Spotify consistently undownloading my music

[DeuceSauce]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

Device

(iPhone 13 Pro)

For the past month now, I’ve had this constant issue of Spotify randomly undownloading my music from my playlists even in the middle of listening to them! With perfect cell service too! This requires me to have to spend another hour redownloading all my music for the 3000th time. And yes, before you Tier 1 IT experts tell me to update my phone or the app or reinstall or clear cache or any of that bs… hint: none of it works and I have become quite frustrated that I’ve been a premium member for 8 years and this has now constantly been happening. I’ve even seen numerous forum posts about this exact issue with no solutions anywhere. All I can say is unless this is fixed ASAP, I’ll probably just resubscribe to Apple Music and never look back. Fix your app.

[Ivelina]

Hey @DeuceSauce,

Welcome to the Community and thanks for the info!

Could you send us the iOS-version of your iPhone, as well as the Spotify-version? Have you noticed if this issue started happening after a certain action, for example an update of the app?

Have you by any chance tried with a different internet connection or even by logging into a friend's or a relative's account on your device? Does the same thing happen with your account on a different device?

Send us as many details as possible so we can get a better understanding. 

We'll be on the lookout 🙂

[DeuceSauce]

My Spotify and iOS are both the current, latest versions. And no, i don’t have another device or account to log into. Yes I’ve already tried it with WiFi, different WiFi, or no WiFi and just cell data. No this has just been occurring during normal use/in the middle of listening to music.

[Ivelina]

Thanks for the details, @DeuceSauce.

In order for the files to be stored in the phone so the app can play them, we recommend that you follow the steps here and here in order to sync the local files again.

Hope to hear from you soon 🙂

[DeuceSauce]

These seem to be methods for transferring local files not already available on Spotify from a computer to an iPhone, which has nothing to do with your app undownloading my playlists even when I have service. Additionally, these are not songs from my computer, but of course from your database.

[Joan]

Hi @DeuceSauce,

Thanks for the reply. Cache clearing and battery optimization apps are known to cause such issues, because they cause the app's cache to become corrupted. Check for any such settings on your phone and also disable any third party apps that you may have (or at least add Spotify as an exception). After doing so, perform a full clean reinstall to clear remaining corrupted cache.

Hope this helps.

[madagbon]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

iPhone 13

Operating System

iOS 17.3 

My Question or Issue

Hi all,

Longtime Spotify user here. Over 9000+ songs downloaded and then one morning they're all undownloaded and I have to spend the time to redownload them again.

I thought maybe it was a one off issue and that it wouldn't happen again.

I was wrong.

In the last month, this has happened over 7 times, each time becoming more annoying than the last. I like using the offline feature when I am on long drives or I am on the train/tube/commute to work.

I am fortunate to have a good data deal via my phone provider and so can stream instead of relying on downloads. However, I don't want to use up all of my data by streaming. What is the need when there is a download feature that helps you avoid this?

In short, this is becoming increasingly frustrating. I am on the latest operating software for iOS and I have over 30GB of storage left in my phone. I have contacted SpotifyCares on X (fka Twitter) and they have cleared my cache and have had me clean install a number of times but the issue still persists some days or sometimes hours later.

Does anyone know why this is happening, if it is an issue on their end or what I can do to get my Spotify experience back to the way it was?

I am splitting hairs over this and I can't keep waking or getting on the train to find out my music is undownloaded for the umpteenth time. Music is a big part of my life and Spotify helps to supply this need. It is one of my favourite apps and I would hate to have to leave it for another such as Apple Music just because of this issue.

Thank you for your advice and comments in advance.

[madagbon]

You're not alone bro. 

Over 9000+ songs downloaded and then one morning they're all undownloaded and I have to spend the time to redownload them again every other day. 

I think it is a problem on their end that they are either unaware of or they don't care. I've cleared my cache and done a reinstall so many times and it doesn't work so I don't know why they keep suggesting it. I have never had this issue before in almost 7 years of use and then suddenly the last month, it's become unbearable and constant. I use Spotify for long drives or when I am on my commute to work so the download feature is a treat as I don't have to use data. 

