Spotify eating mobile data - prior "resolution" unsatisfactory

[atheimetal]

Quite upset to come here and see this prior thread marked as 'resolved' ... which would suggest spotify has done everything they can. Which is.. sort of insulting actually:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/iOS-iPhone-iPad/Spotify-using-mobile-data-even-when-cellular-data-t...

So, if this problem exists in your application and is costing users their mobile data - where is the fix? Or at LEAST an investigation? Why was this marked as resolved? In YEARS of using spotfiy, and almost always leveraging offline mode/downloads I have never encountered a data issue like this until very recently where it will go through massive bursts of data (2G) in, from what I estimate, was maybe an hour of listening to a mostly downloaded playlist.

Spotify is not a viable music service when it behaves this way. The replies in the prior thread were work-arounds at best - suggesting to fully re-install the app provides literally no comfort this won't happen again in a week. I feel like there must be a reason people see massive spikes like this and it sure isn't because spotify is behaving normally OR within its expected bounds, and feel like we can at least agree on this last statement.

And if we can agree on that last statement, I think we can get some actual investigation into Spotify's all-over-the-place bandwidth usage, right? One that does not require us to install a third party application or wonder how the heck spotify eats multiple gigs of data in, at least my case, what appears to be a totally normal-use scenario? Are there internal maintenance events that can trigger users to have to re-download massive amounts of data? Is spotify accidentally downloading extra data in certain conditions? etc.

Please actually look into this. Thanks.

[Elena]

Hey there @atheimetal,

Thanks for reaching out about this. We'll be happy to explain some here and help you out.

First, we'd like to address the thread that you've linked - In there the users mention that they have the option Download using cellular off and the app is still using data when streaming. This is expected behavior right now - that option controls the connection used for downloading songs only and not for streaming. We have an idea about implementing another option what would restrict streaming on mobile data here and we'll forward that feedback to the right teams here.

If you have the app set to Offline Mode and start streaming your downloaded tracks - no data should be used. But if the app is online and you've only disabled the Download using cellular setting, then the app will use your cellular connection for streaming.

Keep in mind that online, the app caches certain related content to the now playing in order to allow continuous playback even if the connection is temporarily lost. That could happen even if you're only listening to one album for example.

We recommend a clean reinstall in some cases because that will fix any cached files that might have become corrupted causing the usage of extra data.

The current measures that we can recommend to take if you're concerned with high data usage include:

• Making sure you have Download using cellular off
• Check your audio quality for Cellular streaming 
• Turn on Data Saver Mode
• Use Offline mode when streaming downloaded content to ensure no data is being used

Spotify is always trying to use the best technologies possible to guarantee a good balance between the app's quality and low data usage.

If you've followed our recommendations and you still experience trouble, we'd be happy to work with you further to get a better insight into the situation.

Thanks for your understanding.