Warning: Spotify may not remember your starred songs

Warning: Spotify may not remember your starred songs Posted: 21 Jul 2011 07:18 PM PDT Some Spotify listeners are finding that the application has a short memory when it comes to remembering their favorite songs. “I just signed up yesturday, starred 1700 tracks and now they are gone,” wrote one user a week ago. “Logging out and back in didn’t help. Fix ASAP.” I’ve run into the issue as well. When much-hyped music service Spotify launched in the U.S. last week, I was excited to try it out. Using the premium $10 a month version, I immediately tested everything I could and looked up songs from all genres. I especially was fond of the “starred” tracks feature, which acts as a playlist of your favorite tunes. However, to my dismay, the second day I loaded up the Spotify program on my desktop PC, my 25 to 30 starred tracks from my first day had vanished. Poof, without a trace or explanation. I quickly looked online for help. Perhaps there was a way to restore starred tracks that wasn’t noticeable in the account settings. Unfortunately, all I found were other users complaining about the same problem. Many other users followed with their own stories of losing starred tracks, and it appears to affect PC and Mac users in the U.S. alike. The issue is still ongoing as several people commented today with the same problem. Some users have even said they are quitting Spotify because of this. A Spotify spokesperson replied to an e-mail I sent about the issue but indicated the company did not know the exact cause for the lost tracks. The spokesperson wrote: We believe that the starred tracks are simply taking longer to load than usual, but we are looking into it. In the mean time, I would like to recommend that you try a ‘clean reinstallation’ which may solve the problem. I did not do a reinstallation because I had already started starring tracks again. So far, they appear to be sticking. When I restart the program or logout, my tracks remain. But I’ve been sparing with my stars and only have about 200 tracks marked, just in case they up and vanish again. What’s most troubling is that this support thread about starred tracks was started by a European user 10 months ago, indicating that the issue is old and should be fixed by this point. The thread of comments was actually bumped by a new U.S. user and now has more than 90 replies, with most comments coming from frustrated users who also lost tracks. At this time, I would recommend new Spotify users wait to star their favorite songs until Spotify rectifies this issue. Hopefully this problem will go away soon, so we can get back to enjoying the service. Have you had technical problems with Spotify since the U.S. launch? Are you concerned about losing your favorite tracks?