Let me know if you ever find a resolution. I am at my wits end and I am also considering jumping the ship back to Apple Music.

[DeuceSauce]

So no, I don’t have any such apps or settings, and also I’m a bit confused since you’re saying cache clearing is possibly causing this, however, a “full clean reinstall” like you suggested requires clearing the cache, on top of turning my phone off and back on again. But yes I’ve done this step already as well. Still undownloading my music. It’s on y’all’s end.

[Maria]

Hey there @DeuceSauce & @madagbon,

Thanks for the additional details about this!

Just to confirm, does the download symbol disappears from the playlists and it stays that way? Or are the playlist downloaded and at some point it starts downloading again, as if you've just clicked the download button?

Also, does it happen with all playlists or just with a specific one?

Keep us posted.

[menela]

Same problem here.

I have a lot of albums downloaded and although the download symbol remains green (showing that the album is downloaded), when I click on the album it says that there is no internet connection. The funny thing is that when I filter my library to show my only downloaded music these albums do appear as downloaded but they don’t play offline. 

It is really frustrating indeed. 

[DeuceSauce]

This happens with any playlist I’ve downloaded. No, the download symbol does not disappear but it will randomly start redownloading as if I had no music downloaded before - In the middle of listening to it too as I’ve mentioned. And no I’m not accidentally pressing the button

[Ivelina]

Thanks for the info @DeuceSauce and welcome to the thread @menela.

It's worth mentioning that having more than 5 devices with downloaded music can cause issues with the offline content and you can remove older devices by following the steps you'll find in this Support article.

If you're not using an iPhone and have an SD-card, corrupted cache on it can also be a reason for the app not to function properly. For this you can remove the card, give the Spotify a clean reinstall and then use the app without the SD-card for some time. In addition, you can check out this FAQ.

@menela If you've tried any troubleshooting steps so far, let us know if any of them made a difference and we also recommend checking the previous mods' posts in this thread.

Lastly, it'd be great if you could send us a video recording or a screenshot or two of how the app behaves from your end so we can take a look. You can attach them to your next response either by using the Insert Video or Insert Image option in the post editor. If the video is too big - we'd suggest that you upload it to Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to see it) or upload it as unlisted YouTube video(s).

Keep us updated!

[DeuceSauce]

The following image is a screenshot of this occurrence this past Sunday, and has actually happened to me numerous times over the past few days. As you can see, I have perfectly good cell service available (which shouldn't even matter considering I pay for Premium and should be able to use it offline anyways) and as you can also see my music is not downloaded. This had occurred while in the middle of listening to my music. A symptom of this occurring is that Spotify will begin to continuously skip through all of my songs without me pressing anything. This is how I know that my music was undownloaded again. I was not doing anything special neither, except again, simply listening to my playlist. 

[DatEightySix]

• I've noticed that with my phone in airplane mode after syncing my playlist every day, I still have the problem of my music being inaccessible. I don't understand why we pay for offline listening if it doesn't actually work and let you listen to all of your music while in offline mode. Long story short, Fix your license expiration problem so they don't get removed while I'm at work with my phone in airplay mode. It's very frustrating when I've paid to listen to music in airplane mode but I am unable to listen to the songs in airplane mode because it has removed them from the list 1 hour after putting my phone into airplane mode... P.S. it's not a glitch, many songs still work while others won't play...

[Joan]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for the replies. We're still looking into this and would gladly assist you further.

@DeuceSauce does this affect all playlists or only specific one(s)? For testing purposes, could you create a smaller playlist and test if the behaviour persists there? Also, your screenshot shows you playing in the car - does the behaviour happen only when using Connect or regardless of the output chosen?

@DatEightySix similarly, does the issues affect all playlists or only some? Do you get any kind of error when trying to play or do the songs just get removed from downloads while remaining playable?

Let us know how it goes.