Downloaded songs skipping/speeding up while driving

[Mikemunter]

Plan: Premium

Country: USA

Device: iPhone 15 pro

Operating System: iOS 18.4.1 (May 2025)

My Question or Issue:

Randomly while I am driving, downloaded songs will skip, pause, or speed up. I thought the whole idea of having songs downloaded in my playlist, was for them to play perfectly whether I am connected to Wi-Fi or not. This issue is intermittent. If I hit the back button and start the song over, it might play fine or it might skip or pause in a different part of the song. What’s weird is that the same issue occurs sometimes when I’m listening to a podcast which is not downloaded. This doesn’t surprise me as it makes sense that a streamed podcast might skip or glitch since it is NOT downloaded and using Wi-Fi. I can tolerate that. But the intermittent glitching of songs reminds me of when we used to play CDs that had a scratch on them. It’s very annoying and I would love someone from Spotify to fix the issue. Thank you.

[Eni]

Hey there @Mikemunter, 

Thanks for getting in touch about this and welcome to the Community.

Just to confirm, is this only happening while you're listening to your downloaded content in your car or you can replicate this behavior on other devices as well (same downloaded content on a PC for example)? Also, could you let us know how your phone is connected to your car (Connect, Bluetooth, cable, etc.)?

On another note, has this always happened or has it started happening after a specific event such as an update? Additionally, would you mind logging into your account on a different mobile device and check if the same happens in your car? 

We'll be waiting for your reply. 

[Mikemunter]

Hi Eni, thanks for the support. My answers to your questions below in BLUE BOLD.

Just to confirm, is this only happening while you're listening to your downloaded content in your car or you can replicate this behavior on other devices as well (same downloaded content on a PC for example)? It only happens when I'm driving. It hasn't happened when I'm at home or when I'm on a flight. (I only use my iPhone to play Spotify, never a PC).

Also, could you let us know how your phone is connected to your car (Connect, Bluetooth, cable, etc.)? Phone is connected to car via Bluetooth.

On another note, has this always happened or has it started happening after a specific event such as an update?  It has started happening only in the last month or two, never used to happen before. Incidentally, podcasts (that are not downloaded), it has happened before - but I would expect that from a non-downloaded streaming service, especially as my phone connects/detaches from a different cell tower when driving.

Additionally, would you mind logging into your account on a different mobile device and check if the same happens in your car? I only have the one iPhone, so not sure how I would do this? I guess I could check with a friend's iPhone but that would take some time to find somebody and would be hard to test, as we'd have to drive and *hope* the problem occurs.

[Eni]

Hey again @Mikemunter, 

Thanks for your quick reply! 

Just to confirm, do you switch Offline mode on before you start listening to your downloaded content? If you don't, we suggest that you do so by following these steps as if this option is not activated, the app might try to sync to the servers and potentially use internet data while trying to find a connection and that would explain why you're experiencing these issues. 

You also mentioned that your phone's connected via Bluetooth in your car, could you check if you can replicate this behavior with your downloaded content and a different Bluetooth device, such as a speaker? And taking into account that this has never happened before, it's well worth running a clean reinstall of the app to get rid of any cached files that might be causing trouble. Note that this will remove your downloads, and you'll have to re-download them afterwards. 

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[Mikemunter]

Hi Eni, per your questions-

Just to confirm, do you switch Offline mode on before you start listening to your downloaded content? I just switched to Offline mode and will test this in the car.

You also mentioned that your phone's connected via Bluetooth in your car, could you check if you can replicate this behavior with your downloaded content and a different Bluetooth device, such as a speaker? I don't have the issue when I'm at home, listening on my headphones. Nor have I noticed it while listening on headphones while walking around town or out at a store. I've only noticed it while driving - so maybe your suggestion above is the answer, I'll have to test that out for a while.

And taking into account that this has never happened before, it's well worth running a clean reinstall of the app to get rid of any cached files that might be causing trouble. Note that this will remove your downloads, and you'll have to re-download them afterwards. I'm willing to do this, but I auto-download all of my songs and there are 1,100 of them, will those automatically stay in my playlist and re-download automatically? If I have to do this manually, I'm not inclined to do that, seems crazy. Thanks.

[Eni]

Hi @Mikemunter, 

Thanks for all the info you've sent so far! 

No worries, when you perform a clean reinstall of the app, the songs won't disappear from your playlists, you'll just need to re-download them. That means if you'd like to download your Liked songs playlist for example, you just need to tap on the arrow icon and it'll start downloading the playlist automatically. We suggest doing this over a stable Wi-Fi connection. 

However, before reinstalling the app, it'd be best to try the first suggestion and activate the Offline mode to make sure that's not the reason behind this issue. Take your time to test it in your car and let us know how it goes. 

We'll be on the lookout for your reply. 

[Mikemunter]

So far, the offline mode is working- songs don’t skip. But it’s kind of a
pain because if I want to listen to a podcast, I have to switch back over.

So I guess it is problem solved, but it is not ideal. It’ll be better if
there was someway to stop the servers from trying to sync up on material
that is already downloaded.

[wellik1]

Hey, I'm having the same issue too and it's making Spotify unusable. I basically only listen in the car (over Bluetooth via iPhone) and don't feel that the effort it would take to predownload any song I might want to listen to is worth it. I'm literally one of the earliest accounts made when Spotify became available in the US, and the stupidity of this issue has got me considering switching to another service. This only started happening in the last few months, probably around the time that Mike posted his issue- it's absolutely a backend issue. 

[wellik1]

Also would like to add- the issue has persisted through multiple updates for both the app and my phone, it happens with both songs that I have and have not downloaded offline, and I've never had this bad of an issue with your service (in the past 14ish years). Please don't ask me to try using anything offline or see if the app is updated, just escalate the issue to someone who can fix it. 

[Dessi]

Hey @wellik1,

Thanks for reaching out!

There's this similar thread where one of the users found a solution to the issue and many others confirmed this fixed it for them, so we'd recommend taking a look at the marked solution and giving it a try.

In case the behavior persists afterwards, it'd be great if you can let us know if you've tried to troubleshoot this so that we know what has been tried so far in order not to repeat any steps. 

Hope this helps.