Downloading music on Apple Watch

[Hubo]

Hey folks!

Here's a few tips & tricks to share about downloading music from Spotify on your Apple Watch! - If you're looking to get started, check this out!

Not seeing the 'Download to Apple Watch'-button yet? Make sure your Spotify app is up-to-date the Spotify app is installed on your Apple Watch as well! 

To download music, you'll need a Apple Watch Series 3 or newer on watchOS 6.0 or higher (7.1 or higher is recommended).

Want to download Liked Songs? Just add them to a playlist and use the steps from this page to download them to your Apple Watch. 

Downloads keep stopping? Make sure your Apple Watch is on and the Spotify app is open on your Watch. After a bit of time, your Apple Watch might suspend the app if you're not using it actively so be sure to keep it in focus.

Downloads not working? Your Apple Watch battery might be a bit too low to download. Make sure your Apple Watch is charged or on a charger to start downloading. 

Want to check (the status of) your downloads? On your Apple Watch, swipe right to Your Library and choose for 'Downloads'. There you should be able to find everything you've downloaded and the status of your downloads.

Got any more tips to share? Post them here!

If you're looking to get help with downloading music from Spotify on your Apple Watch, create a new thread on the iOS Help-board.

[Hubo]

Hey everyone,

From the comments here, we can see that many of you experience different types of issues.

In order to avoid potential confusion we've summed them up below.

Keep in mind that there is a limit of songs per playlist (50) that you can download on the watch. If you try downloading a playlist that contains more than 50 songs, issues might occur. In order to avoid that, you can divide the songs in to different playlists.

In case you've added new songs to a downloaded playlist, you'll need to redownload the playlist to your watch so the new songs can be included.

If you try downloading a playlist and it gets stuck at the first song, we recommend that you follow the steps under the Status Update in this thread.

If you've downloaded a podcast episode or a playlist and you can't play them, you can give the steps below a go if you haven't already. In most cases they resolve such issues:

• Restart the watch
• Re-pair the watch with your phone
• Reinstall the app on the watch
• Reinstall the app on your phone
• Try a different internet connection

If you still experience one of the above mentioned issues or another type of an issue, you can write in the relevant Help Board. That way we can look into them separately.

Be sure to also check out @Hubo's tips and tricks regarding this feature.

Thanks!

[3nwqfk1tjpkg5ao]

It work after uninstall and reinstall. Thank you ❤️❤️

[spyker54]

I have this working now. Went for my first run with just my watch today and it works great 👌.

The first download took a while to move past '1 out x downloading', but I tried streaming the playlist from my watch whilst it was downloading and that seemed to get the ball rolling.

[jttran1]

what device and software versions are you using? did you have to do anything for the 'Download to Apple Watch' message to pop up?

[spyker54]

Apple watch series 3, watchOs 7.5
Spotify version 8.6.30

I saw the popup as I opened the Spotify app. Spotify hasn't updated their app in the last 3 weeks, so I guess the capability for this feature was in one of the releases last month, and now they're just enabling it slowly to monitor any issues.

[jttran1]

Thanks. I have the same versions you listed so it's just a matter of time. It looks like Spotify is randomly enabling the feature in the account settings. Is it true that it's limited to 50 songs per playlist on the Apple Watch?

[zs9]

Very difficult to download the songs onto my apple watch se (Watch OS 7.5) The download is stuck at 1/36 since long. What other things are necessary to keep this moving? The Watch is connected to my iPhone 8(iOS 14.6). Any tips which might make this a little easier.

[discokill]

Still waiting here.  I have a trial subscription to Apple Music I use only for this reason when I run.  I’ve been a Spotify subscriber for years but I gotta admit the “announce a feature as available and then not roll out for months” is making me think it’s going to be Spotify that goes, not Apple Music when the time comes to make a choice. I work in app development, I can understand days, maybe even weeks but now we are at over a month. If the feature isn’t ready you say it’s in beta, not available now.  

