- - Lynneau from Reddit
It happens to many smartphone users that you open Spotify and start playing music, and then you switch to other apps to check the weather or see what's trending on Twitter. But all of a sudden, Spotify stops playing in the background until you move back to the app. Why is Spotify not playing in the background? It would be caused by lots of reasons. Today, here we are going to show you how to fix Spotify not playing in background and how to keep Spotify playing in the background as well as a trick to play Spotify without worrying about any glitches.
Part 1. Why Does Spotify Keep Skipping Songs?
If Spotify keeps skipping songs on your device, you should check whether it was caused by the following reasons:
Cause 1: Unstable Internet Connection
A weak or unstable internet connection can lead to songs skipping on Spotify, especially if you're streaming the songs online. Make sure you have a stable internet connection, or try with a different Wi-Fi or a data connection. Spotify does prefer a Wi-Fi connection instead a cellular data.
Cause 2: Enabled Offline Mode
If you have enabled Spotify's Offline Mode on your device, it will only play songs that have been downloaded to your device. Make sure you are not on the offline mode and try to access the online contents, then disable it if necessary.
Cause 3: Account Playback Settings
It's possible that your Spotify account has certain playback settings enabled that could cause skipping on your device, such as streaming quality, crossfade or gapless playback, hardware acceleration and any options are enabled. Disable them and see if it resolves the issue.
Cause 4: Device Performance
If you're using an older or low-performance device, it may struggle to handle the demands of the Spotify app, leading to song skipping. You may need to close other apps running in the background on your device, or using Spotify on a different device to see if the issue still persists.
You can try to check the causes and try some associated solutions in this post to stop Spotify from skipping songs.
Part 2. Troubleshooting Steps to Fix Spotify Keeps Skipping Songs
Here're some troubleshooting steps that helps fix the skipping issue, which proves to be most helpful.
Step 1. Clear App Cache
Sometimes, cached data on your device can cause playback issues and clearing the cache may help.
For desktop:
- In the desktop app interface, click the Profile icon > Settings.
- Scroll down to Storage > Cache, and click Clear cache next to the Cache option.
- Click Clear cache to confirm.
For mobile:
- In the mobile app interface, tap on the Gear icon to open Settings.
- Head over to Storage, and tap on Clear cache.
- Tap Clear cache again to confirm.
Step 2. Log Out of Spotify
After clearing the app cache on the device, log out of Spotify. When you log out of the Spotify app, it clears the cache and temporary data associated with your account.
For desktop:
On desktop, click the Profile icon > Log out.
For mobile:
- On mobile, tap on the Gear icon to open Settings.
- Scroll down to near the bottom > Log out.
Step 3. Restart Your Device
Then, restart the device to resolve the app issue.
For desktop:
- On Windows PC, head over to Start > the Power button > Restart.
- On Mac computer, head over to the Apple menu > Restart.
For mobile:
- On either Android or iOS, press and hold on the power button and swiple the power-off slider to shut down the device.
- After the screen blacks out, press and hold on the power button until the device is reboot.
Step 4. Log Back in to Spotify
After that, reopen the Spotify app and log back in with your account. Logging out and logging back in help refresh your Spotify session, which can help resolve any temporary issues that might be causing the skipping problem. You can try play the song and check if the issues persists in your Spotify session.
For desktop:
- On desktop, head over to the song you want to stream.
- Click on the Play button or double-click on the track and check if Spotify still keeps skipping the songs.
For mobile:
- On mobile, head over to the song in Your Library or Spotify's music catalog.
- Tap on the track to play the song and check if the issue persists.
Part 3. Solutions to Fix Spotify Keeps Skipping Songs
There used to be a time when users worldwide reported Spotify rapidly skipping songs out of no obvious reason, and eventually they found out that the problem came from the Spotify servers. So, when your Spotify keeps skipping songs, you can resort to the internet to find if others are having the same problem at the same time. If it's just you having the problem, use these solutions to fix this issue.
Solution 1: Disable Offline Mode
If you find the skipping issue is with the Offline Mode, disable it on your device.
For desktop:
- On Windows PC, click on the More button (horizontal 3 dots icon) in the upper-left corner of the app interface to open the Windows menu > File > Offline Mode, and deselect Offline Mode.
- On Mac computer, click on Spotify in the Apple menu > Offline Mode, and deselect Offline Mode.
For mobile:
- On mobile, tap on the Gear icon to open Settings.
- Scroll to Playback > Offline, and toggle off the Offline option.
Solution 2: Disable Crossfade/Gapless Playback
Crossfade is a feature that fades out the end of one song while fading in the beginning of the next song, creating a smooth transition between tracks. However, the crossfade feature may cause skips or interruptions in Spotify playback. Disabling the crossfade feature in Spotify can potentially help fix the skipping issues by eliminating any potential conflicts or delays that may occur during the transition between tracks.
For desktop:
- On desktop, click on the Profile icon > Settings.
