The Queue's Rules

The queue is the list of what plays next. It has two parts. On top, under Playing next, are the songs you queued yourself. Below them, under Next up, are the songs that come next in whatever playlist or album is playing. Your songs always play first.

Above both, Playing from names where the playing song came from: the playlist, album, artist, or podcast, which opens when clicked, Liked Songs, or a radio named after the song, playlist, album, or artist it is based on, which opens the radio’s page. The line shows only while a song is playing from somewhere Spotify reports.

These are the rules the app follows. The queue tests in src/app.rs check every one of them.

Starting and resuming are separate actions. With Shuffle off, a playlist’s Play button starts at its first available song in the selected order. Double-clicking a row starts there, including with Shuffle on. Play in the player bar resumes the current song at its paused position.

Since 0.10.0, the Shuffle button on a collection page changes the global playback mode without starting that collection. It can be selected before a playback device is active; the next Play uses the selection. While another collection plays, toggling Shuffle changes that playback’s mode without switching to the page’s collection. The queue then reflects the new play order.

Since 0.8.0, starting a playlist in its original order explicitly names its first available song from the loaded prefix. If that prefix is not loaded, it requests playlist position zero. A page loaded from the middle never becomes the beginning. This keeps the full Spotify playlist context; the app does not replace it with a shortened list of loaded songs. A request waiting for local playback to reconnect keeps the song chosen at the click.

Sorted and filtered views omit unavailable songs and local files from their playback requests. The displayed rows keep their positions, and selecting a repeated song starts that occurrence. A filtered playlist or Liked Songs view plays its matching songs in displayed order, including duplicates. An empty or entirely unplayable view disables Play instead of starting the unfiltered context.

Since 0.9.0, starting another song on this computer keeps the selected Repeat mode, with Shuffle on or off. Loading a playlist no longer silently disables repeat in the playback engine.

Since 0.9.0, silencing the old song during a local track change keeps the decoder paced while the replacement loads. Cached audio no longer races to the end and causes an unwanted extra skip during that handoff.

Since 0.9.0, an unexpected local playback disconnect retains the engine’s in-memory playback state before closing the session. Reconnection restores the same song and position, paused or playing, with its playlist context, exact shuffle order, manually queued songs (including duplicates), repeat settings, and pending context pages. This also works when the current song came from the manual queue rather than the playlist. Playback started on the replacement engine takes precedence over recovery.

Since 0.9.0, switching from another Connect device back to this computer transfers that device’s current song, position, and queue, including manually queued copies. A paused session stays paused. The handoff itself does not consume a queue row or restore an older queue saved on this computer.

  1. The list shows the play order. The top row plays next, followed by the rows below it.

  2. Add to queue adds a song to your part of the queue. It goes after the songs you queued earlier and before the playlist’s songs. Queue the same song twice and it plays twice. A double-click only counts once.

    Since 0.9.0, an album’s Add to queue adds its playable songs in album order, including repeated songs. This also works for singles and EPs. A fully loaded album appears immediately. Otherwise, a loading notice appears while all its track pages are fetched, then its songs are appended together after the songs already queued. A failed fetch adds no partial album. Clear queue and sign-out cancel an album still being fetched; changing playback devices asks you to add it again on the new device.

    On another device, a rate limit delays additions instead of dropping them. Spotifast retries automatically after Spotify’s requested wait and keeps later songs behind the album. Pending rows retain their known titles and durations. If Spotify permanently rejects an addition, only the rejected song and any unsent remainder of its album disappear; accepted songs stay.

  3. When a song starts, its row leaves the queue. It doesn’t matter how it started: the song before it ended, you pressed Next, you clicked its queue row, or another device skipped to it. Only that occurrence leaves: another copy you queued remains until its own turn.

  4. Next removes the top row right away. The app doesn’t wait for Spotify to confirm it.

  5. Playing a row from the queue skips to it. The rows above it are skipped and removed, as if you had pressed Next down to it. The rows below it stay, and the playlist keeps going afterwards.

  6. Starting a playlist or album keeps your songs. The rows underneath change to the new collection; your songs stay under Playing next and play before the collection continues. If you queue an album and then start it from the Library, its first song plays now and the separately queued album still follows. Clear queue removes those manual copies while keeping the playing album’s remaining songs.

  7. Clear only removes your songs. The trash button sits beside the Playing next heading and empties that section; the playlist’s rows below stay. It only shows while this computer is the player, because that is the only queue the app can actually clear.

  8. Changes appear immediately. Spotifast updates the queue before Spotify confirms the change. For local playback, it updates its own player directly. Toggling shuffle rechecks the queue so the new playback order appears promptly without waiting for the song to finish.

  9. Closing the app keeps the queue. Spotifast saves it locally. When you resume the last song, it restores your queued songs and playlist position.

  10. Old answers from Spotify are ignored. Queue responses can be a few seconds late. Spotifast ignores stale responses and asks again. Your changes stay visible while it waits for confirmation.

Since 0.8.0, selecting several playlist rows and choosing Add to queue preserves repeated occurrences in their selected order. For example, selecting B, C, B adds all three rows. A repeated click still counts once, and the notification reports only the rows actually added.

  1. Dragging within Playing next reorders it, only on this computer. Neither the Web API nor librespot can reorder or insert into a live queue; the only way to change one is to clear it and re-add its songs in the new order, which reaches nothing but the engine actually playing them. So dropping a song, dragged from elsewhere, at a position in Playing next inserts it there, and dragging a row already in Playing next elsewhere in the same section moves it, only while this computer is the active player. Otherwise every drop still just adds to the end, exactly like Add to queue. Next up is never a drop target: it plays from the current context, not from a list Spotifast can rewrite. While Playing next is empty, drop the song on the player bar’s Queue button instead.

  2. A song you queued can be removed on its own, only on this computer. Right-click a row under Playing next, or open its … menu, and choose Remove from queue. Only that row leaves: other copies of the song stay, and so does Next up. Like a move, this rewrites the queue by clearing it and re-adding the rest, so it is offered only while this computer is the active player. Next up rows have no such entry; they play from the current context.