Solved Use two Spotify accounts with one installation of Vivaldi

Mastakilla

Hi everyone!

I'm trying to workaround the issue that Spotify does not support multiple accounts on 1 device. I need this because I have 1 computer (the mediacenter), which has the living room speakers attached to it, and 2 family members, with each their own Spotify account. When those family members want to cast their music to the mediacenter with their own account, you need to be logged into Spotify on the mediacenter with multiple accounts simultaneously. I wanted to workaround this problem by opening 1 account on the Spotify Windows app and another account on a Spotify webpage in Vivaldi.

When the computer boots, it automatically logs in to Windows and automatically starts Vivaldi. I have Vivaldi configured to "Startup with" "Last Session" and I have disabled "Lazy Load Restored Tabs".

This part still works pretty well. The computer boots, logs in to Windows, starts Vivaldi with the Spotify page opened and logged in...

However, when I cast my music to the Spotify "Web Player (Chrome)", it doesn't play the music (it is able to connect according to the phone, but no sound is played).
I first have to manually refresh the Spotify tab, before it properly plays the music. So, somehow disabling "Lazy Load Restored Tabs" is not the same as a manual refresh of the webpage...?

Does anyone perhaps know a way to automate this "refresh" of the spotify tab? Or another way to achieve what I'm trying to accomplish?

Thanks!

//MODEDIT: updated title to better reflect the issue in question

Pathduck

@mastakilla I just had a chance to test, and installed Apps live under different profiles. I did an install of open.spotify.com on two profiles, and they seem to run completely independently.

The shortcuts created will look like:
vivaldi_proxy.exe --profile-directory=Default --app-id=pjibgclleladliembfgfagdaldikeohf
and
vivaldi_proxy.exe --profile-directory="Profile 2" --app-id=pjibgclleladliembfgfagdaldikeohf
for instance.

So that is definitely something to consider, might save you having the Windows Spotify App installed at all

Pathduck

@mastakilla Hello and Welcome to the Vivaldi Community

I can't test this since I don't have an device to cast to - but try installing the Spotify as an "app" by right-clicking the tab and choosing Install Spotify. It will then create a shortcut on the desktop that maybe works better for what you want.

Mastakilla

This post is deleted!

Mastakilla

Thanks for the quick response!

I think I may need to explain myself better...

To test this you need:

A phone with Spotify - to cast from (I'm using an Android phone, but probably this will work just the same with ANY device that runs Spotify - phone, computer, etc)
A Windows 10 computer with Vivaldi and speakers - to cast to
So if you say "I don't have an device to cast to", do you mean that you don't have any Windows 10 computer with Vivaldi installed on? That would indeed be problematic for testing this (and also unlikely )

A little overview to make things clear (hopefully):

I have an android phone with my Spotify account
My wife has an android phone with her Spotify account
The mediacenter computer (with the speakers to play music) has
- The Spotify app installed with my wifes account logged in
- A Vivaldi browser open with a tab containing the Spotify Web Player (https://open.spotify.com) with my account logged in

If I want to play my music on the mediacenter computer, I choose the music on my phone and then cast it from my phone to the Vivaldi tab with the Spotify Web Player on the mediacenter computer.
If my wife wants to play her music on the mediacenter computer, she choses her music on her phone and then casts it from her phone to the Spotify App on the mediacenter computer.

'2)' works fine, but '1)' doesn't work unless manually refresh the Spotify Web Player tab in Vivaldi first. This is unworkable, as for simply playing some music, I would need to turn the TV on, attach a keyboard and a mouse to the mediacenter and click refresh on Spotify Web Player tab in Vivaldi, just to play some music.

My question is: how can I automate this refresh? Or fix this issue in another way?

Thanks!!

Pathduck

@mastakilla Well, did you try installing Spotify as an "app" from Vivaldi? Then you launch that instead of Vivaldi itself. No idea if it works but it's worth a try IMO.

Vivaldi does have a periodic reload feature that can reload a tab say once a minute. But of course once you reload it also breaks any music playback.

