Dump file on Android phone memory that never gets erased is created by Spotify.

[CapedMind]

I have a problem with Sony Xperia L combined with Spotify. These two aren't a good match.

Originally it was all fine, but at some point my phone started to collect a lot of memory (around early august) and the only thing to do is to do a system reset, but after doing that every forth day or so I had the phone sent to Sony repair center, they installed a new version of Android, but no change.

The revelation was when I saw in a forum that the problem was with Spotify and I've tried it out. When I don't use Spotify the phone memory is at the same level. Then I listen to Spotify (regardless of stored playlists or streaming, or how I exit Spotify) 50 MB - 100 MB of the phone memory is irreversible used up, not right away, but after about 30 minutes to 1 hour. It's like Spotify keeps running and saves alot of data during this time...and the only way to lose it is to do a system reset (then everything is lost obviously).
 It's horribly annoying - the choices are to not use Spotify or .. no, that's the only choice.

Now please - what have you done?  ..Can you post a link to a previous version of Spotify, from like July or something, when it worked perfectly, then I'd be happy?

..Or even better, fix this bug asap!  (the link being a temporary and quick solution).

I'm not sure if this might have anything to do with Xperia L having a phone memory, an internal memory (two partitions) and then a SD card-slot too.

Thank you in advance!

//Felix

[tinchoBA]

Same problem here!

Actually I have uninstalled it, but I haven't unsuscribed yet.

[Peter__]

I think this issue is caused by data caching which the Spotify application does. When you listen to a track, the app will temporarily store that track on your phone so that if you want to listen to it again, it doesn't need to re-stream it (thereby saving precious mobile bandwidth). 

Unfortunately, I know nothing about android or if there are any work arounds. 

Peter

[CapedMind]

Spotify people, anything?

[jeremygoh]

There was a version floating somewhere that actually caches to SD card isn't it.

[CapedMind]

That sounds promising - you mean somewhere (...) in the forum? 🙂

[Peter__]

---

@jeremygoh wrote:
There was a version floating somewhere that actually caches to SD card isn't it.

---

The current application caches to SD card too 😉 

It will cache to whichever storage location has more free space (internal vs SD card) when the cache is created. So you can make it "re-decide" by using the clear cache option in the settings menu.

Peter

[CapedMind]

Oh, sorry - I don't think it will work - I'll definitely try it again though - it's just that I've done that like ten times when I've reinstalled after factory reset (and also separately deleted cache several times) - it already save cache to the SD card, where I have 24 GB free space..  Still Spotify uses the phone memory (1,5 GB total) for a temp file probably, but the temp file remains; Sony obviously doesn't have a solution, hopefully Spotify can find a solution - it worked perfectly before - so an earlier version would be an acceptable temporary solution!

[Joe]

Wait, there's no way it should be using 1.5GB of internal storage if you have it set to cache to the external SD card. Is there any chance the original cache got left behind? I recommend you ununstall one more time and, before reinstalling, make sure you remove all traces of spotify from your phone, both internal and external storage.

You're looking for a folder called com.spotify.mobile.android.ui in \Phone\Android\data\ internally and you'll probably have one on your external SD card. Delete both.

Then search for "spotify" on your device to make sure you have no other folders left over from previous installations and delete any you find.

Finally redownload from Play and install.

[CapedMind]

Thank you for your input and suggestion Joe - tried all that.

It's not regular cache, cause the cache is on the SD card.

It's something else that fills up the phone memory (which consists of 1,5 GB) - I can't locate those files by a "spotify"-search string, since no application (I've tried yet) finds that in that directory.

Repetition of problem:

Everytime Spotify runs, about 7-10 % (more) of the phone memory is gone, that way it fills up in a few days. Now when I don't use Spotify at all, the memory level is stable.

[Joe]

I'm at a loss. Are you running anything else on the phone which could be causing this? Have you tried pinning down the file or folder in main memory which is using up so much space? Try running Storage Analyser which is a free download from Play and identify what exactly is going on. I'm dying to get to the bottom of this 🙂

[CapedMind]

Sadly it's impossble (it seemes) to access the phone memory. I downloaded Storage Analyzer as you suggested (and I've had it before) but it can only access the internal memory and the SD card. I went through like five different applications to find any that could show the files on the main memory, and I did, but it's like a jungle (nothing called Spotify)...  and no, no other app affects the phone memory a bit.

I think that the main part of the problem is that Sony for some reason have put two partitions of the built-in memory; the "phone memory" and the "internal memory" - and Android can't handle it properly (embarrassing for Sony) but it also is a question whats' in the Spotify code that creates a file that Spotify then can't delete...it did work perfectly until july/august somewhere and then 1-2 months to figure out what caused the dataload.. 

And I put bigger hope to Spotify developers to solve this than to Sony. First Sony won't admit there's a problem, second they probably just screwed up, the OS just don't support two partitions, so what can they do now other than to buy the phone back..but there's no problem..catch 22.

And in every other aspect it's a great phone.

[Joe]

Having browsed this forum, it does look like an issue with the phone not releasing temporary storage space so I doubt there's anything that Spotify can do to solve this I'm afraid. If your phone is still under guarantee, take it back maybe and get something else?

[Tch72]

For what it's worth... I have the same issue with HTC One M8. Did either of you ever get to the bottom of it?