How to Check and Clear Your Spotify Listening History

In Short
  • Spotify's Listening history lets you take a look at everything that you've been listening to on the platform.
  • To see it on your phone, open the Spotify app > profile icon > listening history.
  • On PC, head over to Spotify web player or desktop app > Home > Recently played > Show all.

While most of us look forward to the detailed year-end Spotify Wrapped for those precious stats, you don’t have to wait as long to see your Spotify listening history. You can do so at any point in time and can access it via your PC or mobile phone. It collects and stores all the albums, single tracks, and podcasts that you’ve been listening to for a quick revisit. So, if you’re looking to do so, here’s a detailed guide on the same! Read on.

Check Spotify Listening History on Phone

The Spotify mobile app for both Android and iOS is identical at this point, and hence, the process of checking your listening history is also the same. With that out of the way, here are the steps to do so:

  1. Once you open the Spotify app on your phone, locate and tap on your profile picture at the top left.
  2. Now, select Listening history from the sidebar that opens.
  3. You will now see all the tracks and albums that you’ve been listening to on Spotify.
Seeing Spotify Listening History on Android and iOS apps

See Your Spotify History on PC

Spotify also lets you see your listening history on a PC via the web player or dedicated desktop app. So, if you’re on either of those, here’s how to go about it:

  1. On the Spotify web player or desktop app, click on the Home tab on the left sidebar.
  2. Here, click on the Show all button inside the “Recently played” section.
Recently Played section on Spotify Home Screen on the web player
  1. All that you have been listening to on the platform will show up instantly on a page.
Seeing expanded recently played section on Spotify

When testing the feature we noticed that Spotify’s listening history is not well synchronized across the platforms. So, not all tracks and albums load up. Even if they do, some load up on the phone, while others on the web player.

Clear Spotify Listening History: Is it Possible?

clear Spotify Listening History new UI

Way back in the day, Spotify allowed you to remove tracks from your Recently played section. However, with the Spotify UI refresh back in 2021, this functionality was removed as well. So, as of 2024, it’s not possible to clear your Spotify listening history.

While you can remove songs from playlists, Recently played is the only section that doesn’t let you do so. Instead, what you can do is make your listening history private from your followers on the platform. That brings us to the next section.

Make Spotify Listening History Private

Spotify lets users take a look at Friend Activity, which lets them see the listening history of their friends on the platform and vice versa. However, if you’re not comfortable doing so, you can easily hide this data from your followers on the platform by enabling a Private Session on Spotify.

You can do so from either the Spotify desktop, Android, or iOS apps. During our testing, the web player wasn’t showing the option. Anyway, here’s a quick rundown of the steps:

On Desktop

  1. When on the Windows or Mac desktop app, click on your profile picture at the top right.
  2. Here, select Private session from the overflow menu.
Private Session on Spotify Desktop App

Upon simply clicking it, a tick will appear suggesting that your listening history is now private.

On Phone

  1. Open the Spotify mobile app, and tap on your profile picture at the top left.
  2. Next, select Settings and privacy.
Spotify Android App Settings and Privacy
  1. Then, navigate to Privacy and social and turn on the Private session toggle.
Spotify Private Session Turned On

The Spotify app also lets you know that a Private session lasts for six hours, after which you will have to enable it again. In addition, the Spotify mobile app also allows you to toggle your listening activity on or off right from here. However, upon turning the Private session on, your listening activity is automatically turned off and becomes inaccessible.

So that’s how you can check your Spotify listening history on desktop and mobile. Well, Spotify should really bring back the ability to clear tracks from Recently played. That brings us to the end of this guide.

Now, if you are interested in checking out insights into your Spotify listening habits, do not forget to read our article on how to see your Spotify stats. If you have any further related queries, do take to the comments down below, and we’ll get right back!

Can I see how many times I’ve listened to a song on Spotify?

No. Spotify doesn’t let you see the number of times only you have listened to a track. You are limited to the overall view count of a track, which is displayed right underneath. If you want more stats out of your Spotify account, take to third-party services like Last.fm, stats.fm, and the like.

Can I hide my Spotify listening history?

While you can’t hide your Spotify listening history from your own account, you can hide it from others. To do so, when on the mobile app, tap on the profile icon > Settings and privacy > Privacy and social > Private Session. Once activated, a Private Session lasts for 6 hours, after which you’ll have to reactivate it.

Why is my Spotify listening history not showing anything?

If you have just set up a new account and have not listened to anything on it, there’s no way for it to display anything on the listening history tab. So, once you have done a decent amount of listening, you will find it all there. Sometimes, the feature can also glitch out and may not display all that you have listened to on the platform.

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