Spotify Keeps Crashing or Won't Open? How to Fix It
Spotify closes itself the moment you open it, freezes on the loading screen, or won’t launch at all.
Why: Usually the app’s stored data is corrupted, the app or operating system is out of date, or the device is too low on free memory to run it. These fixes go fastest-first — most crashes clear by step 2 or 3.
Fix 1: Restart Spotify, close other apps, and restart the device
A clean start fixes most one-off crashes.
- Fully close Spotify. On a phone, swipe it out of the recent-apps list so it isn’t running in the background.
- Close other apps you’re not using — Spotify needs free memory to launch, and a crowded device can crash it.
- Confirm your device has at least 250MB of available memory; clear some storage if it’s nearly full.
- Restart the device, then open Spotify again.
Fix 2: Update Spotify and your operating system
Old, buggy app versions are a frequent cause of crashes, and Spotify may have already shipped a fix.
- Update the app: open your device’s app store (App Store / Play Store / Microsoft Store) and update Spotify. On Mac/Windows desktop, Spotify updates itself — let it finish, then relaunch.
- Update your OS: install any pending system update (phone: Settings > Software update; Windows: Settings > Windows Update; Mac: System Settings > General > Software Update).
- Confirm your device is still supported for the current Spotify version.
Fix 3: Clear the cache, then log out and back in
A corrupted cache can crash the app before it finishes loading.
- If Spotify opens long enough, go to Settings > Storage and tap Clear cache. This removes only temporary files.
- Then log out (Settings > scroll down > Log out), close the app, reopen it, and sign back in.
- If it crashes too fast to reach Settings, skip to Fix 4.
Fix 4: Reinstall Spotify
A clean reinstall replaces every app file, which resolves crashes that nothing else fixes. You’ll need to re-download any offline music and podcasts afterward.
- Uninstall Spotify (Windows: Settings > Apps; Mac: quit Spotify, then drag it to Trash; phone: press-and-hold the icon > remove/uninstall).
- Restart the device.
- Reinstall from your official app store, or from spotify.com/download on desktop, and sign in.
To confirm whether it’s your app or your account, try the web player (open.spotify.com) in a browser. If that works, the problem is local to the app you reinstalled.
FAQ
Spotify crashes too fast to reach Settings — what do I do? Skip straight to the reinstall (Fix 4). It doesn’t require opening the app.
Will reinstalling log me out and delete my playlists? You’ll sign in again, but playlists and Liked Songs live on your account, so they come back. Only downloaded offline files must be re-downloaded.
It only crashes on my phone, not the web player — why? That points to the installed app, not your account or Spotify’s servers. A reinstall on that device is the fix.
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