Spotify Keeps Undownloading Songs

[yandhi]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

(iPhone X, PC)

Operating System

(iOS 12, Windows 10)

My Question or Issue

For almost a year now spotify will randomly delete a few hundred to a few thousand songs from either my phone or my PC (never both at the same time) once or twice a month. This is without me adjusting any settings, they are just in playlists that are set to download and they will randomly start redownloading sometimes when I turn my device on. This is very annoying as one of the reasons I have premium is my lack of reliable internet! When spotify decides to delete and redownload 1000+ songs my entire house's internet goes down for a few hours!

[Ver]

Hey @Siun,

Thanks for getting back to us 🙂

If the issue persists, it's a good idea to give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. That way you can make sure the app is up-to-date and the cache is not causing this issue.

If that doesn't help, you can try with another network. Does the issue persist?

Keep us posted! We'll be right here if you have any questions.

[RadicalRoy]

Your miserable PR spin isn't enough to fix this issue. I have followed every step on this forum as well as several others and not one of them fixes it. It's not a cache issue, it's not a "30 day Activity" issue, it's not a more then 5 device issue. It's not our problem, its yours. Please god please fix this broken platform, Tidal seems like the only option at this point.

p.s. Spotify is so disfunctional when I tried to comment this post for the first time it gave me an error code, great. 

[vekspec]

This isn't the first time this has happened. I'm literally redownloading 1200+ songs, AGAIN! not sure why premium is worth this hassle. Spotify - get your quality control in check!! This is on your end, not ours! and get your forums fixed to, each time I try to post I get an error code!

[Siun]

@Ver

Yes, I have done a fresh install many times and this issue does persist regardless of the clean install on my iOS device (Including my previous iPhone 6 and iPhone 8 and my current iPhone XS) or my windows device (clean windows install 2 times this year for an unrelated issue). 

[Jeremy]

Hey there folks,

Thank you for your replies and confirmation.

Can you log in with another account - such as a friend's or a family member's to see if the issue persists?

It can also be good to try with another internet connection.

Also - can you let us know which version of the app you have?

We'll keep an eye out for your replies.

Cheers!

[HansVermhat]

This is a widely reported issue... Spotify folks, is there any insight from the software devs as to what may be causing it? When a fix is coming? Obv a lot of that info is proprietary, we don’t need/ want to know, but a timeline would be cool. 

Users, is it restricted specifically to mobile devices or the PC/Mac/Linux app as well? What version is installed? What timeframe from when it was downloaded on your device to when it was no longer? When did you last login/ use Spotify? How many playlists are downloaded, how many songs on each (limit on dled songs, playlists, or amount of data?)? This isn’t a tier 1-2 problem anymore, no disrespect to the end user support folks (mad respect actually). I’m a sys admin myself but band aids for a gash ain’t gonna work, I can def relate as I’ve worked on the support end for years starting from tier 1. But is there a Spotify software engineer that can chime in? Give some info on this bug that occurs with downloaded playlists? Issue is in the dev dept, not on support... On an iPhone XS with iOS 14 myself, been an issue with multiple OS versions and multiple iPhones (old was an iPhone 5), playlists seem to last about 2-3 months before becoming undownloaded suddenly. Even if I’ve listened to said playlist a couple days before. 

[Ver]

Hey @HansVermhat,

Thanks for getting in touch with us 🙂

It seems that you might be experiencing an issue that our tech team is currently looking at. The folks are also investigating what might be causing this behavior. You can head here and add your +Vote and Subscribe to the thread. That way you can stay up-to-date with any relevant news about this.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'll be happy to help.

[HansVermhat]

Thanks for the quick reply. Is there a timeline for a fix? When you say the problem is being worked, is it being tested that the problem exists on your end (software or infrastructure) or does it mean the devs are already aware? I’m worried that it’s simply an incident report that’s filed and left to sit. I’m sure all of y’all are very busy but this is a persistent issue and years of reports with no fix other than quick solutions doesn’t bode well for a permanent solution now. In reference to my last question, is it possible this has been reported before but simply was written off as not being able to be replicated and not fixed (assuming the issue is tested first and has to be verified to exist prior to forwarding to software; we all know what they say about assumptions, so I could be wrong)? If those answers are not available by your team, is it possible to get a dev on this thread? Again, huge thanks for your time and replies Spotify team!

[Ver]

Hey @HansVermhat,

Thanks for getting back to us 🙂

The right folks are aware of this and are looking into it. It's a good idea to keep an eye on the thread in case there are updates.

We'll be right here if you have any further questions.
 

[HansVermhat]

So, is this an issue that the software devs are directly made aware of with at least a moderate priority? I do very much appreciate your time, don’t mean to be “that guy”. 

[HansVermhat]

I will be reporting this company to the BBB if you do not give a proper response and I urge other users to do the same as well. Spotify offers little to no user support of any value, coming from someone who worked tier 1-2 support for years. This company should be held accountable.  

