[Mobile] Downloaded playlists do not load without an internet connection

[Vasil]

Hey folks!

We’ve received multiple reports that Android and iOS users are unable to play downloaded content while using offline mode. You might get stuck on a loading screen or get an error message saying "Something went wrong. Try again?". 
This is being looked into.

[Joan]

Hi there @solofade,

Thanks for reaching out. Consider trying all the steps provided in this previous thread. After checking them all, consider performing a clean reinstall and checking again if everything works as expected.

Hope this helps.

[simon7212]

It happens only on my iPhone as far as I know. The problem occured around wednesday last week, which was around the day they updated the app (according to the app store). 

It works with another account, they had me trying it out with one of their test accounts when i first contacted the support. 

As you see and as I heard from friends it's not just me having this problem at the moment... Maybe the next update will fix it??

[simon7212]

Sounds exactly like my problem. Heard from a couple friends that they have this issue too. Hopefully one of the next updates will fix it i guess...

[Patrick124]

Plan

Premium

Country

Netherlands/Germany/Austria

Device

Samsung S21 FE

Operating System

Android 14

My Question or Issue

Hi community,

I have come across an issue using Spotify offline. I came across this on a road trip, making it inpossible for me to play my downloaded songs, which is a major function of Spotify lost to me.

The issue is that whenever the app is opened when there is no internet connection, playlists cannot load. This means: the thumbnails of the playlists are not loaded, and when clicking on a playlist, the app shows a loading screen until an error message pops up. I can however play songs (only continue the last played song/waitlist), so the songs are still there. There is just no way to access them.

I have been in contact with Spotify "advisors" who try every solution according to their manual, and I tried a few things myself, to no result. The things tried are:

- offline mode

- deleting cache

- normal reinstall

- clean reinstall

- try another device: using my Samsung tablet (Android) the issue is not there

- use a test account given by the support agent: test account has the same issue (so it does not appear to be account related)

- use a different network to download the songs

- decouple my account from a device

This issue appeared out of nowhere. The day before I discovered it (a week ago), it was not there. There have not been major Android updates then. Im not sure about a Spotify update though.

[MrWaalrus]

I have exactly the same issue. Some playlists load and others don't. It doesn't make sense. I can use the search bar and search my downloaded songs, but the actual playlists just buffer infinitely

I'm on Honor 90 with Android 13. I'm on app version 8.9.10.616

Video of some playlists loading and others not - https://youtube.com/shorts/tvoMp02X1hE?si=HlkrBtV1uRZl-P0V

I've tried a clean reinstall (following the steps that Spotify says to do), I've restarted my phone, manually turned on/off offline mode, aeroplane mode, mobile data turned off. Nothing fixes. This seems to be new as I have never had this issue before. The only way to fix it is to have the playlist pre-loaded with internet connection before you go offline

[Patrick124]

Now that you mention it; trying to search for the playlist's name does not give results. Its like the playlist does not exist.

[Jorge90]

I have that same problem, and also out of nowhere that problem appeared, I also did those steps that you mention, delete cache, I reinstalled it, I went back and downloaded the albums and when I'm In offline mode it does not load the music, only the song that I listened to recently. Someone who can help us solve this problem please 🙂

[elmoz1]

I thought it was an 'offline' setting problem but whether that is on or off, if I disable WiFi and Mobile data on my phone (to simulate being out of range) when I open a downloaded album or playlist on my Motorola Android phone I just get the spinning throttle until the error comes back "Something went wrong..." try again. However this persists and I am unable to listen to my downloads. I have tried reinstalling, redownloading, booting device, clearing cache then redownloading... I have premium mostly for this feature but it has been failing in the last several months. Will this be fixed?

[AlejaR]

Hey folks.

Thanks for your replies and for the info shared.

@JFades would you mind sharing with us the troubleshooting steps you've followed so far? That way we can avoid repeating any steps. If you haven't yet, we recommend you perform a clean reinstall of the Spotify app on your device. By doing that, the app can be up-to-date, and you can make sure the cache is not leading to this inconvenience. You can see the steps for a clean reinstall here.

If this behavior persists, it'd be awesome if you could share with us the make/model and OS of the affected device along with the Spotify version you're running there. Did you notice if this started to happen after a specific event, such as an OS update? If yes, please send us the details. 
 

@simon7212, do you notice any difference if you change the audio quality of your downloads? To do this, go to Settings and privacy> Storage> Audio quality> Download. Change the quality of audio there to see if you notice a difference in this behavior.

On another note, since you mentioned you've heard from a couple of friends that they were experiencing this same issue, it'd be great if you could suggest they post their info here, so we can investigate further. They can post here their device make/model and OS along with the Spotify version they're running.

Folks, It'd be great if you sent us a short video recording of what's happening, so we can better visualize what you're mentioning. You can attach the videos in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload them to YouTube or Google Drive and make them public, so we can watch them.

Keep us in the loop!

[simon7212]

Setting the quality to low didn't make any difference. I've attached a short screen recording of the problem here:

As you see it's not every album. Sometimes seperate albums work, but these change with everytime I go offline again, so it's not just specific albums that don't work... Hope to find a solution soon...