Offline Mode - Offline Playlists unavailable or only partially unavailable; under 3,300 limit!

[j3rath202]

Hi everyone!

I've downloaded three playlists for offline usage.  When I log out, restart my computer, etc, I'll often lose my songs while offline.  This is problematic as I have very little access to internet for the next few weeks.

If I find a source of wifi/internet, I'm able to re-populate my playlists with the songs that were missing and then play them again in offline mode.  Is this normal behavior for Spotify?

This is on Windows 8.  I am not running Spotify in compatibility mode. 

Edit:  This may have been unclear.  When I repopulate the playlist(s), it's instant.  As in, it's not downloading the songs again.  They are clearly stored locally, but Spotify has a hard time seeing them while offline.  At least, that's my understanding of the issue.

[j3rath202]

Bumping due to no responses.  Would love to get some information on this issue.

[riverj]

Hi,

I am having exactly the same issue, only this is happening with about 2gig worth of music so its really really annoying!

Have you managed to find a solution to it yet?

[AbsolutelyNoFB]

Sorry to jump in, but what is this "3,300 limit" that you mention? I'm a Premium customer but haven't looked into offline playlists much. I was planning on upgrading my mobile to a new model with 64GB storage. If Spotify can only store 3,300 tracks offline, I will probably skip the upgrade.

Also, if you are on the v0.8.8 client, it appears to have offline playlist bugs. If so, you might want to try rolling back to the older client and see if things work properly. If things work, then you know the issue is with the v0.8.8 client.

[riverj]

I read somewhere that there was a ~3300 limit on how many offline songs you can have, and alas this seems true. See http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Accounts-and-Subscriptions/3-333-Offline-Song-Limit/td-p/116570

It does seem a shame. If you're looking for a virtual replacement for iTunes this song limit is a bit of a drag 😛

In terms of fixing this songs not appearing in playlist issue:

I've just tried a complete reinstall of my HD. In my case I suspect the issue may have something to do with me using WIndows 8's feature to bring/link my login account online to my microsoft account. Perhaps it jiggered with the storage directories and the Spotify app couldn't update itself properly to the new storage location? That's my hope anyway. Downloading a couple gigs of music again. Slow and painful. I'll let you know if it fixes the problem...

[AbsolutelyNoFB]

@riverj

Thanks for the info on the ~3300 offline limit; that was very helpful. It seems from reading the thread that the limit is really 10,000 offlines tracks per account. I'm only interested in having offline music on one device, my mobile, so that might be okay.

All these limits and restrictions create headaches for the customer. I especially don't like how Spotify snoops on my iTunes music on my phone. It only causes problems for me. So, yes, it is a shame 🙂

Do post back on your complete reinstall. I've done that enough times to know I don't like doing it. But with Windows, it seems a necessary evil at times.

[riverj]

Okay. This is really starting to sh*t me...

Completely fresh install of Windows 8 and Spotify, downloaded 2.8GB of music.

Connected to the internet- works fine, songs play off local content whether connected or switched to offline mode.

Reboot the computer- try turning off the internet connection, and booting Spotify.

Playlists empty except for a few random songs.

Reconnect to the internet- all the playlists fill in, and will play correctly if I switch to offline mode.

It's like Spotify needs an internet connection upon boot just to get its bearings and its file structure in order. Which is rubbish.

Moral of the story: I should have tested with a couple hundred megs rather than gigs.

@AbsolutelynoFB

I might try your idea of switching back to the older version of the player, but am hesitant to given I've just downloaded all my stuff again...

Any word from Spotify on this business? ... :<

[Peter__]

Hey 🙂 

I can confirm this issue was escalated (by myself) to the Spotify team and has been escalated internally as an issue. Still waiting to hear back more details from Spotify but it has been reported. I have added this topic to the escalation post. 

Peter

[AbsolutelyNoFB]

@riverj

I might try your idea of switching back to the older version of the player, but am hesitant to given I've just downloaded all my stuff again...

Any word from Spotify on this business? ... :<

No official word from Spotify on Windows, but they've never been the best about communicating. The Spotify crew are well aware the new client has brought grief to many. And that quite a few people on the forums have reverted to the old client and are happily listening to music 😉

I've tried three different versions of Spotify on my system and haven't lost any data. To their credit, Spotify has done a good job with this aspect of the software.

The rollback isn't hard to do. And undoing it is just deleting two text files and installing the latest client again.

[helderdje]

Finally found someone with the same problem! I was looking into this a couple of weeks ago, but couldn't find anything about it. 

Anyways, I think I have the exact same problem. I have a playlist with 1000 songs for offline use available. I use it in the train and wherever else I have my laptop and don't have internet connection. Since windows 8 It seems to load around 50 to 100 songs only when offline. I have to connect to the internet and after that the playlist starts collecting the rest of the songs, when I go offline after the playlist is fully available, they stay available. 

also, sometimes (happened 4, 5 times since I have windows 8 +- 2 months), totally random, it needs to redownload all offline tracks.. I have no idea what this is about, but it drives me pretty crazy. Are you guys experiencing this problem too? 

