Spotify keeps trying to download songs to Internal...
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Android 7 (MIUI) -> 7.1.2 (custom systems since there)-> 8 -> 8.1 -> 9 -> 10
My Question or Issue
As title says - almost every reboot Spotify resets songs location to internal storage and redownloads songs. When I switched in options to SD card it still redownload songs again and again. It seriously destroys FLASH memory when Spotify wants to download over 1000 songs again.
And found workaround-solution which at the beggining seems to work partially, buty it doesn't work all the time. It's ******* KNOWN issue for years but still is unresolved. Shame!
I tried:
- denying/allowing various permissions to Spotify,
- disabling or enabling battery saving for phone,
- mounting SD card as extended internal storage (even I prefer to have it external) - enabling developers options and allow to install or move app on SD card (I have that option but I do not see possibility to move Spotify to SD card), - disabling overall Spotify app at system boot,
- modyfying app receivers (especially disabled broadcast receiver) - Spotify did not start, stuck at logo,
- disabling notifications - app does not start when I disabled "Spotify Music" notification,
- log out via all devices except phone,
- changing to SDHC, SDXC sc-cards,
- formatting SD cards with exfat, ext4 file systems,
- removing PIN and lock code.
Both Internal and SD cards were unencrypted all the time.
I feel really dissapointed of poor experience of Spotify on Android. Should I give a **** about copyrights and try to decompile, modify (hack) Spotify binaries, to remove/block every app blobs, binaries, permissions etc. to get it work? Maybe read-only mode or script which restores all Spotify files every boot might help?
Or just don't support that bugged app. There are various of services that can convert my playlists and move to i.e. Tidal or Google Play Music?
I tried first of them, I didn't like it but it worked so it has a big advantage compared to Spotify. I maybe it's a matter of habit.
There are very, very many threads where people described that problem on various phones and systems, there were few solutions but none of them helped.
I posted "few" of them.
So... Spotify devs - could you finally fix that damn issue? Prevent Spotify from booting with system, check if SD card is available later, fix cache files or something?!
Hello, I found better workaround hovewer it still needs root access, but it works every time.
I made a Spotify app backup via app Titanium Backup (it doesn't make backups of songs, so it isn't take a lot of memory). After every reboot I open Titanium Backup and restore backup before launching Spotify. My songs all the time remains.
When Spotify download new songs (not all are available) or when I update Spotify app, I delete backup and make new one.
One time I completely wiped (formatted) my phone and restored Spotify backup on fresh, new system. Songs remained 🙂
Shame on Spotify for that bug, but I'm happy that I found easy (root) solution.
Hello, thanks for sharing that app. I tried it but did not work for me. I forgot to reply you, sorry.
Hovewer I found (to my mind) better workaround hovewer it still needs root access, but it works every time.
I made a Spotify app backup via app Titanium Backup (it doesn't make backups of songs, so it isn't take a lot of memory). After every reboot I open Titanium Backup and restore backup before launching Spotify. My songs all the time remains.
When Spotify download new songs (not all are available) or when I update Spotify app, I delete backup and make new one.
One time I completely wiped (formatted) my phone and restored Spotify backup on fresh, new system. Songs remained 🙂
Shame on Spotify for that bug, but I'm happy that I found easy (root) solution.
Thanks a lot! I had to go to settings and remove my pin, when I then tried to reinstate a new pin it asked me if I wanted to use secure boot and provide my pin before boot. I use this feature now and it solved my issue.
I had this issue on several Phones since 2014 now. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. I even contacted the support, they know about this for years. I never figured out what triggers the app to switch.
We're sorry to hear that you're experiencing this issue on your iPhone. Keep in mind that there are different Help boards in the Community for specific devices and topics, and this thread is in the Android Help board, so the solutions showed here might not work for different OS.
No worries though, we encourage you to post a new thread on the iOS Help board and we'll happily help you out.
You can find more info on how to navigate through the Community in this Spotify Answer.
We'll be on the lookout.
Cheers!
CarlosEModerator
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I am one of the many victims of this bug. It's a shame because other than this I really like Spotify and it's introduced me to many good songs, but if I can't successfully download music for offline on my SD card, then there's no real point. I've collectively spent over 6 hours troubleshooting with Spotify agents on their chat and have come to no solution. I've followed every single "fix" on the web for this, but Spotify blames me by saying my "cache is corrupted on their end" every single time no matter what I do.
This is beyond unacceptable and I'm VERY tempted to go to YT or Prime Music, despite not liking them.
Thanks for searching for the answer you need here.
We are aware that some users do experience this issue and that there are quite a lot of reasons for why this can happen. However, after a thorough investigation based on the info we have gathered here in the Community as well as our other support channels, the relevant team was not able to confirm that this is an issue which is caused by Spotify, but rather based on how different devices manage their cached data files.
