How to Fix Error Code 4 on Spotify

Wondering how you can fix error code 4 on Spotify?

Booting up your computer and opening up Spotify only to find that the program can’t proceed because of an error code 4 isn’t the best way to start your day. This problem is usually attributed to a network or connection problem with your internet.

Since Spotify is largely a streaming platform, connecting to the internet can make or break most of its features. Additionally, even if you just wanted to play songs offline, the error code can sometimes stop you from logging into your account in offline mode as well.

So how do we go about fixing this? In this article, we’ve listed down several fixes that involve configuring your network and operating system’s settings. Here’s how you can fix error code 4 on Spotify.

Let’s dive in!

• 1. Change Your DNS Server.
• 2. Disable Spotify’s Proxy Feature.
• 3. Whitelist Spotify For Your Antivirus Software.
• 4. Allow Spotify Through Your Firewall.
• 5. Reinstall Spotify.

1. Change Your DNS Server.

Utilizing a different DNS server is usually enough to fix this error. DNS servers have been used way back in the late 1900s to translate IP addresses, so we users don’t have to. In doing so, instead of having to type in a website’s IP address, you can simply search for their URL or domain.

This is an incredibly underrated and taken-for-granted invention that helps us navigate through the internet. However, in this case, your DNS server may have a problem with Spotify’s domain, so we’ll be switching your server to a faster one.

There are a lot of DNS servers that are public and privately owned which have different technical differences. You don’t have to learn how they work, but you can look through our guide to help you change your DNS server to a faster one.

While you may have a larger variety of DNS servers to choose from, we’ve found that the 1.1.1.1 DNS servers work the fastest. It also has a good rep among many IT companies, but feel free to do your own research before proceeding.

2. Disable Spotify’s Proxy Feature.

Another network setting that you can change is Spotify’s proxy feature. Proxy servers help regulate the traffic coming in and out of your computer. These servers help the transfer of your data, keep you safe from general malicious threats, and more.

What most users may not know is that Spotify comes with a built-in proxy feature directly installed with their application. Disabling this or changing the proxy server that your connecting to should help fix the error code 4 problem.

Here’s how you can disable or access Spotify’s proxy settings:

1. First, open up the Spotify app on your computer and click on the V icon at the top-right corner of your window.

2. From there, look for and click on Settings, then scroll down until you can click on Show Advanced Settings.
3. Now, scroll up a little bit until you find the Proxy section.
4. Finally, in Proxy type, change the option to No Proxy. You can experiment with other proxies as well, but this should be more than enough to fix the problem.

Now try and open up Spotify to play a new song. If the problem persists, go ahead and proceed to the next method below.

3. Whitelist Spotify For Your Antivirus Software.

Keeping yourself safe in this day and age is a commodity that’s increasing in scarcity. With the digital and online landscape filled with data miners and hackers, equipping yourself with the best antivirus software should be an immediate priority.

Regardless, it’s not uncommon for your antivirus to mistakenly mark apps like Spotify as problematic, thereby disabling them from performing properly. Every antivirus program generally comes with a whitelist, which is a list of programs that have been given permission to act without extreme restraint.

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to provide you with a list of steps to add Spotify to your antivirus’ whitelist. Most, if not all, antivirus programs are configured differently with unique interfaces, so providing a general list of steps is just impossible.

We recommend instead that you look for these steps yourself online. You can just simply Google your antivirus software with the words ‘how to add a program on whitelist’.

4. Allow Spotify Through Your Firewall.

Although this unfortunate feature is the victim of memes and jokes, Windows Firewall is actually a pretty good program that’s generally misunderstood. Whenever a computer is infected by a virus, most users would point and blame the built-in firewall.

However, this is simply misplaced since the purpose of the firewall is to monitor malicious behavior made through the network and not on your software. If a virus gets through your computer and messes with your files offline, the firewall will not detect this since it is outside of its scope.

Since Spotify is a music-streaming service that mostly relies on an internet connection to function properly, this is well within the domain of your firewall. In this method, we’ll be adding Spotify to the firewall whitelist in hopes to prevent any restrictions that the firewall is implementing on Spotify.

You will need administrative powers to proceed through these steps.

Here’s how you can allow Spotify through the firewall:

1. Go ahead and open up the Start menu and search for  ‘firewall’. Click on Firewall & network protection.
2. Now, locate and select Allow an app through firewall. A list of all currently installed applications on your computer should be displayed on your screen.

3. From there, at the top-right corner of your screen, click on Change settings. 
4. Lastly, look for Spotify by either manually looking for the app or left-clicking on any program and typing in ‘Spotify’. Doing so should automatically highlight Spotify. Check both of the Private and Public boxes.

With that out of the way, you can save your changes and restart Spotify. Try opening up the program and playing a song to see if the issue continues to bother you.

5. Reinstall Spotify.

After exhausting all the methods above, reinstalling Spotify might be your best option as of this moment. If you’ve already done this, don’t leave yet since we’ll be going through a couple of additional steps to make this work.

We’ll have to start by properly uninstalling all Spotify files on your computer. You can do so by following the methods in this guide, which does a thorough job of ridding your computer from Spotify’s files. Once you’re done with that, we can now begin installing Spotify properly.

You can download Spotify’s official installer on their website from here. Furthermore, you can also run the installer in administrator mode to guarantee that the installation completes without any hindrances. Here’s how you can do that.

Now that you’ve reached the end of this article, we hope to have helped you fix error code 4 on Spotify. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment down below or discuss your thoughts with our readers.

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