How to stop Spotify from auto-updating when building custom applications

Other Questions Spotify
1

Issue with Spotify Updates Breaking Development Environment

I’m working on creating a custom Spotify application and ran into a frustrating problem. The newest Spotify client doesn’t seem to support local app development anymore. The local app feature just disappeared completely.

I managed to downgrade to an older version from the Preview releases that still works for development. However, every single time I close and reopen Spotify, it automatically downloads and installs the latest version again. This completely breaks my development setup.

Does anyone know how to disable the automatic update feature? Or maybe there’s a newer development-friendly build available somewhere? I need to keep working on my project but this constant updating is making it impossible.

Any suggestions would be really helpful. Thanks!

2

Had this exact headache a few months ago with my Spotify integration project. Here’s what worked for me: Block Spotify’s update servers in your firewall. Add rules blocking upgrade.scdn.co and similar update endpoints - stops the client from checking for updates entirely. Even better approach: create a separate portable install in a different directory just for dev work. Keep your main Spotify for regular use and run the older version from the isolated folder. Launch it with admin privileges and use compatibility mode if you run into issues. Key thing is keeping that dev environment completely separate from your regular setup.