Other than that I have no clue - all this streaming and media center stuff is way over my head. I stick with my long accumulated collection of FLAC, MP3s, Foobar, Mediamonkey and PowerAmp on the Android - with a wired headset because Bluetooth audio quality sounds like a tin can.

derDay

@Pathduck don"t bother around with the Spotify thing
the problem is, that vivaldi don't reload tabs when it's opened. I have the same "problem" with my pinned tabs: vivaldi forum is one of them and I always get an old view of threads, which I first have to reload via mouse gesture or F5.

automatic reload would perhaps solve the issue, but if you close vivaldi it forgets the reload state of a tab (funny sidenote: not if the tab is in trash before closing vivaldi)

@Mastakilla I would play around with limiting the hdd cache from vivaldi(chromium) but I can't give you any hints (because I don't know)

Mastakilla

With "installing Spotify as an "app" from Vivaldi" do you mean installing an extension in Vivaldi from the Chrome Web Store, like
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spotify-player/bhdjjppbnlpjpeicimhemencfgjeldoa
?
I didn't try that yet no, as this is not an official app from Spotify, has very little downloads and description also describes a completely different purpose.
Or do you mean something different? Like a different extension? Or something else completely?

Periodicly reloading indeed isn't an option, as you already understood this would interrupt audio playback...

Regarding casting: Casting doesn't send any audio from the phone to mediacenter over bluetooth. All it does is give the command to the mediacenter to play that specific song that you choose on the phone.

hlehyaric

@mastakilla I guess that's what he means by «installing Spotify as an "app" from Vivaldi».

Pathduck

@mastakilla I did write "but try installing the Spotify as an "app" by right-clicking the tab and choosing Install Spotify"

Mastakilla

@pathduck said in Force refresh of tab on startup of Vivaldi:

@mastakilla I did write "but try installing the Spotify as an "app" by right-clicking the tab and choosing Install Spotify"

I guess I must be little blind

Thanks for that advise, I already forgot this kind of functionality existed in Chrome browsers...
And... Drum roll... It works!!

As far as I'm aware, you've just solved a "problem" that no one publicly was able to solve before
I knew it should be possible somehow, I just wasn't able to figure out how (I was already looking into using docker containers to solve it, but that isn't really as lightweight as this solution )

So thanks!

Mastakilla

fyi: It's only a solution for having 2 accounts simultaneously though, not more... Because the profile session itself isn't "containerized", you can't create multiple PWAs with each their own profile logged in.
So you need to use both the Windows Spotify App (with one account logged in) AND the PWA App of the Spotify Web Player (with the other account logged in)

But that is sufficient for me and my wife... (and my parents too, so that's already 2 families that you've helped )

Pathduck

@mastakilla said in Force refresh of tab on startup of Vivaldi:

you can't create multiple PWAs with each their own profile logged in.

I haven't tried, but what if you create a new profile in Vivaldi, then add Spotify again as an App for that profile?

Apps are connected to profiles, so in theory it should be possible. You might need to have a look at the shortcut created, and maybe add a --profile-directory argument.

You can examine existing apps by checking vivaldi://apps.

Great to hear it's working for one profile though

I kind of suspect "apps" work differently than regular browser tabs, especially since apps are in practice running in Chromium directly, not under Vivaldi. Might be a bug there in Vivaldi somewhere...

Pathduck

@mastakilla I just had a chance to test, and installed Apps live under different profiles. I did an install of open.spotify.com on two profiles, and they seem to run completely independently.

The shortcuts created will look like:
vivaldi_proxy.exe --profile-directory=Default --app-id=pjibgclleladliembfgfagdaldikeohf
and
vivaldi_proxy.exe --profile-directory="Profile 2" --app-id=pjibgclleladliembfgfagdaldikeohf
for instance.

So that is definitely something to consider, might save you having the Windows Spotify App installed at all

Mastakilla

Just tried it and it works... Thanks a lot, that is indeed a very sleek solution