How to Fix Spotify (Super) High CPU Usage

Solution 1: Restart Your Computer

Restarting your computer can resolve many performance issues, including high CPU usage by Spotify.

1. Ensure all your work is saved in any open applications to avoid losing data.
2. Close all running applications, including Spotify.
3. Click on the Start button in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
4. Click on the Power icon.
5. Select Restart from the menu options.
6. Allow your computer to shut down and restart. This may take a few minutes.
7. Once your computer has restarted, open Spotify and check if the CPU usage has reduced.

Solution 2: Disable Hardware Acceleration

Hardware acceleration uses your computer's GPU to handle tasks, which can sometimes lead to high CPU usage if it's not optimized. Check if Hardware acceleration is enabled and disable it; then your computer CPU may drop back to the ordinary values.

1. Launch the Spotify application on your computer.
2. Click on the downward arrow next to your profile name in the top-right corner of the Spotify window.
3. Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings page.
5. Click on Show Advanced Settings to reveal additional options.
6. Scroll down to the Compatibility section.
7. Look for the toggle switch labeled "Enable Hardware Acceleration".
8. Turn this toggle off to disable hardware acceleration.
9. Close Spotify and reopen it to apply the changes.
10. Monitor your CPU usage to see if it has decreased.

Solution 3: Unhide Promotion Banner

Spotify sometimes displays promotion banners for free users, which can cause high CPU usage. Unhiding or closing these banners can help reduce the strain on your CPU by eliminating any unnecessary processes. Some users reported that once they hid the bar, the CPU usage of Spotify decreases instantly. Please note that if you're a free user, you'll encounter a lot of advertisements throughout your listening. If you wish to get rid of them, you may need to upgrade to Premium or seek alternatives like ViWizard.

1. Launch the Spotify application on your computer.
2. Look for any promotion banners or pop-ups at the top of the Spotify window. These often appear as ads or offers for premium features.
3. Click on the "X" or "Close" button in the corner of the promotion banner to remove it from view.
4. Observe if there's a reduction in CPU usage after removing the promotion banner.

Solution 4: Customize Player Screen View

You can customize the player screen view by closing unnecessary panels where info like artist info, album details, credits, and the queue contribute to the CPU usage. They can consume resources, and adjusting the view can streamline the app's performance.

1. Launch the Spotify application on your computer.
2. Start playing any song to activate the player screen.
3. On the right side of the Spotify window, you’ll see panels such as artist info, album details, credits, and the next in queue. Click on the "X" button on the info panel.

Solution 5: Disconnect Spotify from Facebook

The integration between Spotify and Facebook may cause additional background processes or synchronization tasks that can increase CPU load. Because when you connect your Facebook account with Spotify, Facebook will read your activities and post some of them to your social account. If you no longer need this integration, you may need to disconnect your account from it.

1. Launch the Spotify application on your computer.
2. Click on the downward arrow next to your profile name in the top-right corner of the Spotify window.
3. Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
4. In the Settings menu, scroll down to find the Social section. This section controls your connected accounts.
5. Look for an option called "Connect with Facebook to see what your friends are playing".
6. Click on Disconnect with Facebook next to the Facebook option.
7. Confirm that you want to disconnect your Facebook account from Spotify.
8. Close Spotify and reopen it to ensure that the disconnection has taken effect.

Solution 6: Delete Duplicate App Processes

If you have multiple instances of Spotify running in the background, this can significantly increase CPU usage. Ensure that only one instance of Spotify is using your computer's resources, which can help reduce CPU load.

• For Windows:

  

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard to open Task Manager. Alternatively, you can right-click on the taskbar and select Task Manager.
  2. In the Task Manager window, go to the Processes tab.
  3. Look for any processes named Spotify.
  4. If you see more than one Spotify process, select the additional instances.
  5. Click on End Task to close these extra processes.
  6. Confirm any prompts that appear to end the selected processes.

• For Mac:

  1. Open Finder and go to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.
  2. In the Activity Monitor window, find and select Spotify from the list of processes.
  3. If there are multiple Spotify processes, select the additional ones.
  4. Click on the "X" button in the top-left corner of the Activity Monitor window.
  5. Choose "Quit" or "Force Quit" if prompted.
  6. Confirm any prompts to quit the selected processes.

Solution 7: Enable Offline Mode

Enabling Offline Mode can reduce CPU usage by minimizing the app's need to constantly connect to the internet and sync with Spotify's servers. Only your downloaded music is available. This can be particularly useful if Spotify's online activities are contributing to high CPU usage.

• For Windows:

  

  1. Launch the Spotify application on your computer.
  2. Click on the menu icon in the top-left corner.
  3. Select File from the drop-down menu.
  4. Scroll down to the Offline Mode section.
  5. Select Offline Mode.

