Downloading on Apple Watch stuck at first song

[Mihail]

Hey folks,

We're receiving reports that some users are unable to download music for offline listening on their Apple Watches. The download is stuck on the first song and doesn't progress.

If you’re experiencing this issue, make sure to add your +VOTE and follow the instructions in the Status Update below.

We'll be keeping everyone up to speed here, so make sure to Subscribe to this thread. 

Thanks! 

[aaronkalb1]

@Davebass5 your suggestion finally worked after I spent hours trying everything. In fact, I had to do your suggestion TWICE to get it to work.

Here are the steps I followed EXACTLY, starting with both the iPhone and Apple Watch powered on, most up to date software installed and connected to the same wifi network.

1. Log out of Spotify on the phone.

2. Delete Spotify on the phone by going into Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Spotify > Delete App

3. Verify the Spotify is removed from the Apple Watch. Let the phone do this automatically.

4. Restart your iPhone. 

5. Once you unlock the iPhone and are on your homescreen, then go ahead and restart your Apple Watch.

6. Once your watch is back on, download Spotify on your phone and log in.

7. Open up your Apple Watch and confirm the Spotify watch app is installed. Install through your phone if it's not.

8. Find your playlist and click "Download to Apple Watch". The new playlist downloaded quickly, almost instantaneously for me.

I'm not sure whether this had an impact or not, but here are a few key things I did differently.

 - Uninstall Spotify through the phone Settings > General > iPhone Storage. Don't just long press the Spotify icon to delete.

 - Reboot the phone entirely and let it power up before starting the reboot process on the watch.

 - Don't select "Download to this device" on the playlist. Just download right to the Apple Watch.

 - Basically don't do anything on the Apple Watch, just let the iphone manage everything

 - Turn off passcode lock on the Apple Watch, it makes it less frustrating to work with.

[Davebass5]

Im glad i managed to help a few, but for me it was just a fix for the ‘loading’ issue. 

For 2 days i had no issues with transferring the tracks to the watch. I was getting good speeds and it seemed less hassle than Apple music, but today ive not had any luck with any album using Spotify. Just ‘downloading’, not even the first track. 

So, nothing changed, not network issues, sitting in the same spot at home. Somedays it works, others it doesn't. As this is a new watch im not going to re pair it. Whats the point? It was working and without any changes it stops.

Anyone considering un pairing and re pairing just dont bother, its not a fix and if it is its a short term one. Spotify are just re posting what WE are coming up with, and making it look like its a workaround. Its not, and it shouldn't be needed. Once working it should stay working. 

No wonder Apple didnt want them to do this in the first place. 

[db134]

I completely agree with @Davebass5. I have tried EVERY one of these convoluted formulas, resetting, reinstalling, etc. multiple times, and it still doesn't work. It's just a blank "downloads" screen. Even the people who had it work for a second are seeing it break again.

This feature is just broken, period. Spotify needs to remove it until it actually works. Wasting all of our time with this song and dance routine is crazy and makes me want to switch back to Apple Music again. 

[Fantozzi78]

Hi all, 

to be honest, one of the reasons for my purchase of new AW 7 was the possibility to do sport activities without my iPhone and use offline listening of Spotify songs downloaded to my AW. Unfortunately, I am experiencing exactly same issue with "Loading" screen in the Downloads section. I have tried all tricks/tips from this thread and NOTHING works for me. This is very frustrating and now it really seems, that the only option is to switch to Apple music.....

Iphone 12

Apple Watch 7 

All updated with the latest versions of everything....

[GavP]

Hi all,

I stumbled across this thread today after having problems...scary how many people have when you do a quick google, assuming it would work perfectly out of the box.

I too bought an AW mainly to be out and about without the need to carry my phone (plus to replace an aging fitbit that couldn't be read outside).  

I've had some success with the downloads of Spotify playlists to my AW but only after picking up on one key point... that the playlists on the AW have a maximum of 50 tracks.  Before I spotted that, my main playlist of hundreds of tracks just didn't download.  Got to about 17 tracks I think and stopped.

Since setting up a few smaller playlists, they've all downloaded fine without problems.  I did add to one of them after downloading the first 12 tracks and the AW is still showing as having 12 tracks but does have (and play) the full playlist, so maybe that will update the track count later...not bothered if not as long as it plays.

Iphone X

Apple Watch 7

[fets1981]

Hi , for me works very similar as posted ago @Deejaycrox ¡ Thank you!!!!!!!!!

1. iPhone with WiFi and Bluetooth On, then select a playlist to download to Apple Watch in the Spotify app on iPhone.

2. In the Apple Watch appears the "Loading......" in my case, but nothing happens right??

3. Put iPhone into Airplane mode with WiFi and Bluetooth ALSO OFF.

4. Apple Watch then connect to your Wifi Only (that somewhere was previously setup), if not, force to connect it.

5. The playlists start to downloads over WiFi automatically and immediately¡¡¡

6. My playlist has 70 songs, my apple watch is new with the 24,5 GB available, but the playlist only downloaded with 50 songs.

7. So I will try another play list for the 20 songs, and/or start creating 50 songs play lists.

Please Note the playlist dowloaded only 50 songs (out of the 70) and the red icon of Apple Watch disconnected from iPhone is there.

[snoopman]

Same issue here.

Reinstalling the app on iPhone (it was automatically reinstalled on the watch also) did help.

Hope it will not come back, as first everything was working fine, and then got the bug.

Spotify definitely should do something about this.

Cheers.

[Sjogr3n]

Any updates on this from Spotify? I just got an Apple Watch (Series 7) and am having no luck with any of the proposed solutions in this thread thus far.

[jlb522]

I am having this same issue but on my Android phone. It has been doing this since yesterday evening. It downloads 1 or 2 things and then gets stuck in the download loop at around 20%. Left it download all night last night and was stuck at 20% again this morning. Please help. Need my podcasts to get through my workday.

[Ver]

Hey folks,

Thanks for the info.

Could you check if there are any changes after updating to the latest app version?

If nothing changes, please share with us the exact Spotify version that is running on your device.

Keep us posted.