In this blog, I'll show you how to generate the Spotify Refresh Token and then use that to programmatically create an access token when needed.

I needed the Spotify Refresh Token to display the currently playing track in the footer section.

The Approach

Step 1: Generate your Spotifyclient_id andclient_secret

• Go toSpotify developers dashboard.

• Then select or create your app.

• Note down your Client ID and Client Secret in a convenient location to use in Step 3.

Step 2: Create URI for access code

• In the URL below, replace$CLIENT_ID,$SCOPE, and$REDIRECT_URI with the information you noted in Step 1.Make sure the$REDIRECT_URI isURL encoded.

  https://accounts.spotify.com/authorize?response_type=code&client_id=$CLIENT_ID&scope=$SCOPE&redirect_uri=$REDIRECT_URI

• This is how mine looked like.

  https://accounts.spotify.com/authorize?response_type=code&client_id=CLIENT_ID&scope=SCOPE&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fahmedrelated.com%2Fcallback

Step 3: Get access code from the redirect URI

• You will be redirected to your redirect URI which in my case was set tohttps://ahmedrelated.com/callback.

• In the address bar you will find a huge URL string similar to the one below. In place of$ACCESSCODE there will be a long string of characters. Note down that string for the next step.
  

  https://ahmedrelated.com/callback?code=$ACCESSCODE

Step 4: Get the refresh token

• Type the following CURL command in your terminal and replaces all the variables with the information you noted in Step 1 and Step 3 :$CILENT_ID,$CLIENT_SECRET,$CODE, and$REDIRECT_URI.

  curl-dclient_id=$CLIENT_ID-dclient_secret=$CLIENT_SECRET-dgrant_type=authorization_code-dcode=$CODE-dredirect_uri=$REDIRECT_URI https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token

• The resulting JSON string will look something like this. Note down therefresh_token. This token will last for a very long time and can be used to generate a freshaccess_token whenever it is needed.

{"access_token":"ACCESS_TOKEN","token_type":"Bearer","expires_in":3600,"refresh_token":"REFRESH_TOKEN","scope":"playlist-modify-private"}