Spotify doesn't download all songs in the offline playlists

[onlytocomplain]

More than a decade later and this issue is still occurring. My phone has plenty of space and yet spotify doesn't download all songs marked

[onlytocomplain]

Also, every so often I get a recommendation of a song which is already downloaded, even though it isn't in any of my playlist at this moment. How can such basic features be so broken?

[Maria]

Hey @onlytocomplain,

Thanks for reaching out on the Community! We've moved your posts to its own thread to keep things fresh, hope you don't mind.

Just to confirm, are you still experiencing issues downloading specific songs? If so, have you noticed if it happens at any points? For example when using 4G/5G or only on WiFi.

On another note, the downloaded recommendations you mention, are the tracks appearing when listening to certain playlists? In that case, could you double-check if Smart Shuffle is switched on? It's possible that if you're using Smart Shuffle, some suggested tracks might be downloaded depending on the download settings.

Keep us posted!

[onlytocomplain]

Yes, 2 days after I mentioned an issue, it still occurs...

Why are songs downloaded that I didn't mark as to be downloaded? (it has nothing at all whatsoever to do with smart shuffle, which I have always disabled)

It occurs at all times, I never connect to a WiFi.

[Ivelina]

Thanks for the quick response @onlytocomplain.

To get a better understanding of the situation, could you clarify:

• Are random songs being downloaded - songs that you have not manually downloaded or set to download?
• Or is it that Spotify doesn't download the songs that you would specifically want downloaded - only ones picked by you?

Let us know if both of these issues are happening for you and it would be helpful if you could also share in case you've performed any troubleshooting steps so far such as a clean reinstall for example (helps resolve different issues caused by corrupted cache).

Additionally, let us know if this is happening across devices or on a particular one and share a video of the behavior here so we can see how things look like from your end. You can attach it via the Insert Video option in the post editor, or if the video's too big - upload it to Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure no sensitive info is visible).

Lastly, please check if this is happening when listening to certain playlists. For example, if you've saved a Radio playlist in Your Library and have pressed the arrow button to keep downloading the songs in it. 

We'll be on the lookout. 

[onlytocomplain]

My comment was about songs which shouldn't be downloaded.

It's songs that were in a playlists at some point, but then I deleted them from the playlist.

I did a reinstall to check if it only downloads songs that are supposed to be downloaded and yet songs, which aren't in any playlist are still downloaded.

I'm sorry, but it doesn't make sense to share a video, as there is no "behaviour" to be observed. It's a song that it shouldn't have downloaded, but it is downloaded.

See the screenshots for reference.

 

 

I've added a screenshot for your 

[AlejaR]

Hey there @onlytocomplain,

Thanks for your reply and for the screenshots.

We noticed you were listening to your daylist. On the screenshots, we can see that the song Long Awaited is not part of any of your other playlists. Just to confirm, would you mind searching within your downloaded playlists if perhaps you find a song with the same name?

For the search, avoid using the Add to other playlist feature. Instead, please make a manual search within the playlist(s) you have downloaded. To do it easily, you can go to your library on your phone> select the downloaded filter at the top. Open the playlist(s) and scroll down to locate the search bar. There, type the name of the song.

If you find a song with the same name, send us both the link to the song on the daylist and the one you found on the downloaded playlist. If your daylist have updated at this point, please try this process with a different song you have notice the same issue with.

Keep us in the loop!

[onlytocomplain]

That's why I shared the other screenshot. Those are pretty much all my playlists. As you can see, it isn't added to any of them.

I can't send you the links, because if both links existed, obviously the song in question should be downloaded and I wouldn't be here trying to get anybody to solve this issue.

[Dessi]

Hey @onlytocomplain,

Thanks for the reply!

It's possible that these songs were from outside your own playlists, for example from a Discover Weekly one, Release Radar or other dynamic playlists and that's why they appeared as downloaded despite not being saved in your own ones. If you have any 3rd-party-apps connected to your account, it might also be a good idea to remove them from here as they can sometimes auto-download content.

Hope this clears things up.

[onlytocomplain]

I don't have any third party apps connected to Spotify.

Also, I don't download any playlists other than some of the ones I created myself

It doesn't clear anything up at all.

There are songs saved on my phone, which shouldn't have been downloaded. The reason is not user stupidity or oversight or lack of understanding, but the actual behaviour of the app.

[onlytocomplain]

Please see the exact same issue with another track

  

I even searched for the song in my library, and nothing turns up. Can you now finally start to take action?

Did I jump through enough hoops already?

[AlejaR]

Hey there @onlytocomplain,

Thanks for your reply.

We understand where you’re coming from, bear in mind that in order for us to have a better understatement of this behavior, we’ll need you to follow the steps we mentioned earlier to narrow it down.

That being said, take into account that the search bar under your library does not look for the songs saved on playlists. With that search bar, you can look for albums, artists, podcasts and playlists you’ve saved, but not for the specific songs on the playlists per se. To look for songs, you’ll need to open the playlists as explained previously.

In that sense, please follow the steps mentioned here. Now, if you do find a song with the same name in the playlist(s) you've downloaded (but that are not the same for the one you see on the daylist), then it might be that 2 tracks with similar metadata are linked to each other.

That means that possibly, there are 2 different tracks, one on the playlist you downloaded, and one on the daylist. They might appear the same, but it seems the app it’s threatening them differently, that’s why you cannot find it as part of other of the playlists you’ve created and downloaded.

Such things might happen when a song is taken down from the platform by artists or rightsholders, and gets re-uploaded with different metadata, as a new track. The app might treat it as different, even though they have the same title/ artist. 

We understand this might be frustrating. Our content teams try to remove such errors, but it's not always possible.

We hope you found this helpful. We're always here to help.

[onlytocomplain]

Alright, I checked again, looking in every downloaded playlist separately and the track was in my liked playlist. So the "downloaded" symbol on the left makes sense, but then I wonder why is the symbol on the right missing indicating that it is part of the liked songs?

Or what is the meaning of the symbol on the right, if not to indicate that a given track is part of the "liked" list?

[onlytocomplain]

  

 as you can see in these screenshots, the song can still be added to "liked songs", so how come it's already in "liked songs". Why is the checkmark icon missing on the right?

[Ivelina]

Hey @onlytocomplain,

We really appreciate all of the provided info so far, as well as your cooperation. 

It's odd that the song is not showing the green tick indicating it's in your Liked Songs when you see it in another playlist. So we can take a further look at this, it would be very helpful if you could send us the URI links both of the particular song in your Liked Songs, as well as for the same song where you see it in another playlist.

Thank you and in the meantime, we're here if you've got any questions.

[onlytocomplain]

Some playlist:

 

Liked songs:

 

Is that what you need?