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Spotify is extremely slow to sync offline playlists on iOS

Solved!

Spotify is extremely slow to sync offline playlists on iOS

Hi,
I'm running the latest Spotify for iOS 5.0.1 version + did a complete restore on 2 iPhones 4S yesterday. I have the same problem on both my iPhones: Spotify is unbearably slow to sync offline playlists.
I have 1200 songs that I want to sync for offline listening. The mobile Spotify app is extremely slow to sync songs and usually stops after 20-25 songs. This has been happening for weeks if not months.
I have a blazing fast cable connection: 100Mb download speed + backup 8Mb download DSL. I've tried on these 2 connections + a 20Mb DSL connection at work and I have the same issue. Wifi signal is 5/5 on both iPhones and bandwidth tests are good.
Friends of mine living where I live (Strasbourg, France) don't seem to have the same problem. I can only think that it might be related to my account.
In addition, I've had to re-download all my playlists something like every 2 weeks for the last 4 or 5 month. I'm only using Spotify for offline listening on 2 devices so it has nothing to do with the 3 device limit.
I usually turn offline mode off every 5 days to make sure my offline playlists will stay on my 2 iPhones but I still have to re-download everything very frequently.
Spotify has become unbearably painful to use because of all this...
Please help!
Thank you,
Fred
Reply
226 Replies

I just synced 256 songs and it took the ENTIRE WORKDAY Cat Mad

Just signed up to Premium in Australia so I could use offline mode. So far it's taken over 30mins to sync 5 tracks which is ridiculous. Why so slow Spotify?

Yea the sync on my iPhone is also crazy slow too.

 

I love how with even this constant stream of issues the Spotify team is either too lazy or just doesn't care enough to even acknowledge this issue so we know they are looking into it. Even that would keep me waiting.

But this... Ignore-ance.

Slow sync to my iphone 4s (latest firmware etc)

 

Takes about 30mins to download 1 Album (ten tracks maybe) on my reliable 20Mbit connection.

 

Unacceptable.

 

Spotify - are you there? Will this ever be fixed? Update would be nice!

Just wanted to post an update real quick.

 

I tried my luck from Germany last time I posted here. The problem seemes to be temp. fixed for me. I flew over from Germany to California (SF) for an internship. I currently stay in a hotel and have no problems at all with syncing new songs to my phone. The internet is even slower over here. (50mbit in Germany, 2mbit here, tested on speedtest.net) Still using WiFi to sync. Takes not even 30sec to sync a song.

 

So it seems to be an server/routing/server load issue.

Also having this problem. I am going to give spotify a month to fix this. If it is still this bad, I'm going to cancel my subscription, simple as.
I'm not willing to pay for a service that doesn't work properly.

In the time it took me to write my previous post, spotify synced over 100 songs. This got me thinking, could it be something to do with the songs being synced? Some albums take hours, others take seconds.

Testing result:

syncing a 4 mins length song.

time used: 77 s

Route monitored speed: 140kb/s to 160 kb/s

Setting: extreme

 

So, one song is about: 12MB

 

therefore the problem here is the speed. Spotify should cdn or building local servers to boost up the speed. other services like Google and iTunes all have full bandwidth speed, which in normall case would be 1MB/s.

 

I'm having this problem too. Just signed up today for a premium account, I nearly went with Rdio. I wish I had now! Smiley Frustrated

Same problem here. Just upgraded tot premium to be able to do offline plays but syncing is unbearably slow.

Sometimes I also receive an error message "Offline Playlists: There was an error communicating with Spotify. Some tracks couldn't be made available offline. Spotify will try again later"

I GIVE UP!!! Cat Mad

 

I have am canceling Spotify Premium.

 

All of my offline content on my phone disappeared and now I have to spend another eight hours re-syncing it. This is totally unacceptable.

 

I will re-subscribe to Spotify Premium if you:

 

  • Stop making songs randomly disappear off my phone after a month or whatever
  • Allow syncing over the iPhone cable from already-synced songs on my desktop computer  - this would be so fast

Thanks!

 

Geoff

It really bothers me that this thread, despite all the attention it has received from paying subscribers MONTHS ago, has not been resolved by the powers that be. I'm having this issue months later, and find that not only is the thread still open, but no official fix or update has been issued to resolve this matter. I've been considering, like many others, switching back to MOG or Rdio - this may be the dealbreaker, Spotify, so get your **bleep** together please.

Yep, having the same problem here with iPhone 4S. iPad syncs nice and quick, but the iPhone syncing is not acceptable. A timeframe and info on a likely fix would be great. Otherwise I'll (sadly) walk. Currently I'm paying for music service but not getting any music.....

I had the same problem but now problem solved for me.

in spotify settings on my iphone i saw a button called "sync over 2g/3g" switched it on and then it syncs really fast.

I've played around with the 2G/3G setting and that hasn't made a difference for me. Glad it worked for you though!

I am also having the same problem on Android, so I assume this is a problem to do with their insufficient servers.

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