Offline synced on more then 3 devices message?!

[Iinco]

I often get a message on my iPhone from spotify that I have offline playlists synced on more then 3 devices, and I have an option if I want to save my offline playlists on my telefone the message says that I just should quit and restarts spotify.
BUT NOW TO THE PROBLEM!!: I follow the message and quit spotify with hope that all my offlinemusic will still be there, BUT NO..!! And the other thing is that i DO NOT have synced playlists on 3 devices!!!! ONLY on my iphone!! When I restart spotify all music that I have synced are gone!!!?? WHY?! This is so annoying, and I am a paying coustomer so this makes me so angry!! Why pay if the program, by itself deletes my synced stuff...please help? What to do when even not the steps that I follow do not do as it says..?!

[Marchiano]

Hey Dave and robertderosny, you guys are totally spot on.

Spotify makes 120 a year from a lot of people, but the customer service and the interest/effort done for us customers really makes us feel like Spotify doesn't care about it's Premium iPhone/iPad users.

For a relatively new company (I've been using Spotify since 2008-2009 I think when I was introduced to it by colleagues at work and received an invite) their attitude could be a huge problem for them down the line when a) we are asked by friends what we think of Spotify and b) a competitorwho DOES care about customers launches.

Apple without customers is nothing, same for each company including Spotify.

David, Meredith, anybody@Spotify: this is a very active thread about an issue clearly too many of your customers are dealing with. Please read all the posts after March 13th (the last time you [Meredith] responded and please give us an update. We would like to know what you've found out about the issue in the mean time and what the status of the permanent solution is.

We all love music and the Spotify product is supposed to give us the experience of enjoying music while we are on the go (I'm about to board an international train for instance). We pay for this service. Please treat us like valued customers, while we still see you as our 1st choice and are patient.

[lvimages]

I am having the same problem and have now had to sync my offline playlists 5 or 6 times to my iPhone. It's crazy to me that there is no response from Spotify, at least let us know your working on it.

I commute to NYC everyday, without offline mode the connection is so bad I have nothing to listen to. This is the only reason I pay for an account. What's the point?

[davebeas]

I mentioned mp3panda.com before, I didn't realise this is now locked and if you don't have an account you can't sign up without an invite, apologies.  

However, they now have mp3eagle.com which looks to be exactly the same.  You load you account with a certain amount, minimum $29 and use that to download  $1 or $2 dollar albums or 15 cent tracks.  Stick them in iTunes and use iTunes Match (£24/year) to stream them like Spotify or download to your iPhone.  

Match also ups the quality as it's not actually your tracks your downloading but those in the cloud.  

Cheaper than £120/year for a broken service!!

[rkarolak]

Correct me if I am wrong, but these sites are Russian and questionably legal.

[davebeas]

MP3eagle is Cypriot.  I've done relatively extensive google searches asking if they are legal and nothing says they are not.  

[robertderosny]

I think that if we all go on the app store and say what we think of this problem and of the way spotify is handling it , they will have to react at some point.

[robertderosny]

I've tried the "offline mode" workaround, and it didn't worked for me.

I'm at a new place, i've just launched spotify, and it forced me to desactivate offline mode and connect, even if i was connected yesterday. 

So i connect to the new wifi, and guess what... same "3 devices" message, all my playlists deleted.

Frustration climax.

[Mrandrewpthomas]

I have the same issue. Use on my iPhone. iPad and pc. Used before on blackberry and old iPhone but deleted them from the device and still get issue. Anyway to reset account please most annoying when get the message when on road and hassle to resync. Appreciate any help

[MrStu82]

This happens on my iPhone ALL the time. Whenever I go to the gym (weak mobile signal there) or my 1 hour drive to work I get this message about having offline files on 3 devices, I've only EVER used this on 3 devices, home pc, laptop, and iPhone. I currently only use spotify on my iPhone. So how come I keep getting this message after I've done the quit and resync? Can I get the devices on my account reset? Or is there some way of finding what devices are using my account? Unless you give us a way to manage the devices then why should we be punished?

[Piet · Accepted solution]

Hi guys,

i got an email from Spotify;

Hi,
We're aware of an issue right now that might be causing your offline playlists to de-sync on your iPhone. Our apologies for this - we know how annoying it is to lose your favorite music.
The explanation behind this is a bit techy, but it's basically down to some Spotify files getting cleared out occasionally to free up disk space. Spotify then gets a bit confused as to how many devices you've got registered and de-syncs some your playlists.
Don't worry though - we're on the case and hope to have this fixed by the next release of the iOS app. This shouldn't take too long, we promise!

So hopefully the problem wil be fixed...

[MrStu82]

So spotify stores all files in a cache directory? The problem of ios cleaning cache folders has been known of since ios5 came out. Anyone got any idea how low the disk space needs to be before triggering this low warning and cleaning process? Technically if I keep enough free space the problem shouldn't happen anymore.

[benlappin]

Could you please reset the device linked to my account as well? I also am recieving the message relating to having synced playlist on more than 3 devices.

