Spotify is down –here’s everything we know about the huge outage
Refresh
On the road to a full recovery
While some parts of Spotify have now recovered (the Search functionality, the app’s homepage), the streaming service still isn’t fully back to its old self – and Spotify’s support page continues to report “ongoing issues”.
A community post for the “downtime” is summarizes the main issues people have reported:
that “the app isn’t loading properly” and “playback issues”. Earlier, many reported that they were even struggling to access Spotify’s Support site, but that now seems to be back up at least.
In better news, I can now stream all music (not just the songs I’ve downloaded for offline listening), so it seems that a Spotify engineer has found the offending network cable and plugged it back in. Okay, it’s probably more complicated than that, but whatever the fix it seems to be working…
Spotify is slowly returning
A few hours ago, Spotify was truly out for the count – but it’s now at least sitting on its stool in the corner looking dazed, and seemingly recovering. The Downdetector reports are falling (now down to just over 12,000 reports in the US) and we’re seeing some elements of the streaming service returning.
The web player is now back up for most, as is the Search function. But the Spotify-inclined among TechRadar team are still reporting issues with the app’s homescreen not working properly.
If you’re in the same boat, one thing that helped for me was closing the app (swiping up from the bottom of the screen, pausing in the middle to show the app switcher, then swiping up again). This brought back a lot of the app’s functionality, though I’m still seeing the pesky “something went wrong” message above when trying to stream music that I haven’t downloaded…
Some shoots of recovery?
I don’t want to speak too soon, but there are signs that Spotfy’s issues might be easing slightly. My colleague Jake Krol in the US says that search is now working for him again (it still isn’t for me), but that the app’s homepage is still down.
More promisingly, the Downdetector graph of Spotify reports has fallen notably in the US (above) in the last hour or so, and it’s the same in the UK (now down to just over 8,000). That said, those are still high numbers, so a large number of people are still missing their musical soundtrack today…
It’s not a security hack, apparently
We are aware of the outage and working to resolve it as soon as possible. The reports of this being a security hack are false.April 16, 2025
Whenever outages happen on this scale, a common theory is that a big cyberattack is the cause (see the great X wobble last month). But Spotify has just denied that’s the case.
A new update (above) on Spotify Status account on X says “the reports of this being a security hack are false”, which is at least some good news if you’re worried about the safety of your account and playlists.
Spotify hasn’t elaborated on what the actual cause is but has acknowledged that it’s a big outage, adding it’s “working to resolve it as soon as possible”. That earlier search fix isn’t going to solve everything, then – excuse me while I blow some dust off my old CD stack and pop back to the 90s.
Spotify is still very much down
Two hours on, I’m still having the same Spotify issues – I’m only able to play downloaded music, and search is still borked. It appears most people are in the same boat, with my US colleagues confirming that the app is displaying a “something went wrong” message and that the Spotify website is down.
The Downdetector reports remain sky high and we unfortunately haven’t yet heard from Spotify beyond its earlier statement. If you missed that, a spokesperson told us “the issue with Search has been addressed and an update has begun rolling out to all users”.
Not only is the app’s search still not working, the rest of Spotify appears to have crumbled around it. This is now definitely the biggest Spotify outage I’ve seen in my many years as a Premium subscriber – let’s hope for our musical sanity that it gets fixed soon.
That fix doesn’t seem to be working yet…
It’s now about 40 minutes since a Spotify spokesperson told us it was rolling out a background fix for “the issue with Search”. But search still isn’t working for me – and thousands of others are still reporting problems worldwide on Downdetector (above).
In the US, we’re at almost 50,000 reports – a huge number that shows how widespread the issues are. In the UK, reports have dropped slightly to around 12,000, but have been pretty consistent for the last 45 minutes or so. There are other notable spikes everywhere from Australia to India, too.
What’s clear is that this is more than just a search issue – many are still seeing blank homescreens and are only able to play offline music. The entire Spotify website is currently down, too – something I can’t remember happening, well, ever.
We’ve asked for an update from Spotify about its ongoing issues and will let you know as soon as we hear back.
What about the other Spotify issues?
As I posted below, a Spotify spokesperson told us around 15 minutes ago that “the issue with Search has been addressed and an update has begun rolling out to all users”. But today’s Spotify problems appear to be wider than just a search problem.
While that’s been the main symptom for me, many users like my colleagues in the US are still finding that homepage is still displaying three dots (above) and that the web player is still down.
That’s more like a global outage than just a search issue – so it remains to be seen whether Spotify’s fix addresses all of the problems that many are still experiencing. I’m still checking the app in hope…
Good news! A fix is rolling out now
We’ve just heard back from Spotify – a spokesperson has told us “the issue with Search has been addressed and an update has begun rolling out to all users”.
We double-checked with Spotify to ask if this will require an app update and Spotify has confirmed that it’ll be a background update, with no user action needed.
That’s good news, but search still isn’t working for me in the Spotify app. Guess I’ll have to wait a while longer to check out that new Bon Iver album…
This is now a big Spotify outage
The number of reports of Spotify issues on Downdetector is continuing to spike in the US and UK – this is now the biggest Spotify outage I can remember for a while. We’re now at over 27,000 reports in the US, and 17,000 in the UK.
The TechRadar team are finding that the Spotify web player is down (above) and many are finding that their homescreens aren’t loading in the app.
Spotify hasn’t commented any further on what’s causing the issues, beyond acknowledging on X (formerly Twitter) that it’s having a major wobble. We’ve contacted Spotify and will update you as soon as we know more – in the meantime, it’s over to YouTube we go!
Spotify acknowledges there are issues
We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out!April 16, 2025
Spotify has now commented on the problems many are experiencing, with the Spotify Status account on X posting that the streaming giant is “aware of some issues right now and are checking them out”.
That’s a pretty vague description – and it seems users are experiencing multiple symptoms, from the app reporting a lack of internet connection to problems with logging in.
My own issues appear to be restricted to the app’s search function. Let’s hope there’s still one relatively simple fix for all of the issues – we’ve reached out to Spotify for more details.
Spotify is buggy today
I first noticed the Spotify issues when trying to search for a new album – it served me the “couldn’t load the page” message above, and that’s still the case now.
Strangely, I’m still able to stream music that’s already in my collection and playlists, so the issues seem localized to some functions of the app. Some on the TechRadar team also don’t have any issues at all.
The reports on Downdetector aren’t dropping though (particularly in the UK), so it seems to be more than a temporary blip…
That’s a pretty big spike…
Right now, the biggest spike in reports of Spotify issues is in the UK – at the time of writing, over 21,000 Spotify users have reported problems with the smartphone app and web player on Downdetector, and social media platforms like X are also filling up with complaints.
Interestingly, there’s been a smaller spike in Downdetector reports in the US, which has now dramatically fallen to around 200. Hopefully, this means the problems could be short-lived, but so far we don’t know what’s causing them.
Refresh 2025-04-16T15:55:50.285Z On the road to a full recovery (Image credit: Spotify / Future) While some parts of Spotify have now recovered (the Search functionality, the app’s homepage), the streaming service still isn’t fully back to its old self – and Spotify’s support page continues to report “ongoing issues”. A…
