Data Usage for Podcast Downloads

[shepsskittles]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

(iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy 9, Macbook Pro late 2016)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue

Hello,

I have a question regarding the data usage of podcast streaming/downloads. Although all of my streaming/downloading options are set to the lowest quality and audio only, I still am frequently requiring anywhere between 60 and 90mb of data to download an approximately 40 minute long podcast. This is significantly above the stated data usage stated by Spotify on Low usage settings which should be somewhere in the range of 7mb for that length of download. Are podcasts treated differently than music and is there a "minimum" quality that is being used regardless of settings? When I download a music playlist of equivalent length the data usage is much more in line with the stated settings. This seems like the only reasonable explanation and one which Spotify should make note of when referring to audio quality download data usage statistics. Although this probably doesn't seem like a big deal to most people I live on a remote research station where data usage is highly regulated so there is a HUGE difference between an hour long podcast requiring 10mb of data vs 100mb. 

[OscarDC]

Hey @shepsskittles,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome. 

That's a weird behavior since the amount of storage a download uses should be equivalent to the amount of data it would have used if you streamed it (0.01 GB/hour). So in this case, to make sure we've covered all the basics, would you mind confirming if you've already performed a clean reinstall of the app on your device? If not, we'd recommend following the process mentioned in this article.

We asked this first since keeping in mind that you have a limited amount of data and even if the process can assist in eliminating any cache that may be causing issues, it'll delete your downloaded content and you'll have to redownload it.

Also, would you mind confirming if you're downloading your content over a limited Wi-Fi or using cellular data?

We'll be on the lookout for your response.

[shepsskittles]

Thank you for the quick response. I am downloading over a Wi-Fi connection using Starlink. I just did a clean reinstall, set Data Saver mode to on, download and streaming settings to low, automatic and the problem still persists. As a test I downloaded a 40 minute podcast and used approximately 70mb. As a comparison I also downloaded a 60 minute music playlist and used 18mb, which also seems higher than expected. I also asked a co-worker to do a similar test to see if the issue was just with my phone and she also used approximately 100mb for a 60 minute podcast. 

[OscarDC]

Hey @shepsskittles,

Thank you for keeping in contact and for the info shared. 

In order to look into this further with the relevant team, let us know the following info:

- Your device info (make/model) and OS version

- Exact Spotify version

Also, and if possible, could you attach some screenshots where we can see the amount of data used to download the episode you mentioned or the size of the downloaded file? 

We'll be waiting for your response. 

[shepsskittles]

Thanks for the effort of looking into this. I don't know how to find the
exact size of the specific podcast file but I've included screenshots of my
data usage/storage before and after downloading a 45 minute podcast as
tracked by the spotify in-app storage monitor, my phone's internal storage,
and a third party app data usage monitor. With only slight differences all
3 show that this episode used ~66mb of data to download.

Spotify version is 9.0.90.1229
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE UW operating Android version 13

[Dessi]

Hey @shepsskittles,

Thanks for your reply and for the additional info!

It looks like the screenshots weren't attached to your last response, so it'd be great if you can try to upload them again so that we can compare the data you're seeing and investigate further. Another thing that would really help us look into this more closely is if you can share the link to the podcast episode you're experiencing this with and we can give it a shot on our end as well. 

We'll be on the lookout for your response.

[shepsskittles]

Sorry about the attachments not making it on last time. Also here's the
link for the specific episode I was using.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/73mAFOlULmS5Qp6Ix61mmi?si=6c636627b52c4e0c

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[Dessi]

Hi @shepsskittles,

Sorry for the delay and thanks for all the info!

We were able to reproduce the issue to an extent and we've passed it on to our tech folks for further investigation so they can check why this is happening. We'll make sure to update you in this thread once we have any news to share.

The Community is always here in case you need any help.