How to Fix Spotify Search Not Working

Spotify, a Swedish streaming music provider founded in 2006, now has become one of the largest music services. Until now it has 70 million tracks in its library, 1.2 million artists, and 155 million users. To find out one track, artist, or user in Spotify, you need to use the search feature of Spotify, which is loaded on the Spotify app and Spotify web player. This feature is quite indispensable for almost all users but gets some problems from time to time.

Many Spotify users find that they cannot use Spotify search when they are trying to search Spotify playlists or have a Spotify user search. You may also get the Spotify search not working issue on Android, iOS, or computer. How lucky you are! Here we collect some workable solutions for this Spotify issue and also some tips which can help you use Spotify better.

Part 1. How to solve Spotify search not working

When you meet this problem, you can contact Spotify, but this needs you to wait for a period of time for its feedback. You can also try to fix this problem by yourself with the suggestions below.

Method 1. Log out of Spotify

The first method to solve Spotify search not working is to log out your account of Spotify.

For Windows & Mac: Click the profile icon > Log out.

For iOS & Android: Go to Home > Settings > Log out.

Once you log out of Spotify, full close the Spotify app on your device and reopen it to log back in with your account. Check if the Spotify search problem persists.

Method 2. Turn on Spotify Offline Mode

When Spotify search doesn't work in the application, you can choose to enable Spotify Offline Mode.

For Windows: Click the More button (horizontal 3 dots) to open the Windows menu > File > Offline Mode. Once you're on offline mode, you will see the offline mode icon next to the Profile icon.

For Mac: Use the Apple menu > Spotify > Offline. If the "Offline mode" option is off, switch it on.

For iOS & Android: Go to Home > Settings > Playback. If the "Offline" option is off, switch it on.

Method 3. Shut off Devices

Some users report that a simple reboot of the device can fix Spotify search. If you haven't try this method, please pick up the device to shut it off.

Method 4. Update Spotify

Spotify always fixes some bugs and adds new features in its new version. If you forget to update to the latest version of Spotify, it is possible to appear some problems like Spotify search stops working. So you need to check whether it is updated to the latest version.

For Android: Go to Google Play Store > Search > "Spotify" > Update. If there's no Update button, the Spotify app for Android version is up-to-date.

Tips: To make sure you won't miss any changes with the Spotify app's new version, Android users can use Settings > Auto-update apps to make Spotify app updated automatically.

For iOS: Go to App Store > Search > "Spotify" > Update. If there's no Update button, check this from time to time to fix Spotify Search with its new version.

For Windows & Mac: Click the Profile icon > Update Spotify now. You can also use the More button > Help > About Spotify to download the new version to desktop in a few seconds. After that, click Please restart to install.

Method 5. Clean Uninstall Spotify

We understand that this should be tried to fix issues with some Spotify functions -such as Spotify Search. However, most users perform a common uninstall of the app other than a clean uninstall of it. To clean uninstall Spotify app, you should also clear any associated files and folders from the device.

For Windows: Please full close the Spotify app. Use Windows Search Box > Settings > Control Panel > Pangrams > Uninstall a program > Spotify > Uninstall. After that, use Windows Search Box to go into %AppData% > AppData\Roaming, then delete the associated Spotify folders.

For Mac: Please use Go > Utilities > Activity Monitor > Spotify processes > Quit Process to full close the Spotify app. Open Finder > Applications > Spotify > Move To Trash. After that, click Go then hold the Option / Alt Key > Library > Caches, then delete the com.spotify.client and com.spotify.client.helper folders from the Mac device.

Part 2. Alternatives to use Spotify Search with no Issues

If Spotify Search doesn’t work after you try all the methods above, here we collect more alternatives to use Spotify Search with no issues.

Method 1. Use Spotify's Web Version to Search

If the methods above with Spotify applications to fix Spotify Search are tried with no luck, you can try using Spotify's web version - Spotify Web Player, which provide most of the functions - such as Spotify search for users.

