Spotify doesn't work at all when I use my SD card

[Eric_T123]

Plan

Spotify Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Samsung Galaxy A50

Operating System

Android 11

Spotify Version

8.7.44.968

My Question or Issue

This happened right after a phone update and spotify update. Spotify does not work at all with my SD card. All my playlists and downloaded playlists disappear and streaming music doesn't work. when i remove my SD card or change storage device, it works like normal and my playlists come back, but i want to download my music on my SD card since i don't have enough internal storage. My SD card has way more than a gigabyte of storage left on it. Also when i try to make spotify switch back to my SD card as the main storage device, i get a notification that says "We couldn't move your data" and that there might be a problem with my SD card. It also says to check my permissions even though i allowed everything.

Solutions I've tried:

- multiple clean reinstallations

- resetting phone multiple times

- removing and reinserting SD card

- using a different SD card

- allowing all permissions for the spotify app

[Enraric]

+1, I'm having the exact same problem. I have a Galaxy A20 on Android 11, the same operating system and family of phone as you. I don't have enough space on my phone's internal storage for all my music downloads, so just using my phone's internal storage instead of my SD card for the time being isn't an option. Hopefully Spotify can address this issue quickly.

[OscarDC]

Hey there folks,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

We appreciate the troubleshooting you've done so far and the info you've shared. To keep investigating this case, could you include the Spotify version you're currently running? 

Also, it would be great if you could record a short video where we can take a better look at the issue. You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert Video option in the post editor. You can also upload it to Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to see it)

We'll be on the lookout. 

[Eric_T123]

Thanks for replying.

I'm using Spotify version 8.7.44.968

I've tried downloading an older version of spotify to see if that would solve my problem, but I got the same result.

Here's the video: Spotify SD card issue 

[OscarDC]

Hey @Eric_T123,

Thank you for keeping in contact and for the info shared.

Currently, the relevant team is investigating this issue to fix it as soon as possible. We'd recommend voting and subscribing to this Ongoing issue to be aware of any updates about it.

We appreciate your patience and cooperation.

If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to ask. 

[klas7690]

I've been having the same problem for all of July. My phone did do a software update on June 30th, but I don't remember if the issue started immediately after or a few days after - I'm not sure if it could be related.

The currently playing bar doesn't show up at the bottom and I can't play any music.

My profile picture and nickname don't show up, just my default username (the long letters and numbers one that I've never changed) and the default profile picture with the first letter in it.

The your library tab is empty, and just has the "create playlist" and "browse podcasts" options.

When I go to one of my playlists from the recently played section of the home page, they're blank and have the "add songs" button even though I know they aren't empty, they work fine on the spotify app on my computer.

When I go to my liked songs list from the recently played section, I get the "something went wrong" error box.

When I go to an artist's page I get a black screen with the home, search, and your library bar at the bottom.

When I try to move the storage location of my downloads to my SD card, I get the "we couldn't move your data" notification. Sometimes I'm able to change it by moving the whole spotify app to my SD card and then moving the storage location, but I still can't download anything to see if it's actually working because I can't access any songs to download.

Spotify premium

Canada

Samsung Galaxy A20

Android 11

Spotify 8.7.48.1062

SD card is an ADATA 128GB Class 10 Premier Pro UHS-I. I have ~100GB available space on it.

I've tried:

- Restart phone

- Restart spotify

- Clean reinstall

- Re-inserting SD card

- Allowing all permissions

- Clearing SD card and reformatting it. My phone doesn't have the option to format an SD card as internal storage vs portable storage, there's just one format button.

I've been able to temporarily fix the problem a few times by uninstalling spotify, clearing all stored spotify data from my phone, removing my SD card, re-installing spotify and logging in, and then re-inserting my SD card. As soon as I try to move anything from spotify to my SD card it stops working again, and even if I don't try to it still stops working after a day or two.

In the meantime I've been using the Spotify Lite app, which does let me play music, but I do have the same "we couldn't move your data" issue when I try to set the storage on it to my SD card, so I can't keep any downloads because I don't have space in my internal storage. 

[CarlosE]

Hey @Eric_T123,

Thanks for your reply in this thread and for the detailed info you kindly sent us 🙂
 

This issue is already being investigated here (as mentioned by @OscarDC) and the right folks are working on it. In the meantime, we suggest you provide the info we're asking for in the Status. Feel free to add your vote. You can also Subscribe to it in the three-dot menu, that way you can stay up-to-date with any relevant news about this.
 

We hope you found this helpful. Let us know if you need anything else. 

[Tink3rb3ll]

When you are saying the issue is investigated, do you actually mean that it is being investigated?

I've replied in the other thread back in the middle of may, 2 months ago!!!, and since then there has been NO further reply from any moderators or any change in spotify updates, even though it is by now clear what the issue is.

What started out with a few phone models is increasing in number with different models also finally receiving the update that breaks the app.

It would be good to actually hear about the current status of the investigation, as the other thread is pretty much dead on the moderator/spotify side...

[chemahi]

I've had exactly the same issue with exactly the same phone. I've tried everything. I even contacted support through Twitter, they told me it was probably the phone that wasn't working. Probably true since I also can't use my sd card with Tidal 

[netshark89]

I have had the exact same issue with same type of Samsung device since June. It's so sad that I can no longer download playlists to my SD for when I go on the road.

