[GH-ISSUE #1063] Could not remove tracks, please check parameters with playlist_remove_specific_occurrences_of_items #626

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opened 2026-02-28 00:00:22 +03:00 by kerem · 4 comments

kerem commented

2026-02-28 00:00:22 +03:00

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Originally created by @saarimrahman on GitHub (Dec 16, 2023).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/issues/1063

Hi, even though items is formatted correctly, I'm receiving an error of " Could not remove tracks, please check parameters., reason: None" with playlist_remove_specific_occurrences_of_items

sp = get_authorized_spotify_client()
items = [{'uri': track['track']['id'], 'positions': [track['position']]} for track in tracks]
logging.info(f'{items=}')
sp.playlist_remove_specific_occurrences_of_items(playlist_id, items)

2023-12-16 14:34:52 [    INFO] items=[{'uri': '5Z3trOR982mBrJcPfrLUsq', 'positions': [5]}, {'uri': '2OZZpID4LgZ0GGm8XB99e3', 'positions': [7]}, {'uri': '764aj78vmTA8kMUMY0LVdR', 'positions': [9]}, {'uri': '68lTEhMEx4MxDCJypT6bXE', 'positions': [11]}, {'uri': '3PBC860LAeS4utDAqlqIe2', 'positions': [3]}, {'uri': '1rGd2CoMxEg2dnaytLY5ZG', 'positions': [12]}, {'uri': '0psbBdxOb3A8WMuG3ludUw', 'positions': [1]}, {'uri': '1t0Jmqg1pKVBbxjQFZebeR', 'positions': [15]}] (spotify.py:279)

  File "/Users/saarim/projects/project-boilerplate/python/app/routes/spotify.py", line 280, in remove_duplicates
    sp.playlist_remove_specific_occurrences_of_items(playlist_id, items)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/spotipy/client.py", line 1182, in playlist_remove_specific_occurrences_of_items
    return self._delete(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/spotipy/client.py", line 331, in _delete
    return self._internal_call("DELETE", url, payload, kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/spotipy/client.py", line 291, in _internal_call
    raise SpotifyException(
spotipy.exceptions.SpotifyException: http status: 400, code:-1 - https://api.spotify.com/v1/playlists/478D5udPmRAfuMvzUaDxNn/tracks:
 Could not remove tracks, please check parameters., reason: None

playlist_id = 478D5udPmRAfuMvzUaDxNn. What am I doing wrong? Items looks formatted as it is in the docs.

Originally created by @saarimrahman on GitHub (Dec 16, 2023). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/issues/1063  Hi, even though items is formatted correctly, I'm receiving an error of " Could not remove tracks, please check parameters., reason: None" with `playlist_remove_specific_occurrences_of_items` ``` sp = get_authorized_spotify_client() items = [{'uri': track['track']['id'], 'positions': [track['position']]} for track in tracks] logging.info(f'{items=}') sp.playlist_remove_specific_occurrences_of_items(playlist_id, items) ``` ``` 2023-12-16 14:34:52 [ INFO] items=[{'uri': '5Z3trOR982mBrJcPfrLUsq', 'positions': [5]}, {'uri': '2OZZpID4LgZ0GGm8XB99e3', 'positions': [7]}, {'uri': '764aj78vmTA8kMUMY0LVdR', 'positions': [9]}, {'uri': '68lTEhMEx4MxDCJypT6bXE', 'positions': [11]}, {'uri': '3PBC860LAeS4utDAqlqIe2', 'positions': [3]}, {'uri': '1rGd2CoMxEg2dnaytLY5ZG', 'positions': [12]}, {'uri': '0psbBdxOb3A8WMuG3ludUw', 'positions': [1]}, {'uri': '1t0Jmqg1pKVBbxjQFZebeR', 'positions': [15]}] (spotify.py:279) ``` ``` File "/Users/saarim/projects/project-boilerplate/python/app/routes/spotify.py", line 280, in remove_duplicates sp.playlist_remove_specific_occurrences_of_items(playlist_id, items) File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/spotipy/client.py", line 1182, in playlist_remove_specific_occurrences_of_items return self._delete( ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/spotipy/client.py", line 331, in _delete return self._internal_call("DELETE", url, payload, kwargs) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/spotipy/client.py", line 291, in _internal_call raise SpotifyException( spotipy.exceptions.SpotifyException: http status: 400, code:-1 - https://api.spotify.com/v1/playlists/478D5udPmRAfuMvzUaDxNn/tracks: Could not remove tracks, please check parameters., reason: None ``` - playlist_id = `478D5udPmRAfuMvzUaDxNn`. What am I doing wrong? Items looks formatted as it is in the docs.

kerem

2026-02-28 00:00:22 +03:00

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kerem commented

2026-02-28 00:00:23 +03:00

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@Jack-Dane commented on GitHub (Jan 2, 2024):

It doesn't look like the positions parameter is supported anymore. The documentation doesn't mention it: https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-api/reference/remove-tracks-playlist (only has the uri).

