Prioritise streaming quality over download quality

[robertst]

Currently, the Spotify desktop app (and probably also the mobile app) seems to prefer downloaded versions of songs over the streamed versions even if the streamed version is of higher quality.

In my case, for instance, this is a problem because I have my songs downloaded in very high quality as backup but want to stream them in lossless quality.

Adding an option to prioritise streaming quality over download quality in cases like this would be great considering the size lossless music could take up.

[MateusM · Accepted solution]

Hey there @robertst!

Thanks for reaching out.

As you can see in this post, "Downloaded songs will be played in the quality that they were originally downloaded in, even if you are currently on a WiFi connection. If you want your Offline Backup and downloaded songs to be in Lossless, you will need to clear them first and then re-download them. If you change the streaming quality, song files that were already cached in a higher quality than the selected quality will be preferred."

So in this case, I'd suggest you create a new idea by following these steps, then users can add their votes in the Community. Just make sure you follow our Idea Exchange Guidelines.

Hope this helps! 
/Mateus

[autumncz]

I seem to face the problem the other way around. I'd like my device to stream the music online with the best quality, however it seems to be playing the downloaded tracks instead (which i have downloaded in low quality due to storage problems). I'd like to stream tracks online although i have them saved. Is there a way to do so? Thank you!! 

[Darius0404]

Since lossless has appeared I've been listening to a playlist of test tracks - some of the tracks on this playlist are downloaded, most are not. I download in "normal" quality to save space on my phone but now stream "lossless" over WiFi.

When listening through this test list, I have noticed that the songs in the playlist that are downloaded (at normal quality) will only ever play at normal quality despite being connected to Wifi. The non downloaded songs stream fine at lossless quality. I can't seem to get the downloaded songs to play at lossless, no matter what I do. However if I remove them from downloads, they then stream at lossless quality. 

I don't want to redownload all of the tracks at lossless quality - it would simply take up far too much hard drive space. But I do want to be able to listen to lossless quality for these tracks when I am connected to WiFi. 

Is there a way to force Spotify to play at highest quality (lossless) when on WiFi and not default to the downloaded quality?

[lqdswrdsmn]

From what I've read, I understand that spotify will play from downloads even when I have a stable Wifi/5G connection. The issue I have is that my download quality is set to normal, but I want to stream the music at very high quality when I'm at home. And since I have pretty much all my music downloaded, it always plays at normal quality. 
Is there a way I could stream songs that I have downloaded? Maybe it's possible when lossless is available?

[MattSuda]

@lqdswrdsmn

This is currently not possible (downloads are always prioritized) but you can vote for this idea here:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Option-to-stream-in-Lossless-quality-while-keeping-lower...