Spotify keeps automatically switching downloads to internal storage

[flut1]

I have a Samsung phone with about 8gb of internal storage and a 64gb external sd card. Naturally I would want to store my Spotify downloads om my external sd card. This seems to work fine for a while, but shortly after Spotify automatically switches to internal storage. This has the following effects:

- my internal sd fills up to the point that my device is not functioning properly (as there is not much free space left on my internal storage)
- I immediately lose all the downloads on my sd card. Even when I switch back the storage to external sd all my previous downloads are gone.
- Sometimes I have to manually recheck all things in my library that I want downloaded, which is a very annoying process that costs me a lot of time

This keeps happening every time I restore my downloads. It takes anywhere between a couple of hours to 2 days for the issue to arise again. My other apps don't seem to have any issues with reading from my external sd.

I have reset or reinstalled the app multiple times but the issue persists. As a side-effect of me reinstalling the app so many times, Spotify had also sometimes removed all my downloads because it thought I had downloaded to more than 3 devices (which in reality was just the same device added multiple times).

Is there any way to prevent Spotify from automatically switching to my internal sd? If Spotify has an issue with reading my sd card, I would prefer they would notify me and ask me if I want to switch to internal storage instead of doing so automatically.
When it does switch, is there any way for me to let Spotify switch back to the caching files on my external sd? The files are still there, but as soon as I switch spotify to external storage it just wipes everything that's already there.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I use Spotify alot so it is really frustrating to run into this issue on a daily basis.

[johnka]

Everyone please stop marking posts as "solution" which do not solve the problem totally and indefinitely. Spotify might cross it off their list of things to be fixed. 

This last workaround even though it is really great time/data-saver does not prevent Spotify from switching to internal storage (and you also need to go through all your synced playlists/songs/albums again and select download even if it is never really downloading).

Thanks 

[WalleniusWilhem]

Thanks zekececil14. I knew the Spotify data must be lurking on the SD card and you have discovered how to force the app to re-identify the existing file, so well done and thanks. As you say, this is a time-saving workaround only, which should not be necessary in the first place. Why doesn't the app recognise this scenario and perform these corective actions itself, rather than make the user do it? It's like the user knows more about how the app works than the developers now.

[Anon_spot]

This happens for me also since I use spotify. Apart from the less annoying 3333 download cap this is THE argument to switch to another streaming service for me... Probably going to google music now as Spotify wasn't able to solve this for so long. They've had their chance.

[evo4g63t]

The service is great the servers are fast compared to competitors but I am convinced that the android development is very poor. About 50 percent of the time an update on this program breaks things rather than fixing anything.
Case in point its been 3 weeks since 6.3 came out and it still hasn't been fixed it has bluetooth connectivity issues, fails to function on the notifications panel and lock screen yet there has been no acknowledgement from spotify.
6.3 did add an option to manually select which storage device you want to use for storage so that might fix this bug but like I said 6.3 is full of other function breaking bugs.
As a google music user that program can be just as bad in fact it was a bug that deleted all 30gb of music I downloaded that made me switch to spotify. Seems pandora is the only one that really runs well and you can't choose songs there.

[johnka]

@evo4g63t "6.3 did add an option to manually select which storage device you want to use for storage so that might fix this bug"

The storage option has been around for quite some time. Not sure if the bug has been fixed in the last release... but I assume we will know from this thread if it was not.

And I totally agree on everything else. The bug reporting and customer care is a disaster for a company this big. No real external bug reporting mechanism (I was told by a spotify developer first hand. Could not believe my ears), reports get discarded without any explanation whatsoever and when someone replies it is usually first-line support saying "Try reinstalling and good luck".

Seriously, a decent developer would solve this bug in a day or two. Management must be a mess over there. As a swede I used to be proud spotify is swedish, now I am embarrased.

[vulaka]

Happened to me like all the time too. Super annoying. Spotify doesn't even care about putting a fix. I mean how difficult is it to implenent to the app to recognize previously downloaded files? That's the entire point of downlading files in the first place!

