spicetify/cli · error

error reading file

Error message

error reading file %s: %w

What it means

ReadStringFromUTF16Binary reads a binary file to extract a string delimited by UTF-16LE start/end markers. This error wraps any os.ReadFile failure on the input file with the file path and underlying cause. It fires before any marker scanning happens.

Solutions

1. Confirm the inputFile path exists and is spelled correctly (check with ls/stat).
2. Fix read permissions on the file/directory for the current user.
3. Close Spotify or other processes holding the file exclusively, then retry.
4. Regenerate the file (reinstall/relaunch Spotify) if it was removed by an update.

Example fix

// before
s, _, _, err := utils.ReadStringFromUTF16Binary(bnkPath, start, end)
// after
if _, statErr := os.Stat(bnkPath); statErr != nil {
    utils.Fatal(fmt.Errorf("bnk path bad: %w", statErr))
}
s, _, _, err := utils.ReadStringFromUTF16Binary(bnkPath, start, end)

if _, err := os.Stat(inputFile); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("input file missing/unreadable: %w", err)
}

val, _, _, err := utils.ReadStringFromUTF16Binary(path, start, end)
if err != nil {
    var pathErr *fs.PathError
    if errors.As(err, &pathErr) {
        // correct path / permissions / close holding process
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ReadStringFromUTF16Binary(inputFile, ...) where inputFile does not exist, is unreadable (permissions), or is locked/unopenable by the OS.

Common situations: Wrong path to Spotify's data file (offline.bnk etc.); file held by another process or missing after a Spotify update; running without permissions in the Spotify profile directory; typo in the config-driven path.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to read file", EACCES, ENOENT and "could not read <path>" errors: when a program can't read a file from disk — this error's family across 49 libraries.

Related errors

• file is not in UTF-16LE format
• start marker not found
• could not read
• end marker not found after start index
• error decoding UTF-16LE content

AI-assisted analysis of spicetify/cli@1f13f73616 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4e38efe1713d686c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/utils/file-utils.go:14

package utils

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
	"os"
	"unicode/utf16"
)

func ReadStringFromUTF16Binary(inputFile string, startMarker []byte, endMarker []byte) (string, int, int, error) {
	fileContent, err := os.ReadFile(inputFile)
	if err != nil {
		return "", -1, -1, fmt.Errorf("error reading file %s: %w", inputFile, err)
	}

	isUTF16LE := false
	if len(fileContent) >= 2 && fileContent[0] == 0xFF && fileContent[1] == 0xFE {
		isUTF16LE = true
	}

	if !isUTF16LE && len(fileContent) > 100 && fileContent[1] == 0x00 {
		isUTF16LE = true
	}

	var startIdx, endIdx int
	var contentToSearch []byte
	var searchStartMarker, searchEndMarker []byte

	if !isUTF16LE {
		return "", -1, -1, fmt.Errorf("file is not in UTF-16LE format: %s", inputFile)
	}

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