To Use Spotify's Web Version to Search for Spotify Contents:

1. On the device, use a browse to go to Spotify's web version.

2. In the side menu, click Search.

3. Enter [Spotify Content's name] in the search bar and search for it.

4. Now Spotify's web version will show the Top result for you.

Method 2. Use Google to Search

Chances are that the Spotify Search not working problem is with their ends. If the built-in search tool in Spotify's web version doesn't make senses, we'd like to recommend to use Google to search Spotify contents. According to some Spotify users, Google works fine to get the exact search results in Spotify.

To Use Google to Search for Spotify Contents:

1. On the device, use a browser to go to Google.

2. Enter "[Spotify Content's name] + Spotify" (for example: Blackpink (artist) + Spotify) in the search bar and search for it.

3. Go into the top result (for example: BLACKPINK | Spotify; This Is BLACKPINK | Spotify Playlist).

4. Now Spotify's web version will show the Top result for you.

This will direct you to the exact search result on Spotify Web Player, which also allows you to manage your Spotify Library like using apps on your device.

Method 3. Use Shazam to Search

If you have the Shazam connected to your Spotify account, you can also use Shazam to search for the Spotify contents you want on iOS and Android device.

If you have the Shazam connected to your Spotify account, you can also use Shazam to search for the Spotify contents you want on iOS and Android device.

To Use Shazam to Search for Spotify Tracks:

For iOS:

1. On the iOS device, open Settings > Control Center > Access Within Apps. If this "Access Within Apps" option is off, turn it on and click the + icon next to Music Recognition to add it.

2. Play the music source, then open the Control Center > Shazam icon to enable the Music Recognition to see the identified song in a notification.

For Android:

1. On the Android device, open the Shazam app > Library > Settings.

2. Enable the Shazam from Pop-up. Click the Go To Settings > Shazam > Allow display over other apps. If this "Allow display over other apps" option is off, switch it on.

3. Play the music source, then click the Pop-up Shazam button to identify the song in the source.

The first method to solve Spotify search not working is to log out your account of Spotify. Take mobile devices for example: First, tap the Home button. Then choose the Settings button. Go to the bottom and tap the Log out button. Close the Spotify app and reopen it. Log in to Spotify with your account.

Method 4. Use Voice Search to Search

If you have Car Thing, you can have the benefits of the supported Spotify's voice search as an alternative to Spotify search.

With Car Thing, you can use voice command with "Hey Spotify" to ask for any Spotify contents from a song, album, artist, playlist, station or podcast.

To Use Voice Search to Search for Spotify Contents:

1. Press the Settings button > Microphone.

2. Tap or press the dial to turn the microphone on.

3. You can now use your voice to show anything to see results to choose.

“Hey Spotify show...

• ... my library”
• ...my playlists”
• ...my podcasts”
• ...my albums”
• ...my artists”
• ...my saved songs”
• ...my episodes”
• ...my Daily Mixes”
• ...my recently played”
• ...my settings”
• ...

Bonus Tip: How to Download Spotify Contents without Premium

In this part, we will teach you how to use Spotify user search, playlist search, voice search, and also a method to listen to Spotify offline without premium.

How to download songs from Spotify without a subscription

With the search feature, you can reach 70 million songs on Spotify. For the songs or playlists you like so much, you can download them to your cloud or computer to back up better. But only Premium subscribers can download Spotify songs. And the downloaded songs will disappear as the subscription expires. To download music free on Spotify, you can use a Spotify music downloader to download all the songs or playlists you like from Spotify and convert them to MP3.

Which powerful converter can do that? ViWizard Spotify Music Downloader does. It is workable even if you do not have a Spotify subscription. This converter can download any albums, artists, and playlists from Spotify lossless without the subscription and save them in MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, M4A, M4B. This converter has a 5X faster speed for downloading and converting Spotify audios. And all the ID3 tags will be saved. Now you are able to download and install ViWizard for free. And the following is how to convert Spotify songs to MP3 with ViWizard.