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Spotify eating up data and causing overage charges

Spotify eating up data and causing overage charges

Hello, I am using the latest version of Spotify on iOS 7 (running on an iPhone 5) with a Premium account and, just this month, it has started to eat up my data like crazy. I have not changed any of my Spotify settings, nor have I used the app any more than usual, and I have already gotten 2 overage charges on my 5GB data plan (I have currently used 7.753GB on a data cycle ending on the 25th, mostly from Spotify's usage) which usually covers all my data usage. Just in the past 3 days, it has used 2.4 GB of data which is absurd given my level of spotify usage. I checked my last.fm account just to make sure spotify was not left on playing music continuously, and that does not appear to be the case.

 

Regarding settings, I do not have sync over 2g/3g turned on but I am playing music at Extreme levels. Again, it has always been set to Extreme with cellular sync turned off, I have not been using the app anymore than usual, and I have never had a problem until now. This is definitely an issue with the app sucking data away.

 

I can try uninstalling and reinstalling the app to see if that fixes the issue, but that does not take care of the data overages I am now facing (currently $20 - 2 extra gigabytes at $10/GB - but it will be much more if this continues). I will be cancelling my subscription if this is not remedied.

 

I hope this is the right place to receive support from the company regarding this issue but I will also try using the contact form. It is frustrating that Spotify does not have a call center for this kind of support.

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27 Replies

Here is Spotify's response to my inquire regarding this issue:

This is a comparability issue with the iPhone 5. It cannot be addressed presently but will be looked into in the future.

Seriously? Unacceptable. I've switched to Rdio and love it. Thanks a lot Spotify.

I've got the same issue on daughters' iphone 5.  And it began suddenly in mid-december.   We've done some testing, and she measured almost 1GB/hr of streaming data consumption.  Her quality setting was normal 96kbps. 

 

My android phone, also set at 96kbps, consumes about 40KB/hr.    We will make inquiry to spotify support. https://www.spotify.com/us/about-us/contact/contact-spotify-support/

I read a report from another community member yesterday saying support blamed an "iPhone 5 compatibility issue" but no more details than that.

Peter
Spotify Community Mentor and Troubleshooter

Spotify Last.FM Twitter LinkedIn Meet Peter Rock Star Jam 2014


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I have the same problem with obscene data use. Today I accidentally used 3.1GB with 4 hours of listening at 96kbit. This is 1700% the data usage that 96kbit should use.

This is definately not isolated to the iPhone 5.  I have this issue on the iPhone 4S.  I traded a couple emails with their support team, but haven't gotten any sort of resolution.  Last email I sent to them on 12/19, after they asked for additional info from me.

 

RDIO has a 2 week trial, no credit card required.  I started that today and the interface is definately better than Spotify.  The only downside I can see is that RDIO doesn't advertise their bitrates so you don't really know what quality you are getting.  I haven't listened to it enough yet to see if quality of stream is any different.  Lots of folks on the internet seem pleased with RDIO though.

 

I sent a request for a response from Spotify today.  Over the last two months I've spent $30 in overage charges and paid $20 to Spotify over the last two months for a frustrating service that I can barely use.  I would expect a stand-up company to offer some sort of compensation (maybe 3 months of free service) to retain their customers that are having this issue.  I wonder if they even really know what the issue is.

The last I heard from them was on 12/16. They sounded like they were interested in looking into the issue as they asked me for more information and screenshots, but I have not heard from them since.

 

If you are having this issue and are receiving no acknowledgement/support from Spotify, I suggest the following:

- Report this bug to Apple. Tell them that this app needs to be temporarily removed from the App Store or reverted back to the previous version.

- File a complaint with the FTC.

- Report this bug as a tip to technology blogs/websites/news services.

- Do anything else you can think of that would force Spotify to take action.

 

To be ignored by their "support team" is infuriating and is intensified by the fact that they only offer support via email. I'm sure MANY more people are victims to this bug and they just haven't realized it yet or haven't posted on this forum about it.

Haha this is great!  I had no idea Spotify was eating my data until I stumbled across this thread, had a quick look and saw I'd dodged a bullet with data usage last 'cycle' (hurray for Holidays at home where there's wifi...).  However, a quick reset and switch to 3G showed one song costing me 6.6mb (fair, I stream at 160k), but after listening to the same song again... now it's 16mb.  You'll notice that's more than twice the data of one play through.  Synching over 3G is, naturally, turned off (and all my playlists are all synched up already)

 

Try playing an offline-synched song costs me another couple of mb, while in online mode.

Switched to offline mode (so, you know, zero 3G data should be being used...) and that's another couple of MB.

 

This wouldn't a problem if I had more than 1Gb of data to my plan, and get charged $20 for the next Gig...

 

I guess no one at Spotify is dealing with this right now as they've all taken the week or two off for the Christmas Holidays.  What a shame they're going to return to a right royal cluster fcuk.  Hopefully most people notice in time (though given this thread, and the speed with which you can use multi-Gbs I guess not...) and can also find the toggle in iOS settings to kill off mobile data to Spotify.

Hey guys 🙂 

 

I have opened this as a bug for the Spotify team to investigate. If you could all add the requested details to this bugs topic that would be a great help to the developers to track down this issue. 

 

For now so we can keep all reports going to the same place, I am going to lock this topic.

 

Thanks!

Peter
Spotify Community Mentor and Troubleshooter

Spotify Last.FM Twitter LinkedIn Meet Peter Rock Star Jam 2014


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