How to disable downloads on PC

[fgjhnfgh]

I have limited space on my hard disk and spotify songs take up 10GB. Since I have a good internet connection, I'd rather just stream the songs instead of downloading them when adding to library.
Is there a way to disable song downloading on my PC, but still enable it on my mobile phone?

[Alfredo]

Hey @fgjhnfgh, welcome to the community!

If you don't turn on the Download option from the playlists on Desktop, the app won't download the music to your hard drive at all.

Since each platform works as a unit, you can definitely download any playlist on mobile without worying that it'll automatically download the same playlist on desktop.

You can find all the info on how to use Offline Mode here.

All the best.

[zaemz]

What you're referring to is Spotify's caching of songs. There is no way (that I could find) to disable this. What you'll need to do is find your AppData/Local folder (by default) and remove write permissions for everyone to Spotify's "Data" folder. On Windows:

1. Make sure Spotify is closed
1. Press the key combination "Win + R"
2. Type '%localappdata%' in the input and press enter
3. Find and open the "Spotify" folder
4. Open the "Data" folder and delete all of the files in it
5. Open the folder's properties by right clicking on the Explorer window or the folder and select "Properties"
6. Click on the "Security" tab
7. Click on the "Advanced" button
8. Click "Disable Inheritance", there will be two options, either convert existing permissions or remove them all - choose the convert option.
9. Click OK
10. In the Properties window, click "Edit"
11. Go down the list of all of the users and groups and uncheck: "Full control", "Modify", and "Write"
12. Click OK
13. Click OK on the properties window

Voila - Spotify can no longer write to the "Data" folder to cache songs. Be aware that this may come with a hit in the quality of music being streamed.

[gyturdf]

this is a terrible explanation and makes no sense

[zaemz]

Are you referring to disabling downloaded songs from the "Liked" section, or my explanation of the caching?

[rosedcler]

yes, can you help me with this pls!