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+date = "2020-12-02T23:04:45-08:00"
+draft = false
+title = "Fixing Spotify on HiDPI on Ubuntu"
+description = "Some notes on how to use Spotify on Ubuntu without needing a telescope"
+hasmath = false
++++
+
+The [official "Spotify for Linux" page][1] states:
+
+> Spotify for Linux is a labor of love from our engineers that wanted to
+> listen to Spotify on their Linux development machines. They work on it
+> in their spare time and it is currently not a platform that we
+> actively support.
+
+These brave engineers should be commended ...for their incredible
+eyesight:
+
+{{< figure src="/img/blog/spotify-hidpi-ubuntu/music-streaming-for-ants.png" alt="Screenshot of tiny Spotify" link="/img/blog/spotify-hidpi-ubuntu/music-streaming-for-ants.png" target="_blank" >}}
+
+For those of us with HiDPI displays, here's how to make the Spotify UI
+readable on Ubuntu. I installed the `spotify` snap package, so these
+notes assume you have too.
+
+ 1. Create the user desktop entries directory:
+
+        mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications
+        cd ~/.local/share/applications
+
+ 2. Copy the snap Spotify `.desktop` entry to your user desktop entries directory ([source for this approach][2]):
+
+        cp -nrv /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/spotify_spotify.desktop .
+
+ 3. I changed the following two lines of `spotify_spotify.desktop`:
+
+        Icon=/snap/spotify/43/usr/share/spotify/icons/spotify-linux-128.png
+        Exec=env BAMF_DESKTOP_FILE_HINT=/var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/spotify_spotify.desktop /snap/bin/spotify %U
+
+    to the following:
+
+        Icon=/snap/spotify/current/usr/share/spotify/icons/spotify-linux-128.png
+        Exec=env BAMF_DESKTOP_FILE_HINT=/home/austin/.local/share/applications/spotify_spotify.desktop /snap/bin/spotify --force-device-scale-factor=2 %U
+
+    Note the [`--force-device-scale-factor=2` flag][3] at the end there.
+    It could be something other than 2 for you, depending on your
+    display configuration.
+
+ 4. Now if you close Spotify and log out and log back in, you should
+    hopefully be able to actually see things when you reopen Spotify.
+    (If you use GNOME and don't want to log out, you can do Alt-F2 and
+    run `r` to reload GNOME Shell.)
+
+[1]: https://www.spotify.com/us/download/linux/
+[2]: https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/overriding-desktop-files-on-ubuntu-snaps/6599/2
+[3]: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Linux/Feature-Request-Fix-HiDPI-scaling-in-linux/m-p/2257705/highlight/true#M3028
+
+<style>
+    #content figure img {
+        max-width: 100%;
+    }
+</style>