• For Mac:

  

  1. Launch the Spotify application on your Mac.
  2. Click on Spotify in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
  3. Select Offline Mode from the drop-down menu.

Solution 8: Disable Any Anti-Virus

Sometimes, anti-virus software can interfere with Spotify’s performance, causing high CPU usage. Temporarily disabling your anti-virus software can help determine if it's contributing to the issue. However, be cautious and make sure to re-enable your anti-virus after testing.

• For Windows:

  

  1. Click on the Start button in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
  2. Click on Settings (the gear icon) to open the Windows Settings menu.
  3. In the Settings window, click on Privacy & Security on the left sidebar.
  4. Under Privacy & Security, click on Windows Security.
  5. In the Windows Security window, click on Firewall & network protection.
  6. Select the network profile you are currently using (e.g., Private network, Public network, or Domain network).
  7. Under the selected network profile, toggle the Windows Defender Firewall switch to Off.
  8. Confirm any prompts that appear to disable the firewall.
  9. Open Spotify and check if there’s a reduction in CPU usage.
  10. After testing, return to Firewall & network protection and toggle the Windows Defender Firewall switch back to On to ensure your computer remains protected.

• For Mac:

  

  1. Click on the Apple menu in the top-left corner of the screen.
  2. Select System Preferences from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click on Security & Privacy.
  4. Click on the Firewall tab.
  5. Click the lock icon in the bottom-left corner of the window.
  6. Enter your administrator password to make changes.
  7. Click Turn Off Firewall. Confirm any prompts to disable the firewall.
  8. Launch Spotify and check if the CPU usage decreases.
  9. After testing, return to the Firewall tab and click Turn On Firewall to re-enable your security settings.

Solution 9: Clean Uninstall Spotify

A clean uninstall of Spotify removes all associated files and settings, which can resolve issues causing high CPU usage. This process ensures that no remnants of the application remain that could affect performance.

• For Windows:

  1. Click the Start button and then select the Settings gear icon.
  2. Go to Apps or Apps & Features from the Settings menu.
  3. Find Spotify in the list of installed applications.
  4. Click on it and select Uninstall. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the uninstallation.
  5. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box.
  6. Type %AppData% and press Enter.
  7. Find and delete the Spotify folder in this directory.
  8. Restart your computer to ensure that all changes are applied and all residual files are removed.

• For Mac:

  1. Open Finder and go to the Applications folder.
  2. Drag Spotify from the Applications list to the Trash.
  3. Click on Go in the top menu bar and select Go to Folder.
  4. Type ~/Library/ and press Go.
  5. In the Library folder, delete the following directories:
     • Caches/com.spotify.client
     • Caches/com.spotify.client.helper
     • Application Support/Spotify
  6. Empty the Trash to permanently remove all Spotify-related files.
  7. Restart your Mac to complete the clean uninstall process and ensure all remnants are removed.

Solution 10: Listen to Spotify without App

If you come across Spotify using a lot of CPU issue from time to time and couldn't find a complete way to fix it, here's the final tip.

By downloading your favorite Spotify songs to your computer, you'll not need to fire up the Spotify app to stream songs, so that the high CPU usage problem can be immediately solved. With ViWizard Spotify Music Converter, you can download all your Spotify songs to your computer without Premium. And then you can play them on any media player, so that you can always play songs you love without using too much CPU.

ViWizard Spotify Music Converter is designed to convert Spotify audio files into 6 different formats such as MP3, AAC, M4A, M4B, WAV and FLAC. Almost 100% of the original song quality will be kept after converting process. With 5X faster speed, it only takes few seconds to download each song from Spotify.

Key Features of ViWizard Spotify Music Converter

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• Download Spotify songs, albums, playlists, podcasts, audiobooks
• Convert Spotify music to lossless MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, M4A, M4B
• Support playing offline Spotify music on any device at any time
• Compatible with Windows and macOS, as well as, the latest Spotify

Step 1Select Spotify songs to download

Open ViWizard software and the Spotify will be launched simultaneously. Then drag and drop tracks from Spotify into the ViWizard interface.

Step 2Set the output format of Spotify

After adding music tracks from Spotify to ViWizard, you can choose the output audio format. There're six options including MP3, M4A, M4B, AAC, WAV and FLAC. And then you can adjust the audio quality by selecting the output channel, bit rate, and sample rate.

Step 3Start to download Spotify songs

Once all the setting is finished, click the "Convert" button to start loading Spotify music tracks. After the conversion, all the files will be saved to your specified folder. You could browse all the converted songs by clicking "Converted" and navigate to the output folder.

Step 4Play All the Spotify Songs You Love Offline

After downloading Spotify songs to your computer, you can now play them on a media player without Spotify. So now you don't have to worry about using too much CPU while playing Spotify songs.