How to Fix the “Spotify Can’t Play This Right Now” Error in Windows

If you can’t play your favorite music with Spotify for Windows, here’s how to fix it

Spotify is a popular app for playing music and podcasts on Windows 11 and 10. However, some Spotify users face problems when trying to play songs. One of the most commonly reported playback issues for this app includes an error message stating, “Spotify can’t play this at this time.”

Users cannot listen to music encountering this Spotify problem. It is a bug that can affect the playback of some or many songs in the app. Here’s how to fix Spotify can’t play this now error on Windows 10 and 11 PC.

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 an easy potential fix to apply some users have been told works. These are the steps to disable this feature:

1. press the ellipse (…) Menu button in the top left corner of the Spotify window.
2. Choose outlook submenu.
3. Click the check mark hardware acceleration option in the submenu.

4. Choose OK in the window that prompts you to restart Spotify.

2. Update the Spotify app

The “can’t play this now” error is more likely to occur in old, outdated versions of Spotify. Therefore, Spotify users are advised to check for app updates. Here’s how to update Spotify:

1. Open Spotify’s menu by clicking on it ellipse (…) Button.
2. Hover over the Help submenu.
3. click About Spotify to check for updates.

4. Choose Update now Option for each available update.
5. Then restart Spotify.

3. Delete the Local-files.bnk cache file

A corrupt or overloaded Spotify app cache can cause this playback error on some users’ PCs. Deleting the local-files.bnk file will clear Spotify’s cached data. You can delete the local-files.bnk file in Explorer as follows:

1. Right-click to open the Run dialog box from the Power User menu beginning and selecting its link.
2. Entry %Application Data% in the command field of the Run dialog box.
3. Choose OK to open a roaming folder in Explorer.
4. press the Spotify > Users > xxx users subfolder to open them. The xxx-user folder contains random characters.

5. Then right-click on the local-files.bnk file and select it Extinguish to erase it.

4. Reduce the Crossfade Songs setting to zero

Crossfade is a transition fading effect for Spotify songs. However, setting this effect high can also cause playback errors in Spotify. Try reducing the value of the Crossfade setting to zero in the following steps:

1. On Spotify, click the Username button.
2. Choose settings menu option.

3. Scroll down to fade songs Bar setting shown directly below.

4. Drag the slider of this bar to zero. Or you can disable crossfade by clicking the green toggle button.

5. Lower Spotify’s streaming quality setting

Spotify can’t play this right now error can occur due to too high streaming setting on your account. You can lower the streaming quality setting in Spotify as follows:

1. Click the Spotify Account button.
2. Then select settings to view the Spotify app options.
3. press the streaming quality drop down menu.
4. Choose Automatically possibility on this menu. Or choose a lower option than the current quality setting.

5. Restart Spotify by closing and reopening the app.

6. Change the default format setting for your PC’s speakers

It has been confirmed by some Spotify users that changing the speaker output format can fix this playback error. Either way, adjust the default format by increasing or decreasing the Hz setting, but decreasing it may be preferable. How to change speaker output format in Windows 11 and 10:

Windows11

For Windows 11:

1. Press beginning by right-clicking to select a settings Shortcut.
2. Choose sound navigation option.
3. click speaker to reach format Attitude.

4. Then click the format Drop-down menu to select a lower or higher Hz output setting.

windows 10

For Windows 10:

1. Right-click the volume control (speaker) icon in the taskbar to select it Sounds.
2. press the reproduction tab when not selected.
3. From there, select your default speakers and press the Characteristics Button.

4. press the Progressive Tab in the Speaker Properties window.
5. Change the Hz setting on standard format drop down menu.

6. Select the Speaker Properties window Apply Possibility.
7. Then select OK to close the speaker properties.

7. Set Spotify output device setting to Default

Make sure, that output device The Spotify app setting is set to Default. Some Spotify users said that with this they fixed Spotify playing error. You can customize output option for apps using Volume Mixer in Windows 11 and 10 as follows:

Windows11

For Windows 11:

1. First, launch the Spotify app so that you can configure the output in the Volume Mixer.
2. Open the sound options in settings as described for the first two steps of resolution six.
3. Choose volume mixer to bring his options.
4. press the Spotify app in settings.
5. Then select the default option on the output device drop down menu.

windows 10

For Windows 10:

1. Make sure the Spotify app is open.
2. Open Settings by clicking the gear icon in the Windows 10 Start menu.
3. press the system Settings category.
4. Choose sound on the sidebar.
5. click App volume and device settings to open the volume mixer in the settings.

6. Set those exit entrance Drop down menus for Spotify too default.

8. Reinstall the Spotify app

Reinstalling Spotify is the last resort when you cannot fix the playback error with other methods. It won’t take long to reinstall this app from MS Store as it only weighs around 292 megabytes. Here’s how to uninstall and reinstall Spotify using Settings and MS Store:

1. Press Win + Sand enter Apps & Features in the search field.
2. Select Apps & features to enter the settings page.
3. Next, click the three dots button to select Spotify Uninstall. In the Windows 10 Settings app, select the Spotify app and press Uninstall.

4. click Uninstall in the small confirmation field.
5. Enter the search utility again and type it Microsoft store in the text field.
6. Click Microsoft Store to open this app’s window.
7. Type Spotify in the app search box at the top of the MS Store window.
8. Select Spotify in the app search results.
9. click Receive to reinstall Spotify.

Dance to the music again with Spotify

These are eight of the best fixes for Spotify can’t play this right now error. Many users have solved this playback problem with them. Maybe one of these resolutions will get you back into the Spotify groove as well.