Consuming mobile data when automatically playing next track?

[Unclegrunkle]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Moto G6

Operating System

Android Pie

My Question or Issue

I have Download Over Cellular turned off. Sometimes Spotify will randomly start playing a track and use mobile data to download it. What part of not downloading over cellular does Spotify not understand? With the advent of Oreo, we no longer have the ability to block individual apps from using cellular data entirely, only to restrict them from using data in the background. I've already used the Nuclear Option on YouTube and blocked it using a VPN/filter app since there's not even an option to disable mobile data use. I'd do the same with Spotify but it won't let me play downloaded tracks if I don't have a data connection to the servers, so completely blocking makes it pointless to even use it.

It seems to happen most frequently when I'm listening to podcasts and finish the last downloaded episode. Spotify "helps" by grabbing another one in that show at random and starts downloading/streaming it VIA CELLULAR DATA.

Getting real tired of paying a premium for ameteur software.

[Unclegrunkle]

Today my phone automatically connected to my radio and began playing a track I had just removed from downloads. Guess what happened to my mobile data usage?

Absolutely unacceptable. It's way past time I stopped paying for this **bleep**.

[Guido]

Hello @Unclegrunkle,

Thanks for getting in touch!

Downloading is not the same as Streaming. Both require internet of course.

The Don't Download over Cellular option does not apply to simply streaming music. You'll always be able to do this unless you set a restriction on OS level.

The Don't Download over Cellular option will prevent the download of a whole playlist over cellular. This way a download of a large amount of songs will be parked until you connect to WiFi.

If you want to be sure that Spotify does not use your 3G/4G, be sure to enable Offline mode. In Offline mode, only already downloaded songs/podcasts will play.

Hope this answers your question. Let us know if you have further questions.

Have a nice day!

[HotHamWater]

Hi Guido,

I have cellular data turned off for Spotify in my iOS settings. However, if I am streaming over wifi and the wifi connection drops, Spotify starts drawing from my data to continue streaming, even though it is off in my iOS settings. This was not happening a couple of weeks back and only has started recently.

I have reinstalled the app and I am still having this issue.

Any suggestions or knowledge of a fix coming along? (Going to Offiline mode in the Spotify App is not a good enough solution because I want to stream my Daily Mixes over wifi without having to download them every day)