[Desktop] Restore Cache Location Specification

[Talavar]

I run on a machine with a small SSD for my OS and critical applications.

In previous versions of Spotify I have set my cache to my larger hard drive. Now this is no longer possible.

Now I am constantly having to manually clear my cache and am unable to specify where I want the files to be kept.

This needs to be restored.

[TheCDay]

I'm out, subscription canceled.... 

The major reason I got spotify was because of the offline music option and you broke it. Off to google music, and ill drag every person I know with me. Your company sucks, your decisions suck and when you go belly up I hope every other company just lets you stupid idiots go poor instead of buying you out.

Paying a monthly fee for this BS was one of the worst decisions I have made. 

[dantheother]

Bring this back

Been a paying customer for almost 3 years now. Love spotify. Recommend it to all my friends. Got a few colleages to sign up. But I too am tiring of the bollocksing around removal of features. My poor SSD is chockers now.

[Medicinebow]

Adding my name to the list here.  Spotify taking up as much space as a AAA video game is unrealistic especially considering I do not have any songs flagged for offline play.  8GB is just way too much with no more option to lower or disable all together.  When my $5 student discount price reverts I will be looking for another service if this is not corrected by then.

[byfieldbirds]

so another day, another update, another fail to restore this fessential eatrure,

that';s what -  3 updates?  since we were told watch this space i'ts coming back soon.

can we at least have a new excuse from the resident apologists for once ?

here's the old lie from 2months ago

"Hey folks, this feature will be returning in a future update of the Desktop app. We'll update you here when we have more news. Thanks!"

how about  updating that to "sorry, the dog ate the code"

or "hey guess what, we were just kidding with you, it's not coming back, ever."

[Tomy_93]

PLEASE, i just think why my Total Bytes Writen of my SSD is grow so fast. NOW I KNOW WHY. Spotify a SSD killer... Change it Fast or i send you a calculation how much Money you have to pay for the Damage! I just have 150 TBW guarantee and you killed maybe One of it in a short time!!!

FAIL, i set the setting to my hdd but you change the options without any Warning.

UND MACHT MAL ENDLICH EINEN DEUTSCHEN SUPPORT AUF.

[backtim8r]

Here's how I solved the problem on Windows.

A. Preparations

1. Close Spotify entirely.
2. Press WIN + R. Copy and paste this: %LocalAppData%\Spotify\Data and hit enter.
3. Windows Explorer should open. Copy the full path from the address bar, e.g. C:\Users\MyAccountName\AppData\Local\Spotify\Data
4. Delete everything in this directory so it is empty.

B. Download ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver

This tool will enable you to mount folders or drives as "Ram Disk" stored in your temporary memory. All files be gone on reboot, unless you choose to create an image. There are a number of interesting use cases so it is worth looking at it not only for Spotify. 

Download here: http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/

C. Launch Spotify Cache in RAM

Open RamDisk Configuration Utility

1. On the Basic tab, set the size according to your needs (the more RAM you have available, the higher you can set the size). I suggest using 256 MB. Check "Allocate Memory dynamically", enable "Launch at Windows Startup", disable "Create TEMP folder".
2. On the Advanced tab, check the point "Use Mount Point". Type in the path you copied in step A.3, e.g. C:\Users\MyAccountName\AppData\Local\Spotify\Data
3. Click okay to launch the disk. 
   If ImDisk complains that the folder is not empty, Open %LocalAppData%\Spotify\Data in your explorer and delete everything.

My configuration:

If everything worked, the folder should display as a shortcut:

From now on, Spotify cache is stored in your RAM. it will be cleared on reboot unless you specify otherwise.

If you found this guide helpful, please vote up!

[DavidDeSloovere]

There's an easier solution if you have a second disc available to this using mklink to create a redirect from one folder to another.

Just open a command prompt as administrator (Win + X, A)

With Spotify UNINSTALLED from your machine (or it won't start up anymore).

> rmdir "%LocalAppData%/Spotify" /s /q

> mklink "%LocalAppData%/Spotify" /d Z:\AppData\Spotify

Just change the target drive and folder to your likings. My extra drive has drive letter Z assigned to it.

I'll leave it as an exercise to the users to do the same while keeping Spotify installed.

Thanks to backtim8r for the idea.

[backtim8r]

Great solution, too. In my case, on my work machine I just have the SSD. Since I have plenty of RAM the ImDisk works great for me. Thanks for the feedback David!

[Anamon]

Replacing the folder with a link is definitely a good workaround until this setting is back. Not that it should be up to us as paying customers to fix broken functionality like this, but you know, at least it works.

My personal "workaround" was to downgrade to v0.9.7, because it also returns another removed feature that is absolutely essential to me: filtering playlists.

I'll definitely give a virtual upvote to backtim8r's ramdisk method though, this is a good idea anyway. I might do that even after the settings have been returned. I have an abundance of RAM, as most people these days do, and I don't use downloaded playlists (which I guess would be lost after a reboot as well). Almost more importantly, I've always noticed how Spotify tends to slow down to a crawl as the cache fills up, and have had to empty it regularly. That happens automatically when using a ramdisk, leading to a faster Spotify. Result.

[LivingL]

Where do you get the old versions?