How Do I Fix Spotify Showing a Song But It Won’t Play?

Issue type: Software — Spotify shows a song as actively playing (with a moving progress bar) but no audio comes through your speakers or headphones

SEO focus: If you are looking for spotify shows song but wont play, this guide starts with the fastest diagnosis, then moves to the exact fix that matches the symptom.

Short answer: When Spotify shows a track as playing but produces no audio, the playback is happening — it’s just going to the wrong place. Either Spotify is sending audio to a different output device than you’re listening on, Spotify Connect is routing playback to another device on your network, or another app has exclusive control of your audio device. Check the device selector at the bottom of Spotify first before troubleshooting anything else.

Spotify Shows Song but Wont Play: Quick Diagnosis

Look at the bottom-right of the Spotify desktop app while the track is “playing.” You should see a speaker icon next to the volume slider. Click it to open the device picker — this shows where Spotify is sending audio right now. If the selected device is anything other than your active output (for example, “Echo Living Room,” “John’s iPhone,” or “Bluetooth Speaker” when you’re trying to listen through your PC speakers), Spotify Connect is routing playback away from your PC. Switching the device back to “This computer” resolves it immediately.

If “This computer” is already selected and audio still doesn’t play, the issue is with Windows audio rather than Spotify routing. Open Windows Sound settings (right-click the speaker icon in the taskbar > Sound settings) and check whether Spotify appears in the app volume mixer with activity. If the bar moves but no sound comes out, Spotify is producing audio but Windows is routing it to a silent device — or exclusive mode on another app is blocking it.

Also check whether other apps produce sound. Open YouTube in a browser and play a video. If YouTube has audio but Spotify doesn’t, the issue is Spotify-specific — likely a corrupted cache, an exclusive mode conflict, or a Spotify update needed. If neither app produces sound, Windows audio itself is the problem and you’d address that broader issue first.

What to do first

1. Click the device icon at the bottom-right of Spotify and select “This computer.” The device picker (speaker icon next to the volume slider) shows all available playback destinations including phones, smart speakers, TVs, and game consoles signed into your account. If anything other than your current PC is selected, you’ve found the issue. Selecting “This computer” routes audio back to your PC’s default output device.
2. Check Spotify’s selected output device in its settings. Open Spotify Settings (click your profile picture > Settings, or press Ctrl+P inside Spotify). Scroll down to Audio. Look at the Output device field — it likely shows “System default” or names a specific device. If it shows a specific device that’s not what you want (for example, “Headphones (Realtek)” when your headphones are unplugged), change it to “System default” so Spotify uses whatever Windows is currently outputting through.
3. Disable exclusive mode on your audio device. Right-click the speaker icon in the taskbar > Sound settings > scroll down to More sound settings (or “Sound Control Panel”) > Playback tab > right-click your active output device > Properties > Advanced tab > uncheck “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device.” Click OK. If another app (a game, a DAW, video conferencing software) had taken exclusive control of the audio device, Spotify couldn’t open a stream and was silently failing. Disabling exclusive mode lets multiple apps share the output simultaneously.
4. Clear Spotify’s cache. Close Spotify completely (check the system tray for the Spotify icon and right-click > Quit). Press Win + R, type %appdata%Spotify, and press Enter. Inside that folder, find the Storage folder and delete its contents (you can keep the Storage folder itself, just empty it). Also delete the contents of the Browser folder. Relaunch Spotify and test playback. A corrupted cache can cause playback to start internally but fail at the audio output stage.
5. Restart the Windows Audio service if no sound is coming from any app. Press Win + R, type services.msc, press Enter. Find Windows Audio > right-click > Restart. Also restart Windows Audio Endpoint Builder. If you’ve been having broader audio issues — for example sound not working in Windows 11 generally — these service restarts often resolve the issue across all apps simultaneously.
6. Update or reinstall Spotify. Click your profile picture > Settings > About Spotify > check for updates. If a newer version is available, install it. If updates aren’t available but the issue persists, uninstall Spotify (Settings > Apps > Spotify > Uninstall) and delete the %appdata%Spotify folder manually. Reinstall the latest version from spotify.com. A clean reinstall removes any corrupted user configuration that was causing silent playback.

Common mistake

Restarting the PC, reinstalling Spotify, and checking volume levels — without checking the device picker at the bottom of Spotify itself. Spotify Connect lets you start playback on one device and continue it on another, and it’s easy to accidentally leave playback routed to a device you’re no longer near. If you have an Echo, a Sonos speaker, a smart TV with Spotify, or a phone with Spotify on the same Wi-Fi network, any of them can be the current playback target. The device picker shows this immediately. Always check it first — it’s a 5-second test that resolves the most common cause without any other troubleshooting.

Best next step

If clearing the cache and checking the device picker both fail, the issue may be a Spotify-specific audio driver setting on Windows 11. Open Spotify Settings > Audio > check for a setting called “Audio quality” or “Crossfade tracks.” Some Spotify configurations specifically fail when Audio Quality is set to “Very High” on systems with certain audio drivers — change it to “High” or “Automatic” and test. Also check whether “Hardware acceleration” is on in Settings > Display — turning it off can resolve playback issues caused by GPU driver conflicts that affect Spotify’s audio rendering pipeline.

Official reference: For official Windows troubleshooting guidance, check Microsoft’s Windows support page before downloading third-party repair tools or changing advanced settings.

Quick Q&A

Spotify plays for a few seconds then stops and shows “playing” but no audio. What’s happening?

This pattern suggests Spotify is buffering correctly but losing the audio output stream mid-track. The most common cause is another app temporarily taking exclusive control of the audio device — a notification sound, a Teams call notification, or a system alert. If exclusive mode is enabled and another app grabs the device, Spotify silently loses its stream. Disable exclusive mode as described in step 3. Also check whether your audio device is set to communications mode that reduces or mutes other apps during calls (Sound settings > right-click device > Properties > Communications tab on some drivers).

I can hear other apps but Spotify is the only one that’s silent. Does that confirm it’s Spotify?

Yes. If other apps produce audio normally on the same output device while Spotify is silent, the issue is between Spotify and Windows specifically, not Windows audio in general. The targeted fixes: check Spotify’s device picker (Spotify Connect routing), check Spotify’s Audio settings output device, clear Spotify’s cache, and confirm exclusive mode is disabled. Reinstalling Spotify is the next step if those don’t resolve it. The Windows-side fixes (service restarts, driver updates) aren’t relevant when other apps work.

Spotify plays through my Bluetooth headphones but I want it through PC speakers. How do I switch?

Two places to check. First, in Spotify’s device picker (bottom-right speaker icon), confirm “This computer” is selected — not your Bluetooth headphones by name. Then in Windows Sound settings, confirm the default output device is set to your PC speakers and not the Bluetooth headphones. If both look correct and Spotify still routes to Bluetooth, disconnect the Bluetooth headphones temporarily (turn them off or unpair them). Spotify should switch to PC speakers. If you want Spotify on speakers but other audio on the headphones, use the per-app volume mixer (right-click the speaker icon > Open volume mixer) to manually assign Spotify to a different output device than the system default.