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?

[mneubauer]

The problem is on Spotify's side. I don't understand why Spotify developers can't solve it. It is enough to give a variable in which the location of the files chosen by the user, such as an external SD card, will be stored. If the card is not available then let Spotify choose the default location, but every now and then it should check if the SD card is already available and then choose that location. The SD card may not be available when the device is rebooted or when the user removes the card. Is it that difficult?

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[B4Ben]

1up!

[B4Ben]

1up!

[UsuarioAnon]

Ok, so no clue what it was, but I've been able to use Spotify on my Android 14 phone with microsd for about 4-5 days now and it's been holding on reboot too.

A few possibilities:

1. Spotify had a recent update 

2. I deleted the downloads on my microsd, made sure it was defaulted within Spotify, then wiped the cache / storage of the app itself. 

3. Forced external memory in dev settings.

Really not sure if any of the above is what did it, but it's been working so I'm not complaining. Do wish Spotify would update us as I'm somewhat expecting it to randomly stop working again... 

[WillianWRM]

@UsuarioAnonsome devices seems to work well when enabling external memory in dev settings, mine didn't 😞

My current phone has no SD card slot so I can't really test it anymore.

[Reini99]

I have the same problem, frustrating. Every time I restart my mobile, the location of memory changes from SD to internal. All songs seem still to be on the SD, but Spotify cannot recognize it any more and it needs repeated download (which takes days and fills up the SD).

[ma2ryu]

So this issue was reported in January 2019 and as of June 2024, it has not yet been resolved?
I feel bad for Spotify Inc.
Nothing that takes 5 years to fix, means they don't intend to fix it, don't buy a device like WALKMAN that doesn't have communication capabilities.
I had the same problem today with sony SO-03L and WALKMAN NW-A300. The internal memory was full and it affected the OS.

[vaajy]

"Forced external memory in dev settings."

This worked for you. As soon as Spotify update comes, you need basically download again to micro sd card.

So this DEV tool option is not really a solution.

[dgs2-q_s9hk3h]

Disable the auto updates and don't manually update the app.... That will
work until they force a security update on you. The easiest way is to set
the app to restricted or in earlier android versions put the app into deep
sleep. For 13 and 14 developer options>standby apps>Spotify set restricted.
Once set the app won't open until you open it and won't run in the
background. Set it before you restart your phone then once the phone is
back on and you confirm the sd card is mounted change the setting to
frequent or active.

[UsuarioAnon]

@vaajy Just updated my Spotify app and my downloaded music is still holding on the microsd card - still not sure what did it but it's working.

Updating this - it appears it stopped working after an update (you or another user called that one) but it appears that putting Spotify into restricted mode in dev options does allow me to restart my phone without all of my downloads being wiped from the microsd. Annoying workaround, I wish Spotify would actually respond and fix this.