Spotify in Meenimal skin

[Yincognito]

If it still doesn't work, uninstall and install the Spotify Desktop player again, and see if it works (selecting "webplayer" in the skin settings).

Maybe the thing not working for the OP but working for you has something to do with the Windows, Rainmeter and Spotify versions that are used by both of you. So far, only the plugin versions have been mentioned, but a plugin - even if the right version - is helpless without its dependencies working the same way. Obviously, to fully reproduce what another user is experiencing, the versions of the dependencies should match too (on the OP side, of course). This, assuming as clean as possible installations, i.e. no registry or other leftovers from installation of previous versions that could mess up the process. Just saying.

[ravv3]

I don't know why it doesn't work for you. Make sure you're not logged in to the Spotify website or close the browser. Also make sure that the Desktop Players box is checked in the WebNowPlaying browser extension in Settings.
Check if version 2.0.7 of the plugin has been installed: right-click on the Rainmeter icon in the taskbar and go to About-Plugins-External plugins.
If it still doesn't work, uninstall and install the Spotify Desktop player again, and see if it works (selecting "webplayer" in the skin settings).

I made the relevant checks you mentioned and I have everything installed and checked the relevant boxes (which were already checked). I uninstalled the Spotify desktop app and reinstalled when I was logged into the web player version. That's after I looked at what @Yincognito posted and I used Wise Registry Cleaner before re-installation.
I logged out of the web player and pressed play in the desktop app - Made no difference - still no track info being displayed in this skin.

nb. This skin used to work with the desktop app before I originally re-installed the skin, and I did not have the WebNowPlaying add-on installed in Firefox. Does anyone know how that happened?

btw, I also have the 'Monterey' skin activated, and that has a media player widget. This widget works when I play anything in Spotify desktop app. This might suggest that the issue is not the Spotify desktop installation issue - but an issue with the Meenimal skin (on my PC)??

[xenium]

I made the relevant checks you mentioned and I have everything installed and checked the relevant boxes (which were already checked). I uninstalled the Spotify desktop app and reinstalled when I was logged into the web player version. That's after I looked at what @Yincognito posted and I used Wise Registry Cleaner before re-installation.
I logged out of the web player and pressed play in the desktop app - Made no difference - still no track info being displayed in this skin.

nb. This skin used to work with the desktop app before I originally re-installed the skin, and I did not have the WebNowPlaying add-on installed in Firefox. Does anyone know how that happened?

btw, I also have the 'Monterey' skin activated, and that has a media player widget. This widget works when I play anything in Spotify desktop app. This might suggest that the issue is not the Spotify desktop installation issue - but an issue with the Meenimal skin (on my PC)??

Try this too:
Unload ALL the active skins (including the Meenimal skin if it is active), restart Rainmeter and then load ONLY the Meenimal skin and see if the song info is displayed. Don't forget to select "webplayer" in the skin settings.
Sometimes some skins can create problems for other skins.

[ravv3]

Try this too:
Unload ALL the active skins (including the Meenimal skin if it is active), restart Rainmeter and then load ONLY the Meenimal skin and see if the song info is displayed. Don't forget to select "webplayer" in the skin settings.
Sometimes some skins can create problems for other skins.

I unloaded all the other skins so there was just Meenimal left, refreshed, and it still didn't work. (Webplayer is always selected in the skin settings).

[Yincognito]

btw, I also have the 'Monterey' skin activated, and that has a media player widget. This widget works when I play anything in Spotify desktop app. This might suggest that the issue is not the Spotify desktop installation issue - but an issue with the Meenimal skin (on my PC)??

Can you check if that Monterey player skin uses WebNowPlaying as well? Or, at least, post a link to the exact same version of Monterey that works for you, assuming you didn't modify the player skin related code.

That being said, checking if Meenimal is the problem should be easy: just write a very basic skin using WebNowPlaying and the relevant options that you're interested in seeing if they work, and use it as a test skin. Try to go by the WebNowPlaying docs instead of copy pasting from somewhere else, just to be sure you don't "inherit" some potential issue from those. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes or so, and you can go step by step and check success in the Skins tab from the Rainmeter log (the About button). I'm not on my laptop now, but if you need help with it, xenium might be able to put together a few simple lines that you could test.

[xenium]

I unloaded all the other skins so there was just Meenimal left, refreshed, and it still didn't work. (Webplayer is always selected in the skin settings).

