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?

[haydnrb7]

Please look at what I think could be the problem (and possibly the solution):

I noticed that the SD card only mounts AFTER I unlock the first time after the boot. You can see it by the SD card icon who apears quickly at status bar just after the unlock. For security reasons, it make sense, since someone who stole the phone could try to load malicious software via external storage. Spotify service probably loads BEFORE the SD card mount, and then, like a mother who call the police when his son is 30 seconds late to come back home, it switches to the internal memory and starts to download all again. If the PIN is typed before the system boot, the SD card mount and when Spotify service loads, it can find the external storage. Works like a charm. 

This solution did not let Spotify devs off the hook, since many other apps that use external storage didn't present this issue at all.

SOLUTION:

Make sure, if you have a PIN or password set, to Android ask BEFORE the system boot.

Further information here:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Storage-switched-back-to-internal-at-every-reboot-I-ve-found-the/m-p/4714532

[marcellocaps]

Just enable developer options and force to the application to install onto the SD card. This prevents Spotify from starting before the card is mounted...problem solved... Spotify can't be bothered to delay startup and don't care about SD card users

[WillianWRM]

Developer options enabled but no option to move app to SD is available.

I know the problem is the boot sequence but a (good) programmer would:
a) add all the services dependencies, so the system would know the correct sequence, OR/AND
b) add some thread to background check for SD load delay, when success change the library to the correct one

[dgs2-q_s9hk3h]

🤷‍♂️... yeah they could tell the app to not delete the hand shake code and
tell it to allow manual search for library. you can always try the other
work around. put the Spotify app into deep sleep before restarting then
after the phone is fully restarted remove it from deep sleep......

[WillianWRM]

I did try putting Spotify in deep sleep (app pause I suppose) before reboot but didn't work; after the reboot I did wait several minutes, did open files in SD card using other apps, but Spotify did go back to internal storage after resumed.

My guess is that Spotify uses some kind of background service that was not paused OR this issue is not related only with SD card not ready.

[UsuarioAnon]

Can't believe Spotify still hasn't addressed this issue... Going on a year ago now I got a new phone with a microsd slot specifically to add a lot of music to it and it's basically worthless.

I'm so close to just changing to tidal over this and the lack of hifi.... 

Please fix this Spotify!! 

[dgs2-q_s9hk3h]

get a pixel 6pro or 7/7pro they come with 128gb and 256gb internal
storage.... no sdcard slots

[WillianWRM]

Restricting the Spotify in battery settings seems to have fixed the issue.
The app didn't like that much and requested to configure it back to optimize, just ignored that.

[justusemyprofile]

I am having this issue.

Every time there is an Android update, it takes a little while for the SD card to initialise after boot.

In this time, Spotify defaults to the internal storage.

I use an SD card because my Spotify library is far too large to fit on my internal storage.

Spotify then attempts to re-download my library to the internal storage and has to be stopped.

When told to run from SD card, it deletes all Spotify information from the SD card and THEN re-downloads the library to the SD card, effectively overwriting itself with the 40GB of files that were already there.

Not to mention, when asked to relocate to the SD card, it breaks for about an hour while in a loop of "Spotify is restarting" "Spotify cannot restart"

This makes Spotify unusable for a day every Android update, which sucks because I spend basically all day at work listening to Spotify.

The issue seems to be very simple to resolve on Spotify's end. The problem is that the app does not understand that its directed storage device is gone, when the SD is waiting to mount after update.

Spotify should start with a warning - "preferred storage device missing - revert to internal storage Y/N".

Then, when the preferred storage device is located, Spotify should just attempt to verify files and see what is actually missing (if anything), a thing that ANY OTHER MEDIA APP does when starting from update.

The first response of an app that is based wholly on downloaded data should NEVER be "download everything before checking". This is an absurd set of options.

I'd rather that Spotify not run properly for half an hour and then remember who it is, than have to hand-rear it for six hours while it re-downloads the entire god damn library.

[dgs2-q_s9hk3h]

its only when Spotify updates. but Spotify hasn't changed in years and any
required security updates will be automatically installed regardless so
simply turn auto update off... or i recommend buying an pixel they have 128
or 256 internals and no sd card slot...

[kurosawsa]

I would like to see a native android option to chose to install / move spotify on my external storage. The setting to move all offline music to the external storage keeps on failing. I would like to have this pass on to the developper's team. I am a subscribed Spotify premium member. I do not know how to create a support ticket!