Spotify Desktop Client Crashes When Local MP3 Files Are Played or Skipped

[DeEnigeEchte]

Hi,

I’ve been running into a very frustrating issue with Spotify on desktop (Windows 10) that seems directly tied to local MP3 files. I’m on the Premium plan, using the latest Spotify version, and I’ve tested this across both my PC and iPhone XR (iOS 18.5). The issue is only happening on desktop, and I’ve done a lot of testing to isolate the cause.

Whenever I enable local files and play them through Spotify on Windows, the app will randomly freeze. Sometimes it crashes after a while of passive listening (anywhere from minutes to hours), and other times it freezes or completely locks up the moment I skip between a few local tracks. The freeze is so bad that Spotify won’t close unless I force quit it through Task Manager. This issue doesn't happen at all on mobile, the same files work perfectly on my iPhone XR.

I’ve tested this across both original MP3s and files I’ve edited using Mp3tag. I even tried stripping out all tags and cover art to eliminate any metadata-related problems. Nothing helped, the crash still happens. I also did a clean reinstall (including removing all Spotify folders in AppData), tried both the Microsoft Store and direct download versions, turned off hardware acceleration, updated my GPU and audio drivers, and moved the local files between different folders (Downloads, Music, Desktop). No change.

Interestingly, when monitoring GPU usage during playback, I noticed that playing local files keeps Spotify and Desktop Window Manager GPU usage around 45%, which is way higher than when playing normal Spotify songs. With regular tracks, the GPU usage spikes briefly, then drops, but with local files, it stays elevated. After a crash, the usage drops to near zero, and the app becomes unresponsive. Even clicking buttons like pause or skip causes a spike in GPU usage before the UI locks up.

The weirdest part is that I can reliably trigger the crash just by skipping between local files, even when they don’t have tags or art. I suspect that the issue lies with how the app processes the files. I've tested local files that previously worked fine in Spotify weeks ago, and now they cause the same crashes.

Everything else on my system is up to date. I’ve tried this in many different configurations, and the only consistent trigger is playing or skipping local MP3 files on desktop.

Any help would be appreciated.