How to Fix Slow Spotify on Mac or Windows
Even more than TV and streaming services, Spotify is my favorite and most used service. I use Spotify every day, whether I’m driving, working in the office, cooking, doing chores, or anywhere else I want to listen to music. Every piece of software or service has flaws and nuances, but one, in particular, had gotten to the point where I needed to address it. The problem was with Spotify’s desktop app. # How to Fix Slow Spotify on Mac or Windows
The desktop app became increasingly slow and unresponsive over time, to the point where loading a single playlist could take minutes. For a short time, uninstalling and reinstalling worked, but the app eventually degraded to that level of poor performance. That indicated that the problem wasn’t with my machine, but rather with the app.
I looked for solutions to see if others had experienced the same issue and found a lot of them, but no good solutions worked. Until I came across a single post with a series of difficult steps. I tried them out and they were great.
How to Fix Slow Spotify on Mac or Windows
The issue is caused by the Spotify app’s cache management. Over time, the cache files grow in size to the point where they are very large, making it more difficult for the computer to use them without using more memory and processing, which is counterproductive. To avoid bloating, clear the cache files and then set a configuration setting in the Spotify setup files to cap the cache size.
For both macOS and Windows, the goal of this post is to make those steps as simple as possible.
MacOS
- If Spotify is still open, close it. Launch Finder.
- Select Go To Folder from the Go menu option. (Shift–Command-G)
- Type /Library/Caches/com.spotify.client/
- On the keyboard, press Enter or click Go.
- There should be a Browser folder, Data, fsCachedData, and other files in this folder. Delete everything in the folder. To select all, press Command-A and drag to the trash.
- Return to the Finder. Go to the /Library/Application Support/Spotify/ folder in the same way you did in Steps 2 and 3.
- Look for a file called perfs in this folder.
- In a text editor, open perfs.
- At the end of the file, bold the text. The cache will be limited to 1024MN or 1GB as a result of this setting. You can set this to whatever you want, but it will limit the cache’s size and prevent it from growing indefinitely. storage.size=1024
- Save the file.
- Remove the PersistentCache folder from your computer.
Windows
- It’s important to note that your username> is your Windows login. Go to the C:Usersyourusername>AppDataLocalSpotify folder.
- Delete the Browser, Storage, and Data folders.
- Go to the folder C:Usersyourusername>AppDataRoamingSpotify.
- Look for a file called perfs in this folder.
- Open perfs in Notepad or a text editor of your choice.
- At the end of the file, bold the text. The cache will be limited to 1024MN or 1GB as a result of this setting. You can set this to whatever you want, but it will limit the cache’s size and prevent it from growing indefinitely. storage.size=1024
- Save the file.