[ncar6464]

Can confirm this bug still exists. I'm guessing it occurs when there's an update to the App.

Running Samsung Galaxy S7.

[Anon_spot]

Sad to hear this, I was hoping it was eventually fixed in the new version.
Anyway, I don't have premium anymore (because of this) to test it...

[Bp4ad]

Same problem. If I can't find a solution I am going to cancel my membership & switch to another service like Pandora

[Fraescher]

So am I... 😞

[Nomeansno]

Did it again this morning! I updated the app yesterday and when I started it this morning, it was set again to use my phone memory. When I set it back to the SD card...... everything was gone... Why am I still hoping for something from this company.... For Ch×=¥¥ sake....When I install the app it is set to the SD card but with every update it goes back the the phone memory....

[morbias]

**bleep**, again? Fix your sh!t spotify, this is ridiculous

[Jvargas714]

Did it to me again. I think at this point I'm finished with Spotify no reason to keep paying for a service that freezes up my phone when memory switches as it has. Also having downloaded music on my phone is crucial as I ride the subway alot in NYC. Sorry Spotify but I am switching to Google music until I see it fixed. Glad to have found this thread to confirm this is an actual problem for other ppl. FYI I am on a galaxy s7 edge.

[mrmoosehead]

Happens to me too. **bleep** annoying. Any known solutions?

[MichelleTaylor]

Turning off auto update for the app should at least mean it is less likely to do it at an awkward moment. This issue is seriously making me consider checking out alternative services though.

[Fivensix]

This is happening to me too and it's now February and this bug isn't being fixed. When it reverts back to the card it means that all my offline data has been deleted and needs to download again. This costs me more and more data each time. It's outrageous.

[nini2]

Same here. About to switch to another music service. Just not worth it anymore if Spotify is not going to do something about it.

[Fivensix]

Anyone know any alternatives to Spotify that are good? I can't afford the data to keep redownloading my playlists everytime this buggy software resets. It's seems like Spotify, after almost a year, don't want to offer a fix to this issue

[Ribakon]

Play Music is a good alternative, you can also uploud 50000 songs that you already had, the only thing that botters me is that, while the app has no music download limits, it's playlists can only go up to 1000 songs per playlits and it's really anoying, there's Deezer also, almost the same thing as GPM but with no limit per playlist. Also, With Play Music unlimited, you gain acces to youtube red and the familly upgrade on GPM(Google Play Music) is the best between the top apps (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music) but the only thing that makes me prefer Deezer is that there's apparently no limit of musics inside playlist or in general, none that I have come accros until now of course.

So, GPM:

Pros: Better for Family use, also has Youtube Red included in the unlimited and for being able to uploud and listen previus music that you won or downloaded and the abillity to uploud up to 50.000 of your own music.

Cons: Stupid playlist limit and queue, onle 1000 songs per them is really a hindering limitation.

Deezer:

Pros: Not that good for family intents, can still uploud and listen to musics that you already have ou that you can't find on the store, abillity to uploud musics that ware previously owned or downloaded.

Cons: Even though it has the same possibility that GPM has of uplouding your own music, the procces to do it is more complicated and tiring, as in GPM music you download on your cell goes automatically to the app, in Deezer, you have to download it on your computer first, uploud to the computer app or website and them wait for it to sync with the cell phone, it can sometimes be a really time taking procces.

That being said, I was a premium Spotify user for 5 months and in that time, I had my playlists and all my songs deleted almost every week, in some ocasions, two times per day, even though I love Spotify's interface, song finding and curation, this bug is a completely turn down for me and as it's seen, for the amount of time this thread been up and this problem been reported since 2012, I don't think they will be solving this problem anytime soon.

[user-removed]

Is there an answer to this? I just got an Samsung S8 + and I'm now re-downloading my music for the 3rd or 4th time to my 128gb sd card... Even formatted my card thinking it was the problem...if there's no fix I might go to Tidal or Apple Music