I’m trying to use the Instafest app to generate a custom festival lineup based on my Spotify listening history, but it keeps failing or showing incomplete results. I’ve already tried reconnecting my account and clearing my browser cache, but nothing seems to fix it. Does anyone know why Instafest might not be pulling in all my data or how to get the app to work correctly again?
Had the same headache with Instafest a few weeks ago. Here is what worked for me and what other folks in the subreddit keep reporting.
- Check your Spotify data
- Instafest needs some history.
- If your account is new or you wiped your library, it often fails or shows half-empty lineups.
- Make sure:
- You have playlists saved.
- You follow some artists.
- You have listened through the same account for at least a few days.
- Fix the Spotify permissions
- Go to Spotify in a browser.
- Profile icon > Account > Apps.
- Find Instafest and click Remove access.
- Wait 1–2 minutes.
- Go back to Instafest, log out there too if possible.
- Log back in with Spotify, accept all requested permissions.
Missing “recently played” or “top artists” permission tends to break things.
- Try different time ranges
- On Instafest, switch between:
- Last 4 weeks
- Last 6 months
- All time
- Sometimes one range errors out while another loads fine.
- If “all time” fails, your top artists data might be thin. Try 6 months.
- Use a different device and network
This sounds dumb but it matters.
- Try:
- A different browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari).
- Incognito or private mode.
- A different device like your phone instead of desktop.
- Different network, for example, mobile data instead of work WiFi.
Some corporate or school networks block parts of the API calls.
- Turn off content blockers
- Disable:
- Ad blockers.
- VPN.
- DNS filters like Pi-hole.
Strong blocking sometimes breaks the calls to Instafest’s backend.
After turning them off, refresh Instafest and log in again.
- Check if Instafest is having issues
- Look at the latest posts on:
- r/spotify
- r/Instafest (if it still has traffic)
- Twitter / X search: “instafest down” or “instafest spotify”
When Spotify rate limits third party apps, Instafest often fails for a few hours.
- Try a clean test account
- Create a new Spotify account.
- Play a bunch of random artists for 15–30 minutes.
- Connect that account to Instafest.
If it works on the test account, the problem is usually:- Permissions on your main account.
- Old or corrupted data on Spotify’s end.
- Log out everywhere on Spotify
- On desktop or web:
- Profile > Account > Security > Sign out everywhere.
- Log back in.
- Then reconnect Instafest.
This helped my main account when Instafest kept showing only 3 artists.
- Check for private sessions
- If you often use “Private Session” on Spotify, many of those plays do not count toward your top artists.
- Turn off private session for a while so Spotify tracks your plays again.
- As a last resort
If nothing fixes it:
- Remove Instafest access again under Spotify account settings.
- Wait a few hours.
- Try another similar tool like:
- stats.fm
- Volt.fm
- Obscurify
If those also fail to pull top artists, the issue sits with your Spotify data, not Instafest.
If you share your exact error message or whether it stops on the login step or on the “building your lineup” step, people here can narrow it down more.
If Instafest is half-loading or straight up dying on you, a few extra things to check that @ombrasilente didn’t cover:
- Make sure your Spotify account region isn’t bugging it out
There’ve been random reports of people in certain regions getting garbage results until they:
- Temporarily switched their account country (with a VPN + local payment / address)
- Or just used Instafest while connected to a VPN in a different country
Not ideal, but if it suddenly works on VPN, it’s a region/routing thing, not your data.
- Verify you actually have top artists
Go to Spotify’s own “Made for you” stuff:
- Open “Your top songs [year]” or “Repeat Rewind” or “On Repeat” style playlists.
If those are super empty / weird, Spotify hasn’t built enough listening profile yet. In that case: - Leave Spotify running with stuff you truly like for a few days, not just 30 minutes of spam plays.
A lot of people underestimate how thin their data is.
- Mobile app vs web
If you’re using Instafest in a browser:
- Try the official mobile app (if you are on iOS / Android and it’s available in your region).
If you’re on the app: - Log out inside the app, uninstall it, reinstall, then reconnect Spotify.
Sometimes the app caches a bad token even after you “reconnect.”
- Avoid switching between Spotify accounts
If you’ve ever:
- Logged into Instafest with a secondary Spotify account
- Then later with your main
Instafest can silently latch onto the old token. To untangle that: - Clear only Instafest’s stored data in your browser settings, not the whole browser
- Or use a different browser profile specifically for your main Spotify.
This solved the “only 3 random artists show up” issue for a few folks I know.
- Check your Spotify privacy / data settings
On Spotify account page:
- Make sure anything related to “process my data for personalization / recommendations” is enabled.
If you turned a bunch of privacy toggles off in the past, Spotify may not build proper “top artists” metrics, which Instafest depends on.
- Let the Instafest page fully finish its calls
When it hangs on “building your lineup”:
- Open developer tools > Network tab (in Chrome or similar)
- Refresh and watch for calls that:
- Sit pending forever
- Or return 4xx / 5xx errors (401 / 403 / 429 / 500 etc.)
If you see repeated 401/403, the token is bad. If you see 429, Spotify is rate limiting you. In that case, waiting a few hours actually helps more than spamming retries.
- Check how many artists you realistically listen to
Instafest tries to fill 3 days of “headliners & undercard.” If:
- You basically loop 5 artists all year
- Or only listen to podcasts / audiobooks
You’ll get extremely bare lineups. It looks like “incomplete results,” but it’s literally all Spotify has clocked. Try: - Expanding to different artists for a week
- Then re-run Instafest with the “last 4 weeks” window.
- Compare to another stats tool, but look at what is missing
Instead of just “does it work,” check:
- stats.fm / Volt.fm / Obscurify
Compare: - How many top artists they show vs what Instafest displays
If every tool is giving you like 15 top artists and nothing more, the “problem” is your listening diversity or lack of long-term data rather than Instafest being broken.
I actually disagree a bit with the “just create a test account and spam music for 30 minutes” trick. That often works only because the new account is clean and has no weird legacy permissions / region issues, not because 30 minutes of plays is enough long-term data. Treat that as a diagnostic, not a real fix.
If you can share:
- Whether Instafest fails right after login
- Or only on the “building” step
- And which time range always breaks
it’s usually possible to narrow this down to either: permissions/token problem, network/region issue, or simply thin Spotify data pretending to be a bug.