Help

Trouble signing in

Sign-in goes through Spotify, so it can fail on their side, on ours, or in the browser in between. This page says which one you hit, what it means, and whether trying again is worth doing at all.

Three things that fix most of it

Finish it in one browser, in one go: Sign-in is a round trip: this site hands you to Spotify and Spotify hands you back, carrying a cookie that lives ten minutes. Starting it here and finishing it in another browser, on another device, or in a tab you come back to tomorrow fails the check every time.
Let this site keep a cookie: notch.fm sets two, both first-party: a short-lived one that guards that round trip, and the session itself. A private window or a strict tracker blocker drops the first, which is what produces both of the sign-in session failures below. The check further down tests this for real rather than taking your word for it.
Check the Spotify side, not just this side: If you are signed out of Spotify in this browser, or you removed notch.fm at spotify.com/account/apps, the consent screen either never appears or comes straight back as a refusal. Signing in to Spotify first, in the same browser, fixes both.

What this browser can tell us right now

Both of these run here, in front of you, and neither sends anything anywhere. The first is the exact operation the sign-in round trip depends on.

Cookies for this site: Checking.
notch.fm's own API: Checking.

page: 
time: 
cookie round trip: pending
notch.fm api: checking
browser:

Every way sign-in can fail, and what each one means

These are the messages the sign-in page can show. Open one for what to do about it.

Spotify has rate limited notch.fmWait it out

Spotify is throttling the whole app for a while. It is not your account, your password or your connection, and because the limit is on the app, every attempt during the cool-off is refused in exactly the same way.

Wait it out. The sign-in button unlocks itself the moment the cool-off is over.
Nothing you can change on this side makes it shorter. Reloading, clearing cookies and using another browser all hit the same wall, because the limit is on the app rather than on you.
Anything already in your library is untouched. A sync that was interrupted resumes by itself once sign-in works again.

notch.fm cannot connect any more Spotify accounts yetRetrying rarely helps

Spotify runs new apps in a development mode that allows only a small number of connected accounts, and ours is full. This is a limit on notch.fm, not a judgement about you or your account. We have applied for wider access; we have no date for it and would rather say so than invent one.

Your notch.fm account still works. You can sign in, and nothing you have saved is affected - it is only the Spotify connection that cannot be made right now.
There is nothing to retry. Every attempt during the cap is refused the same way, so pressing connect again will not get a different answer.
If you have been told a slot is free for you, connect again and it will go through.

Spotify access was declinedTry again

The Spotify consent screen came back with a no. notch.fm cannot read a library it has not been given permission to read, so there is nothing to sign in to yet.

Press Continue with Spotify again and choose Agree on Spotify's screen.
If that screen never appeared, a pop-up blocker or a password manager may have closed it before you saw it.
If you want to know exactly what is being asked for before agreeing, the privacy page lists every scope and what it is used for.

The sign-in could not be verifiedTry again

Spotify's reply did not match the request this browser started. That check is what stops somebody else's sign-in from landing in your session, so a mismatch is refused rather than trusted.

Start again from this page, not from an old tab, a bookmark or the back button.
Close any other notch.fm tab with a half-finished sign-in in it. Two at once overwrite each other's check.
If it keeps happening, this browser is probably dropping the short-lived notch_oauth cookie: allow cookies for this site, or come out of private browsing.

This browser had no sign-in in progressTry again

The reply from Spotify arrived without the short-lived cookie that started it. It expires after ten minutes, and it belongs to one browser only.

Press Continue with Spotify and finish it in one go, in this browser.
Do not open the Spotify link in a different browser or on a different device from the one that started it.
If the cookie is being blocked outright, allow cookies for this site or leave private browsing, then try again.

That sign-in link had already been usedTry again

Spotify issues a one-time code and refuses it the second time it is presented. Reloading the page you landed on, or going back to it, spends the code and produces exactly this.

Press Continue with Spotify for a fresh code. This normally works first time.
Do not reload or bookmark the page Spotify sends you back to - start from this one instead.

Spotify refused this accountRetrying rarely helps

Spotify let the sign-in through and then would not hand over the profile behind it. On an app still in Spotify's development mode, that is what an account which has not been added to the app looks like.

If this app is still in development mode, the Spotify account has to be added to it in the Spotify developer dashboard before it can sign in. Nothing on this page can do that.
If you revoked notch.fm at spotify.com/account/apps, sign in again and grant it.
The code shown with the message is the exact status Spotify returned. Quote it in a report - it is the difference between a guess and a diagnosis.

Spotify is having trouble right nowRetrying rarely helps

Spotify answered with a server error of its own. Nothing is wrong with your account, and nothing is wrong with this app's connection to it.

Give it a few minutes. Outages on their side clear without anybody doing anything here.
If it lasts, Spotify's own status and support channels will know before this page does.

notch.fm could not reach SpotifyRetrying rarely helps

The request from this server to Spotify never completed. That leg is between the two servers, so your own connection is not the thing to check.

Try again in a minute or two. A single dropped connection is common and usually not repeated.
If every attempt fails this way, the server has lost outbound network or DNS and somebody has to look at it.

Spotify rejected notch.fm's own credentialsRetrying rarely helps

The client id, secret or redirect URI this deployment is using was refused by Spotify. That is a fault in the deployment, not in your account, and signing in again will fail the same way until it is fixed on the server.

Nothing on this side helps. Trying again, another browser and another account all produce this.
If you run this instance: check SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID and SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET, and check the redirect URI registered in the Spotify dashboard matches the one this server sends.

Something failed on our sideTry again

Sign-in got past Spotify and stopped inside notch.fm - a database write or the session itself. Spotify is fine; this one is ours.

Try again. A one-off write failure usually does not repeat.
If it does repeat, note the time and roughly what you did. Server logs are searchable by time, and that is what makes this findable.

If none of that works

Being plain about it: there is no support inbox to write to. notch.fm is built by one person, and the help desk inside the app - the Help tab down the right-hand edge of every signed-in page - needs a session, which is the exact thing you do not have.

So the route that does work is a browser where sign-in succeeds. Copy the block above, open the app on that device, and paste it into the Help tab as “something is broken”. It attaches the page and the recent request log by itself.

Worth writing down while it is still on screen: the exact wording of the message, the code beside it if there is one, the time and your timezone, whether it happens every time, and which browser you are on. The contact page has the longer list, and the things you can do yourself once you are in.

Back to sign in Your Spotify app permissions