Spotify discontinues support for old versions on Windows & Mac ('This app is restricted to premium users only' error)

Spotify is quite a popular music streaming service used by people worldwide. Thanks to the dedicated app clients, one can enjoy listening to their favorite tracks on some of the most widely used platforms or devices.

The company frequently updates these clients to address known bugs, patch security vulnerabilities, and introduce new and exciting features with the aim of improving one’s experience.

Along with this, support for older versions of the app get discontinued time and again as well.

According to reports (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9), multiple Spotify app users claim that the company has discontinued the support for old app versions.

To make sure that the change takes effect, app users have been allegedly logged out and are required to re-login. However, on trying to do so, they get ‘this app is restricted to premium users only’ error message.

Users have even got an email from the company which states that they will not be able to use any app version of Spotify for desktop released before April 2021.

This has been done to ensure that one has access to the latest bug fixes and security updates. And to ease out the process, the affected versions of Spotify will be automatically updated.

However, this change has not been well received by some as they feel that the UI on the old apps was far better than the one in the latest release.

Now, they are even thinking of cancelling their premium membership and switching to alternative apps. Notably, this change is being implemented on Android, Linux, and macOS based devices as well.

Was forced to upgrade to the atrocious UI in Windows too. I hate how the artist column is gone, and how annoying it is to look at or sort by title/artist when they’re clustered together with the unnecessary album art.
Source

They did the same to the android app below v8.00, says “Spotify Premium Required”.
Source

Those affected have tried clearing the app cache, restarting their devices and uninstalling and reinstalling the old apps but without success.

Fortunately, we have come across a workaround that might help you get rid of this problem. You can try installing the latest app from the official website for a potential fix.

Having said that, we’ll keep an eye on the issue where the support for old Spotify app versions have been discontinued and update you.

Note: We have a dedicated Spotify bugs, issues, and new features tracker, so be sure to follow it as well.

Featured image source: Spotify

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.