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[All Platforms] Music keeps un-downloading

 

(iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy 9, Macbook Pro late 2016)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

 

My Question or Issue 

I am soon unsubscribing to this app. I’m paying money for the premium and my songs keep un-downloading. This has happened at least 3 times or more now in the past year. Soon as I get some play list I like, I’ll go into the app on a day where I’m out of service and don’t have data. All the songs will be gone, unable to play because the download erased. Very very frustrating. Seeing how I’m paying for that service and not getting it. 

 

Hey everyone,

 

Thanks for reporting this and providing us all the relevant info. 

 

We've passed your details on to our developers and they have already rolled out several improvements to fix the experience reported. 

 

We are aware that some users do still experience issues with their downloads, but our tech teams weren't able to reproduce it and this seems to be affecting specific devices or setups, so we're unable to find a solution remotely.

 

We're continuously improving the app and optimizing it, so we recommend keeping an eye out for future updates to the app, but can't guarantee this will fix the issue.

 

For now, we'd like to provide some steps which we hope might help:

  • Check out the steps on our support page here
  • Try disabling WiFi assist
  • Check for any settings that could affect the Spotify background data
  • Change the quality of the downloads in the Spotify app

We’d also recommend you try a clean reinstall, which will remove any corrupt data from your device. Just a heads-up, this will remove all your downloads and you'll have to download everything again for offline listening.

Comments
RangerDobby

I'm about to switch to Apple Music myself over this. I love Spotify and everything it offers, but at work I get zero cell reception (thanks govt. buildings made out of cinderblock) and I have like 2k+ songs downloaded. Super frustrating when I go to play music and it's ALL GONE. And here I thought it was an old phone issue. I just got an iPhone 12 pro, running iOS 14.4, w/ Spotify version 8.5.94.848. I've literally done everything. Clean installs, logged out of everything, cleared cache etc. 

michsam23

UPDATE:

I updated to the latest Spotify (v8.5.96.936) last night on my home Wi-Fi network, and was able to redownload (once again) all my local files with no issues.

 

I had no issues playing those files via my Galaxy S10 on my commute into work. I had accidentally left the Wi-Fi on at this time, but my phone settings are set to not look and try to connect to new WiFi unless I tell it to. It also is set to not let me know when theres new networks in range that I can connect to. 

 

HOWEVER, the moment I got to my office and connected to my office Wi-Fi, Spotify gave me a "Downloading" notification, andddddd now all my songs are missing again. It would seem that whenever Spotify is connected to Wi-Fi, it feels the need to check if those local files are still reachable over the network, even though the network name is totally different, and when it cannot find them, it removes them from the device? Which makes no sense whatsoever. Once they are downloaded, they should remain downloaded, unless I remove them from the playlist on Spotify. It should NOT be constantly checking over Wi-fi if it can find the files, theres no reason for it to do that.

 

It might be useful to note that I also use Spotify on my Mac at work (Windows 10 PC at home), but Spotify was NOT running/open when I got the "Downloading" notification this morning.

 

So its not related to the app updating, but rather to the connection of Wi-Fi to one's device? Seems like the fix might be to tell Spotify not to remove my local files on my phone if it cannot locate them on whatever network I'm connected to. 

 

Also interesting, I cannot redownload the songs on my home network unless I open Spofity on my computer... but the mobile app has no issues removing the songs from my phone on my office network even if Spotify isn't actually running on my Mac.

Katerina

Hey there folks,

 

We appreciate you bearing with us as this is being looked into!

 

If you're currently on a desktop or Android app and you're still having troubles, we'd recommend making sure to update to the latest versions currently available. If you're still having troubles, let us know, including the app version you end up with and your device's details. 

 

We'll be keeping an eye out and sharing them with our tech teams.

 

@michsam23, Thanks for sharing that! We've passed this report on to our teams.

 

Cheers.

amd

Thanks for you're reply, but this is taking WAY, WAY too long. It's clear from all the posts that a multitude of people on a multitude of devices with different operating systems and different versions of Spotify are having this problem.

 

In my case, I've noticed that when I'm in an area with poor 3/4G coverage, the green downloaded arrows fade and I can't play certain content even though I have downloaded it to my phone. This is on top of the songs, albums and whole playlists that randomly decide that they're no longer downloaded to my phone.

 

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 13.7, Spotify 8.5.96.967

Compman117

I was having this issue of it redownloading every hour or so, usually after I left the phone inactive/locked for a while, but so far (2 days) it seems to be working correctly.  Two main things I did was (After the usual re-installling of the app, clear cache, redownload):

 

1.  On Android I went into the spotify app permissions (Long press on the spotify icon > hit the i > Permissions) and made sure Files & media was allowed.

2. In settings, search for "Battery Optimization".  Then change the drop down at the top to "All Apps" and look for Spotify.  Set that to "Don't Optimize".

 

Still crossing my fingers but so far all of my local files and playlists remain playable offline.

Pltdekker

Same issue here, with a Samsung S20+. Using SD card as storage (Samsung Evo+ 512GB). Every couple weeks it keeps redownloading my +2500 song playlist.

 

I mean, how hard is it to keep data stable on modern phones & storage? I mean, I got +100gb on pics & vids on that SD and 0 issues.. I bet if I downloaded all the files as loose mp3 I'd have 0 issues as well. Please fix your DRM protected cache shizzle.

MooMoozlebee

Sorry (not sorry) to report that I gave up on Spotify and after checking out competitors have moved to YouTube Music which offers a better app experience for me, lets me import my own audio irrespective of the file type, and DOESNT RANDOMLY DELETE MY DOWNLOADED MUSIC.

 

It's only been a few weeks so far, but at this rate, Spotify is going to become a memory pretty quickly.

 

I don't encourage everyone to go to YouTube Music, but I DO encourage you to shop around. Spotify is NOT the only horse in this rodeo, and you may be surprised at how much you like the competition.

 

And how much their apps work.

Ubergoober434

I'm on android and reinstalled the app as recommended but the songs undownloaded again. I'm on android version 10 and a sm-a515u phone

cal3b123

Been getting this issue for what feels like 6 months now. Almost every time I get in my car and open spotify to listen to one of my downloaded playlists everything is undownloaded. For some reason spotify is still taking up Gb of space as though the songs are downloaded but they are not marked as downloaded on the app. 

 

Using latest version of the app on android 10. I have a hunch it's connected to app updates somehow?  Like whenever the app updates the songs undownload. 

 

Super super annoying and definitely not fixed 💩

FGranata

I have the same problem with my new phone (a google pixel 4a). I have the latest version of spotify (8.5.98.984). I cleared my cache, uninstalled the app and re-installed it. I still get the same issue.

At first I thought that the problem came from my device but looking at all the messages that have been posted so far, I guess that the problem is coming from an update of the app or something else (not from the phone itself).


Writing this message feels like throwing a bottle in the sea. I hope that a solution will be found to this issue ; it is really annoying to pay for something that you don't get at the end.