Feedback Request: Android Offline Issues

[Rorey]

Hello everyone! Spotify here.

We are looking into customer reports about issues with offlined playlists on Android (music which is downloaded to your phone so you can play without an internet connection). Our investigation shows that some folks might have experienced some issues with this so we were hoping you could answer some questions to help us diagnose the problem.

1. Have you made a playlist available offline which you could not play without any internet connection?

2. Have you made a playlist available offline which constantly downloads when you start Spotify?

Thanks,

Team Spotify

[johndee]

This problem is recurring every 3 to four days and I un installed the app then downloaded it again but then I have to download all my play lists again which is a waste of time because it only lasts a few days. If this is not fixed soon I will be going somewhere else for my music.

[mvalda01]

I cancelled. I was a premium user, but tired of continuos problems about downloaded playlist which won't appear without an internet connection (even if they should! They're MEANT to be offline!) and of the lack of support here and elsewhere, I am trying google music now. Let's see.

[Zoriel]

*edit* I came crawling back because spotify has the best music selection 😉 I hope they fix the offline issues soon though 😞

[xeroxboy]

Is anyone finding that songs keep "breaking up" - continually stuttering and distorting when you try to play offline playlists? I've tried everything - installing and uninstalling the app, clearing cache, data off the phone etc. Had the issue for about a month and its made spotify totally unusable. Running android 2.3.3 on HTC wildfire with latest spotify iteration.

[davejp84]

xeroxboy,

I have had that problem, but to be honest, i have just upgraded from the Wildfire S and i had a lot of problems (internal memory mainly) with that phone, i have not noticed stuttering when spotify works on my new one (S3 mini).

Going by my experiences with the Wildfire S I would be suspicious more of the phone that spotify.

[davejp84]

1. Have you made a playlist available offline which you could not play without any internet connection?

Yes,

I have created seperate playlists and tried playing offline to no avail.

I have also marked the starred list as available offline, but am unable to play songs without being online.

2. Have you made a playlist available offline which constantly downloads when you start Spotify?

Yes,

I can have a fully downloaded list on my phone, but if i sign out, and then back in or restart the phone, a  lot of the songs will re-download.  It usually drops to around 60-70% downloaded.

I am using a Samsung S3 mini running andriod 4.1.2.

**EDIT**

I went up the shop during the download, which took it our of range of my wifi.  When i got back, it started the download from the beginning, rather than picking up where it left off.

I wouldnt expect that to be normal either!

[Zoriel]

My issue with the android offline mode also got worse.

Not only that i need to be online to see my downloaded songs before then going to the offline mode; now spotify tells me that i dont have an internet connection at all and doesnt update my libary. (My high speed data volume is used up and it seems it doesnt recognize my internet connection as its really slow)

When i try to play one of the few songs that are shown as offline availabe it stops in the middle of the song.

So now the offline mode is completely useless 😞

[xeroxboy]

Hi, cheers for responding, that is interesting. I'm not totally convinced it's the device though, as the app has previously run fine (apart from the much-documented 'using up data while set to offline' bug), and I don't have any problems with other apps or with playing music from the device's own player?

[davejp84]

A follow up to my previous post.

I'd like to add that today i noticed that when i try to play a song offline, It plays but is muted, and the only way of un-muting it is to go online.

If i return to offline after it un-mutes, it will mute again.

If a download gets stuck, i can get it going again by removing the stuck song from the playlist (so it jumps to the next song to download), playing it and unstarring and re-starring or move it back and forth another list..

I'm hoping this is sorted soon, it is very frustrating listening to cheesy Djs, advertising saturated and very small playlist radio stations!

[davejp84]

Without implying a lack of intent by the developers, I am acutely aware that I am posting feedback to a problem that was raised 4 months ago.

I am just curious as to whether this issue is being actively pursued or has been put on the back burner.

I am no programmer, so am oblivious to the workings of a development team, but 4 months?

Anyway,

I finally managed to get some songs to play offline without a conection today, even is it was about 0.1% of the playlist!

Now that i have arived home and am on wifi, the playlists that i downloaded last night are now redownloading.

I played a download that was three minutes old, it, worked, so i went to offline mode, it continued to play.

I then selected another minutes old download and it played muted as previously mentioned.

