How to Fix the “Spotify Can’t Play This Right Now” Error in Windows
Spotify is a popular app for playing music and podcasts on Windows 11 and 10. However, some Spotify users encounter issues when they attempt to play songs. One of the most widely reported playback issues for that app has an error message that says, “Spotify can’t play this right now.”
Users can’t listen to music for which that Spotify issue occurs. It’s an error that can affect playback for some or many songs in the app. This is how you can fix the “Spotify can’t play this right now” error on Windows 10 and 11 PCs.
1. Disable Hardware Acceleration in Spotify
Hardware acceleration is enabled by default in Spotify to offload processing tasks to GPUs. However, disabling hardware acceleration in Spotify is a simple potential fix to apply some users have said works. These are the steps for disabling that feature:
Screenshot by Jack Slater - no attribution required
2. Update the Spotify App
The “can’t play this right now” error will more likely arise in old, outdated versions of Spotify. Therefore, it’s recommended Spotify users check for app updates. This is how you can update Spotify:
3. Delete the Local-files.bnk Cache File
A corrupted or overloaded Spotify app cache can cause this playback error on some users’ PCs. Erasing the local-files.bnk file will clear Spotify’s cached data. You can delete the local-files.bnk file in Explorer like this:
4. Reduce the Crossfade Songs Setting to Zero
Crossfade is a transitional fading effect for Spotify songs. However, a high setting for that effect can also cause playback errors to arise in Spotify. Try reducing the Crossfade setting’s value to zero in the following steps:
5. Lower Spotify’s Streaming Quality Setting
The “Spotify can’t play this right now” error may occur because of an overly high streaming setting for your account. You can lower the streaming quality setting in Spotify as follows:
6. Change the Default Format Setting for Your PC’s Speakers
It has been confirmed by some Spotify users that changing the output format for speakers can resolve this playback error. Adjust the default format either way by increasing or decreasing the Hz setting, but lowering it may be preferable. This is how to change the output format for speakers in Windows 11 and 10:
Windows 11
For Windows 11:
Windows 10
For Windows 10:
7. Set the Output Device Setting for Spotify to Default
Make sure theOutputdevicesetting for the Spotify app is set to default. Some Spotify users have said they’ve fixed Spotify’s playback error by doing that. You can adjust the output option for apps with the Volume Mixer in Windows 11 and 10 like this:
8. Reinstall the Spotify App
Reinstalling Spotify is the last resort resolution if you could’t fix its playback error with other methods. It won’t take long to reinstall that app from MS Store since it only weighs in at about 292 megabytes. This is how you can uninstall and reinstall Spotify with Settings and MS Store:
Dance to the Music Again With Spotify
Those are eight of the best fixes for the “Spotify can’t play this right now” error. Many users have resolved that playback issue with them. So, maybe one of those resolutions will also get you back into the Spotify groove again.
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