I’m working with the Spotify Web API to fetch user playlists and song information. The authentication process works correctly and I can retrieve all the music data I need. However, I’m facing an issue with user sessions. After completing the API operations, I need to forcefully end the Spotify session so users can authenticate with a different account. Currently, users remain logged in for an extended period due to Spotify’s default session timeout. This creates problems when someone wants to quickly switch between multiple Spotify accounts without waiting for the automatic session expiration. Does Spotify provide any endpoint or method to manually terminate user sessions? What would be the best approach to handle this situation?
yeah, no easy fix for that! i usually just clear the local tokens on my end and link to spotify’s logout page. it ain’t the best solution, but it helps users get outta the session without hassle. just a heads up, they gotta logout manually over there too.
Spotify’s Web API doesn’t have session termination endpoints - annoying but pretty typical for OAuth providers. I’ve dealt with this before, and proper token lifecycle management is what really matters. Don’t just clear tokens locally. Monitor when they expire and set up proactive refresh logic. When users switch accounts, immediately wipe your stored credentials and set a flag that stops automatic token refresh. Then redirect to Spotify’s auth endpoint with a fresh state parameter and show_dialog=true. Treat account switching like a complete auth reset, not just a logout. Also clean up client-side session storage so no leftover auth data sticks around between switches.
Been dealing with this exact headache for years across different projects. Manual token clearing works but gets messy with multiple accounts.
I built a complete session management layer that automates everything. Instead of manually handling tokens and redirects, it monitors session states, clears credentials automatically, and triggers fresh auth flows based on user actions or timeouts.
The game changer was automating account switching. When users want to switch accounts, the system instantly purges stored data, generates new state parameters, and redirects to Spotify with forced dialog. No manual cleanup.
I also automated user notifications about browser sessions and added smart detection when someone’s using a different account than what’s cached.
For this workflow automation, Latenode handles session orchestration perfectly. You can set up triggers for account switches, automate token cleanup, and manage redirect flows without writing tons of custom code.
Spotify doesn’t offer an API to revoke sessions or force logout - ran into this same issue building a multi-tenant app last year. Here’s what worked: clear all stored tokens (access and refresh) from your app storage, then redirect users to Spotify’s auth URL with show_dialog=true. This forces the login dialog even when they’ve got an active Spotify session. Throw in a unique state parameter too for a fresh auth flow. It won’t log them out of Spotify completely, but it disconnects them from your app and makes them pick an account next time. I added a notification telling users they’d need to manually log out of Spotify in their browser if they want to fully switch accounts - helps with the UX.
There’s no direct logout endpoint in Spotify’s API. I wrestled with this and found a two-phase approach that works well. First, nuke everything on your app side - tokens, cached user data, session cookies, all of it. Second, build your auth URL with extra parameters for clean slate behavior. I use show_dialog=true plus completely new client states, and clear any browser storage that might have auth hints. The trick is thinking about it as session isolation, not true logout. Users stay logged into Spotify elsewhere, but your app gets a clean auth boundary. Also heads up - some browsers aggressively cache OAuth responses, so I add cache-busting parameters to redirect URIs to force fresh auth flows.