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

[peter5346]

I just got this problem right after updating my phone (Samsung A20) and just like everybody else it works fine without the SD card, but as soon as I put it back in Spotify stops working.

[EfeAkkaya]

Same problem, device: Xiaomi Mi A3. I can use spotify when I eject the sd card and clear all spotify data but no matter what I do, I can't use my SD card as spotify's default storage, It just breaks.

[EfeAkkaya]

Same problem, Xiaomi Mi A3. I can use Spotify when I eject the SD card and clear all Spotify data but no matter what I do, I can't use my SD card as Spotify's default storage, It just breaks.

[Eric_T123]

FOUR months later and the issue is finally resolved with a phone update. apparently the previous OS version made it impossible to download songs on your SD card. if anyone just updated their phones, try downloading songs on your SD card. it might work for you now.

[chemahi]

Just updated last night and it worked! There was still a hiccup, I had to download my songs twice and reformat the sd card, otherwise it looks good.

Now I feel bad that I was mad at Spotify when the issue was Samsung's. Sorry Spotify!

[rickm1944]

Well it's late November and obviously there's been no fix for this because the same thing happened to me last week.

I've jumped through all of the troubleshooting hoops with no joy to be had.

Spotify support suggested I contact Samsung about it.

Needless to say I'm not happy to the point of just deleting my Spotify account.

Needless to say I'm unamused.

[PierreMaquea]

I was able to fix it by giving Spotify permission to access the external storage in Android settings. Xiaomi Redmi Note 8. 

[marianistefanoj]

Edit: So, yesterday i had problem with my xiaomi redmi note 9s about using a sd card to save the data from spotfy where every time i closed the app and opened again it started to download the data once again, after spend like 3 hours fighting with the cellphone and spotfy i had the idea to format the sd card using the cellphone, and voilà, i formated the sd card with cellphone and tested once again download the data from spotfy, closed the app and later opened it again, it's working until now, and i hope it continues like this 

So now, time to download 60Gb data from 'almost zero' again

[khazz]

Any updates from spotify? same issue, did the exact same thing as the other guys but nothing works. its been 3 years already

[Yordan]

Hey, @khazz,

I was able to find something that seemed to do the trick for other users, feel free to try it as well:

1. Uninstall Spotify thoroughly via the steps here (don't reinstall just yet).
2. Go to your Files app > SD card > Android > data > com.spotify.music > files and try deleting everything inside to remove any leftover cache that has been potentially corrupted.
   ⚠️ Note: if the system won't let you delete any files, navigate to the spotifycache folder found in the same location and rename it to something else.
3. Remove the SD card from your android device.
4. Reinstall Spotify.
5. After reinstalling, reinsert your SD card.

I assume you've already tried reformatting the card, but if you haven't, it's worth a try - just make sure to back up first.

Hope this helps. Cheers 🤘