‘Thanks for your patience’ — Spotify is back online after a major outage that impacted thousands of users
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Hi everybody. I’m going to dig into what is going on on with Spotify, so keep tuned for updates as I get them.
Okay, so what do we all know? Well, outage experiences began rising on Down Detector slightly below an hour in the past.
You can see within the screenshot beneath that the numbers climbed steeply, with greater than 14,000 users reporting issues 20 minutes in the past.
Spotify has responded to users on X, admitting that it is “aware of some issues” and that it is checking them out.
We’re conscious of some points proper now with the app and are checking them out!May 12, 2026
Spotify sputtering within the US
I not subscribe to Spotify myself, however I requested my colleague Lance Ulanoff to attempt it, and he despatched me this:
“Even although I can nonetheless open the app within the US, Spotify is struggling to answer any of my requests. I can not play or search for music.
“The situation is even worse on the desktop. After a long wait, I got Spotify to open in Chrome, but when I tried to log in, I got an error message. No music for me.”
Poor Lance, he’ll should do some work as an alternative.
Right, large information… Lance says it is coming back. I’m nonetheless seeing experiences on Down Detector, however they’re certainly beginning to drop.
What do you do when Spotify goes down?
It seems to be like this outage could also be a comparatively short-lived one, fortunately — as a result of it may be exhausting, being lower off from your favourite music supply.
Okay, you realize the place I stated it was working? Well it now appears to not be once more.
We’re positively nonetheless experiencing issues within the UK, the place my colleague Roland Moore-Colyer is primarily based (as am I). Here’s Roland’s replace:
“While the outage was brewing US-side, I thought we’d missed it UK side, with Downdetector showing a slowing down of outage reports. But whatever is messing with Spotify seems to have blighted those of us in Blighty once again.
“So proper now I’m writing with no musical help…somebody pray for me.”
We’ve reached out to Spotify for an replace, and we’ll let you realize if we get a response.
Spotify continues to wrestle within the UK
Back to the UK, and this is what you see whenever you attempt to load up Spotify on the internet proper now. The interface partially hundreds, however music and podcasts are inaccessible, and all the things is very gradual.
If you are a Premium consumer, hopefully you have downloaded some of your favourite playlists for offline use. If not, you might need to attend whereas to renew streaming (or simply swap to YouTube).
Party off
So this is a factor: it is Spotify’s twentieth anniversary immediately and that noticed the corporate announce its new Spotify 20: Your Party of the Year(s) feature.
This is successfully a device to point out you your information from throughout your total Spotify journey, ranging from the primary day you joined the service till now. it consists of your most-streamed artist, the entire quantity of streamed songs, and extra.
We don’t have any manner of understanding what’s brought about the present outage, however might the implementation of this new characteristic have been a issue? I suppose we’ll discover out later…
I stated earlier that I not have a Spotify subscription, so none of this is immediately affecting me — though I do, of course, really feel unhealthy for these of you who’re unable to take heed to your tunes proper now.
I made the choice to go away the service in December and now subscribe to Qobuz as an alternative — and I can not converse extremely sufficient of it. Sure, it is not fairly as slick as Spotify in some methods, however it fixes many of the non-public points I had with the better-known platform and — most significantly — it sounds completely implausible. Seriously, in case you love music and have not given correct hi-res audio to go, I urge you to provide it a attempt.
As it occurs, we have now a information to how to switch from Spotify to Qobuz without losing your playlists.
Stick with cell
Here’s one other replace from Lance in NYC, who appears to be having a barely higher expertise with Spotify than some folks proper now.
“In my neck of the woods, cell is now probably the most persistently trouble-free Spotify expertise. The net participant tries to maintain tempo, however can not seem to show something in the principle window.
“It knows I’m listening to Franz Ferdinand, but Spotify can’t serve up whatever is supposed to appear front and center.
“The excellent news is that we nonetheless appear to be on the mend. Spotify ought to quickly be back for all. I feel.”
