iPad Will Not Sync Unless Freshly Installed

[mlpmlp]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPad 5th Gen 12.9", M2 Macbook Pro, M4 Macbook Pro, Older intel Macbook Pro ...

Operating System

Current OS on all devices 

My Question or Issue

I sync Spotify across a ton of devices even beyond the above. While the majority of the devices have no problems, my iPad will only sync if Spotify is re-installed. Restarting the iPad or Spotify does nothing. 

This applies across the app: settings changes, adding songs to playlists or my favorites, saving/making playlists, locally downloaded files have to be re-downloaded on re-install, etc. 

What's an actual fix to get this syncing that isn't reinstalling the app every time I want to listen? 

[Yordan]

Hi there, @mlpmlp,

Thanks for reaching out!

There's another thread where users are reporting sync issues between their devices, which sounds similar to what you're experiencing, I'd recommend checking it out.

If you believe your issue is different, could you let us know if you've tried making changes (to a playlist, for example) on another device while keeping Spotify open and running on your iPad to see if the changes would be reflected there as well?

I'd also recommend checking if Background App Refresh is toggled on for Spotify. You can do this in Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Spotify. Something else that's worth trying is resetting the iPad's network settings.

In case you're using a VPN, I'd suggest disabling it as well. 

Let us know how it goes 👍

[mlpmlp]

Thanks, Yordan. Added a comment there, but that thread describes just one aspect of what I've been seeing on this iPad for quite some time, but not the full issue. Other similar threads offer the same "solution" which is to reinstall Spotify.

This is as if my iPad app is stuck at the time of the re-install. Nothing in the app syncs after that, from preference changes to playlist/song/audiobook/podcast adds, where i am in a podcast/audiobook, etc. 

I do not use a VPN on this device and background app refresh is turned on. Ironically, Spotify syncs fine on my devices where I have a VPN and background app refresh is turned off.

Beyond that, I've rebuilt the iPad from factory settings multiple times, reinstalled Spotify at least 50x, and it still does not sync anything that's done on other devices that sync to every other device. 

[Yordan]

Thanks for the reply, @mlpmlp! I see you posted in another thread as well, but since those don't fully cover the issue you're experiencing let's continue the discussion here.

Given that Spotify syncs just fine on your other devices, perhaps using the same system settings as on your iPad would do the trick. I'd also suggest keeping Spotify open and running on your iPad and making changes (to a playlist, for example) on another device to see if they'd show up on the iPad.

Something else that comes to mind is checking you have any battery/performance optimization settings or data-saving / cache-clearing software running which might be hindering the app's performance and if you do, I'd suggest disabling them to see if that helps. It's also worth using another Wi-Fi network to see if it helps - you can create a mobile hotspot from an iPhone to connect your iPad to.

Keep us posted on this!

[mlpmlp]

I have connected with Apple support a couple times and all settings that should be allowing the app to update itself are all correctly aligned: background app refresh, low power mode, etc. My network is fine, as are many others this iPad has attached to over the past year that this problem has existed. All other apps that update in the background have no issues. As noted, I have also rebuilt the iPad from scratch–not from a backup–a few times and when installing Spotify on a fresh iPadOS install, the same problem persists. 

Making a change on the iPad shows up on other devices, but not the other way around. I just added a song to my liked songs, it appeared immediately on my notebook, but when I removed it on the notebook it stayed on the iPad. 

The only thing that has gotten changes to apply has been deleting and reinstalling Spotify.

[Ivelina]

Appreciate the details @mlpmlp!

It's great that you've reached out to Apple Support to make sure there aren't any other settings on the device that may be causing this behavior with Spotify.

Since you've tried various troubleshooting steps so far and the only workaround for the moment is deleting and reinstalling Spotify, then possibly something gets corrupted or broken somehow on the iPad itself, or this could be an account-related issue instead.

To check this, it would be helpful to ask a relative or a friend to log in to their account on the iPad and from their device(s) where they're also logged in, perform some actions such as add or remove a song from a playlist. Let us know what happens and if these actions sync on your iPad.

Lastly, if the same behavior continues, feel free to include a video so we can take a look (make sure no sensitive info, such as a username is visible). You can either attach it here via the Insert Video option in the post editor, or upload the file to Google Drive and share the link with us.

Don't hesitate to let us know if anything else comes up in the meantime.

[mlpmlp]

Have already been over this, but have had two people log into the ipad app on the current install – and a fresh one and it has the same behavior. 

There would be nothing to show on the video I could record: I add a song on another device and the iPad does not change – nothing happens. I add a song on the iPad and it updates on the other devices. 

I'm still experiencing this as of 6/9/25. I still have to completely reinstall the app to get it to sync changes. Spotify is the problem, not everything else. 

Every bit of device or iPadOS troubleshooting has been done, including installing Spotify first after a fresh iPadOS install. Problem still persists. 

[Susan_GP]

Hi @mlpmlp,

Thanks for keeping in touch and for trying out our recommendations.

Could you let us know the exact OS version, along with the Spotify version you have installed on your iPad.  

Something else you can try is going to your Account Overview page and Signing out everywhere. Additionally, remove access to all the apps you've connected to your account from here. You can easily reconnect your apps anytime. Once done, log back in and check if that makes a difference.

We'll be on the lookout!