To turn hardware acceleration on or off in Spotify, open the desktop app, click your profile picture, and choose Settings. Scroll down to Compatibility and switch Enable hardware acceleration on or off, then restart Spotify. Turning it off is the first fix Spotify suggests when the desktop app lags while it is the window in front.
The setting lives only in the Spotify desktop app for Windows and Mac. The route above comes from the Spotify Answer on desktop lag in Spotify’s Community FAQs. Spotify changes the desktop app’s layout from time to time, so this guide also covers where to look if the switch is not where you expect.
Before You Start
- You need the desktop app. Spotify’s instructions for this setting are for Spotify on desktop. Spotify does not document a hardware acceleration switch in the iPhone, iPad, or Android apps, or in the web player.
- Update Spotify first if you can. Menus move between versions. In the desktop app, a blue dot next to your profile picture means an update is ready. Click your profile picture and select Update Spotify now, as described in Spotify’s Updating your Spotify app article.
- Expect a restart. Spotify needs to close and reopen before the change applies, so music stops for a few seconds.
- Nothing is deleted. This is a display setting. It does not touch your playlists, downloads, or account.
How to Turn Hardware Acceleration On or Off in Spotify Settings
These steps are the same on a Windows PC and a Mac.
- Open the Spotify desktop app.
- Click your profile picture at the top of the window. A short menu opens.
- Click Settings. The Settings page replaces the main view.
- Scroll down to the Compatibility heading. It is near the bottom of the page.
- Click the switch next to Enable hardware acceleration. Switch it off to disable hardware acceleration, or on to enable it.
- Restart Spotify. If the app does not offer to restart on its own, quit it completely and open it again.
On Windows, clicking the X may only hide Spotify instead of closing it, depending on your settings. To be sure it has closed, click the three dots at the top left and look for Exit, which is usually under File. On a Mac, click Spotify in the menu bar and choose Quit Spotify.
Use the Spotify Menu Instead
Some versions of the desktop app also put this option in the app menu. Spotify’s support pages do not list these menu routes, so treat them as places to check, not a guarantee. They come from posts in the Spotify Community and can differ by version.
On Windows
- Click the three dots at the top left of the Spotify window.
- Point to Help.
- Look for Troubleshooting, then an item such as Disable Hardware Acceleration and Restart.
If you see that item, clicking it changes the setting and restarts Spotify in one step. When hardware acceleration is already off, the item is reported to offer to enable it instead.
On a Mac
- With Spotify in front, look at the menu bar at the top of the screen.
- Click Help, then Troubleshooting, and look for Disable Hardware Acceleration and Restart.
- If it is not there, click Spotify in the menu bar and look for a Hardware Acceleration item. In older versions, a check mark next to it meant it was on, and clicking it switched it.
A Mac user in the Spotify Community reported in 2025 that the switch was missing from Settings and was found under Help instead. If you cannot find Compatibility in Settings on your Mac, check the menu bar before assuming the option is gone.
What Hardware Acceleration Does in Spotify
Hardware acceleration lets an app hand some of its drawing work to your computer’s graphics hardware (the GPU, short for graphics processing unit) instead of doing all of it on the main processor (the CPU). In Spotify, that work is the app window itself: scrolling lists, album art, and animations.
On most computers this makes the window feel smoother. On some, an outdated graphics driver or a weak graphics chip does the job badly, and the window lags, flickers, or freezes. A driver is the software that lets your operating system talk to a piece of hardware. That is why the same switch helps some people when it is on and others when it is off.
Many programs have a setting like this. You can turn off hardware acceleration in Google Chrome in much the same way, and Windows has its own graphics option covered in how to enable hardware acceleration in Windows 11.
Should You Turn It On or Off?
| Your situation | What to try |
|---|---|
| Spotify runs smoothly | Leave the setting alone |
| The Spotify window lags or stutters when it is the active window | Turn it off (Spotify’s first suggestion) |
| You turned it off and the window now feels slower | Turn it back on |
| Lag started after a graphics driver or system update | Try the opposite of your current setting, then update the driver again |
The only case Spotify itself describes is the second row: lag when Spotify is in the foreground. The other rows are simple testing. The setting is safe to flip back and forth, so the quickest way to know what works on your computer is to try both and compare.
How to Confirm the Change and Undo It
After Spotify restarts, go back to Settings and scroll to Compatibility. The switch shows the current state. Then use the app the way that caused trouble before, such as scrolling a long playlist or resizing the window, and see whether it has improved.
To undo the change, repeat the same steps and click the switch again, then restart Spotify. There is nothing else to restore.
If Spotify Still Lags
Spotify’s FAQ lists two more steps after turning off hardware acceleration, and Spotify Support adds a few general ones. Work through them in this order.
- Update Spotify. Click your profile picture and select Update Spotify now if it appears.
- Update your computer’s software, especially anything related to graphics. Spotify points you to your device’s manufacturer for this. On a PC, see how to update your graphics driver in Windows 11.
- Clear the cache. The cache is temporary data Spotify stores so things load faster. Click your profile picture, choose Settings, scroll to Storage, and click Clear cache. Spotify covers this in Spotify storage information, and our guide on how to clear the Spotify cache has more detail.
- Reinstall Spotify. Warning: Spotify says you need to download your offline music and podcasts again after reinstalling. Follow the Windows or Mac steps in Reinstalling your Spotify app.
If the problem is that songs will not play at all, that is a different issue. Spotify’s Spotify not playing article covers connection, firewall, and device checks.
Troubleshooting the Setting Itself
I can’t find Compatibility in Settings
Make sure you are in the desktop app and not the web player in a browser. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the Settings page. If the heading still is not there, check the app menu as described above, then update Spotify and look again.
The change didn’t seem to do anything
The setting applies only after a full restart. Quit Spotify from its menu instead of just closing the window, then reopen it and check the switch again.
Spotify is too frozen to reach Settings
Close Spotify and reopen it, then go straight to Settings before doing anything else. If the window will not respond at all, restart your computer first. If it still will not open properly, a reinstall is the next step.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to restart Spotify after changing hardware acceleration?
Yes. Close the desktop app completely and open it again. The menu version of the option is labeled to restart Spotify for you.
Does hardware acceleration change Spotify’s sound quality?
Spotify presents the setting only as a fix for a lagging app window and does not describe any effect on audio. Sound quality is controlled by the separate audio quality options, which Spotify explains in its Audio quality article. See our guide to Spotify audio quality settings to change them.
Is there a hardware acceleration setting in the Spotify phone app?
Spotify documents this setting for the desktop app only. The iPhone and Android apps do not have a matching switch in Spotify’s instructions.
Can I change it in the Spotify web player?
Spotify does not document a hardware acceleration switch for the web player. The web player runs inside your browser, so any hardware acceleration option would be the browser’s own setting, not Spotify’s.
Is it safe to leave hardware acceleration off?
Yes. Spotify keeps working either way. The only difference is which part of your computer draws the app window, and you can switch back at any time.
Will turning it off stop Spotify from opening when my computer starts?
No. That is a different setting. See how to stop Spotify from opening on startup.
Next Step
Change the switch, restart Spotify, and use the app for a few minutes. If the lag is gone, you are done. If not, flip the setting back and move on to the update, cache, and reinstall steps above. For more desktop tips, see how to show local files in Spotify.
Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read hundreds of millions of times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.