Download notification keepts flashing for a few miliseconds. If playlist contains unplayable song

[dijara]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

Samsug Galaxy A3 2017

Operating System

Android Oreo 8.0.0 / Samsung Exp 9.0

--

Spotifiy App Version:

8.4.61.683 armV7

So for a few weeks now my notification bar keeps flashing the "currently downloading arrow" symbol. It just shows for a few milliseconds every few seconds or minutes (interval keeps changing). As it turns out this only happens when I download a playlist that contains a an "unplayable song"  (grayed out when "Show unplayable songs"is activaed)

Example song (at least in germany)
https://open.spotify.com/track/7fkP1HzJIVCFj42TASPFHz?si=YoJqhpNgTSGuNjybCSq-2Q

I captured two short videos of the problem occurring:

Notification bar:

https://gfycat.com/AncientTenderBorzoi

Always on Display:

https://gfycat.com/NiftyHeartfeltCommabutterfly

Steps I tried to solve the problem:

• Delete the cache/offline data
• Deinstall and reinstall Spotify
• Install regular updates through the Android Store (I've got at least 3 regular updates  while the problems still persists)
• Not downloading albums/playlists (this kind of works but... well I want to listen to my music on the go)
• Using the offline Mode most of the time (this actually stops the notifications and keeps me sane)

[kayfour]

I also have this problem. Adding a couple of screenshots of my notification log here to demonstrate that Spotify is the culprit. I first noticed this about a month ago.

Device: Pixel 2 XL

OS: Android 8.1.0

Spotify version: 8.4.64.490 armV7

Plan: Premium

Country: Sweden

[Baconberries]

Here's another screenshot - I have the same issue. 

Device: Pixel XL

OS: Android 8.1.0

Spotify version: 8.4.64.555

Plan: Premium

Country: USA

[nik_olmedo]

I also have this problem.

Device: Moto G5 Plus

OS: Android 7.0

Spotify version: 8.4.64.555

Plan: Premium

Country: Argentina

[draguindin]

Been having this issue for about six weeks now. Can't say how many times I've tapped the wrong notification because of this. Annoying as all **bleep**.

Google Pixel 2 XL

Android 8.1.0 on 5 July security build

Spotify Premium 8.4.64.555

United States

[rutger9800]

I've experienced this problem too. Luckily the unavailable song was in my own playlists so I was able to remove it. This seems to solve it instantly for anyone looking for a workaround.

Device: OnePlus X

OS: Android 6.0.1
Plan: Premium

Country: The Netherlands

[Ivaldi23]

Got the same problem on my LG G6, it's one of the most annoying bugs in this app, and it has been there since a few weeks ago and is not solved yet.

[Nozemi1995]

I´ve had this problem for a good while myself. It´s rather frustrating.

[swa100]

Same problem here; Oneplus 5, android 8.1. 

[Riverbank_Hank]

How were you able to identify the culprit?

[lovemonkey]

Having the same issues. Sometimes unavailable songs persist on mobile device even when removed from desktop spotify app.

@Riverbank_Hank wrote:

How were you able to identify the culprit?

I had to manually go through all my synced playlists on my desktop with "Show unavailable songs" enabled and remove them, but it didn't work as smoothly as one would've hoped, as I removed all the songs from my desktop that showed as unavailable, some of them randomly returned/never got removed on my mobile phone, so the annoying downloading notification continued. Took a few times of clearing spotify data back and forth on mobile, I had to remake one playlist from my desktop as the unavailable song only got removed there, and not the phone.

[Riverbank_Hank]

Thanks for the info. So, would this only apply to playlists that you created, as opposed to other people's playlists or spotify playlists that you are following? Because some of the playlists I follow, I can see the unavailable track, but the option to remove from playlist is grayed out. I'm assuming that's because it's not my playlist to tamper with. Also, would it only apply to playlists that you downloaded to the device?

[Toby1996]

I have this issue too - Motorola G5SPlus, premium subscriber.

I notice the issue is more prevalent when I have Spotify open on a computer, and it auto-runs the Spotify app on my phone (quite annoying, but seemingly noting I can do about it).

Seems to go away when computer isn't running Spotify.

It's going once every second at the moment and really annoying!

[Riverbank_Hank]

Very interesting observation. I will have to experiment with this as I often have the app open on desktop for long periods of time even if I'm listening on my phone, which is an LG G6 with the Oreo update. Great feedback!

[Toby1996]

This is definitely the case... No flickering download icon whenever the desktop app isn't also open.

I'm finding the whole "link" aspect of Spotify to be a pain at the moment, I added some songs to my queue on the desktop and it took them on my phone, but then it did the same the following day (same queue), and again the day after... Took me 3 days to clear the queue of the same 4 songs on my mobile, but desktop was long past that!