[HansVermhat]

Y’all deleted my other comment a second time, but that’s okay. I was cool about it, I was nice. So it’s on y’all. Anyone who reads this forum, don’t expect much from their customer support. Go straight to the BBB report page, I’ll provide a link, this link will now be included in all of my posts as a footer:

https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started

[Augon]

Hello,

I had the same issue. The problem occured several times in the last months. I have no cache cleaning app whatsoever, and having to reinstall it all is clearly not what can be called a solution. As everbody here, the spotify app is the only one with which I had a problem of desappearing datas, so you can't blame it on some other source : Spotify should correct this issue properly.  It is no very kinf to our intelligence to say it's not Spotify’s  fault, I’m sorry to say I do not believe this for one second. I hope Spotify will be able to adress this without involving a full reinstallation : the remaining albums are to be downloaded again, which doubles the initial problem…

[Ivan]

Hey @Augon, 

Thanks for posting on the Community about this. 
 

In case you still experience this you might've encountered an issue that we're currently investigating. Have a look at this thread and add your vote by clicking on the +VOTE button. Make sure you follow the steps under Status Update as well. 

It'll also be useful to Subscribe via the three-dots menu in the top right corner next to the title. That'll make sure you stay up-to-date with any relevant updates about this.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any questions. 

[ChrisDavid]

Years later spotify and still the same issue. my phone now has no songs downloaded and PC shows no songs downloaded but both Phone and PC shows Spotify is taking up 30+ GB each.

does spotify even care ? i logged this post years ago - same **bleep**

[Jeremy]

Hey @ChrisDavid,

Thank you for your post in this thread.

Can you confirm if you followed the troubleshooting steps that's been provided in this thread?
 

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[SSMB]

I left Spotify a while back because it would randomly undownload large selections of music. I tried deleting the cache. I tried reinstalling. I tried undownloading and redownloading on my own. It is clear this is an internal issue with YOUR software and how it works. I returned thinking you may have solved this issue. NOPE today it again undownloading 6000 songs. Do you know how truly frustrating that is when you don’t have service and are depending on your music to help you through your workout routine? Your method of addressing this issue and the thousands of those who have complained with smokescreen responses and ignoring the issue is a crime. You are stealing my money because I’m paying for a service w/the capability of downloading but you don’t seem to care to address a huge issue with your platform. I get the sense your ignoring this may be due to your platform requiring a major rewrite to address the problem. While you have my sympathy, it is unconscionable that you would instead decide to ignore and disappoint thousands and steal from thousands by not providing the service in good faith to the best of your ability that you promise. Don’t ignore me. Don’t ignore everyone. It’s not us it’s you!!! Fix the problem please. I’m sure if we have to we as a community can escalate this. We appreciate you but don’t like paying for something we expect and having a major issue being ignored. Thank you

iPhone 10s — Verizon network- tons of storage space left...

[Alex]

Hi @SSMB,

Thanks for your post!

There are a number of factors that can cause an issue like this. Whenever we can confirm an uptick in reports with similar characteristics we'll make sure to involve the developers as well.

Some common factors to keep in mind are SD cards (while this might not be applicable to you, these often cause such issue) and cache clearing apps. If you by any chance have any cache-clearing apps, try putting Spotify as an exception. 

Regarding the troubleshooting process - We ask for specific details regarding the app's version, involved devices' characteristics and every instance of the issue occurring to each and every user since every single piece of that info matters and reaches the people/teams who then work on fixes or improvements.

Spotify runs on multiple devices with varying hardware from different years, running various OS versions, issues and incompatibilities can occur and cause some features of the app not to work as expected. This is why we are doing our best to gather information on such cases and relay it to the developer teams, so that they can eventually find possible solutions.

Hope you find this information helpful.

[ChrisDavid]

Its been years later and guess what, still no fix. Have you guys actually
checked your pc and mobile phone storage that spotify is using. On my
mobile it shows that i have 25gb of spotify stored from my music downloads,
however i only have a handful of playlists, 25gb of music will give you
millions of songs but thats if the songs actually stayed downloaded, so not
only is this useless app not working its now holding more storage space for
music thats not there, ghost music i assume courtesy of spotify. Spotify
your download system is not working. wth guys. Both on my mobile and pc wth
guys. How many times must we cry out this issue
We are not happy. Dont offer a service if its not working. My entire
family is on spotify, we have to cough out for data each time to
re-download because guess what guys you are only really safe when you
uncapped wifi and listeningat home. Why, koz when you leave the house and
decide to drive and listen to songs from what you think is a donwloaded
playlist, think again, by the end of your trip you will realize you have
used your mobile data instead. How annoying and frustrating and costly. Is
there a better music app we can port to anyone?

[Novy]

Hey @ChrisDavid, 

Thanks for your message. 

We understand where you're coming from. In this case, we'd suggest performing a clean reinstall of the app. This is often an overlooked step, but it can be helpful to get rid of the extra storage taken by the app. 

Then, you can start downloading all your playlists over WiFi and enabling Offline Mode whenever you don't have a WiFi connection. This will ensure that no data is being used to stream.

Let us know how it goes.