How To Fix Spotify Not Opening On PC

You click the Spotify icon and nothing happens, or the window flickers and vanishes immediately. You are dealing with a dead background process or a corrupted cache file preventing the app from launching correctly.

Why this happens

Spotify often leaves 'zombie' processes running in the background after a crash or improper shutdown, which blocks new instances from starting. Sometimes, the local cache file becomes corrupted and needs to be cleared to allow a fresh start.

Steps

1. 01
   Right-click your taskbar and select 'Task Manager', then search for 'Spotify' in the process list.
2. 02
   Select every process labeled Spotify, right-click each one, and choose 'End task' until no Spotify entries remain in the list.
3. 03
   Open File Explorer and paste C:/Users/%USERNAME%/AppData/Roaming/Spotify/Users into the address bar to locate your user folder.
4. 04
   Open the folder named after your account, find the file named local-files.bnk, and delete it.
5. 05
   Launch Spotify from your Start menu; the application will automatically rebuild the cache file and should open normally.

Still not working?

If Spotify still refuses to launch, perform a clean reinstallation by uninstalling the app via 'Add or remove programs', then manually deleting the C:/Users/%USERNAME%/AppData/Roaming/Spotify folder before downloading a fresh installer. If it still fails, check that your antivirus or firewall is not blocking the Spotify executable.

Frequently asked questions

Will deleting local-files.bnk delete my downloaded songs?

No, this file is just a temporary cache index. Your downloaded songs and account data remain safely stored on Spotify servers.

Why does Spotify keep leaving dead processes open?

This usually happens when the application crashes or is forcibly closed while writing data to the disk, preventing it from shutting down its own background threads.

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