I’ve been working with Spotify’s Web API and noticed that when playlists get updated, they create new revisions with unique snapshot IDs. The documentation mentions this versioning system exists.
However, when I look at the API endpoints for fetching playlist data or track listings, I can’t find any parameters to specify which snapshot version I want to retrieve. There’s also no clear method to browse through historical snapshots.
Is there any way (maybe not officially documented) to find existing snapshot IDs and access previous versions of a playlist using those identifiers? I’m trying to track changes over time but can’t figure out how to access older states of the same playlist.
Hit this exact problem building a playlist monitoring service. The snapshot ID system is basically a one-way street - you only get the current snapshot when calling the API, and there’s no way to pull up old ones. Super frustrating because Spotify obviously keeps some internal versioning (they wouldn’t generate these IDs otherwise), but they don’t let you access previous states. I tried everything - messing with request headers, different endpoint combos, you name it. Nothing worked. The API just wasn’t built for playlist history. If you want to track changes over time, you’ll need to poll the API yourself at regular intervals and store the data somewhere else.
yeah, this limitation’s been driving devs crazy for years. spotify doesn’t expose historical data through their api - those snapshot ids are basically just etags for caching. i remember reading they purge old versions pretty quickly anyway, so even if there was an endpoint, it wouldn’t go back far. only real solution is what others said - build your own scraper that hits the api regularly and stores everything.
Unfortunately, Spotify’s Web API doesn’t let you retrieve old playlist versions using snapshot IDs. That snapshot_id field you see is just for cache validation and preventing conflicts when making changes - it’s not for accessing previous versions. I hit this same wall when building a playlist analytics tool last year. The snapshot ID changes every time someone modifies the playlist, but Spotify only keeps the current state. There’s no versioning system for developers, and even undocumented endpoints don’t have this feature. Your best bet is building your own tracking system - periodically grab the current playlist state and store snapshots locally. That way you can create your own historical record of changes.