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[iOS][Other] Save 1.5GB mobile data per month !

[iOS][Other] Save 1.5GB mobile data per month !

I use Spotify on my iOS device at home over the weekend to discover new music and playlists which I download for offline use.

During the week I use Spotify on my iOS device in my car to listen to this music.

 

However, I am thinking to switch to another music streaming service due to high mobile data usage with Spotify:

The big Album Art Covers used in the lockscreen and in the fullscreen mode of Spotify are stored in temporary cache directory and get cleared after Spotify app is restarted or after crash of Spotify app.

-> every song played will re-load the big Album Art Cover ! This leads to hugh data amounts for daily use of Spotify, 1..2GB per month wasted only for reloading of covers for songs which have already been made available for offline usage !

 

It should be very easy to change this, only need to change file storage path of big Album Art Covers from temporary folder to permanent folder.

For devices limited by low storage space, e.g. 16GB models, optional setting could be made available "Big Album Art Covers Download" enabled/disabled.

 

Steps to reproduce bug:

 

As already reported several weeks ago in this forum and via official Spotify support, the bug still exists in the latest.Spotify version:

iPad Air 2 iOS 8.4 Spotify 3.8.0.1169

Steps to reproduce Bug:
#Sync Playlist for Offline Mode
#Switch Spotify app to offline mode
#OfflinePlaylist can be played and is showing all covers - the small ones in the lower status bar as well as the big ones in the fullscreeen mode and in the lockscreen mode
#Quit Spotify app
#Restart Spotify app
#Offline Playlist can be played but is only showing the small covers. Fullscreen or Lockscreen will only display the generic note symbol.

!!! Warning, this bug will lead to high mobile data consumption since Spotify will reload all big Cover Arts during playback, each time, even with the setting "sync via mobile" disabled !!!

It looks like Spotify is caching the big Album Art Covers in a temporary folder which gets deleted after closing the app.
Spotify should download the big Album Art Covers in a permanent folder if the song is marked for offline availability.

Album Cover art is small in size compared to the music data, maybe 10% additional space wouldsince be needed on the device.
But the savings would be huge, 1.5GB mobile data, approx. 15€ per month is waisted by using Spotify with mobile connection.

It would even be possible to program one additional slider in the settings, "Download big Album Art Covers ENABlED/DISABLED" for users concearned with device storage space.
Or, choose temporary download automatically for "Normal" syncronisation quality settings, and permanent download for "High" and "Extreme" settings.

Additional bug since 3.8 version: In offline mode, the app will crash after skipping some songs. Maybe 10..20 songs can be skipped, then the app will crash.

Reply
1 Reply

Hello!
I see you've reported the bug about album covers not displayed in offline mode already in the Ongoing Issues board here.

If there are any news about a fix, it will be shared there.
Thanks for the report!

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