[KKAW]

100% correct. I feel like I’m missing something since they announced it, like I’m being ripped off. Wish they hadn’t said anything and it just appeared

[rpbrandon]

Going crazy here, got the latest version 8.6.30.968 on my iphone 12, iOS 14.6.

Performed the uninstall as described, which involves clearing the cache, deleting the app, turning off the phone for a few minutes and still nothing.

Navigate to a playlists with <50 songs pressed the 3 dots and no menu option for downloading to the apple watch.

Using apple watch 4 watch os 7.5

Don’t like this at all after waiting so many years…

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for your replies and feedback here in the Community about this.

This feature is still being rolled out so in this case we suggest that you always keep your app up to date and that you're running the latest OS version.

Let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Take care!

[rpbrandon]

It would be very helpful if you could indicate whether the new feature is being rolled out independently from the app software version. Because according to the responses below, people have the feature while having the same software version as I do, which implies that Spotify is flipping a different switch to enable this? If not, can you please state the exact build number that will contain this feature so that I know I have the right version?

[Novy]

Hey @rpbrandon, 

Thanks for your message. 

We're currently unable to provide a specific timeline for when this feature will be available to all users, as it's still being rolled out.

As @Jeremy mentioned, the best thing to do in this case is keeping your app up to date so you don't miss it when it becomes available for you. 

The Community will be here if anything else comes up. 

Cheers.

[rpbrandon]

@Novy the question I asked is whether the activation of the feature is specific to a build version of the app or if it is independent from the build version since I already seem to have the exact same version as other people who can access the feature.

I just want to be able to recognize if I gave the right version since each release note just states “bug fixes”.

I’m not asking for timelines in any of my posts. 

[Shhhhhh]

Define soon.

[Shhhhhh]

Roll it out to everyone already...

[qwert1234567]

Unfortunately Spotify completely stopped working on my Apple Watch, the watch symbol is only flashing, and I cannot download any playlists to my watch either. I restarted, reinstalled etc everything! Any help??

[Elena]

Hey there @qwert1234567!

Thanks for reaching out on the Community!

We currently have some issues with streaming and downloading content to Apple watch even for those user who got the feature. You can take a look here to see if you're experiencing the same behavior. 

If you are, feel free to leave your info and a +Vote on the thread, if you're seeing something else, you can give us a bit more details about it. Are you able to use your watch as a remote control for your phone? Does restarting your phone make any difference?

Keep us in the loop here! Cheers. 

[shanali89]

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[paddybear]

How can you guys not have a timeline when a roll-out is currently running?

I would have to fear for my job if I made project planning like this.

To me, it is a no-brainer to have a timeline before starting a roll-out.

Maybe you have one, but you don't communicate it for legit reasons? Fine. But then don't tell the people the feature is available but it's still being rolled-out.

This would be a good statement, if a roll-out takes 2-3 days. But now it's been weeks and still no one knows when the feature will arrive on their phones/watches.

Can you guys please at least maintain a project overview where everyone can see where the feature should be available (list of regions/countries)?! Then we would know if we should have the feature already. I am reading about several steps people are trying out to get this feature working on their devices (like uninstalling the app, rebooting devices, clearing caches etc.) but who knows if these attempts are really worth it? No one, because we don't know if the feature should technically be already available for the individual customer. It looks like Spotify is betatesting with a slow growing, small number of users, probably it is still very buggy. To me this feels very much like a stand-by technique as the competitors recently released this feature and Spotify wants to hold on their customers.

This is all very frustrating. 

Some words of clarification other than "standby, we are rolling it out in the next several weeks and we cannot commit on any timeline" would be highly appreciated!

[Novy]

Hi @paddybear,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community!

We completely understand where you're coming from and would love to have additional info to give. So far we're unable to provide any timeframe for when the feature will be rolled out to all users. 

We appreciate your feedback and we'll make sure to pass it on to the right folks. For now, we'd recommend making sure your app is up to date so you don't miss any important updates.

Hope this clears things up. Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.