podcasts won't download

[Jösh]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

Fairphone 4

Operating System

Android 12

My Question or Issue

Since a few weeks, I cannot download podcasts. Whenever I tap to download an episode, the wheel starts turning and doesn't stop. As soon as I go to flight mode, I have no access to the episodes that I tried to download. Even the ones that I downloaded long time ago, where not accessible offline anymore.

Downloading music works as usual.

I restarted my device multiple times, reinstalled spotify multiple times (including clean reinstall) but it's the same.

I have a lot of space left for data storage. I also tried dowloading via mobile internet, doesn't work either.

I would be very pleased for receiving support 🙂

[Jösh]

I kept on trying a little bit of this, a little bit of that. And - for whatever reason - it works again.

> Problem was solved.

[Vasil]

Hey @Jösh,

Apologies for the late reply here, we just came across your post!

I'm glad everything works well though, thank you for letting us know 🙂 

If the issue resurfaces or should anything else come up, don't hesitate to reach back to us 🙌🏼
Many thanks!

[Jösh]

Unfortunately, the issue comes back again and again. After a few days, I cannot access the episodes offline and I can only see the spinning wheel. Often, it will work again after a log out/log in. But also the issue will come back soon…

[Eni]

Hey there @Jösh, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

Could you let us know if you're using an SD card? If so, we suggest that you remove it > perform a clean reinstall of the app > restart your phone and check if this did the trick.

If the issue persists, could you ask a friend or a relative to log in to their account on your phone and check if they can replicate this behavior? 

We'll be on the lookout.

[Jösh]

Hej @Eni,

Thank you very much for the quick response. Can I reinsert the SD card right after the clean reinstallation? Or what would be the idea?

[Jösh]

Hi @Eni,

Meanwhile I've done quite some tests.

I realized, that my offline episodes were gone after an update. I cannot yet say, if that was just a coincidence or if it is reproducable.

What I found reproducable: Whenever I restart my phone, my offline episodes are anavailable and the spinning wheel appears instead. Then, I have to logout. When I want to relogin, the following error appears:

So the login fails. After restarting the device, I can relogin and download the episode sucessfully. This whole procedure, I repeated several times and it happens every time. And: I also tested the procedure with the SD card removed, same behavior.

One additional test I did: After the logout, when I 'Clear storage' of spotify in the app manager, it is possible to login without a restart of my device (the error message would not appear again). However, it is still not possible to download episodes. Therefore, it seems that I cannot avoid a restart.

Hope to hear from you soon!

[Eni]

Hey @Jösh, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

You mentioned that you already tried with a different internet connection, just to confirm, did you get the exact same result? 

On another note, it'd be useful if you could ask someone such as a friend to log in to their account on your phone to see if they can replicate this behavior. This will help us determine if the issue is account-related. Also, could you try logging in to your account on a different mobile device to check if the same happens?

We'll be on the lookout.

[Jösh]

Hi @Eni,

Yes, the result is independent from the internet connection I use.

Finally, I found someone having spotify premium who also knows his credentials. I was able to reproduce the issues, i.e., the offline episodes were not accessible after I had restarted my phone and I was not able to download them.

[Joan]

Hi @Jösh,

Thanks for the reply. Can you confirm if you also tested on different devices as @Eni suggested? If you haven't, please try and do so and let us know how it goes.

Keep us posted.

[Dark_Hurrabusch]

Hi @Joan,

I use a Fairphone 3, I am from Germany like @Jösh and have exactly the same problem since Sep/Oct as well (did all possible troubleshooting steps, too).

Is it possible that there is a connection of this error to the proprietary Google libraries? I use a LineageOS-fork of Android 12 (/e/OS) which relies on microG, an open-source implementation of those libraries. Many Fairphone users use /e/OS, so maybe it's the same issue with @Jösh's Fairpone 4 here.

[Jösh]

Hi @Joan,

Yes, I had tested it on my old phone, the issue did not happen. Sorry for not letting you know before.

And I can confirm what @Dark_Hurrabusch mentioned, I am using /e/OS. 

[Maria · Accepted solution]

Hey there @Jösh & @Dark_Hurrabusch,

Thanks for the additional info!

Seems like the issue might be related to the operating system. Since it's not a fully supported OS, we can only recommend keeping the app up-to-date so that you don't miss out on any fix.

We would usually suggest some troubleshooting, similar to what @Jösh already mentioned. However, we're not able to guarantee that it will work in this specific case.

The Community is here for you, should anything else come to mind!

[Jösh]

Hey @Maria,

Thanks for the support anyway. Sorry in that case for bothering. I did not expect it would be an issue with the OS since it had been working perfectly so far.

[peterle_]

Hello!

I had the same problem with a FP3+ and /e/OS since a while.

For not giving up I searched every view weeks. Shortly I found this community link.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Your-Library/Podcast-not-downloading-correctly/td-p/5872217

I tried the recommended things and for me what worked very well was to toggle on 'download audio only' under Settings > Data Saver.

Best regards

peter

[Dark_Hurrabusch]

@peterle_
<> :
It worked. You are my hero 😄