Annoying "Cellular Data is Turned Off for Spotify"

[lourencovc]

This is SUPER ANNOYING!!!! 

I'm a Premium member and it's the most annoying thing ever.

Just because I don't let Spotify use cellular data, EVERYTIME i launch Spotify on my iPhone (even when connected to WiFi) there comes the annoying message that "Cellular Data is Turned Off for Spotify. You can turn on cellular data for this app in Settings"

I KNOW!!!! I was the one that turned it OFF!!!!

Beats music arrives in european App Stores and I will change to it in a heart beat if this is not solved! 

[blake]

This is a very annoying issue, but unfortunately, it's not on Spotify's end: that message is an iOS alert that appears on any iOS app that has cellular data disabled. 

My recommendation is reenable mobile data in iOS settings and use Spotify's 'offline mode' (Settings -> Playback), which also prevents Spotify from using up your mobile data.

[jeremygoh]

@lourencovc it works both ways - in the past, there are many people which never had the cellular data on and complained that the service never ever worked and provide bad reviews on the service..

A small majority of people turn their cellular off - unless they ran out of data that month. If not the iPhone will use the Wifi connection even though the wifi and cellular data is on. It will only use the cellular data as a fallback when it is not connected to wifi.

[Rodrigo]

This banner is a notification from the system. It appears every time you're connected via mobile data and you try to launch an app with mobile data connection restricted.

For example, I turned off cellular data for Dropbox on my phone. Now, imagine I don't have a wifi connection available but I need to open an important document stored at my Dropbox. I'd probably not even remember I had turned off Dropbox's cellular data access, since I use it mostly over wifi. I'd just launch the app as I do with the other ones.

Because of that, instead of displaying a broken application and to prevent me from getting frustrated trying to figure out why Dropbox won't connect, Apple created this banner. It remminds me I restricted that app, but if I need to, I can restore its access.

"But why does Spotify have this banner if it has an offline mode?" The answer lies on what you need to think about when building an Operating System.

With iOS, Apple needs to create something that covers the majority of the possible scenarios their custumers will face. In the case of "Restricting Cellular Data Access", almost all the apps people would restrict only work with an internet connection. Since the apps only work online, it makes sense to add a remminder to the user that the app was restricted if he/she try to use that app with mobile data. That's why Apple created this notification. That is what happens with 85% of the user base, I'd say.

On the rest of the scenarios, the app would either require no internet connection at all or have an offline mode (Spotify's case). This is what you're facing. You're on the minority of the cases. 

You simply turned off data access to that app because you don't want to waste your data plan with something that has an offline mode! This app doesn't require to be connected in order to function, why do you need to see this annoying remminder banner everytime!?

First, let's understand when the banner appears. The conditions are:

- Connected to the internet with Cellular Data

- Launch an App

- The app's mobile data access is turned off

The majority of Apple's custumers would only face this scenario some times. However, the minority, who uses apps with offline mode, would trigger the banner on a daily basis or even more frequently.

As I explained before, Apple needs to solve the majority of the possible problems. They never meant to keep bugging you. They only want to prevent that user who forgot he restricted his Dropbox from having a bad experience with his phone by remminding him he turned off data for that app, instead of letting him assume his phone has some problem or Dropbox is full of bugs.

I hope this answered your question! ;D

[Out_Off_Memory]

Hi,

May I ask where you got the numbers/percentages from as mentioned in your message?

🙂

[2theMax]

To Rodluizpant,
Your explanation is written nicely and coherently, but you're missing one thing; This annoying notification pops up EVEN WHEN CONNECTED TO WI-FI! If it only popped up on cellular, that would make sense as you say. But if I chose not to let my app connect to cellular, I don't freaking need to know about it when I'm connected to Wi-Fi! Very annoying...

[Rodrigo]

Hello @2theMax!

This is strange, the notification only appears on my phone when I'm using mobile data, nothing happens when I'm using wifi.

What's your device and iOS version? I'm running 8.1.1 on my iPhone 5S.

You can always try a clean reinstall. To do that:

1. On the home screen, tap and hold the Spotify icon until it shakes.
2. Tap the X symbol on the icon.
3. Turn your device OFF and then back ON
4. Open the App Store then search for and install the Spotify app.

[kroyster · Accepted solution]

This annoying message is a problem for any app that has cellular data disabled - not just Spotify.  I found the following kludgy work-around buried within an Apple support thread, where almost 500 people have complained about the same issue:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/27220838#27220838

• Settings > General
• Scroll down to Restrictions, enter your passcode and select Enable Restrictions
• Scroll down to the bottom of this list and click Cellular Data Use, select Don't Allow Changes

This doesn't seem to work for everyone depending on version of iOS, but it worked for me.

[chibitul]

I have this issue on my iPhone (iOS 7). I never used Spotify in iOS 6 so I don't know if that was an issue or not. But I don't think it is an issue with iOS. I have cell phone data diabled for both Pandora and Spotify. Each time I am home, on WiFi, Pandora is happy, it bever complains that cell phone data is off. Spotify complains ALL THE TIME. If I am on WiFi, why does Spotify look for cell data? Pandora works fine, Spotify does not.

[Zawatthe]

Agreed, surely it should only look for cellular if wifi isn't available.

[doujouDC]

Oh thanks goodness. I truly thought I was going to cancel my premium subscription, because of this issue. Very appreciative of people that answer the question, rather than go on unrelated tangents

[rw_too]

Thank you. I had the opposite problem. My iPhone 7 is configured via Bluetooth with my 2010 Ford Escape. I specifically wanted Spotify not to use cellular data, and yet, frequently it was - In fact I burned through almost a GB of data last month, mainly due to this happening and me not realizing until after the fact. Tofay, in and out of my vehicle multiple times, it must have connect 7 out of 10 times. I'm hoping this restriction will fix it. Thanks again