There are also a few other tickets that mention the same response error string:
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-for-Developers/How-delete-one-or-more-elements-from-playlist/td-p/5185630
https://github.com/spotify/web-api/issues/989

As far as I can tell, it is only needed if there is the same song in the playlist twice and you want to remove a specific occurrence.

@Jack-Dane commented on GitHub (Jan 2, 2024): It doesn't look like the `positions` parameter is supported anymore. The documentation doesn't mention it: https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-api/reference/remove-tracks-playlist (only has the `uri`). There are also a few other tickets that mention the same response error string: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-for-Developers/How-delete-one-or-more-elements-from-playlist/td-p/5185630 https://github.com/spotify/web-api/issues/989 As far as I can tell, it is only needed if there is the same song in the playlist twice and you want to remove a specific occurrence.

kerem commented

2026-02-28 00:00:23 +03:00

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@saarimrahman commented on GitHub (Jan 4, 2024):

Appreciate the response! Left a comment on that thread, hopefully someone responds.

Sadly my use case is exactly trying to remove the same song in a playlist twice: https://app.saarim.me/find-duplicates

@saarimrahman commented on GitHub (Jan 4, 2024): Appreciate the response! Left a comment on that thread, hopefully someone responds. Sadly my use case is exactly trying to remove the same song in a playlist twice: https://app.saarim.me/find-duplicates

kerem commented

2026-02-28 00:00:23 +03:00

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@Jack-Dane commented on GitHub (Jan 4, 2024):

@saarimrahman, I see, in the meantime you should be able to work around this issue (if you haven't already used this as a solution).

You can remove just the URIs that have duplicates and then add them back to their first position with:

sp.playlist_add_items("<playlist_id>", ["<track_id>"], position=x)

This will need to be done for each duplicate individually to ensure the order of songs isn't affected.

But if you don't care about the order, you can remove all the duplicates in one request (as you have been doing) and then add one of each back with one request. You can pass an array of tracks. See this example examples/add_tracks_to_playlist.py.

@Jack-Dane commented on GitHub (Jan 4, 2024): @saarimrahman, I see, in the meantime you should be able to work around this issue (if you haven't already used this as a solution). You can remove just the URIs that have duplicates and then add them back to their first position with: ``` sp.playlist_add_items("<playlist_id>", ["<track_id>"], position=x) ``` This will need to be done for each duplicate individually to ensure the order of songs isn't affected. But if you don't care about the order, you can remove all the duplicates in one request (as you have been doing) and then add one of each back with one request. You can pass an array of tracks. See this example examples/add_tracks_to_playlist.py.

kerem commented

2026-02-28 00:00:23 +03:00

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@stephanebruckert commented on GitHub (May 22, 2025):

Closing as Spotify removed this endpoint, making it a deprecated method in spotipy. I updated the spotipy doc to reflect that in https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/pull/1202

Alternatively you can use playlist_remove_all_occurrences_of_items(playlist_id, items, snapshot_id=None) but be aware that it can come with issues due to changes on the Spotify side again: https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/issues/1098 shows all tracks with the same ID will be removed from the playlist, making it difficult to remove duplicates.

@stephanebruckert commented on GitHub (May 22, 2025): Closing as Spotify removed this endpoint, making it a deprecated method in spotipy. I updated the spotipy doc to reflect that in https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/pull/1202 Alternatively you can use [`playlist_remove_all_occurrences_of_items(playlist_id, items, snapshot_id=None)`](https://spotipy.readthedocs.io/en/2.25.1/#spotipy.client.Spotify.playlist_remove_all_occurrences_of_items) but be aware that it can come with issues due to changes on the Spotify side again: https://github.com/spotipy-dev/spotipy/issues/1098 shows all tracks with the same ID will be removed from the playlist, making it [difficult to remove duplicates](https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-for-Developers/Positions-field-in-JSON-body-is-ignored-when-removing-tracks/m-p/6055483/highlight/true#M13828).