HTTP Status: 429

[babochyk]

Describe the bug
Upon launching psst, no tracks load, the sidebar says http status: 429, but the home page does.

To Reproduce
Launch psst
Click on any playlist on the home page or select any other page.

Expected behavior
The tracks and the sidebar should load tracks.

Screenshots

Environment

• OS: Arch Linux
• Version: Continuous release (2025.12.20-ae4f16d)

Additional context
I switched to psst because ncspot started lagging.

[jtaub]

Same problem here on Ubuntu 25.10. Worked until latest pull. Official Spotify website and app are working without 429, so I don't think my account is being rate limited.

[AuryVaz]

Same here, Arch Linux too.

[notrudyyy]

Happening on Fedora 43 KDE Plasma spin too.

[gslin]

Maybe related to the latest Anna's Archive news as Spotify said they've implemented some safe-guard mechanisms.

[notrudyyy]

Maybe related to the latest Anna's Archive news as Spotify said they've implemented some safe-guard mechanisms.

Wow can't believe they did that. If the cost is me using the web player for a while so be it!

[Pogodaanton]

Related discussions:

hrkfdn/ncspot#1757

aome510/spotify-player#890

[Cleboost]

Same

[monskov]

same issue, on arch

[timstapl]

It looks like 429 from spotify is your api key being rate limited. Maybe adding a setting where users can provide their own api key, similar to the last.fm config, would be a decent workaround?

[wizardwithcodehazard]

I feel like its because of anna's archive doing the spotify meta data download sh..t. 429 means too many requests idk should get resolved or what's happening..

[Potherca]

Oddly, this does not happen when using another client, like Riff. If the issue was with Spotify, I would expect to see 429s there too. 🤔

[Pogodaanton]

Oddly, this does not happen when using another client, like Riff. If the issue was with Spotify, I would expect to see 429s there too. 🤔

Interesting...

Riff uses a custom client_id that was created when it was still maintained as spot. I did not know that you were able to register applications on Spotify that are granted the necessary scopes to use librespot-playback.

The auth token psst obtains seems to have been blocked for anything touching the api.spotify.com endpoint. For psst, this includes most requests in the GUI and metadata retrieval for playback. That's also why the home section on psst still works partially though: Those requests go to a different endpoint.

Resolving playback for psst with the current token is trivial. Accessing track lists with the current token, however, will require a change to a different endpoint. The pathfinder API, which is already used in the home section, could be a potential choice. It still works with the current token. As that API has a completely different output and barely any documentation, this might become a time-consuming do-over.

Alternatively, we could get a hold of a registered client_id that has streaming scopes among others and base (all) API requests on that. This would still require a change in how tokens are retrieved and refreshed (akin to #694). I don't know when and if obtaining such an ID is possible any time soon, as Spotify has (quietly?) paused application registrations for now.

Otherwise, 'bring your own api key' is also a viable option. However, that will be hard to test/use for people who don't have one (e.g. me), given that Spotify has paused paused application registrations for now.

[kingosticks]

The (historical) problems with personal client IDs is they have more usage restrictions. Specifically, lower rate-limits and no access to some endpoints. But that's all moot if the traditional shared client ID has now been crippled in Spotify's latest hissy fit/panic.

[jacksongoode]

Yeah - I've been following and patiently waiting to see how other projects are approaching this. It might just mean adding some rate limiting to our requests to prevent this from happening.

Otherwise, 'bring your own api key' is also a viable option. However, that will be hard to test/use for people who don't have one (e.g. me), given that Spotify has paused paused application registrations for now.

@Pogodaanton Thanks for the investigation! I think given that Spotify might be making some changes re: api access, I think there will just be more and more work ahead until they make an announcement.