[Marchiano]

Piet and all,

This e-mail you got is a text which was written by Community Manager Rorey 3 months ago in another thread about this issue.

You can find these exact words here: https://getsatisfaction.com/spotify/topics/iphone_offline_playlists_de_synced_3_device_limit

Just do a search for 'aware of an issue'.

So the latest update is out (now 3 months later) and the issue is still happening. The thread was started 3 months ago by Jude (also works for Spotify) to address this issue.

I tweeted Rory, let's see what the response is.

Nothing in our thread indicates that Spotify is actively taking action to solve the issue, as there hasn't been a response from anybody from Spotify in (I believe) almost 1 month.

[Marchiano]

And I was traveling yesterday.

I was standing on the stairs before the boarding pass check, ready to go onto the tarmac and go into the plane. I got out my headphones because I really wanted to listen to some music. I turned on my iPhone 4S and selected Spotify

ERROR MESSAGE 1
There's a DNS error. Please connect to a network.

I had to sign in again. I knew what time it was.

ERROR MESSAGE 2

You are using Spotify on more than three devices.

All offline playlists gone (happened I lost count how many times on my holiday).

No music on the plane was unthinkable, so I had to sync music over 3G (who's paying for that Spotify?). I could only sync a grand total of 8 songs, for a 3 hour flight. Awesome.

So Spotify completely failed me. And I mean completely. It's hard to explain how bad I want them to just fix tis issue. 

SPOTIFY. YOU'RE SERVICE FAILED ME MINUTES BEFORE BOARDING A PLANE. This is the worst case scenario. Today, for the first time, I didn't bring my expensive headphones to work. Why would I. Spotify Premium doesn't work and I can't listen to just 8 songs..

It's been so long that we've been on these thread that I forgot the names of the moderators. I am not kidding. In any case, MODERATORS, anyone: please let us know what the status of this issue is.

[Marchiano]

Guys,

We are clearly being ignored by the moderators. For a second I was hoping they were all on a holiday, it wouldn't justify anything, but at least it would be a reason other than simply ignoring their paying customers.

I checked now (April 12th 4:13 UK time and 5:13 Sweden time) and in the last 5 hours moderators Richard, David and Sam have replied in Accounts, Subscriptions, and Music Purchases threads. Meredith has replied in threads as early as yesterday.

So let's get this straight:

1. We pay 10 a month for a service

2. This service doesn't work due to no fault of the paying customer

3. A user starts a thread about this

4. Meredith and David reply and participate in the thread (making people at least feel heard)

5. March 13th Meredith replies for the last time saying that she will get back to us when there is a fix.

6. It's April 12th 2012 and there's still nothing from any of the moderators.

7. We are obviously being ignored by the moderators.

Does anybody have any idea how/if we could take any action to get somebody at Spotify to a) talk to their moderators b) actually respond to our requests. This is one of the biggest threads in this forum and we are literally not getting a response from anybody. Almost like they're literally saying they don't care about us as customers.

[David]

Marchiano,

This issue with iOS devices is being covered here as well as this thread. As you may imagine, one issue in multiple places can sometimes be counterproductive. I also believe this 3 devices message may be related somewhat to the auto cache cleaning system Apple has in place in iOS 5.x, as a member of Spotify staff explains here relating to a request for a cache cleaning button.

We currently do not have any further updates on this matter, although I agree we could have been a little more forthcoming in letting you know that we are still looking into this issue.

I also located a case from you - It seems my collague had replied a few days, but it may have missed your inbox. I'll send it over again. 

[Y2kevin]

I would like to say I'm simply going to cancel my subscription in protest, because right now I'm paying $10 a month for nothing. However, when the service works it's one of the absolute best ways to listen to music.

Considering I'm paying monthly for a service that does not function as advertised, and feel as if I'm being ignored by the service provider, I think the Better Business Bureau might be the next step in trying to reach a solution.

What frustrates me more than the error message itself (I've only ever logged in from TWO devices), is the fact that our concerns seem to be falling on deaf ears.

[Y2kevin]

It would seem as I was typing my reply, a moderator has posted, so that's at least a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately Im reading the response to mean the issue lies with OSX, and not with the Spotify service. If its never going to work as advertised, I guess I will simply have to cancel. I don't see Apple changing the functions of their OS, and it doesn't seem that Spotify will be making any updates to the application in the near future.

[rkarolak]

I'm glad a moderator finally gave an update. 

Unfortunitely this doesn't mean that the issue has gone away. I recently had my device list reset, so I'll see how it goes. If it continues to be an issue I'll be seriously considering downgrading my service to a free account and using a competing service until it's resolved. I like how Spotify integrates both my subscription music and local files into syncing and the social adoption, but if it constantly gets wiped then it's not very useful to me. I'm sure Spotify can figure something out... from what I've seen, other services don't have this issue.

[alahley]

This sounds like a great option.  I'd like to be a guinea pig...please let me know what I can do to have you remove my devices and start over.