Spotify keeps downloading my "already downloaded" music

[johnf52]

Hi

I have a similar issue, but different.  I have a notebook sized PC (an HP Stream) with a relatively small SSD, so I have a 2T external hard drive to store my downloaded songs.

I have set the location for spotify downloads to the external drive, but when I boot up Spotify defaults to the internal drive location in the "hidden" folder area and then quickly tells me I am running out of memory.  I only noticed this because I have a MiFi dongle and my mobile data was getting soaked up by something, which I realised was Spotify moving my cache around and re-downloading everything every time. Is there anyway that Spotify can be made to retain the external drive as its location, even when the Stream is booted up before the external drive is plugged in.

Thanks

[Peter]

Hey @johnf52 - help's here!

Is there any way you can try an alternate external drive to use as a test?

This would help us determine whether there might in fact be an issue with the way your external drive is set up.

Thanks - keep us posted!

[johnf52]

Hi
I think you've missed a vital point here. If the drive is plugged in "before" I boot the laptop, Spotify sees it and all is well. (On the assumption I have previously set the storage area to a folder on the Ext HDD) Hovever if the HDD is not plugged in, Spotify completely forgets that the area has been set for an external and starts downloading the whole library to the local drive. It cant be stopped, because there is no "Stop Download" button and the only way, as I said originally, to avoid multiple copies on the Ext HDD is to delete the folder and start again, as once Spotify has started a local download, it doesnt recognise the existing HDD files because the minute you reset the storage area, it starts shifting the cache all over again creating multiple copies. This is not an Ext HDD issue, it is a failing in Spotify to remember the storage area setting and also to see the HDD when it is plugged in after booting the laptop, when it might not be available (because its not plugged in at the moment, but might be later!) as with any other USB device and normal Windows operation. ie Windows doesnt expect you to have to connect all your flash drives before turning on the PC, but Spotify does !!!

[Peter]

Hey @John52,

Thanks for getting back to us and clarifying the above.

I had a look around in the help boards and came across this thread - it's about mobile devices using an SD card as external storage, however it might also apply to desktop devices with an external hard drive.

Do you mind giving the steps listed in the post marked as the solution a try and seeing if that works for you?

Thanks - keep us posted!

[johnf52]

Phone app clearly significantly different to a Windows PC. As previously
mentioned (and I hate repeating myself) I performed a complete
uninstall including all registry entries and miscellaneous "bits" and
performed a clean install.

Also I have never heard of Spotify "auotmatically" selecting a volume with
most "space" for storage as the default location, you have to select/change
it in "Advanced Settings" and on a PC the default is:
Users\"username"\AppData\Local\Packages\SpotifyAB.SpotifyMusic_zpdnekdrzrea0\LocalState\Spotify\Storage

Clearly this doesnt exist on a phone!

I have also noted that some similar threads, notably from the States say
that when using the mobile app, it is possible to instruct the phone not to
use mobile data to download Spotify. Again unfortunately Spotify does not
have this "switch" on the PC "app" so if your internet connection is a MiFi
device that uses mobile data and not land line WiFi, you cant stop the
downloads.
Again, this does not address the key issue of Spotify not holding onto the
Address location even when said Ext HDD is temporarily disconnected and
instead of displaying a "Storage device not connected" message, it
immediately starts to redownload to internal "default" as above. This is a
programming flaw not a setting up issue!! I know, I taught IT for over 10
years and I know flawed code when I see it.

Regards
John

[Peter]

Hey @johnf52,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Can you confirm that you can reproduce this behaviour on another desktop device?

If so, do you mind providing us with the following details for each of the devices:

• device + exact OS version
• exact Spotify version?

Once we have that, we can take a closer look at the issue.

Thanks!

[johnf52]

What I have noticed and please bare in mind I am talking about the use of an external HDD with a laptop, not a phone, that when the storage area is set to the Ext HDD, Spotify will remember this and play the stored data so long as the HDD is plugged in before the laptop or PC is booted.  If however you are unfortunate enough to have set Spotify to boot at switch on and the HDD is not plugged in, the storage area will revert to the internal folder buried in AppData and to provide the data build up, that others have mentioned, you have to delete all previously stored data on the Ext drive, before starting again, or it doubles up, chewing the space on the HDD.  If you set Spotify to NOT boot at power up you can connect the HDD before starting Spotify and all will be well.  However if the USB cable is disturbed for even a microsecond, Spotify will reset the storage area to the internal location and start downloading all over again, chewing up Mobile data and the relatively small storage space on the internal SSD !

This is a clear indication of poor coding, as clearly Spotify is looking for the external drive, once the location has been set in "Advanced Settings" and if it sees it all is good, but if it doesnt, instead of a warning, it immediately reverts to default.  This is very poor coding indeed, as clearly the flag that is set, if the external storage isn't seen, could be set to produce a warning window, with a question ie "Do you wish to revert to default storage location", as opposed to just taking it upon itself to screw you over and give you a massive headache to sort out!!  This is basic TRUE/FALSE coding with IF/THEN steps.  Unless Spotify is written in some seriously off the wall language, all this is pretty basic stuff and should be sortable by any competent programmer, as clearly, all the main sub-routines are already there and just need tweaking. 

[RobertJacobs]

It is **bleep**ing FRUSTRATING to be honest. Specially when you had 400+ downloads saved on external drive. Instead of the app asking for your external settings first, it reverts to its own default settings and starts redownloading everything

I am **bleep**ing frustrated because of this! IT IS TIME WAISTING AND DATA WAISTING