Device limit

[dlambert]

Hi,

I didn't know about the device limit until recently when without notice (except for one tablet device) all of my offline content was gone on every device. I would have liked to at least choose which device should be reset. Is this a known issue? 

I don't understand that 3 devices limit since a "modern" user like I has a desktop, laptop, smartphone and tablet excluding professional devices. Also, Mac users can also have 2 or more spotify devices on the same computer if they use bootcamp. I understand that there must be a limit (or may be an extensible one), but 3 is low in my opinion as 4 sounds the strict minimmum for what I called a "modern" user. Am I alone thinking that? Is there such a demand?

Regards,

David

[Peter__]

Hey! Welcome to the community 🙂 

Increasing the number of devices allowed has been suggested before here but currently it is not possible due to licensing agreements as explained on the topic. 

Your comment about boot camp is actually incorrect, each Spotify instance on a computer is treated as a seperate device, meaning if you have more than 1 OS installed on a computer, it counts each one as its own device, since each stores it own Spotify cache of files. 

Normally, when you go over your device limit, offline content should only be removed from one other device (to my knowledge anyways!). The idea to be able to manage your own devices as well as other functions has been suggested in this topic.

Peter

[dlambert]

I think we're saying the same thing about bootcamp: that it increases the number of devices. I said that to back the fact that 3 devices is low regarding that Mac desktop/laptop users could have 2 or more Spotify devices per material device.

Unfortunately in my case all devices were unsynced...

David

[Sam]

Hi David,

To quote Rorey on the thread Hammeh mentions, 'Ultimately, the reason we have 3 devices (3,333 tracks on each device) is down to licensing agreements. My guess is that rigidities in agreements such as these are unlikely to change anytime soon.'.

So, looks like it could be this way for a little while yet. In the future, who knows?

[dlambert]

It always goes down to buying the music as the only flexible solution...

[styxgeist]

For this very reason I've dumped my Spotify subscription and moved to Google Music that allows 10 devices to be used off the same subscriptioni. I suggest spotify 'renegotiate' their licensing agreements, as Google is able to do it

[caljuice]

As a normal user, I'm extremely upset with this.

Home desktop, work desktop, iphone, ipad, mac laptop... I can't consolidate computers due to power requirements, but I don't want to have to buy another subscription... Not to mention Spotify's lack of certain bands/choices...

Now looking into the Google option... 

I suppose it's my own fault for subscribing to a Sweedish company's product while residing in the US.

[Peter__]

The device limit only effects offline playlists, you can use your account on as many devices as you like.

Do you really need offline playlists on all of your devices?

[schatterjee04]

I recently ran into an issue while traveling and on the go. Most of my devices (IPAD, Nexus 7, phone, laptop, macbook) all were desynched, no wifi on the road and spotty cell coverage. Data limits on the tablets, lack of data on the laptops and spotty cell coverage on the phone made it impossible to use spotify. The main draw I had to spotify when I had initially gotten my account was that I had a pandora account for my streaming needs and I could listem to my music off of spotify on the go without having to be connected, i.e. when traveling, in the car or on a train. Because of storage limitations on mobile devices, its not realistic to offline store all content but a rigid limit of 2 or three devices makes it impossible to use under modern use scenarios. So to answer your question, yes. We do need to have offline access on the majority of  our devices since not every tool is usable/accessible in all places. It isn't like we know ahead of time which device will be on hand and which one will have power/connectivity. In the end, its a matter of convenience which we are paiying for. This is also one of the reasons I am looking into google music.The BIGGEST issue is the forced desync.

[gutsyslap1]

As of now Google Music sadly only allows 4 device deauthorizations per year.  For some reasons that will be a huge problem.  For example as a rooted user anytime I clean flash a new rom on my device (usually once per week) google music thinks its a new device.  While they still let you have a total of 10 devices authorized you can only DEauthorize 4 per year.  Makes it a pain for most people.  Good for spotify though because I may have to come back.  

[Peter__]

Can confirm, with Spotify you can only have 3 offline devices but there is definitely still no limit on how many changes you can make. 😉

[Alejandro2712]

True... I have the same problem.

[ytenok]

I'm perfectly fine with 3 device limit, but I regularly have problems with limit! Last on came because of accidential SD card eject from phone. Now redownloading to both phone and iPad! And similar issues are happening at least two times a year. This time it's not critical, other times it's darn annoying!