Apple Watch downloads failed

[Giles1b]

Plan

Premium

Country

Device

(iPhone 12

Operating System

(iOS 10,

My Question or Issue

I have a playlist  that is downloaded on my iPhone (12), when I select “download to Apple Watch “  it instantly says “failed” In The downloads of my watch .. .(series 6)

[Alex]

Hey there @Giles1b,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

We'd recommend you run a clean reinstall of the app both on your phone and the watch.

If the issue continues after that, let us know if that's happening with a specific playlist or any that you try and download.

Cheers,

[Giles1b]

Hi, I tried a clean install but it still doesn't work. It seems that any playlist that came from my Mac as local files doesn't work (even though it works on my Iphone fine). Any playlist that is not local files can be downloaded to my watch.

[Alex]

Hey @Giles1b,

Thanks for the reply and the clarification.

Unfortunately it's not possible to download local files on the watch yet.

This is most likely why the download of playlists which include such fails.

Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.

[Andrew0887]

Strange, but I've noticed that Apple Watch downloads fail unless I keep the watch screen awake throughout the entire playlist download. I've actually noticed the same thing when downloading podcasts using the Overcast app.

iPhone 12 mini, iOS 15.3, Spotify 8.7.6.1559

Watch Series 3, watchOS 8.4

[Jeremy]

Hi there @Andrew0887,

Thank you for getting back in touch with us.

We've tried this from our end and we can reproduce the same behavior as you're mentioning.

Can you redownload Spotify on your apple watch and then repair it with your account to see if the issue persists?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[Andrew0887]

Thanks for your suggestion @Jeremy, removing the app and redownloading it actually seems to have fixed the issue.

[MikeBoi]

I had trouble also. But keeping my watch close to my iPhone and then making my iPhone screen stay permanently on while downloading worked for me.

[esuuysal]

Hello Alex,

I have done a multiple clean installs but there is this particular podcast that keeps failing when I try to download it. It's This American Life.

Thanks,

Su

[Lyubka]

Hey there folks,

Thank you for your replies in this thread!

@esuuysal, We've tried reproducing this ourselves and we were able to download this podcast. 

Your issue might be caused by an old cached files on your device. We'd recommend taking a look at this page to see how to clear your cache. It's also a good idea to try the workaround that @MikeBoi suggested.

If the issue persists, would you mind checking with a different network connection to see if it makes any difference? In case you don't have another one available, you ask a friend or a family member to start a hotspot for you to test it. 

Let us know how things work out,

Cheers!

[MeWhoExactlyWhat]

Nope. Still have issues downloading a playlist to the apple watch, despite trying it on multiple different wifi networks, etc. Gets a little ways in, then says failed. There must be more people experiencing this...

[Lyubka]

Hey @MeWhoExactlyWhat,

Thank you for your reply in this thread.

You mentioned you've tried on multiple different networks, would you mind letting us know what other troubleshooting steps you've tried so far to fix this? We'd like to gather as much info as possible so we can advise you better. It'd also be great if you could send us a quick video where we can take a better look at this behavior.

On another note, redownloading the app on the Apple Watch seems to fix this issue. You can give this a shot in the meantime!

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[ltdesign]

Hello, I am having this same problem. I have only ever been able to download 4 playlists to my watch, and two of them disappeared recently. The only way I could get it to work the first time was by disconnecting my phone from Bluetooth and then tapping Download to Apple Watch. However, in the past couple weeks, this method doesn't work anymore either.

I would like to try to redownload the spotify app to the watch, but I am not sure how to do that. Can you give isntructions?

[Vasil]

Hey @ltdesign,

Sorry to see this has been happening to you!

Could you go to your Watch app on the iPhone, then scroll and find Spotify, tap on it and then toggle off Show App on Apple Watch? This will delete the app on the watch only.
Then there are two ways to re-download it.

1. Open the App Store on the Apple Watch, type Spotify, tap Search and then click on the download button. There should be something like a little cloud icon to do so.
2. Open the Watch app on the iPhone, scroll down find Spotify and click on install

Let us know how it goes!

[dessita]

I'm having the same issue, this is not new and the bugs on Apple watch are exhausting, why can't it just work every time?? Ever since the last update what used to work simply with downloading podcasts from the phone to the watch now starts but fails to download even if I keep both phone screen and apple watch open on downloads.

I'm a premium plan, on an iPhone 13pro and apple watch 6 all updates to the latest software. I've already deleted the app on the watch and downloaded it again and it made no difference.

[ekp1306]

I have the same problem on my apple watch 7. Even when I see that all songs are downloaded it after 5 sec state that it failed. I don't understand why you can't it implement it so it works. It has never worked stable...

[AliceMunk]

The download music function on Spotify does not work on my Apple watch either. I tried deleting the Spotify app on both the watch, iPhone, resetting my watch completely, unparing and pairing phone again, tried on different networks, tried deleting my cache on Spotify. Nothing works. Listening to music on my Apple watch without bringing my phone was my sole reason for buying an Apple watch. Could you please fix this bug? It persisted throughout several software updates

[Vasil]

Hey folks!

Could you try rebooting your watches?
In some cases in the past this has brought everything back to normal.

If your watch is still responding - try standard reboot with these steps:
Hold the Side button for a few seconds > tap on Power off icon and then slide to Power Off the watch. After a few seconds, press the Side button to turn the Apple watch back on.

If your watch is not responding - try forced restart with these steps:
Press and hold down the Side button and the Digital Crown at the same time until the watch powers off and then displays the Apple logo. The Watch will start after a few seconds.

Hope that helps!

[dessita]

Yes, Vasil. WE ALL HAVE TRIED RESTARTING AND REBOOTING THE APPLE WATCH AND IT STILL DOESN'T WORK. Stop wasting our times with this reply, it just has to be fixed. This has been going on for years. Many of us only bought the apple watch so we can not carry our phones on exercising etc and being able to listen to music PROPERLY DOWNLOADED on it. Please fix.

[louis20]

I have tried all the steps mentioned above and unfortunately it doesn't work for me either.
Could you please fix the bug as soon as possible?