Don't have the option to download albums on desktop

[Terrapin90]

 I have Premium and can download albums using my iPhone but I dont see the download option on desktop. My only option is to SAVE. I updated my version to the most recent, Reinstalled it and it still isn't giving me a download option. 

Plan

$9.99 Premium

Country

 United States

Device

Laptop

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

 I have Premium and can download albums using my iPhone but I dont see the download option on desktop. My only option is to SAVE. I updated my version to the most recent, Reinstalled it and it still isn't giving me a download option. 

[Sebasty]

Hey @Terrapin90

Unfortunately it's not possible to download albums on desktop client. You can save them to your library and download saved songs (where the album will appear).

I suggest checking out this idea. 🙂

Have a nice day!

[Terrapin90]

Ok thanks I’ll look into that! I guess I’ve never really tried downloading the albums in Spotify on my laptop, just always streamed from there and downloaded to Spotify on mobile.

[Vineen]

It's a bummer. It's over a year and still no implementation. Since Spotify is a multi-platform app, the experience/features should be consistent across platforms unless there's something technical that hinders them from doing so.

[Mihail]

Hey there @Vineen,

We understand that the difference in the UI between platforms might cause some confusion.

Rest assured that the right folks at our development team are constantly looking for ways to improve the user experience. You can add your support for this feature by up-voting the idea. We'll inform on any developments there, if there are any. So make sure to subscribe, if you haven't already. If you want to learn more about the Idea Exchange, you can do it here. 

In the meantime a workaround that might work for you is to save the contents of an album to a separate playlist. You can then download it and it'll be easily accessible via your library.

Hope this is helpful but don't hesitate to let us know if you have any further questions!

[AadityakiranS]

What to do to make them implement this?

[Jeremy]

Hey there @AadityakiranS,

Thank you for your post in this thread.

There's currently an idea about this. You can leave a +VOTE and Subscribe to the thread for any updates.

You can read more about how your feedback reach Spotify here.

Let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Take care!

[MattSuda · Accepted solution]

@Terrapin90 @AadityakiranS @Vineen 

Good news!

A new desktop app update with a new design is currently rolling out to all users. One of the new features is the ability to download albums and podcasts just like you can in the mobile app.

You can read more info about the new desktop app in this news article:

Introducing a New Spotify Experience Across Desktop App and Web Player 

The desktop team also has a blog post in the community about it:

The New Desktop App

[Vineen]

Finally! It took ages for them to implement but this is a godsend feature.

[AadityakiranS]

Still can't use it offline. It shows some local folder has all the downloads but won't let us play without an internet connection like the mobile app. This is too bad. Please fix.

[Ver]

Hey @AadityakiranS,

Thanks for getting back to us 🙂

Could you share with us the exact Spotify version that is running on your PC?

You can also send us a screenshot of what you're seeing. We'll look into this further.

Keep us in the loop! We'll be right here if you have any further questions.

[AadityakiranS]

Hello,

This is the version number: *1.1.57.443.ga029a6c4-a*

The problem exactly is that,

You had introduced the ability to download albums in a recent update but
there's no way to listen to them when you're offline. [image: image.png]
Although I have added the path to offline listening, when I go to my local
files, the app tells me to add the path again.
[image: image.png]

Also, when there's no network connection, the albums that I've already
download can't be loaded. [image: image.png]
[image: image.png]

So then what's the use? Don't you test out these features before you roll
them out? Please correct all this immediately. You guys have a good app but
then you should pay close attention to what you're doing and do it right
even if it means you don't do it fast. Now basically this issue has
rendered the last update meaningless from a user's perspective.

[image: image.png]
This is how it's storing it on my machine. I understand why it's encrypted
but then why can't I play it back on Spotify? Then what's being downloaded?

[AadityakiranS]

The images didn't come huh? I've sent a mail also. I guess the images are in that. Please check.

[Ver]

Hey @AadityakiranS,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop 🙂

We checked but we didn't receive the screenshots. Could you try again posting them here? You can attach the image to your next response to us by using the Insert Photos option in the post editor. You can first open an incognito window as sometimes the cache can lead to different issues.

It's also a good idea to give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. That way you can make sure the app is up-to-date and the cache is not causing any issues.

We'd suggest you also try the steps mentioned in this article to see if anything changes.

Are there any changes when you try downloading the albums while using another network?

Keep us posted! If you have questions, you know where to find us.

[AadityakiranS]

     Download location given

]

Files downloaded locally

But not showing when trying to reach downloaded files. 

Album that is downloaded not showing when offline.

[AadityakiranS]

There's nothing wrong with the network and I did do a complete reinstall but nothing has changed. Are you sure that these features are working in the app? The features that I had mentioned?

[Ver]

Hey @AadityakiranS,

Thanks for the info 🙂

When it comes to the local files- we'd suggest you try renaming them the same way as the songs (e.g. artist - song title). It's important to make sure that the local tracks are in a supported format. After that you can restart the app. Are there any changes?

Just to double-check- is the offline mode in the three dots menu in the top left corner enabled? You can send us a screenshot of how it looks from your end. We'll look into this further.

Let us know how it goes. If you have questions, we are here for you.
 

[AadityakiranS]

Thanks. Now I can access offline mode but how to know which albums I've downloaded? Isn't there a place where I can go to view all the albums that I've saved for offline like in the mobile app?

But there's a problem. Although I can view them, I can't play any of the songs while in offline mode. Then what's that mode for anyway? Didn't you guys test this before you rolled out the release? 

This is how it looks on mobile. Where to find such a page in the desktop app? 

So, kindly fix all this. Your mobile app is great and you have all the songs that anyone could ever want but then again, these things kind of suck when you can't really do what you can do on the mobile app on your desktop app.

And thanks for the quick response. Really appreciate it. 

 

[Alex]

Hey @AadityakiranS,

Thanks for the reply.

Just thought I'd jump in here to clarify some things. On the Desktop app you can download only Playlist for offline listening. Albums can only be streamed while online. If you'd like to listen to a particular album without an internet connection or in Offline mode, you'd need to add it to a Playlist and click the Download button on that one.

Hope this info helps.

[AadityakiranS]

That's not true, what you're talking about is what's true in the older version of Spotify. As you can see from the pictures above, there is a button to download albums offline.