Still, we respect the fact that multiple users are affected by this issue, so we'd like to provide some steps which we hope might help. Please give them a go, if you haven't already:
Just confirmed that none of these steps work. I have talked with support several times for multiple hours collectively and every single suggestion they gave didn't work. Last night yet another agent told me I had "corrupted devices on my account" and assured me him "removing them" would end this issue. As expected, it did not. Just like I told him it wouldn't. After a reboot this morning I'm notified once again Spotify is trying to force my offline downloads onto my internal storage.
Spotify is the ONLY music platform that does this and has this issue. Rather than blaming the several users devices who are having this issue (as our devices work flawlessly with other apps), how about you accept responsibility for your buggy app and actually fix it? If even YouTube Music (as bad as it is) can manage to successfully avoid this issue with offline downloads, then Spotify has no excuse.
Hello Mihail, Also I can confirm that none of these steps helped.
Disabling WiFi Assist - to be honest it's option for iPhone not Android. For Android there is a bit similar option in Developers options called - "mobile data always active but it isn't causing that.
None of the 3rd apps affects spotify. Changing quality of songs didn't helped too. I checked it one year ago when I downloaded them be mistake in "normal quality" instead in "highest quality". I doubt that it can be even a reason for it.
And about trying a solution in thread link you provided:
Make sure, if you have a PIN or password set, to Android ask BEFORE the system boot.
Check my main post - I given link to that thread before you, it's nr 16. I can't change order when Android asks me for PIN. Never meet with such option, that's why I tried to remove PIN-code or pattern to unlock phone what I also wrote on main post.
Currently I am using Android 11 and problem still remains. My workaround is using Titanium Backup (requires root) to make a Spotify backup and when the battery goes down or I need to restart phone, before I launch Spotify I restore it's data via it.
But... it's not solution. Spotify should not launch on phone boot or not check sd-card because it's faster than Android boot.
2021 and issue is still there. I tired of fear that my phone will restart accidentally, or stay without battery. Becasue gues what, it will remove all songs from sd card, and will start downloading all 40 Gb to internal memory!!! Generic answers are not helping, tried all and everytime is the same. Very tired of this, very tired of spotify doing nothing!
SOME?? Users, really. As long as you keep closing tickets it look that way. There have been numerous tickets as well as the reason why this problem occurs. How do you explain after at least 3 years you cannot fix the issue?
Here's something you can try out to see if that does the trick:
Uninstall the Spotify app by following the steps here.
Remove your SD card from your phone, then restart the device and reinsert your SD card.
Download and install Spotify again and configure the app's settings so that your music will be downloaded to your SD card. This can be done under Settings > Other > Storage.
Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.
Cheers!
YordanModerator
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PLEASE escalate this as it is a widespread issue that affects all devices which don't have the ability to delay boot until passcode is entered. (Basically all devices android 10+ and later as per Google's 2020 Q1 Android Security Mandate).
I have (VERY frustratingly) been suffering from this issue along with thousands of others for the better part of 4 years.
My personal device:
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G
North American (Snapdragon Chip not Exynos) 128GB with expandable storage of course.
Latest Android OS as of October 14 2022.
Latest Spotify version available via NA google play store as of October 14 2022.
I work in the tech industry with access to a wide range of devices and can confirm this also happens on all 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 Motorola's, Samsung's and basically ANY other android phone that cannot use the (consumer sourced) workaround of "secure start/secure boot" method. SecureStart/Boot was discontinued as a feature for security reasons on android in 2020.
This is an issue with Spotify and Android OS specifically revolving around the order of the sequence of events that takes place during the reboot/restart/power on of the smartphone.
Please Eni, I sincerely beg you to get this seen by the right people in order to have this fixed. I've been a loyal Spotify user and advocate amongst my own social circles for 6 years now and at the very least for the thousands of customers like me who are left feeling abandoned and scared to reboot their phone in fear of having to redownload and then transfer 34GB+ of songs, every-single-time.
I don't mean to sound dramatic but if smartphones had rights the way humans have basic rights, rebooting a device should be like a basic right for a smartphone. It shouldn't come with strings attached or severe complications such as this one that after so many years has left many of us to feel quite unappreciated by this organization. All due respect, please do the right thing and help us.
Spotify keeps trying to download my songs to my internal storage instead of my SD card. Even after a clean reinstall and going to Storage and selecting SD card before doing any downloads if the app didn't select it, even if I successfully download all my songs to the SD card, eventually the app will try to download them to Internal Storage.
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G, Android 13 Spotify keeps downloading to internal storage. This is a pain, because I have more data in soptify than the internal storage has.
It seems like this problem exists since 2016! - And still not fixed after 7 years? Really?
Thats a shame! It' so brilliant to download >100GB abroad in a hotel.
