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?

[Flexie77]

I've had the very same problem on both my phones and have a solution if anyone's still struggling with this.

It seems the problem is caused by the SD card mounting a bit later than it should. What Spotify does is look for the external memory when you start the app but doesn't see it due to the late mount. Then it switches storage to internal memory. This happens in two instances.

1: When you start up the phone after it's been off. The fix for this is simple. To get the phone to mount the SD in good time, turn on secure start up. This requires your code to start the phone and thus gives the SD time to mount before Spotify looks for it.

2: The second instance is when the CPU sleeps. It seems the sleep cycle also unmounts the SD card and so upon waking the SD takes a few seconds to mount again. If Spotify can't see it during this, it again switches storage back to internal memory. To stop the CPU sleeping I use an app called CPU Awake. It's tiny, very simple to set up and doesn't seem to change battery life at all. 

The above method has totally solved this infuriating issue for me. Hope it helps anyone still having problems.

[mustardkid]

I've not had this problem for a while now. What seems to work for me is when I've restarted my phone I browse to a folder on the SD card with "my files" app before I open spotify. Cant guarantee this is a fix but spotify hasn't switched storage on me once since I've been doing this.

[tompos82]

I'm sorry ongoing issue? 

I'm seeing threads going back to 2016 regarding this topic. And now my device started doing the same...

Switching to internal storage every day now. It was pretty funny for the first 38 times when you're day can only be saved by listening to some of you favorite tunes but Spotify deletes everything instead and starts downloading internal again, but now this joke is a bit old. This is rendering the app useless for me. Not to mention my recent purchase of a 256 gig SD for this exact purpose.

I love this app, but a 3 year ongoing issue is not acceptable on the current level of Spotify.

I tried all I could find on the forums.

1. All permissions granted for the app. 

2. Clean install done multiple times

3. My SD is set up separately from the internal storage (not merged with Android)

4. Offline devices deleted from my Spotify account

And still it will switch to internal, wont see the SD anymore, and register two offline devices for me.

I'm sorry but I'm desperate now. Maybe if there is another complain about this problem than developers will take this "ongoing issue" more seriously.

After using the app for so long, and converting so many of my friends and family to use the app I feel cheated.

[enterquak]

Same here. Luckily this did not happen to me yet during holidays, but even at home this is massively annoying.

Apparently the traffic costs at spotify's side is not sufficient to make them act. Spotify, you seriously need to make this a higher priority! How dare you advertise this feature.

[bigm]

I don't know if spotify fixed the issue on the software side, but it didn't occur for me for some weeks.  At that time I replaced my sd card with a new, more expensive model (SanDisk Extreme Pro), so that might have been the solution in my case.

[dgs2-q_s9hk3h]

Option 1. Trade your phone in for one that comes with Spotify pre
installed.(pretty much any new Android 9)
Option 2. Turn developer options on. Near the bottom You will find 'force
allow apps on external' click it. Then go find Spotify. Long hold the icon
and choose 'app info'. Click on storage. Then under storage used click
change and move Spotify to the SD card....

[enterquak]

@dgs2-q_s9hk3heven after enabling that "force allow" options (and rebooting), there is no move option in the Spotify app options. I have an Android One phone with Android 9 and November patches.

[PlayerEmers]

agreed

I got the same problem ever since i updated my phone

I did the same things as you but the problem always persisted

[dgs2-q_s9hk3h]

You need to open appinfo. Open 'settings' Scroll down to 'apps'. Open apps
tab and scroll down to 'spotify'. Click on it you should see a page that
says 'uninstall' 'force stop' at the top and then a list. The third option
down should be 'storage' click on this on the next page it should say
'clear data' 'clear cache' at the top under It should say 'storage used'
and give an option to 'change'. Click change and select SD card.

[kiduknott]

I'm also having this same issue. It's a big inconvenience, as its causing my phone to run out of internal storage too.

I'm not enjoying the Spotify user experience on my phone, and I've been with Spotify for 10 years.