Spotify Not Working Offline on Apple Watch

[jskiing360]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Apple Watch SE

Operating System

watchOS 9.0

My Question or Issue

I have an apple watch SE and downloaded a spotify playlist to play offline.  If I turn on my apple watch and my phone is not nearby, then when I open the spotify app it won't play my downloaded playlist.  It will only work if my phone is nearby for a few minutes to "sync".  Then I can leave my phone to workout and the spotify app will work fine.  It shouldn't need to pair with my phone to play a downloaded playlist.

[Tbootz]

This is freakin’ asinine, Spotify team. What the f is the point of using Spotify over Apple Music when you can’t go on a run with the downloaded playlist on Apple Watch? You’ve got to be kidding.

[JonScheidt]

Same as everyone else. 

Apple watch 8 most recent watchos version

Iphone 14 pro latest version of 17

If I'm lucky, I can get 4 songs into my run in offline mode before Spotify tells me to get wrecked. 

Just expect to keep getting the same canned response from whatever they call support.

Tldr- you keep paying us money for a broken feature, so why should we waste resources and "fix" it? 🤣

[Hunkerdown]

Offline playback is totally broken. It works for a bit then it just stops, either pausing the song or randomly. The only way to get it to work again is to get it near your phone. Why is this broken so bad, I have tried 3 different watches, reinstalled the OS, reinstalled spotify and still its broken. Please fix this.

I am using an applewatch 9 with all the latest updates.

[Maria]

Hey there folks,

thanks for reaching out in this thread!

There's currently an issue with offline playlists that's being investigated by our tech folks. If you've recently encountered similar issues, we recommend having a look at this thread for more details on the topic.

In the meantime, we suggest keeping both the watch OS and the app up-to-date.

Cheers!

[FL450]

Hi, 

same issue on my Ultra but also the previous one and the one before etc… Different watches, iPhones, iOS… eventually found a solution: I just cancelled my premium account and subscribed to Apple Music… works just fine !!!

maybe I’ll come bck when the problem is solved but it looks like I will enjoy Music for a while still…

[Ax3i]

Hi,

Same issue here, once I am offline I can even use the Spotify app on my Apple Watch. This issue is there from the beginning of the Spotify Apple Watch app… what is the point to pay Premium plan if we cannot use it offline. 

I  want music for my running session just because of that, I will go back to Apple Music. 

[bkk5173]

Hello All,

I think I found a possible workaround.  I have and old iPhone SE and an Apple Watch SE and couldn't get the music to play from my watch.  I tried putting my watch in airplane mode and turning off wifi and everytime i tried to play something it would play on my phone and not on my watch.  Then I turned off bluetooth, cellular and wifi on my phone AND still the music played on my phone.  So I said screw it and turned off my phone and left it off and magically the downloaded songs would play on my watch.  Hope this helps.

[Herlicus]

Had this issue, was resolved by installing spotify on the phone and watch but also ensuring that they where on the same wifi for starters.

[Erick2535]

Was this ever solved? I am experiencing the same issue. iPhone 13pro, apple watch 9

[ThatNameIsTaken]

It's so intermittent when Spotify works on the Apple watch for downloaded offline playlists. SOMETIMES you can get it to work but every day, several times a day it will just abruptly stop working. For a while I was able to trick it into working again by turning on my cellular, STREAMING a random song, then turning off my cellular to conserve battery and resuming playing my downloads. Most of the time I can't get a cellular signal where I work, so I rely heavily on listening to downloads offline. Today, Spotify all of a sudden decided that it's not going to let me play my downloads! I have uninstalled the app from both my watch and phone twice. I have turned both devices on/off several times. I have re downloaded all my playlists twice and nothing works. I'm using an Aftershockz headset which Spotify doesn't always recognize. Here is a list of issues I'm having.

1.) Spotify randomly decides to not allow you to play download content
2.) Constantly looses the ability to play downloaded content in the middle of playing downloads. Requires a cellular signal to play again, but recently will not allow you to play downloaded songs on the watch whatsoever.
3.) Already downloaded content constantly tries to update itself.
4.) When downloading, it will often get stuck and stop downloading, requiring you to start all over again.

It's an absolute NIGHTMARE and an abysmal experience. If Apple Music wasn't so freaking woke and didn't censor everyone, I'd just use that because this is NEVER getting fixed. Been pleading with Spotify for over 3 years and they wont even let me create a forum post. I'm stuck replying to old topics. I'll send them my watch and my headset if that's what it takes! If this issue can't be resolved then I have zero use for spotify and will be canceling my subscription.