Here’s Roland once more with a useful tip:
“If you will have songs downloaded on Spotify they’re going to nonetheless work as anticipated, so there’s one method to entry some of your playlists. But I’m not 100% certain how many individuals do that, particularly as, I consider, in case you do that on a number of units Spotify will then delete some downloaded songs on some units; you’ll be able to solely unfold the downloads to this point.
“I tend to have a couple of downloaded playlists to get the best audio quality without sucking up my useless home internet bandwidth. But I could be in a minority with that. Still it means I have some music to listen to while I’m at my desk.”
Search is back on Spotify
“My subject: Best dance music of all time, of course. Can’t say I’m thrilled with the results. Spotify gave me my playlist and when I clicked on the “songs” tab, I got, “No Songs discovered for “best dance music of all time”
“That has to be a mistake, right?
“In any case, search functioning is a superb signal, because the Spotify group scrambles to carry all of Spotify back online.”
There’s nonetheless no phrase from Spotify since its preliminary message that it was experiencing issues, however experiences on Down Detector are dropping, in each the UK and US.
“I’ve bought up a pair of playlists, but instead of instantly playing the songs when I hit play, the streamer appeared to be buffering,” he tells me.
“The only way to get music playing again is to select a different song in the same playlist. It’s surely a quirk of the recovery.”
Hello there, Jacob Krol stepping in right here to maintain monitoring the continued Spotify state of affairs. And the state of affairs is nonetheless greatest described by the music streaming service’s unique discover: it is ‘conscious of some points proper now.’
We’re conscious of some points proper now with the app and are checking them out!May 12, 2026
Here within the United States, Spotify seems to be largely back to regular for each my premium account and my colleague, Lance Ulanoff’s, free account. Search has resumed regular, and is not instantly erroring out. I’m additionally capable of play music, shortly soar between tracks, and browse full playlists.
I did ask a few pals, each on the east coast like myself and on the west coast, who’re reporting it is engaged on cell – iOS and Android – in addition to desktop. It is back up and working for my Sonos system as effectively.
But please do let me know within the feedback beneath if Spotify is working for you and if it is not the place you’re.
We’re nonetheless ready for additional remark from Spotify, as it has been a number of hours because the preliminary affirmation that the service was conscious of some points. Even with it returning for me, a colleague, and a few pals, it is clear from social posts that Spotify is not back to 100% operation for everybody.
Spotify down however it’s nonetheless working me advertsMay 12, 2026
Spotify is down, we go old style with this one pic.twitter.com/nww0lhmfuUMay 12, 2026
i feel spotify is down at the moment (it is for me at the least) however when it is up once more it ought to come up like wrapped whenever you open the house web page, it is like a celebration of 20 years of spotify thingyMay 12, 2026
spotify being down is genuinely one of the worst emotions bc it is at all times when i want itMay 12, 2026
Even with some sharing that Spotify is down on X (previously Twitter) and on Threads, others are sharing the primary track they listened to on the platform in addition to what number of minutes complete they’ve spent listening.
Certainly an fascinating day for an outage.
created a spotify account to mass stream throughout my kpop days, one thing i will by no means be capable to undo https://t.co/bjiNzH8jog pic.twitter.com/V66YtyOG7rMay 12, 2026
This put up on X doubtless sums up the day fairly effectively for Spotify users who’re nonetheless experiencing points with the platform — particularly in case you’re eager to see the primary track you listened to on the platform.
their reward is making the spotify servers crash so i am unable to use it https://t.co/n1tcekyv5UMay 12, 2026
Down Detector experiences for Spotify proceed to drop within the United States, now at 622 as of 4:43 PM ET, and within the UK, experiences are at 785 as of 4:44 PM ET. Both indicated a sharp drop from the earlier thousands of experiences we had been monitoring for points with the platform.
Spotify says it is back to regular
Hopefully, this implies that in case you’ve been experiencing points with the music streaming service, it is now back up and working for you. Down Detector experiences are nonetheless dropping.
Spotify has but to say what brought about this situation, though it did be aware the prolonged downtime by thanking users for their persistence.
All clear now – thanks for your persistence with this! If you continue to need assistance, head over to our Community https://t.co/O4wiruWzo9 or get in contact at https://t.co/nMdOR3G1RhMay 12, 2026