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?

[ziul123]

Well, most of your "workarounds" are actually just "give up on using an sd card" and "buy a better phone", so I hope you can see why it looks like you're defending spotify. In my opinion the only true workaround is installing spotify to external storage and disabling auto updates, anything else is just abandoning the problem

[marcellocaps]

This thread has been going for years.

Activate developer options, allow force installation onto SD card and move the app to the SD card, end of problem as the app can't start until the SD card is mounted. Each time the app is updated it will be moved back to the SD card and no downloads will be lost as the download location/pointer stays on the SD card. The only issue with SD cards is the continuous caching and writing which shorterns their lives.

The phasing out of SD cards is just another industry scam as they want people to use more cloud and less offline storage which is waste of energy, battery, server electricity etc etc; the list is long.

No matter how much internal storage one has there is no justifiable reason to remove the right to have more.

[dgs2-q_s9hk3h]

Sorry that wasn't a work around, that was an opinion. There are 2 work
arounds.

First go to settings developer options force allow apps on external. Then
Install Spotify to the external storage device. Once installed you need to
shut off automatic updates both in google play and in the app and don't
update Spotify. Sense as we've seen Spotify doesn**bleep** for its
customers the updates are basically meaningless anyways.

Second depending on which version of Android you have the way to do this is
different but basically you put Spotify into deep sleep or pause it. In
the newest android you go to developer options then stand by apps and set
Spotify to restricted before shuttle your phone off. This will prevent
Spotify from opening at startup. Once the sd card is mounted you can then
turn unpause, unrestrict, or wake up the app. It will then do ita search
and find your SD card.

Its worth mentioning that for most phones if you simply don't encrypt the
SD card then Spotify doesn't have this issue, its the decrypting of the
card that screws up the timing of Spotify. Especially on low resource
phones as decrypting can take anywhere from 3 or 4 seconds to 30 or 40
seconds.....

[Ian39]

I like your effort dsg, you should work for Spotify, maybe you'll fix the issue

Unfortunately all your workaround aren't working for me, they seem to work until some other sh** happen and voila all download gone or else. (by the way updated app to latest version and still nothing works now they even change UI to a super duper dumb layout, because hey! why fix something when you can break something else? effin sadist bastards) so... redownloading again my 80G of music for the next 3 days or so and now with a setting layout that make me sh** and wonder if someone from microsoft it's working for them.

[dgs2-q_s9hk3h]

Have you tried amazon music🤷‍♂️

[ROBYER1]

When was the status update added to this here? Waiting for this to be fixed still.

[UsuarioAnon]

Somehow, EVERY other music streaming app I've tried (YTM, Amazon music, tidal, and qobuz) doesn't have this issue. Spotify, listen to us and please fix this now! It's been years with 0 response. Please give us an update. 

[vaajy]

I stopped using offline mode. I even biked far, 100 kilometers on mtb, with only 512 kbps 4G Unlimited internet. I pay €4 for it total. Nothing is stored and full trip with music. May not be ideal for everyone, but only at my next phone I will buy more storage inline. The 256 GB storage would be ideal, but I am not in a rush. It's not good to update something that works 32 GB.

I still hope they fix issue. I have 32 GB micro sd card, and I can not use it for Spotify because of this bug.

If I could, there would be no need to update phone at all as I could have 14 GB free storage. Now only 3 GB.

Spotify cache takes 10 Gb, they could even solve this issue partially for me at least, just make a toggle at how much storage should be used. For a music app stealing 10 GB of my phone is too much!

[vaajy]

Got new phone A55 from Samsung.

It seems to work, 256 GB storage and I can download Spotify playlist 50+ GB and 10 GB cache without issues. No headphone jack, but with Sony WF-C500 wireless buds that's least of a problem. Haven't tried Micro SDXC card on that honestly, as I prefer 2 sim cards instead, one for my Prepaid with €0 monthly fee at €0.07 min/sms and one with Unlimited 4G 512 kbps internet €4 month.

On my main Prepaid card internet is expensive, so I grab internet from another sim card instead of Micro SD card.

Seller said on pricey phones Spotify could work better with SD card as phones are faster and more resources.

On A04s Samsung bad processor and no memory to run Spotify with hope to install few apps.

I was done in almost 2 years and also done with developers not doing a thing to fix issues.

[jaxs1028]

Been following this issue for years now (haven't read every comment though, sorry). Far as I can tell on recent-ish Android the SD Card is mounted later in the boot. Late enough that Spotify's start on boot happens sooner than the SD Card is mounted. Spotify being the-good-app-that-it-is TM loads up and goes "hey there's no SD card here anymore!" and reverts settings.

My personal suggestion to Spotify? Get rid of start on boot
next best? Add a timeout before fully loading the app so that the system has a chance to mount the SD card or perhaps there's a different start on boot that would load the app after a user has unlocked the device (this issue happens on android DAP's too) and maybe then also add a timeout!

This is an incredibly frustrating issue on my Sony NW-a300 where it's got barely any system storage, but I have a 1TB SD Card installed. The only workarounds are 1. don't set anything to download (not useful on a device without cellular) 2. never reboot (impossible in the long run). I've simply had to reduced or stop using Spotify on that device.