[Alex]

Hi folks,

Thanks for reaching out about this here.

This issue is being investigated by the right folks at Spotify. You can subscribe to this thread to stay ahead of any development.

Note that if you app works fine without the SD card, the card itself could be corrupted. It's best to buy a new one any try using that one to see if the issue is indeed related to the card, or to the phone.

Hope this info helps.

[chemahi]

It's not the sd card, I tried with 3 different ones and nothing. I also tried using the sd cards on other devices and they work just fine.

[jaystink]

Same issue with my mom's phone. (Hers is a samsung galaxy A20.) It was low on storage, so I tried to move her spotify library to her SD card. (which is working perfectly for other applications) After appearing not to move the data at all yesterday, today it has not moved the data, and lost access to all media on spotify.

A clean install of the app remembers her old settings - crucially, the one that has spotify to store data on the sd card, so now nothing is accessible, and for some reason the local storage option can't be selected either. The app is now completely unusable.

Very frustrating!

[game442]

I have the exact same problem. I tried switching my storage to my sd card and it gave me the error described in this thread. In the following day my app was completely unusable: no playlists, no music playback, no profile picture.

I tried using Spotify Lite for the first time and it showed the same behaviour. The only solution was to remove sd card and reinstall the app. The moment i try switching back the storage to the sd card the same problematic behaviour starts again.

[chemahi]

Any updates? It's been more than 2 months!

[manu43]

Exactly the same problem. Still no solution on the horizon? Family premium account test month running out soon, will have to move to youtube premium I assume..

[Ian39]

Plan

Spotify Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Samsung Galaxy A50

Operating System

Android 11

Spotify Version

8.7.64.478

My Question or Issue

Worked fine (old version updated regularly, can't remember the last working update)  until I had to reset the phone.

So same phone, same SD card, same OS

App doesn't work with SD card, SD card can't be used as storage

Solutions I've tried:

Clean installation

A) SD card not inserted

- App working

- issue with storage settings (see screenshot)

- Spotify detect 3 storage locations

- 1 internal and 2 phantom SD (both "working" -  able to download music)

- all of them are in the internal storage -

as said there is no SD card inserted in the phone

IF) SD card is inserted

- external storage setting is not working

- SD card detected but not usable (check screenshot DATA STORAGE TRANSFER)

Clean installation

B) SD card inserted

- App NOT working

- (check screenshot) Home visible but unusable, playlists visible but empty, albums empty, visible songs unplayable

- nothing work

- SD card detected and chosen automatically  but not working, can't download music in external storage

IF) SD card is removed - App works (as point A)

IF) SD card is remounted - App works (as point A)

- but SD card can't be used as storage shown in the screenshot (data storage transfer)

Plus

- multiple clean reinstallations

- resetting phone multiple times

- removing and reinserting SD card

- using a different SD card

- allowing all permissions for the spotify app

- Following https://support.spotify.com/ca-en/article/reinstall-spotify/ for clean installation

(PS point 7 "In the phone's Files (or File Manager, My Files, etc) app:
Go to Internal Storage>Android>data. If you see a com.spotify.music folder, delete it.
If you’re using an SD card, go to SD Card>Android>data. If you see a com.spotify.music folder, delete it." nothing is present under Internal Storage>Android>data or SD Card>Android>data.)

[Ian39]

Update

My Question or Issue

The issue is still persistant, whenever I insert an sd card spotify android app doesn't work

Solutions I've tried:

1) I tried to make a new account but the issue is still there - with sd card doesn't work

2) factory reset of the phone - reinstal of spotify - issue still present when sd card is inserted

3) clear install of the app - as spotify guide  https://support.spotify.com/ca-en/article/reinstall-spotify/ for clean installation

for point 7 delete com.spotify from folder files, once the app is unistalled there are no files to delete - issue still present when sd card is inserted

This issue is HUGE. I'm obliged to save all data of any other app on the internal storage.

[Ian39]

this morning I've tried something else

Solutions I've tried:

1 factory reset of phone 

2 creating a new google account

3 downloading Spotify from googleplay

4 starting Spotify without SD card

(working)

5 inserting formatted SD card

Spotify still working

6 changing storage path to SD card

NOT working (popup message "we weren't able to etc etc)

7 restarting phone

Spotify now is using the SD card

App NOT working

8 Unistanlling SD card

Spotify work

9 changing storage path to internal

Spotify work

10 installing SD card

Spotify recognize SD card in storage path - but I let it use the the internal storage

Spotify work

To sum up, regardless of the:

google account (new or old)

spotify account (new or old)

SD card (new or old)

the problem still persist

When ever the SD is used by Spotify, the app breaks. untill the SD card is inserted but NOT used by Spotify the app work

I wonder what system app permission are required to let Spotify work correctly, I tweaked my settings apps (but are the same as when Spotify was working). Spotify right now has granted all the permission and is NOT under power saving mode or background usage limits.

[EarlPurple]

I just got a new SD card, and then I couldn't get into Spotify at all because it kept giving me "offline" **bleep** so I reinstalled Spotify.

I see no option to store on SD card. The "Other" on the menu takes me nowhere. The "storage" is not an option. How do I set it? I tried downloading my big playlist and it told me I ran out of space. So it wasn't using the SD and I can't see how to set it. I have 32GB phone memory 512GB SD card!