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?

[lennychuck]

This solution has not worked. I even bought a new SD card and formatted. The issue occurs on every restart now and has made the app completely useless for downloads and offline usage.

Galaxy S10 plus, android 12, Spotify version 8.7.68.568 updated on 9/23/2022.

[KarlRMaguire]

I've got the same problem with my Sony Xperia Sii 2. Very annoying, I'm a technician and I haven't been able to figure out how to fix it over the year I've had the phone. Seems it's a Spotify on Android 11 problem they need to fix with an update. I've had to resort to using an old phone that it doesn't do it on to download my playlists. 🙄

Obviously non android / iPhone users won't have this problem because they don't have external SD cards. 

[BodomFox]

How this critical bug still exists since 2019? Downloads is what I subscribed to premium for and it's "not right now".

[jon_97]

This has been a problem for years, and it was not documented/fixed properly... I believed not only on Samsung phones but other Androids also. Apparently, It's how Spotify or Andriod reads the SD card when the device is powered on, whereby it looks like it has a delay in reading the SD card which causes Spotify/ System to think that the SD card is not there, hence all the downloaded songs are gone, and the download storage is set back to internal.

From what I noticed sometimes it will work, and sometimes it doesn't. Test:

1. Format your SD card using your phone before use (Tried on S8) - Works
2. Clone SD card - Doesn't work (Maybe there is a file in the system linked to the SD card)
3. Format SD card using phone > Transfer files into it - Might work? (couldn't recall)
4. Format SD card using PC - Dosent work
5. Don't restart your phone - Works

Or If you are like me being lazy to keep redownloading... Just steam it.

Note: No protection on SD card, encryption/pin etc

[lsahjpaul99]

I'm honestly so disappointed in this company after tirelessly convincing many of my friends and family (on iOS) to switch to Spotify from Apple music as I'm their go to person for tech advice and personally I prefer Spotify. I feel so ashamed that I've been recommending this app which we ALL pay for and meanwhile I haven't even been able to get a single response back from anyone on the dev team regarding this issue. In today's world where my Samsung flagship main device is $1900...are you seriously telling me the biggest complaint I have surrounding my smartphone is my choice of music streaming service completely dropping the ball for almost half a decade on a SINGLE issue which makes it IMPOSSIBLE to even POWER CYCLE my device...without having to download 34GB of music back onto my SD card EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. If I sound **bleep** it's because I am but the part of this "unhappy customer" situation that sets it apart is that everyone on this thread has earned the right to be **bleep** at Spotify. I still continue to use this service and every update I see come out that is lacking a resolution for this makes me regret giving it another chance, time and time again. 

TLDR; Spofity Devs wake the **bleep** up and please allow this service to be truly as great as we know it has the potential to be. I work in the tech industry and the response time on this issue is abysmal. They should be ashamed and lucky we aren't pestering them for refunds/credits. 

[dgs2-q_s9hk3h]

let me guess your SD card is encrypted isn't it? well try this. turn
'developer options' on in the settings menu. open the tab, scroll down near
the bottom you will find the setting 'force allow apps on external' turn
this on. close settings find Spotify, long hold it to get the wedgit thrn
click the 'i' to get the app options. force stop the app then click
'storage' it should say 'current storage internal' click on that and change
it to external... answer yes and migrate it to the external card.... there
now let it try and access the SD card before its mounted kinda hard lol

[Machew222]

Moving the whole app to the SD card does NOT work for very long.  Whenever there is an app update or I reboot my device the whole app installs back to internal storage.  

[Corvax]

So... This issue is "solved" for me. You know how? They just removed option to choose where to save downloaded content. Now it's being saved only in internal storage. Bravo! It means that I just can't download anything due to internal storage limit. No possibility - no issue😬. 

It's not what I was waiting for really. 

UPD. The above happened because I set to use external card as a part of internal memory. It was working very slowly for all apps and I reset it back as normal external one.

[braticus]

I have this issue as well. However, when I install it on my SD card....the widget is disabled...? I'm beginning to hate spotify. 

[Renler]

I never use the widget, as it's not very helpful to me. But I have to switch the storage to SD card after every update, as the main program is moved back to the internal storage. Luckily the songs stay on the SD card