In August 2021, Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer, Panos Panay, announced a redesigned Clock app for Windows 11. In addition to a brand new user interface, the app features Spotify integration that lets you play specific tracks to help you focus. Having a curated section of playlists to increase productivity is a great idea, and users have welcomed it. However, the “game-changing” feature (As described by Panos.) is no longer available — the integration stopped working months ago, and Microsoft doesn’t seem to care.
Microsoft’s official support forums (and Feedback center) Is Multiple complaints From users reporting issues when linking their Spotify accounts to the Clock app: Clicking the button results in Windows 11 showing a blank login screen, which nothing seems to fix. You can find similar reports on Spotify’s forums.
After offering multiple ways to fix the app to no avail, a Spotify representative revealed That the problem is on the Windows side — an expired certificate prevents the Clock app from connecting to the service.
Hey everyone! Spotify Support has officially confirmed that this is a Windows issue.
“We’ve checked around and it appears that this is currently a known limitation on Windows’ part due to an expired certificate such that the oATH header sent to the Spotify API is no longer valid. Please contact Microsoft Support directly for more details and information about any possible updates to the Focus Assist Clock integration.”
The merger seems to have gone down earlier this year, about three months ago (or so). Usually, such problems don’t require extensive troubleshooting, so it’s hard to explain why it’s taking so long to fix the problem. And it’s not like no one is using Windows 11’s Spotify integration — many users are begging Microsoft to fix it. Unfortunately, for now, Windows 11’s game-changing feature isn’t working, and no one knows when it will return.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment and will update the article once we hear back.
