Offline music while online. Does it switch automatically?

[InstaCool]

Do I need to go offline to play my offline music or will it automatically switch streaming to downloaded songs? I have been switching offline to play my downloaded music but would like to go from a song that's not dowloaded to a a downloaded song. 

I'm wondering will it stream a downloaded song.

Anyone else curious or know the answer.

[Carina · Accepted solution]

Hey @InstaCool and welcome to the community!

Once you synced a track in an offline playlist, it stays downloaded in all of your playlists. So it won't be streamed. 

[InstaCool]

Thanks! Glad I don't have to switch to offline mode anymore! That was a pain. 

[MichaelW]

Hi there,
Welcome at the Spotify Community!

I've just checked it out. When I enable my mobile data connection and start a downloaded track, I don't see the arrows blinking (which means it doesn't download anything). Of course you can always enable offline mode if you'd like to be sure. 

[InstaCool]

Thanks! I believe when you're online though there are no arrows. That's why it's hard to tell. I don' think there's actually an idicator for that? /it would make sense to hop over to non streaming automatically....

So far I've been switch to offline mode an listening to my offline playlist but I have a few play list that are a mixture of off and online. I'd like to think it knows better....Wish i had unlimited data.

Does Spotify actually review these boards? Would be nice to have a customer service rep confirn.

[Carina]

There are plenty of Spotify staff members active in the community, but unfortunately it's weekend and they just work monday to friday.

But I can tell you FOR SURE that it doesn't stream anything. Because once I accidentally removed the offline setting for a playlist and was listening on the road to my music.. After an hour or something my traffic was fully exhausted. Usually I listen couple of hours outdoors every day and if the songs are downloaded it isn't streaming anything. Plus, I've never used offline mode (only on plane with in-phone-settings and not in-app).

[thiagooliv]

I know this is an old topic. But I'm having trouble related to this. When I play my donwloaded songs, the app will still stream them from the server, and this is getting me crazy because I suffer from pauses and my data pack ends in the middle of the month. This behabior began a month ago, I'm using latest Spotify app on Android 4.4 (LG G3).

[toddallen50]

So this is good so you don't have to use your data plan while in the car etc since it's downloaded and doesn't stream right?

[Switchbl4d3]

Same problem here. Everytime i drive through a tunnel and im listening to downloaded songs they just stop and/or lag as the connection fades. But when my internet connection is completely gone they seem to switch to offline mode and start playing normally.

[SSpike69]

The information provided by Carina doesn't seem to be accurate. All the music that I have listened to in Spotify this month with not exceptions has been downloaded, but if I check how much data Spotify has consumed in this period it shows more than 12 GB of data. So there are two option, either the application is streaming despite the fact that the music has been downloaded or the app has some sort of bug that is draining GB of data for no reason. It would be great if someone could clarify exactly what the  Spotify app is doing. My best guess is that it is streaming the music despite the fact that the song is available on my phone and that would explain the behavior described by Switchbl4d3 .