Web Music Player Switches to Backup Engine After Authentication Errors with Spotify API - Need Help with Automatic Recovery

Other Questions Spotify
1

I built a web music player that can use Spotify’s streaming service when users connect their accounts. The idea is simple - when someone links their Spotify account, songs should play through Spotify instead of our backup streaming system.

The problem is that sometimes I get 401 or 403 errors from Spotify’s API, and when this happens, my player switches back to the backup engine. But then it gets stuck there and won’t try Spotify again, even though the user’s account is still connected.

Here’s what happens:

// Player initialization
const musicPlayer = new AudioPlayer();
let spotifyConnected = false;

// When user connects Spotify
function connectSpotifyAccount() {
    if (userHasValidToken()) {
        spotifyConnected = true;
        musicPlayer.setEngine('spotify');
    }
}

// Error handling that causes the issue
function handlePlaybackError(errorCode) {
    if (errorCode === 401 || errorCode === 403) {
        // Falls back but never tries Spotify again
        spotifyConnected = false;
        musicPlayer.setEngine('default');
    }
}

What I expected to happen:
The player should try to reconnect to Spotify automatically after getting these errors, especially for songs that work with Spotify.

What I’ve tried so far:

  • Set up token refresh following Spotify’s documentation
  • Double checked that I’m using the right permissions
  • Added some retry logic but it’s not working well

Has anyone dealt with similar authentication issues with Spotify’s Web SDK? I’m wondering if there are better ways to handle reconnection or if I’m missing something obvious about how the token refresh should work.

Also curious if anyone knows what might cause those 403 errors - could it be rate limiting or something else I should watch out for?

Thanks for any help!

2

Hit this exact issue with Spotify’s API last year. 401 and 403 errors mean different things, so you can’t handle them the same way. 401 usually means your token expired, 403 means no Premium or playback restrictions.

Here’s what worked: don’t jump straight to backup when you get a 401. Try refreshing the token first - only fall back if that fails. For 403s, figure out if it’s temporary or permanent.

For auto-recovery, set up a health check that tries reconnecting every few minutes while you’re in fallback mode. Use exponential backoff so you’re not spamming their servers. Also - some 403s are track-specific, so switching engines per song instead of globally might work better.

3

Your main problem is setting spotifyConnected = false every time there’s an error. This kills the user’s entire session instead of just handling a temporary API hiccup. Keep your connection state separate from the playback engine. spotifyConnected should only flip to false when users actually disconnect their account - not because of API errors. I’d suggest building a retry queue. When Spotify fails, queue the track and try again after a few seconds while your backup plays. Most auth errors fix themselves in 30-60 seconds, especially token refresh stuff. Also double-check your token refresh code. Make sure you’re actually storing and using the new access token - I’ve seen refreshes that look successful but keep using the old token.

4

yeah, classic token management problem. spotify tokens die quickly and you’ve got to handle refresh failures properly. same thing bit me - my refresh was failing silently but the code kept chugging along. throw some logging in there to see if your refresh is actually working. you might want a circuit breaker too - after a few failed attempts, back off for a bit then slowly test spotify again.

5

Those 403 errors aren’t authentication failures - they’re usually market restrictions or device limits. Spotify won’t let you play on multiple devices at once, so if someone’s already streaming elsewhere, you’ll hit a 403. Don’t lump these in with token expiration problems.

I set up status polling that checks Spotify’s player state every 10 seconds during fallback mode. When external playback stops or the device frees up, my app automatically tries to resume Spotify streaming. Way better than just blindly retrying.

Also worth doing graceful degradation per track. Some songs are region-locked or unavailable even with Premium accounts. I keep a temp blacklist of failed track IDs and only retry after 15 minutes, but immediately try Spotify for new songs. Keeps you from getting stuck on broken tracks while still giving users the Spotify experience for everything else.