Downloading songs over cellular while on wifi

[rxf]

Premium

USA

Pixel 2 XL

Android 11

Data Saver - Enabled

Download over Cellular - Disabled

It looks like Spotify is downloading playlists over cellular when I'm on weak wifi.
Spotify has used ~2GB of data in 14 days and I haven't spent much time listening to music this month (and most of the stuff I'm listening to are downloaded playlists).
At 10MB/hour for 24kbps data saver data rate, I'd have to listen to 204 hours of music (14hrs/day) to get to 2GB in 14 days.

When I pull into the garage, I've sometimes noticed a notification that I'm downloading songs for playlists. Wifi is connected, but at the rate songs are being downloaded, there is no chance it's happening over Wifi. Also, I see large amounts of cellular data being used by Spotify at the same time. So, Spotify is downloading my playlists over cellular.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Novy]

Hey there @rxf, 

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community.

Keep in mind that even if you've downloaded your songs the app can use data to update the cover cache, check for newer versions of a song and other general functions that normally require internet connectivity. 

You can avoid this by setting your app in Offline Mode. You can learn how to do this here. 

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to let us know. 

Cheers!

[rxf]

Your reply wasn't germane to my question. Can you give me some relevant information?

Thanks,

Jeremy

[Alex]

Hey @rxf,

Thanks for the reply.

As moderators we don't have any official info on how exactly the app is using data on different devices.

What @Novy has said is true, the app will use mobile data to synchronize and stream even downloaded playlists. To avoid this altogether, you can switch on Offline mode. This way the app will not connect to the internet at all, and you'll be able to listen to only the playlists that you've downloaded for 30 days.

Hope this answers your questions 🙂

[manaswi]

I am experiencing same/similar issue. Twice last month, Spotify has downloaded over cellular network, when I have this disabled in the settings. I am not sure what triggers Spotify to start downloading to update playlists, but this has costed me over 930 MB in data in the last month, compared with an average of ~30MB per month over the last 3 billing cycles that I checked. That is over $9 in data usage, almost doubling my Spotify expense this month for no reason. Twice this month I got notifications about data usage spike, and noticed that Spotify was downloading away, disregarding instructions to not do so over cellular network. 

This is totally unacceptable. Please fix asap, and please let me know the process to claim the $ for the data usage that this bug has costed me. 

It is possible that once the 'ok to download' is triggered, Spotify app no longer checks whether the device has moved out of wifi range. Google Fi does connect to some open networks over wifi when the device moves in range of a known safe network, so this would cause an issue if this happens while driving, etc, and Spotify starts downloading and does not stop when that network is out of range. 

Highly annoying. 

Pixel 4A

Android 11

Google Fi

[Novy]

Hey @manaswi, 

Thanks for reaching out to us. 

We'd recommend activating the Offline Mode, as it blocks any traffic data interaction with the app and will prevent it from using your data.

We really value your feedback as it helps inform our decisions going forward, and we'll make sure to pass it on to the right folks. 

If anything else comes up, we're always a message away.

Cheers.

[rxf]

I expect the app to use some data here and there but 2GB over 14 days is NOT streaming playlists. It's actively downloading playlists over cellular.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled Spotify to see if that corrects the issue.

[manaswi]

I do not understand. Your solution of keeping the app in offline mode defeats the whole purpose of paying for a premium streaming service. 



A quick look at your forums suggests that this is a common issue that your developers refuse to fix/acknowledge. All you guys do is tell users to do a clean install, use offline mode, and some other common non sensical options. 



I have been a premium subscriber for many years, but am seriously considering ditching Spotify. 



Also, how do I get refunded for the excess data usage? You forgot to advise me on that front.