The easiest way to see if the Meenimal skin is the problem is to load the example skin WebNowPlayingRedux that you installed with the last version of the plugin and see if it displays song info.
It is also possible that you have an older version of the Meenimal skin that has problems.
The version that works for me, I downloaded it from here:
https://www.deviantart.com/offbalancect/art/Meenimal-for-Rainmeter-903008848

[ravv3]

The easiest way to see if the Meenimal skin is the problem is to load the example skin WebNowPlayingRedux that you installed with the last version of the plugin and see if it displays song info.
It is also possible that you have an older version of the Meenimal skin that has problems.
The version that works for me, I downloaded it from here:
https://www.deviantart.com/offbalancect/art/Meenimal-for-Rainmeter-903008848

I loaded the 'example.ini' player widget in the WebNowPlayingRedux skin, and nothing displays. I guess this therefore actually means that it's not the Meenimal skin that is causing the problem? (question).

I tried the deviantart skin - I actually got my original from the github link on there previously and have the same version (Meenimal 22.01.06), so there was nothing different.

I notice that this link: https://github.com/stenakis/Meenimal-for-Rainmeter/releases/tag/22.01.06, was compiled in 2022 and it includes bug fixes for a previous version. Would it be possible that this issue is just a bug that needs to be fixed if a newer version was released? - (hope the skin is still maintained).

The problem might be something in Spotify desktop however. But as previously mentioned - Monterey skin does display the track info.

[Yincognito]

But as previously mentioned - Monterey skin does display the track info.

Alright, I checked the Monterey suite and it uses the somewhat similar MediaPlayer plugin to display track info, not the WebNowPlaying plugin, so, coupled with xenium confirming that the Meenimal skin works for him and the WebNowPlaying sample skin not working for you, I believe the issue relates to either the Spotify you installed, one of its settings or dependencies if any, or how you configured the WebNowPlaying stuff. Personally, I can't test it since I don't use Spotify at all.

[ravv3]

..I believe the issue relates to either the Spotify you installed, one of its settings or dependencies if any, or how you configured the WebNowPlaying stuff. Personally, I can't test it since I don't use Spotify at all.

Thank you Yincognito!

I fixed it by going to https://spotify.en.uptodown.com/windows/versions and installing an older version from last year. Anyway, My WebNowPlaying was configured correctly - and that was displayed when the Spotify Web Player works, and as explained below..

So, I now can have track info displayed (from the Spotify desktop app) by choosing either Spotify in the skin settings or Web Player chosen in the skin settings:

1. Spotify chosen:

Meenimal settings 11.jpg

2. Web Player chosen:

Meenimal settings 12.jpg

For some reason, as can be seen above, the Web Player method displays more info, ie. the album name additionally; - I guess that might be down to some missing coding in the config for Spotify perhaps?

Anyway, I think this time it's worked. So it looks like as long as I don't upgrade to the latest version I should be ok. There are plenty of older versions on uptodown anyway just in case, as can be seen in the link above.

Also, this Spotify version situation also explains to me how I knew the skin used to work with the Desktop app but then suddenly stopped working. I think Spotify auto-updates, so I think I will need to keep on overwriting the current installation with the older Spotify .exe I have downloaded, before playing anything in Spotify, if i want track info in that skin. This is a bit of a pain but not sure of any other way, unless there's some way to block individual apps from updating.

[xenium]

I fixed it by going to https://spotify.en.uptodown.com/windows/versions and installing an older version from last year. Anyway, My WebNowPlaying was configured correctly - and that was displayed when the Spotify Web Player works, and as explained below..

Strange that the latest version of Spotify is not supported on your PC.
It's good that an older version works but (as you realized) this will be for a limited time because at some point Spotify will automatically update to the new version.

For some reason, as can be seen above, the Web Player method displays more info, ie. the album name additionally; - I guess that might be down to some missing coding in the config for Spotify perhaps?

As I mentioned before, the Spotify icon in the skin settings uses the NowPlaying measure, which only partially supports Spotify, displaying only the name of the song and the artist, not the album.

You can try another solution to see if the latest version of Spotify works on your PC. This solution requires the installation of version 1.2.0 of the WebNowPlaying plugin and Spicetify.

Install WebNowPlayingRedux_1.2.0.rmskin and the WebNowPlaying 1.2.0 plugin will be installed automatically.
At the beginning of the installation, check the WebNowPlaying box, as version 1.2.0 to install over version 2.0.7.
https://github.com/keifufu/WebNowPlaying-Rainmeter/releases/tag/1.2.0
Install the latest version of Spotify then follow exactly the instructions for Spotify Desktop Player from the link below:
https://www.deviantart.com/xenium-art/art/Harmony-Player-UPDATED-25-MAR-2024-988018395