a file is removed. Once you have done the above steps, it’s important to restart your computer.

Here’s how to remove the local files cache if you use a Mac:

  1.  Stop Spotify.
  2. Open the Terminal application.
  3. Execute mv “`mdfind local-files.bnk`” “`mdfind local-files.bnk`.old”
  4. Start Spotify
  5. Done!

7. Spotify drops the video feature on TVs

For those of you who can only watch Spotify videos on your desktop or mobile phone, but only get the audio (no video) on your TV, it’s probably not your fault.

The issue is that Spotify decided to not support the video feature on the majority of their supported platforms. Nothing wrong with your TV, it’s just Spotify’s decision.

I have an LG TV and a few days ago it stopped playing videos. 

You could try to power your TV off and then power it on again. Try rebooting your Wi-Fi. Try playing Spotify with a different Wi-Fi connection. Remove the Spotify app and then reinstall it.

However, don’t expect too much.

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