If Spotify is crashing mid-jam, here's how to fix it on Windows 11.

Spotify is one of the best ways to listen to your favorite music and podcasts. However, while the Windows desktop app provides a seamless and responsive listening experience, it’s not without its problems.

If Spotify keeps crashing on your Windows 11 computer, all hope is not lost. Here are 11 troubleshooting steps to prevent it from randomly crashing on Windows 11.

After Windows has been running for a while, it can create a lot of temporary files and caches in the background. And it stores many of them in your computer’s RAM. The problem is that once these things pile up, they can affect your computer’s performance and cause apps like Spotify to crash.

By restarting your PC, you’re clearing up these temporary files and freeing up the system resources they've been eating up, which can solve many problems you're experiencing on your Windows 11 machine. This includes the Spotify crashing issue and even when Spotify has no audio on a Windows PC.

When Spotify keeps crashing, try closing the app completely through force-quitting and then launching it again.

Follow the steps below to force quit Spotify:

Updating the Spotify desktop app can also get rid of random crashes. To update Spotify:

1. Open Spotify and click the down arrow next to your profile name on the top right

2. Select Update available. Restart now. You’ll know an update is ready if there’s a blue dot next to the down arrow.

Sometimes, if an app doesn’t have certain permissions, it can crash during operation. You should give it administrative privileges by running it as an administrator to prevent this from happening.

Here's how to run Spotify as an administrator:

If that solves the issue, perhaps you should make the administrative privileges permanent. Here’s how you do it:

Running the Spotify app in compatibility mode for a previous Windows version can help resolve the crashing issue. We recommend trying compatibility mode for Windows 7 and 8 only, as those are the most likely to work.

To run Spotify in compatibility mode, follow the below steps:

If there’s not enough space on your storage drive, apps can start crashing. You can do many things to free up space on your Windows 11 computer.

As you use the Spotify app on Windows 11, it can build up a large cache. Clearing it can help improve its performance and even stop it from crashing.

If you downloaded the Spotify app from the website, here’s how you can clear the cache:

If you installed Spotify from the Windows Store, you can try deleting the cache:

This method only works if you downloaded Spotify from the Windows Store. When you use the apps troubleshooter, Windows 11 will inspect your apps and help you fix any problems it finds.

Here are the steps to run the apps troubleshooter:

By default, Spotify will use hardware acceleration, which can sometimes cause problems, including the crashing issue.

To disable hardware acceleration in Spotify, follow these steps:

If Spotify is still randomly crashing after the steps above, it might be time to give it a clean slate by uninstalling and reinstalling it. The best way to do it is from the Windows Store.

Here’s how to uninstall and then reinstall Spotify:

When Spotify keeps crashing on Windows 11, it's extremely difficult to enjoy listening to your favorite artists and podcasters. Luckily, you can fix the issue in many ways and get back to appreciating this great service.

If all the troubleshooting steps outlined in this article don’t work, you can always use Spotify's web version as an alternative. But if you're keen on using the desktop app, you can reinstall Windows 11 as a last resort to fix the random crashes.

Chifundo is a writer for MakeUseOf. He initially studied banking but discovered a passion for writing and became a freelance writer on Upwork in 2017. He has written articles, blogs, essays and web content for dozens of clients. Chifundo loves that writing allows him to learn and explore different topics and turn them into engaging and easy-to-understand content that helps people. In his spare time, he designs and codes websites and makes video games.

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