It's a really weird issue, to use spotify offline, you need internet connection first... I tried running it in compatability mode (windows xp service pack 3 and windows 7) but nothing seems to work. 

I'm lucky to have WIFI in the train so I can load the playlist when travelling. 

luckily, I'm not experiencing any other problems with spotify on windows 8. 

[j3rath202]

I haven't experienced the issue with Spotify re-downloading all of the songs.  Have you kept track of your disk space when it does this?  I wonder if it deletes the old data before the rewrite?

[helderdje]

I haven't looked into that to be honest. I will do that next time it happens. 

First I'm going to download and install an older version like said before, hopefully that fixes everything. 

[sheporiginale]

The issue is here, is that I'm not going to downgrade to an unsupported older version, with the possibility of Spotify hawking me about an upgrade (or forcing it on me, as I've seen from others who have tried rolling back to an older version). Instead, I'm going to see how the support staff handles the issue, and if that isn't timely, then I downgrade to Unlimited and forget about Offline mode until it is properly resolved.

[mofucius]

I am having this exact same issue. I download almost 7 or 8 gb of music, and once I am in offline mode at work, I only have random songs. I redownloand, reboot and have the same problem.

[Norvi]

I'm having the same issue here...

I have a playlist that has a little over 3000 songs in it, when I go offline most of the songs get unsynced and the playlist only has ~70-100 songs in it(even thought it still reports 3031 tracks in the upper right corner).

It's the only playlist that I am trying to make available for offline use and it's getting really annoying considering I dont have internet where I live... So syncing 3000 tracks and coming home only to find the playlist almost empty is a bit disappointing 😕

OS: Win 7 64bit with SP1

Spotify version: 0.8.8.454

[Peter__]

---

@Norvi wrote:

I'm having the same issue here...

I have a playlist that has a little over 3000 songs in it, when I go offline most of the songs get unsynced and the playlist only has ~70-100 songs in it(even thought it still reports 3031 tracks in the upper right corner).

It's the only playlist that I am trying to make available for offline use and it's getting really annoying considering I dont have internet where I live... So syncing 3000 tracks and coming home only to find the playlist almost empty is a bit disappointing 😕

OS: Win 7 64bit with SP1

Spotify version: 0.8.8.454

---

Hey! Welcome to the community 🙂 

It sounds like you might be experiencing a similar issue to the one in this thread which the staff are investigating. 

Peter

[MikerMikerMiker]

OS: Windows 7 (64bit) w/SP1

Free Space on HD: 402GB

Spotify Desktop App: 0.8.8.454.gfb120cda

Spotify Premium Account

Playlist has 1,626 tracks

Spotify Storage Folder <C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Spotify\Storage> shows 15.4GB used.

Everything in Playlist "Starred" is synced for "Available Offline" play only on my work laptop due to WAN blocking access to Spotify, but do have Internet access otherwise.

When home, the entire playlist is available on laptop.

When in the office, the playlist indicates there are 1,626 tracks (upper right corner), but only displays around 150 tracks.

Reconnecting at home starts a process of syncing anywhere from 500 to 1,400 tracks, though never consistent.

Suspect that tracks are already stored for offline play (folder above is still 15GB at work), but the list Spotify is reading is somehow not able to read everything that is available.

Very frustrating... yes, tried uninstalling and reinstalling the client (always downloaded current version from Spotify to be sure) more than once without resolution.

Trying something new today and will report shortly... created a new playlist, copied the contents of "Starred" playlist into new "Spotify Starred" playlist and enabled that list to "Available Offline".  Nothing synced that I could tell.  Disabled "Available Offline off for the "Starred" playlist.  Hoping adding a new playlist will somehow generate a new "offline" index for the app to reference.  Not sure if this is a file or database within the file structure of Spotify folders.

[MikerMikerMiker]

So... back again.

Shut down laptop, restarted offline and had only 147 tracks displayed in the playlist, though it was indicating 1,626 available.

Shut down laptop again, restarted online and am now watching Spotify download 518 tracks.

Quick math tells me 1,626 less 147 does not equal 518 tracks.

Pretty sure that if I unstall Spotify again, it will be for good.

Also certain that if I can't have my playlist available offline, I don't need to pay for Premium either.

Just saying.

Spotify, please help.

[MikerMikerMiker]

Was just prompted to restart Spotify to install the new version, now 0.9.0.117.g93e0429c

Will advise in the morning if my offline playlist has all of the files!

[Rorey]

This seems fixed for many users with our recent update. Can anybody confirm if they are still getting the issue?