diff --git a/song_of_the_day/Program.cs b/song_of_the_day/Program.cs
index 6e30bc4..1550940 100644
--- a/song_of_the_day/Program.cs
+++ b/song_of_the_day/Program.cs
@@ -255,6 +255,7 @@ messageSyncTimer.OnOccurence += async (s, ea) =>
 
 // only start interaction timers in production builds
 // for local/development testing we want those disabled
+    likePlaylistCheckTimer.Start();
 if (!app.Environment.IsDevelopment())
 {
     logger.LogTrace("Starting timer for scheduled processes.");
@@ -262,7 +263,6 @@ if (!app.Environment.IsDevelopment())
     userIntroTimer.Start();
     pickOfTheDayTimer.Start();
     ldapAssociationTimer.Start();
-    likePlaylistCheckTimer.Start();
 }
 else
 {
diff --git a/song_of_the_day/SpotifyIntegration/SpotifyApiClient.cs b/song_of_the_day/SpotifyIntegration/SpotifyApiClient.cs
index 54157d0..8c06e06 100644
--- a/song_of_the_day/SpotifyIntegration/SpotifyApiClient.cs
+++ b/song_of_the_day/SpotifyIntegration/SpotifyApiClient.cs
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ public class SpotifyApiClient
 
     public async Task<string> GetValidAuthorizationTokenAsync(User user)
     {
-        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(user.SpotifyAuthAccessToken))
+        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(user.SpotifyAuthAccessToken) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(user.SpotifyAuthRefreshToken))
         {
             // user either never connected Spotify or we failed to refresh token - user needs to re-authenticate
             return string.Empty;