Why does Spotify remove downloads after ejecting the SIM and microSD cards?

[user-removed]

Plan

Premium

Country

Romania

Device

Samsung A3 2017

Operating System

Android Oreo

My Question or Issue

I removed my SIM and microSD cards (both on the same tray), then placed them back, and i noticed my downloads (2.000+ songs stored on the microSD card) were gone. Also no warning in the app, and no info at all about this on your site, which is outrageous.

[Matalo]

Are the songs actually deleted from the SD card? That's odd that they would just disappear unless you didn't eject the SD card and it got corrupted.

[user-removed]

several minutes after i popped the cards back in the phone, i checked my phone and saw the notification that Spotify was redownloading my playlist again. The storage setting switched by itself to internal storage, and there was no music downloaded at all anymore

[Matalo]

Sorry to hear this, the only thing I can think of is eject the SD card before removing it. Good to hear it is downloading your songs now. 

[albertsanjuan]

Spotify removes or disables downloads after you eject your SIM or microSD card because the app uses your device’s hardware identifiers and storage paths to verify your account and saved data.

When you remove the SIM or SD card, Spotify may interpret it as a significant change to the device configuration similar to logging in from a new phone. This triggers a security measure that prevents unauthorized use of offline downloads, which are meant to work only on the device and account they were downloaded for.

If your TNT SIM replacement or a SIM change causes this issue, it’s because Spotify detects a different SIM ID and resets its offline license validation.

To fix it, reinsert your new SIM, log back in, and re-download your music. It’s also a good idea to store downloads on the phone’s internal memory rather than a removable SD card, to reduce the risk of data loss or re-verification problems