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!

[Jeremy]

Hi @AgentMax,

Thank you for your reply.

You need to redownload the playlist to your watch to be able to include new songs to your watch.

We're constantly aiming to improve our features so we hope you’ll continue using it and find it gets better in the future. 

You can read more about how your feedback reaches Spotify here.

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

Take care!

[lecompton1]

Hi, I've tried to add my watch to the charger, as you suggested, and still no result for the songs to start downloading. What else could the issue be?

[Eni]

Hey there @lecompton1,

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community.

In this case we'd recommend you check the suggested steps in this thread to see if those do the trick.

Let us know how it goes.

[lecompton1]

Eni, thank you! Restarting my watch did it without even having to put my phone into airplane mode. Or it just took a long time for the songs to download? Either way it's there.

Thanks!

[Alex]

Hey @lecompton1,

Thanks for letting us know what worked for you 🙂

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

Cheers.

[legodude_kyle]

Hopefully we can do more than 50 songs soon

[Ayrat]

I think it's great to be able to listen to music without a connection while I'm going for a run without a mobile phone, BUT that you can only download 50 songs, it seems very, very few ... Having 20GB on Apple Watch and not being able to enjoy all the songs that I would like and create playlists with names (Playlist Watch, Playlist Watch 2, Playlist Watch 3, etc) where each playlist has only 50 songs ... Please expand the number of songs that can be downloaded, in Apple Music you can do that without problem but I I personally prefer Spotify and I hope for a prompt solution with some update on the matter. Thank you very much for your attention and have a good day!

[teeewilliams]

Same here

[jcburtt]

I found that I had to disconnect my watch from my phone by turning off bluetooth on my iphone (from settings, not the control center), then songs downloaded to the watch. I used to have to do the same thing to get standalone streaming to work without interruption.

[monkunashi]

I had this option yesterday. Today I updated from premium to DUO, and the option has disappeared... My wife (whom the duo upgrade was for) really really wanted this feature... Why was it taken away simply because I upgraded?

[Jeremy]

Hi there @monkunashi,

Thank you for your reply in this thread.

Can you reinstall the app on your watch and then relink your account to see if the issue persists?

We also suggest that you double-check so that your watch don't have any pending updates.

Keep us posted 🙂

Take care!

[Zig6y]

I have tried all the various options, switching off, resetting, reinstalling and I still cannot get Spotify to play music through my Apple Watch series 6 nor can I get music to download. Do you have a timescale to fix or should I just move to Apple Music wher I believe it just works. Thanks

[Eni]

Hi @Zig6y,

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

Could you let us know if you've already tried the suggested steps in this thread?

On another note, we'd like to know if it stopped working after a specific event or if it has never worked.

Lastly, could you let us know the exact make/model, operating system and Spotify version of your devices?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[Zig6y]

I’m using Apple Watch 6 iOS 7.6.1, iPhone 11 Pro Max iOS 14.7.1, Spotify 8.6.50.969.

tried all the steps except the hard reset of my Apple Watch, if that is required then it’s not a solution and I’ll give up. Currently my watch download screen just says “Loading…” and has been for the last 12 hours.

[Alex]

Hey there @Zig6y,

Thanks for the reply.

We'd recommend you head over to this Ongoing Issue thread. Add your +Vote and subscribe to get notifications about any development on the matter.

Cheers.

[Zig6y]

Will do, but just FYI another moderator directed me to post the issue on this thread

[Mario]

Hey folks,

Writing here after some time to confirm that, since July, all Premium Spotify subscribers can save their favorite music offline on their Apple Watch and listen anytime without the need of a network connection or their phone.

As a heads-up, double-check you're on the latest Spotify version before giving this a shot.

Keep in mind there’s a download limit of 50 tracks per playlist.

To listen to your music offline on your Apple Watch, make sure to:

1. Find the music and podcast you want to download on your watch
2. Select the playlist, album, or podcast and press (…); then choose Download to Apple Watch
3. Head over to the Downloads section on the watch to check the progress of your download
4. Once playlists, albums, or podcasts in your library have been downloaded, there'll be a little green arrow next to their names
5. Connect your headphones and start listening

Hope you'll find this info useful. If you you come across any issues with your downloads on Apple watch, feel free to report them.

Thanks for stopping by!

[rafavcc]

Not helpful AT ALL.

Everyone in here has followed all the basics. Spotify forum is some sort of last resource.

[MafeG]

Hi @rafavcc,

Thank you for posting on this thread. 

Since every case is unique, they need to be treated individually and the solutions may be different from user to user. 

If you're having issues downloading to your watch, please let us know specifically what's happening; you don't have the Download to Watch button, are the downloads getting stuck or is it something else? 

Keep us posted.

[staylorz]

When will a Spotify app for the Apple Watch SE cellular standalone with family sharing be available?? This seems like it should be available by now. We bought the SE cellular watch so that my son doesn’t need a phone. He really wants to listen to his Spotify playlists on his standalone watch. C’mon, Spotify! You can do it!