- Scroll to Playback > Crossfade songs, then toggle off the Crossfade songs option.
For mobile:
- On mobile, tap on the Gear icon.
- Scroll to Playback > Crossfade, then toggle off the Gapless Playback option.
Solution 3: Disable Hardware Acceleration (desktop only)
Hardware acceleration is a feature that offloads certain tasks to the computer's GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) or other hardware components to improve performance. However, in some cases, hardware acceleration can cause conflicts or compatibility issues, causing skipping or playback problems on Spotify. Disabling hardware acceleration can help fix the skipping issues by reducing the reliance on the computer's hardware for certain processing tasks.
For desktop:
- On Windows PC, click on the More button (horizontal 3 dots icon) in the upper-left corner of the app interface to open the Windows menu > View > Hardware acceleration and deselect it. Alternatively, click on the Profile icon > Settings, and scroll down to the bottom and toggle off Enable hardware acceleration.
- On Mac computer, click on Spotify in the Apple menu > Hardware Acceleration, and deselect it.
Solution 4: Change Streaming Quality
Spotify provide several format options for users to stream music online. Changing the streaming quality from "Automatic" to "Very High" in Spotify can potentially help fix the skipping issues, especially if the skipping is occurring due to the network or similar problems.
For desktop:
- On desktop, click on the Profile icon > Settings.
- Scroll to Audio quality > Streaming quality.
- Click on the chevron down icon on the currently option, such as Automatic, and select Very High in the context menu.
For mobile:
- On mobile, tap on Gear icon to open Settings.
- Scroll to Audio quality.
- Under Streaming, tap on Very high for your WiFi streaming, Cellular streaming or both.
Solution 5: Restart the Windows Audio Endpoint Builder (Windows only)
The Windows Audio Endpoint Builder service manages audio devices and enhances the audio experience on Windows system. If you encounter with the skipping issue on your Windows PC, restarting the Windows Audio Endpoint Builder service could potentially help resolve the issues in certain cases.
For Windows PC:
- Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box.
- Type "services.msc" (without quotes) and press Enter. This will open the Services window.
- Scroll down the list of services and locate "Windows Audio Endpoint Builder".
- Right-click on "Windows Audio Endpoint Builder" and select Restart from the connect menu. Or select the option and click on the "Restart" the service.
- Wait for the service to restart, and then close the Services window.
Part 4. Alternatives to Fix Spotify Keeps Skipping Songs
If your problem still persists with all solutions above being tired, here's a solution to fix your Spotify keeps skipping songs issue permanently. You can listen to Spotify songs by tuning in Offline Mode, but this feature requires a Premium subscription and it won't play songs that you haven't downloaded beforehand. What's worse, some users might find the offline mode still doesn't make any difference. Then there must be some problems with Spotify itself.
So, if you want to listen to Spotify music smoothly, you need to download songs from Spotify and use another Spotify music player to play them. By using a Spotify downloader, you can download all your favorite songs for offline listening without Premium. The converted files can be played on any media player, and you'll never run into the song skipping issue again. Here we do recommend ViWizard Spotify Music Converter to you for downloading Spotify songs.
ViWizard Spotify Music Converter is designed to download any music track, album, playlist, and podcast from Spotify and save Spotify songs to MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, M4A, and M4B. With the help of ViWizard program, you can download Spotify songs at 5× faster speed and in batch. Also, after the conversion, those songs will be kept with the original sound quality and ID3 tags.

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 1Import Songs from Spotify to ViWizard Software
Start by opening ViWizard Spotify Music Converter on your computer, then the Spotify music player will be loaded automatically. In Spotify, find an album or a playlist you want to download, and copy the music link. Then paste the copied music link into the search bar on the converter and click the + button to load the Spotify songs.
Step 2Personalize the Output Parameters for Spotify
After successfully adding music tracks from Spotify to the converter, you can choose the output audio format. There are 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. Simply click the menu > Preferences and start setting the audio parameters.
Step 3Start the Conversion of Spotify Music to MP3
Once all the settings is finished, click on the Convert button to start downloading Spotify music tracks. After the conversion, all the converted music files will be saved to your specified folder. You can browse all the converted Spotify songs by clicking the Converted icon and navigating the output folder of your computer.
Step 4Play Spotify Songs Offline Without Skipping Issue
After downloading Spotify songs via ViWizard Spotify Music Converter, you can put them anywhere and play any of them without the Spotify keeps on skipping songs issue. All the downloaded music files can be reached offline without a Spotify Premium subscription.
Conclusion
There are 8 common solutions to fix this problem when Spotify keeps skipping songs. Most users can fix this error temporarily. But the same issue may come up again from time to time. So, the best way to get rid of this issue completely is to download and make a backup of all the Spotify songs so that you can switch to another player to play these songs whenever you have any problem with Spotify. Go to use the free trial of ViWizard Spotify Music Converter and have a shot now!
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