Issue with downloads - iOS

[CasualJimm]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

iPhone Xs Max

Operating System

iOS 16.4.1 (a)

My Question or Issue

There seems to be an issue with my downloads. My playlist is ~400 songs, and when I try to play music offline, only a few of them load. If someone can explain this, and give a solution, that would be extremely helpful. Thanks!

[OscarDC]

Hey @CasualJimm,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

Since the downloads are stored on your device as a temporary file (cache), this issue is usually related to some damaged cache stored on your device from previous downloads. In this case, we'd first recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app by following the steps in this article. This will clear all cache that might be affecting your downloads.

However, keep in mind that performing this process will delete your current downloads as well and you'll need to re-download your content to listen offline.

If the issue persists, include in your next response the Spotify version you're currently running to continue investigating the case.

Hope this helps. We'll be on the lookout.

[CasualJimm]

Hello Oscar, it happened again. I deleted the Spotify app, reinstalled, and not 3-4 days after, it happened again. I am using Spotify version 8.8.32. Thanks!

[Lyubka]

Hey @CasualJimm,

Thanks for getting back to us. 

By saying that you can't play your downloaded songs, you got us thinking that the tracks might not have been downloaded correctly. Could you please double check that? Below is a bit more information about downloaded songs and how they look like in the app.

The download button is represented with and arrow pointing down. When you don't have that playlist/album downloaded, the arrow will be shown in gray. However, when you hit/click that icon it starts downloading the tracks. When the track is downloaded, it will have the icon filled in green showing that it is already downloaded.

If you'd like to enjoy your playlists when offline, you'd need to download what you want when you're online. Once you've successfully downloaded the playlist that you want - you should be able to listen to it. You can check the download status next to each song, podcast, or playlist.

On the screenshot that you've attached, we can see that some of the songs have gray arrow, which might be the reason why they're not playable.

Below, we'll attach a screenshot of how the downloaded playlist should look like in order to be played. 

You can also find more details about Offline listening here.

Hope this info is useful. We'll be here in case you have any further questions about this 🙂

[CasualJimm]

Hi Lyubka! The strange thing about this situation is that I had the playlist downloaded, (the playlist had a green arrow at the top) yet the songs still had the gray arrow. If I wait long enough, the app seems to "call" the songs, similar to a function in a program. However, sometimes the songs do not get called. I have a fairly lengthy playlist, (~400 songs) but I don't feel like it should be taking an incredibly long time. Thank you for your reply, by the way, it means a lot.

[Joan]

Hi @CasualJimm,

Thanks for the info. Please try performing a full clean reinstall if you haven't already - this is much better than the regular reinstall and can solve a multitude of issues. Make sure not to skip any steps from the article. If you continue to face problems after that, could you please share the following:

• How long roughly does it take for a playlist to download in full? If you leave it downloading for longer, do more and more songs appear green and then function properly?
• Is the behaviour the same across all your playlists?
• Do the same songs get (not) downloaded every time or is it random?
• Do you face any issues with downloads on any other devices? If you haven't tried this out, do this when possible and let us know how it goes.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted.

[CasualJimm]

Hi Joan, I'm not sure how long it takes for me to download a full playlist, and it seems like it's random songs. I only use one playlist, and it has all of the songs from my other playlists, like a mixtape. I don't use Spotify on any other devices, just my phone. It never happens when I have a connection, just when I'm offline. My school's parking lot is essentially a deadzone, with all the cell blockers, so there's no way for me to load the songs unless I do so before leaving using the school's WiFi. My thing is, if I go offline, my downloads should still be… downloaded. It always SAYS the playlist is downloaded, but some songs don't work. I'll do the clean reinstall in a bit and I'll report back in a few days.