[imbollocks]

Same issue and its mind boggling that this thread is more than a year old and the problem still persists. Also, this feature is meant to be friendly and simple to use but its anything but

Spotify team if u are reading this, it has to be a PRIORITY to address this. I mean come on, more than 10 pages of comments and more than a year and issue is still pending!!

[ThatNameIsTaken]

It's clear after 3 years, that the engineers at Spotify are unable to resolve these issues. Perhaps Apple is purposely trying to sabotage the Spotify apps ability to function correctly, but I have found a work around to this issue that works flawlessly. For podcasts, use the Apple Podcasts app. It's free and they pretty much have all the same podcasts that you enjoy on Spotify. You can set it up to automatically download new podcasts for you, which is great. For music, use apple music. No more issues since making the switch. Your welcome!

[ali888]

Spotify managed to fix this specific issue for me 

"I checked on my end, and noticed there are some offline devices with no identifiers. In some cases, this means there's an error in the synchronization between the device and the Spotify account. If you agree, I can go ahead and remove all offline devices, so you can check if this helps fixing the issue.  

Keep in mind this means your downloads will be removed, and you'll need to download the content again. "

"I've successfully removed the offline devices on your account. Please, log out on both devices, close the apps, and log back in to check if there are any changes."

I still do have some issues with offline playback (i can't start an offline podcast when offline, only online), but this specific issue has gone. 

[Ghiysxb]

Maria, that thread is not helpful as it focuses on mobile issues rather than downloaded playlists on the Apple Watch

[Pahn]

having the same issue. Glad that I am not alone for this issue 😉 

[snesss]

Offline doesn’t work intermittently. Had to go for a silent run today. Unreal. Music without my phone while running is the main reason I have an Apple Watch. Just going to get Apple Music and I guess drop Spotify. Not going to pay for two services for no reason 

[Lhusband]

Popping in to say it’s July 2024 and this issue still has not been addressed! I’ve troubleshot and am still getting the “something went wrong” message. I purchased this watch specifically so I could run without my phone. Please fix this issue!!!!

[ThatNameIsTaken]

I found a work around and I don't know why I didn't think to do this sooner. There are all kinds of good podcast apps on the app store that will have all your favorite podcasts and they work very well on the apple watch. Ditch Spotify and go with one of those. Overcast, Castro, Castbox, Pocket Casts to name a few. I just subscribed to Pocket Casts and so far so good. I can download directly TO the watch FROM the watch, and delete them from the watch when I don't want them anymore. You'll have to likely subscribe to activate the watch features on most of them but it's worth it. You can pay for apple music if all you want is music. No more problems. I gave Spotify 3 years to fix this issue and it's never been worse. I'm done.

Spotify doesn't seem too interested in resolving these problems. If I were in charge there, I'd BUY a bunch of peoples phones, watches and headsets from them, so that I could give them to my software engineers and they could figure out what the problems are. It really feels like a case of the programmers not using the products they create on a regular basis. This is common in game development as well, where the developers don't really spend time playing the game they create. If they did, they'd see the same problems we are having and fix them. Obviously upper management doesn't see much of a financial benefit in fixing issues with their apple watch app. Thankfully, we have lot's of other options to choose from.

[ThatNameIsTaken]

And every time it fails again, rinse repeat? Spotify's solutions seem to always be to do a complete factory reset of all your devices, reinstall windows, get a new phone etc. It always shifts the blame when the problem is the app itself. Bad code.

The Apple Watch Spotify App:

1.) Doesn't recognize all bluetooth devices or intermittently recognizes them. Will display the phone or watch icons as options but only sometimes display your headset.

2.) Frequently and abruptly stops being able to play downloaded content offline. "oops, something went wrong."  We know enough to know that something went wrong, but we don't know enough to ever be able to fix it. 

3.) Frequently will not allow you to download directly to the watch.

4.) Cannot delete individual podcasts/songs from a playlist on the watch. They removed this feature. WHY????

5.) Play/volume controls on a headset will stop working with the app, thus requiring you to have to use the watch controls.

6.) Can SOMETIMES be tricked into playing downloaded content again by streaming a random podcast or song.

7.) Downloads often take a very long time to download (when it's working) but often fail, requiring you to start all over.

8.) Tech support's solution to everything is factory reset. Does not solve the problem because the problem is the app, not your devices.

[ThatNameIsTaken]

The watches are great! The Spotify App SUCKS! They don't have the budget for good programmers. Lucky for you there's apple music which works flawlessly. There are also plenty of podcast apps specifically designed for the apple watch. Overcast, Castro, Castbox, Pocket Casts and more. Subscription is required for watch in most cases, so ditch Spotify and use one of these instead!