As soon as i went into online mode, it unmuted.

Here is a video of what happens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGIw3Bd5bpk

An edit to rotate the video is in progress, so if its still sideways, sorry!

I really really really hope this can be solved!

[Erwino91]

I haven't read all thread so maybe I say things that are already said.

1. Have you made a playlist available offline which you could not play without any internet connection?

 No

2. Have you made a playlist available offline which constantly downloads when you start Spotify?

 No

The problem I have is that when I want to play a playlist that I have downloaded for offline use, the songs stutter. After I shutdown my internet connection it just plays perfectly fine. This is both on mobile internet and on WiFi.

Now I noticed today that the songs 1 added to that playlist 2 days ago have not this problem. I listened to an album (Arcade Fire - Reflektor), from which I have 3 songs in a playlist that is downloaded offline. The song Reflektor that was added weeks ago was stuttering while the other two, added 2 days ago, were not. 

So I hope this can be fixed. 🙂

[davejp84]

Can I make a suggestion to those having problems.

Its early days as i am still testing it, but i have made a big improvement by reducing the size of my playlists to *currently*  approx 350 tracks. (i had problems with playlists at 1500 or so tracks)

I am gradually increasing it to see what happens, but so far so good!

Split one into two seperate ones for example, it seems to be working for me.

It may not be much of a solution, but for those getting frustrated by this, as I have been, its worth a try.

 **EDIT**

I have one at approx 430 songs and looks good (so far)

[sparklystuff]

my spotify app deleted all my offlined playlists then ihad to reoffline everything. it also won't search for anything and often tells me tracks are offline when they aren't. please fix it. i am a premium member.

[Zoriel]

@davejp84 Thanks for that. It seems the limit for me is around 250-260 songs but for now thats better than nothing 😉

[xeroxboy]

Premium subscription cancelled. I don't know what the iPhone version is like, but the Android one has been one problem after another, with minimal fixes.

[AboutaDirk]

Considering cancelling as well. Shame, because I've been recommending Spotify to lots of colleagues/friends. I'll have to eat my words 😞

Random songs playing silent (even downloaded ones), artwork not loading... That's not what I'm paying for.

Nexus 5.

[Edu87]

1. Have you made a playlist available offline which you could not play without any internet connection?

Nope, when I haven't a internet connection the offline playlist will play.

2. Have you made a playlist available offline which constantly downloads when you start Spotify?

Yes, when I have a internet connection it streams the tracks.

At the moment when I bicycle to my work I shutdown the internet connection for listening to my offline playlist.

When I don't turn off my internet connection and listening to my offline music it stutter all the time and the next track is always a miracle if it is playing. And Spotify give sometimes a white screen when I'm online.

I try to reinstall Spotify, etc. but it doesn't works. Please come with a fix of this known problem (offline playlist = offline playing).

[pablo_paul79]

Having problems with any offline content synced to my phone (nexus 5). Constantly get "non internet connection avalible" even though I'm posting this form said phone.If I try to put spotIfy in off line mode nothing happens. The app constantly tries to search the phone for the off line content if it does find anything when you hit play it crashes. Total rubbish and unusable 9 timed out of 10 Spotify need to sort this now. If I hadn't got this free from my cell provider I would cancel!

[pablo_paul79]

Now i'm home i've done a little playing around and have a feeling the app isn't always detecting the 3G/4G connection on my phone not that it should really matter as i understand it if something is downloaded to my collection i should be able to play it off-line.   Anyway....

 Restart phone.  Wifi On 3G/4G on start app go to a collection and can play  a stream or downloaded content. App is a little odd though see online_playing.png I know a bug has already been reported for the art work but should i have the download button at the top of the page when i have already downloaded.  

If i then turn off wifi and leave the phone for a while  I might not be able to get the app to list whats in my collection and if I can i can't play anything  see wifi off.png & hit_a_track_to_play.png

restart the phone on wifi and everything comes back and starts working 

[Joe]

@pablo_paul79 Did you sign up for the Collection beta or did it just appear? There are issues being reported with collection on mobile devices such as you're seeing. Clearing the cache from spotify/options and restarting the mobile seems to help. Also, I'd suggest not adding too much to your collection for the moment.