How to change your Spotify username and music preferences
Spotify is an amazing music streaming service but it lacks some settings, some of which i discovered I needed to use in order to reset my music preferences after my daily mix playlist didn’t really match my music taste anymore.
The first thing I tried was searching online a way of resetting my music preferences in the Spotify settings but there were none, every Spotify support page said I should just keep listening to the songs I like and the playlist will update itself eventually but I wanted music recommendations now, not 2 weeks later.
So that’s how I reached another page that suggested just deleting the account and making a new one, since I didn’t have much on my account I choose to do this but this is where I met another Spotify classic error, because of the way how Spotify manages playlists you can’t change your username and it even automatically generates an unique username (the classic letters and numbers salad) that, even though it shouldn’t, it displays as your username (even though you choose an username, that one isn’t displayed on your profile or playlists).
DISCLAIMER: You can only use this method if you have an Android device or an Android emulator, there might be other ways but haven’t tried any because this is what has worked for me.
1. Backup your playlists
If you want to reset your preferences or change your username but don’t want to lose your beloved playlists use the spotmybackup’s free service to backup all of your playlists on your phone/PC and import them on your new account.
Just access the website and login with your Spotify account:
After you have logged in just press the EXPORT button and a .json file containing all of your playlists will be downloaded on your device, that file will be selected when you will login with your new Spotify account to import your old playlists.
2. Delete your account
Deleting your Spotify account is easy, just follow the following steps as shown by the Spotify Community Manager, Meredith, in her answer here:
1. Login to close your account here.
2. Note: Be sure to cancel any subscriptions first.
3. Select Account.
4. Select I want to close my Spotify account permanently.
5. Continue through the steps.
REMINDER: Once you close your account, you won’t be able to re-use your username (this might work though as I remade 2 accounts and used the same username and it did allow me to use the username after I deleted the account, keep in mind that it is not certain that it will work). And if you used an student discount you won’t be able to apply it to another account until 12-months have elapsed since you signed up for it.
3. Create a new account
This is where the tricky part comes in, if you create a new account the normal way there will be a part where you can choose an username but it won’t be displayed on your profile: (couldn’t screenshot the part where I choose an username because of privacy policies, the app didn’t allow me to screenshot):
Even though I choose an username this is what Spotify displays on my profile and playlists.
To overcome this you will have to create a new Spotify account using an much older version of the app (I’m not sure why it works but since I knew the first time when I made an account the username showed up I just gave it a shot)
DISCLAIMER: I don’t recommend downloading APKs from unknown sources but since this is what solves our problem and Spotify hasn’t come up with a solution other than using your facebook name, we will go this way.
Download and install an older version of Spotify
I have used the 2.3.0 version of the app, not for any particular reason, I just searched Spotify 2 apk on google and this is what first showed up. I downloaded my apk from here. Again, I have 0 connection to this website and apk, do this on your own.
To install the apk you have to allow apps from unknown sources, again, I don’t recommend this if you don’t trust the sources.
Once in the app, hit SIGN UP and fill the form with your information.
As you can see now our profile displays our username and not that random generated string.
Now you can uninstall the old app and download and install the newest version of Spotify from the Play Store.
4. Enjoy your music
Now that you have created the account and installed the newest version of Spotify all you have to do is to login into your new account
Keep in mind that now you can even login using your username, before this you could only login using your email.
Now, this is our new profile that displays our username and not just some random characters.
Import your old playlists into your account
To import your old playlists into your new account all you have to do is to acces spotmybackup again and login using your new Spotify account and then hit import, choosing the .json file we downloaded at the beginning.
