Music not playing while on offline mode

[Moemulla]

Plan

Premium

Country

South Africa 

Device

Samsung Galaxy S8

Operating System

Android Pie

My Question or Issue

I have downloaded songs and playlists offline use but when I play on offline mode the same downloaded music it won't play until I deactivate offline mode. Had this premium package for months now and was working perfect on offline mode. My mobile data wouldn't be used up. Now I can't play unless I deactivate it. All I can think of that changed is a software update because 24 hrs ago it was perfect. 

[Moemulla]

I had the Enhance option enabled on my Liked songs list which prevented downloaded songs from playing in Offline mode. Worked fine after I disabled this option. 

[Moemulla]

So I had this same issue (Galaxy S20FE) and went to my app settings to clear cache, noticed that all my permissions were denied (including storage). I allowed storage, cleared cache, and restarted my phone and now the download toggle is available on my Spotify library. 

[Jᴀᴄᴋ]

Hey @Moemulla thanks for reaching out to the Spotify Community,

I would suggest trying to restart your device. If tha doesnt work lets try a clean reinstall of the Spotify app, and see if that helps. 

If that doesnt work, let me know and we can try something else.

-Jack 🙂

[Moemulla]

Thanks for your response Jack

Is there another solution other than a clean install? I have downloaded
almost 20Gb of music so it'll take quite some to get back to how it should
be.

[Jᴀᴄᴋ]

Hey again,

Yeah! We can surely try something else. I would now suggest clearing the data/cache on the Spotify App, and or restarting your device. 

Follow these steps to clear cache: 

1. Open the Settings of your phone.
2. Tap the Storage heading to open its settings page. ...
3. Tap the Other Apps heading to see a list of your installed apps.
4. Find the application you want to clear the cache of and tap its listing.
5. Tap the Clear cache button.

Let me know,

-Jack

[Moemulla]

Good idea Jack. It's been long since I last cleaned my cache. Unfortunately
though it still does not resolve the issue. It is very strange. I noticed
if my mobile data and wifi are both disconnected then it won't play at all,
will remain stuck at 0:00 and the moment I connect to a network it will
continue to work.

[Jᴀᴄᴋ]

Hi again,

Is it possible that its not actually downloaded? Also make sure to double check your premium subscription.

-Jack

[Moemulla]

Hi there.

My subscription is fine. As I indicated everything was fine since the day I
began my premium subscription months ago until yesterday. Yesterday too
everything was fine until this morning. As you can see my entire playlists
are all downloaded. This is now becoming frustrating so much so that if
this issue can not be resolved then what's the point of the subscription?

[Jᴀᴄᴋ]

Hi @Moemulla sorry about the late responce.

At this point, I’d recommend checking out the "Downloads unexpectedly removed" section of the "Listen offline troubleshooting" support article for some more help with this.

If the article doesn't help I recommend keeping your app updated with a clean reinstall (might be the only way) and avoiding any cache-clearing apps.

Let me know if the problem still persists.

Jack 🙂

[Olierook]

@Moemulla

Do you see the 'downloaded' icon next to the song? Try accessing your downloaded music from 'Your Library' if you didn't do so already

[Jᴀᴄᴋ · Accepted solution]

Hey all,
I actually just had the same issue, and when I restarted my device and cleared the cache viaa settings and it worked.
Lemme know if it works for you
Jack

[Moemulla]

Hi there.

Just done a clean reinstall. Everything is working as should now.

Thanks for the help

[Lwazi5252]

Thats the exact thing that is happening to me it is frustrating all these streaming app do this but spotify is the worst

[CathyDee]

Hi,

Clearing the cache and restarting my phone did not work and songs only start playing when I go online. I also have 10GB+ worth of downloaded songs for offline playing, which is one of the main reasons I switched to premium. How do we resolve this unfortunate issue, Jack/Spotify Community?

[Ivan]

Hey there @CathyDee, 

Thanks for reaching out to the Community about this. 
 

Just to confirm, have you tried the clean reinstall that @Jack previously suggested? We recommend this step as it'll remove the old drivers first and then install the new ones. It'll also get you the latest version of Spotify.

This usually tends to solve issues like the one you're experiencing and it seems it helped most of the users.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted. 

[DKM19]

Hi, I’ve tried all the suggested methods like clearing cache and re-downloading the app, but none of these have worked, any other suggestions?

[nedomedo]

I don't think the "clear cache, or reinstall Spotify" is viable solution. I have a bunch of albums in offline mode, my favorite stuff that I listen to right now. If Spotify is in offline mode, the albums don't open. I must go online first, and only then can I start playing a song. 

If I'm at a place where I cannot go online, like airplanes, or anywhere where I don't have access to a network, or anywhere where I don't want to use my network, I cannot listen to the music I've downloaded. I am paying for this service. What's the deal?? 

Could it be that Spotify has done this on purpose to stop several people being able to use one Spotify account? While one is streaming, the others can listen to their offline lists. What if they force people to go online before playing music? Then they would mess up the playing of music for the other(s), which is annoying, and thus will force them into each getting their own premium? 

Or is it just that they don't know how to f*cking fix bugs?

[DKM19]

I think it was a week or so after I put this online I just made a completely new playlist and copied my songs across, took a while to do, but solved the problem in the end

[melikebulut]

I'm having the same problem and is reinstalling really the only solution? Because it would took ages to redownload all the songs again.

[DKM19]

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. For me, it didn’t and I ended up making the playlist all over again

[dbodey]

This is ridiculous 

None of these responses from Spotify have helped. Clearly this is a common problem and Spotify doesn’t have a solution. The main reason I got premium was to use offline.