Issue with storage option switching from SD Card to internal

[haydnrb7]

Plan

Premium

Country

US 

Device

Moto X4

Operating System

Android Pie

My Question or Issue

 This happened with my last phone, Samsung S7 running Oreo (or whatever the most recent OS is) but it was fixed when I got the Moto X4. I like to keep a lot of songs downloaded offline because my service is terrible and I also spend a lot of time in the mountains. Before I I update my phone to the new Android Pie OS there was no problems. Now everytime I reset my phone I think spotify cannot see my SD card at first and tries to download all the music to its internal storage and I have to go back in and tell it to store it in the SD card. That is extremely annyoing but not the end of the world. What is really frustrating is that I think all of the downloaded songs are still on the SD card and just keep redownloading and taking up space. Eventually this will cause me to reformat the card which will be a major pain for me since I store a large amount of photos on there also. Is anyone else have this problem? I have already uninstalled and reinstalled the application so any other suggestions or help?

[MythicSuns]

If my previous comment looks odd it's because it was originally posted to the idea exchange but was then merged into this thread by a moderator. Kind of feels like they're just sweeping it under the rug but, whatever.

[Doogle26]

I'm using a MotoG50 and also having the same problem, come on Spotify I've used this service for years and this problem has been going on for ages, the guy above made some pretty good recommendations, this is driving me up the wall

[MythicSuns]

I saw a solution somewhere that worked for me but you're not going to like it; basically you have to buy a SanDisk Extreme Pro Micro SD card. The issue is caused by the fact that Spotify switches to the next immediately available  storage in the event that it doesn't detect the Micro SD card, and the reason it doesn't detect a typical Micro SD card is because it takes so long to send information to the phone during startup that the phone ends up launching Spotify in the background before it has even read the memory card, hence why a faster memory card will usually fix the problem. 

Of course, as I stated earlier, the ultimate solution would be for Spotify to change how their app handles downloads but obtaining a memory card is generally faster than waiting for the devs to sort it out. 

[franckgaga-ca]

I am so annoyed by this bug and angry that spotify choose to ignore it that i'm leaving them (I sound like a Karen lol) The Youtube Music and Deezer Android app doesn't have this bug. I'm testing both and see which one i prefer.

[MythicSuns]

@franckgaga-ca No you don't; you haven't demanded to see the manager of Spotify yet.

[1875pils]

I have the complete same issue and tried also to complete reinstall the app and all of its content. Also a device factory reset doesn't solve the issue. The issue occurs when the device is running out of battery when Spotify is opened. At the next start Spotify is still in RAM and will be started automatically because the device ran out of battery. At this moment the sd card isn't mounted and Spotify changes to internal storage.
It is no big deal to implement a routine which checks the availability of the sd card - if the sd card isn't available there should be a notice to the user, where the user can choose if Spotify should still try to access the sd card or should change to the internal storage.

[Alex]

Hey @1875pils,

Thanks for the post.

It's best to format the SD card as external storage, otherwise the Spotify app won't differentiate between the card and the phone's internal memory.

It's also a good idea to disable Battery optimization for Spotify, as this might cause the app to malfunction.

Hope this helps.

[MohawkTimmy]

Plan
Premium

Country
Australia

Device
Samsung Galaxy S20

Operating System
Android 11

Either after an app update, or seemingly randomly, Spotify reverts the storage for downloaded music back to internal storage from the SD Card.

I have had the music stored on the SD Card before, so it isn't a permission issue. I can also transfer the music back to the SD Card, but that can be a 50/50 chance on finishing without an error.

The issue is not that the music can't be stored on the SD card is that something is happening that causes it to move back to the internal storage. I'm not 100% sure, but quite sure, it is downloading all the music again each time after an update.

I have tried uninstalling and rebooting the phone to make sure it is a clean install, but this hasn't helped.

[jmarcil1]

This has apparently been an issue on Samsung phones for a while. The only workaround is to turn on Developer options in the phone's settings so that you can force entire apps to save to the SD card. When you do this, you won't have this issue when the phone restarts, BUT you will need to go through this process every time the app updates, so it's a temporary work-around. 

[Novy]

Hey there @MohawkTimmy, 

Thanks for reaching out here in the Community, and welcome 🙂

We'd first recommend checking your SD card to make sure that it's formatted as External Storage, otherwise Spotify won't be able to differentiate between the card and the phone's internal storage, which might cause this to occur.

If this doesn't do the trick, could you let us know the exact Spotify version you're currently running? 

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.