Issue with storage option switching from SD Card to internal

[haydnrb7]

Plan

Premium

Country

US 

Device

Moto X4

Operating System

Android Pie

My Question or Issue

 This happened with my last phone, Samsung S7 running Oreo (or whatever the most recent OS is) but it was fixed when I got the Moto X4. I like to keep a lot of songs downloaded offline because my service is terrible and I also spend a lot of time in the mountains. Before I I update my phone to the new Android Pie OS there was no problems. Now everytime I reset my phone I think spotify cannot see my SD card at first and tries to download all the music to its internal storage and I have to go back in and tell it to store it in the SD card. That is extremely annyoing but not the end of the world. What is really frustrating is that I think all of the downloaded songs are still on the SD card and just keep redownloading and taking up space. Eventually this will cause me to reformat the card which will be a major pain for me since I store a large amount of photos on there also. Is anyone else have this problem? I have already uninstalled and reinstalled the application so any other suggestions or help?

[tilusnet]

With the recent Android Spotify my offline content gets wiped every few days. The content is stored on the SD card which is encrypted. The data loss seem to always happen overnight, and after it happens, the app is looking at the Internal Storage. If I switch back again to SD Card, the data is no longer there and download start again. It's very annoying.
I'm on Premium Duo.

[UsuarioAnon]

@tilusnet temporary fix (until Spotify gets their **bleep** together) is to go to dev options, standby apps, and put Spotify into restricted mode before rebooting. Has been working to keep my music on the SD card for the last few weeks.

[Keehan]

Since the spotify app initializes before the SD card has time to mount on the phone after something like a restart it downloads all songs to internal storage. Basically downloaded songs to SD card end up back in Internal Storage because of this.

[tilusnet]

@UsuarioAnon , thanks for the response.

I tried your recommendation, it doesn't work for me.

On my Samsung Galaxy S9+, the Standby Apps options are ACTIVE, WORKING_SET, FREQUENT, RARE.

I tried RARE, rebooted, but it doesn't change a thing.

However, it is true, that Spotify loses track of sd card offline content after _every_ reboot.

[UsuarioAnon]

Hey tilusnet, unfortunately I think you need the 'restricted' mode in order for it to work - I think beginning in later android versions (I'm not sure what version you're on but I'm on android 14) they started including the strictest standby mode entitled 'restricted'.

Update: so, I set up a Tasker command that kills Spotify and puts it into restricted mode. I can access this command using the power menu so I've just gotten into the habit of clicking it before rebooting. Pretty pathetic we have to go to these lengths because Spotify can't fix their app, but if you have a rooted phone and want to set it up, let me know and I'll post instructions. 

[leminsc8]

update:

With app update it is posoble to select external sd (right now i use anorher SanDisk 256Gb) but after andorid restart automaticly internal stroge is in use...

Lo

How i can fix it?

[Jvblcklst4]

Cuando apago el movil o lo reinicio por lo que sea, las canciones se borran y tengo que volver a descargarlas todas otra vez.

[ZscooterZUT]

I have a new Sony Walkman NW-A300 using Android 13 2.03.01 and Spotify Version 8.9.86.551. When downloading songs to my 1TB Sandisk, it switches to internal storage in the middle of the downloads. I've tried every uninstall fix I can find, and it continues to occur. Please help me. 

[chuckie0300]

Almost 2025 and no fix. Dev team sleeping and collecting your money while the cellular carrier laughs at your extra data usage

[dgs2-q_s9hk3h]

For the Spotify programmers to fix this issue they would need to have
access to the kernel which they do not. Their only other option would be to
prevent the app from Opening when you restart the phone which isn't
convenient for 99% of users.

However there are 2 work arounds that you can use to fix this issue
yourself.

1 before you restart your phone you can choose to put the app into deep
sleep/restrict it's usage. Depending on what version of Android you have.
On the newer versions (13, 14, 15) you can go to developer options scroll
down to near the bottom and choose 'stand by apps' then 'spotify' and set
it to restricted. This will prevent it from loading at restart. After
restart wait until the sd card is loaded and then go to developer options
again and switch it back to unrestricted. For older android versions you
can use the 'battery and device care' or 'battery'>'background usage' to
put Spotify into deep sleep while restarting.

2 you can also use developer options to 'force allow apps on external' then
move the Spotify app to the sd card(this will remove your library) once on
the sd card you need to turn off automatic updates, both in Google play and
inside the Spotify app. If Spotify updates it will be installed back onto
the internal storage. However unless your phone needs a system update or
there is a critical security update you should be able to go 6 months or
more without losing your library.

The 3rd option is to actually do the math. You can download between 250 and
300 songs per GB by setting aside 5gb of internal storage space for Spotify
you'd be able to download between 1250 and 1500 tracks or around 4500
minutes of continuous listening. Meaning you could listen for 10 hours a
day for 7 days and never repeat a single song.... I've heard the argument
about having the bitrate set at the highest level but the reality is that
if your phone doesn't have 128gb of internal storage, if its even got a sd
card slot then it probably can't even play songs at that bitrate.... And
that's assuming that the version available on Spotify is the original
recording not a commercially available version because once you've re
encoded for a lower bitrate you can't simply reverse the process those
extra bits are gone