topic Re: downloaded podcasts can’t be played offline in iOS (iPhone, iPad)

Offline downloads

cool259 — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 21:25:16 GMT

Plan

Premium

iPhone 17

Operating System

iOS 26.4.1

My Question or Issue

I am having an issue where I am in airplane mode completely offline and my songs will randomly pause and stop playing. I have all of these songs downloaded. I have cleared my cache, uninstall reinstalled the app re-downloaded songs only to still have the issue within 24 hours. I have also restarted my phone and tried all of these steps multiple times. Please help

Re: Offline downloads

Koyubi — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 23:22:14 GMT

Hi,

That’s really frustrating, especially after trying all the usual fixes. Since you’ve already reinstalled, cleared cache, and re-downloaded, this is likely not a simple app glitch.

A few things that are worth checking:

Go to Settings → Playback and make sure “Offline mode” is enabled (not just airplane mode). Sometimes Spotify still tries to check connectivity unless Offline mode is turned on inside the app.
Check Settings → Storage and confirm your downloads are stored locally (not being offloaded by iOS). iPhones can sometimes remove app data in the background if storage is tight.
Turn off Data Saver / Low Data Mode and Battery Saver (Low Power Mode). These can interfere with playback even for downloaded content.
Make sure you’ve logged into Spotify online within the last 30 days. Spotify requires a periodic online check to keep downloads active.
Try downloading a smaller playlist or a few albums and test if the issue still happens. If only certain songs pause, they could be corrupted downloads.

If it’s still happening after all that, it could be a device-specific or iOS-related bug. At that point, I’d recommend reaching out to Spotify Support and mentioning you’ve already done a clean reinstall and re-download. They may be able to check logs or flag it as a known issue.

Hope you get it working properly again—offline playback should definitely not be doing that.

Re: Offline downloads

cool259 — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:25:23 GMT

Thank you for your insight. I have tried most of your bullet points, except the last one. I do have a rather large Spotify library because I work long days.

Re: downloaded podcasts can’t be played offline

MattC566 — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 21:10:53 GMT

Just bumping this thread to say this has been an issue for me for years, exactly as described by other posters. No amount of cache-clearing, app reinstalling, logging out and back in, or anything else fixes it. "Downloaded" podcasts do not, will not, apparently cannot be reliably played offline.

My use case is I work 50% in an office with wifi, and 50% in a steel building outside the office with no wifi or cellular signal. In the morning, I "download" 3-4 podcasts over wifi. The Spotify app shows them as "downloaded." This is a lie.

When I go out and work in the steel building, I put my phone in airplane mode because being stuck flipping between SOS mode and trying to hang on by a thread to a single bar of service all day slaughters my battery.

I play a "downloaded" podcast. About 1/3 of time, it works without issue and plays all the way through. The other 2/3 of the time, it will stop at a completely random point in the podcast. It could be 10%, midway through, or almost at the end. "We're trying to play this content, but it's taking a while" or something to that effect is the error. Best I can tell, the "downloaded" status is completely meaningless.

Steps to reproduce: "download" any podcast over wifi. Turn on airplane mode, go to a place with no wifi. Play "downloaed" podcast. 2/3 of the time, it will not play to the end.

Basically I've resigned myself to only playing podcasts when I have an internet connection, as the "downloaded" flag in the Spotify app means nothing. It's not "downloaded" if I can't play it without a connection. Lately I load up foobar2000 on my phone with audiobooks and podcasts that I'm able to get in MP3 format.