Podcasts not playing offline

[dwneville]

Started using Spotify for podcasts. Downloaded some locally to listen on commute but they stop playing when I don't have a data connection. Music works fine offline.

Premium 

Samsung S20+

Android 10

Canada

[Ivan]

Hey @dwneville,

Thanks for posting on the Community about this. 

We hope you don’t mind us replying now as we just stumbled upon your post.
 

Start off by running a clean reinstall of the Spotify app on the mobile device. This will remove any old cache files that might be causing the podcast issue.

If this persists after the clean reinstall, make sure that:

• The device storage isn’t full or experiencing any issues
• No cache clearing or battery saving apps run active since they can affect your downloads

Keep us posted! We'll be happy to lend a hand if you need more help. 

[stockcar391]

I have exactly the same problem but reinstalling and clearing cache doesn't solve it. Music plays fine, its just the downloaded podcasts

[AndresM]

Hey @stockcar391,

Thanks for posting on the Community. 

Could you send us the make/model, OS version and Spotify version installed on your device?

On another note, tell us if the issue started after a recent update. Also, let us know if this is happening with other devices (if possible). 

We'll be looking for your reply. 

[stockcar391]

Hi AndresM 
It has started since I got the phone, I recently upgraded from a Samsung S7 to a Samsung Galaxy S10. I remember the same happening on the S7 and the above worked on that phone just didn't on the S10. The S10 is Android version 12 and I have Spotify version 8.7.28.1217. 

Please let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks,
James

[ChrisZ06]

Has this issue been resolved?  I download a few podcasts.  I am on WIFI with a strong signal.  OFFLINE MODE is OFF.  I can switch between podcasts instantaneously.   Once I go offline (DATA AND WIFI OFF), It takes sometimes more then a minute to switch between podcasts.  Sometimes I give up at 2 minutes or so and do not know if it will ever play.  The music still changes in an instant.  It doesn't matter if I go into offline mode or not.  Galaxy S9+. Plenty of memory.  This is a BUG plain and simple. It's almost as if it is looking for a network connection for some strange reason.  Please Fix it.

[Alex]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the replies.

There could be a few things that could be causing this issue, one of which is corrupted SD card data. If you are saving offline content on your SD card, try switching to the phone's internal storage and re-downloading the podcast episodes.

If it's not too much of a hassle you can uninstall the app and clear the app data+cache, after that remove your SD card and re-install the app. Next try downloading a few episodes and switching to Offline mode to check if they load faster. This way you can check if the issue is related to the SD card.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

[stockcar391]

I don't have an SD card in the phone, its on the phone memory. I have cleared the date & cache, I have uninstalled the app again, reinstalled the app, downloaded the podcasts. When its on offline mode I can see the list of podcasts. When its on normal mode and not connected to the internet I can see the downloaded music list but not the podcasts. I can however, add the downloaded podcasts to the queue when online and then when I go offline they still play so they are downloaded on the phone, I just cant go into the podcast list.

[tdubois]

I am on an iPhone 12 Pro Max and have noticed this issue is worse with podcasts that “change tracks” to that add (as in the ad within the podcast is shown visibly in addition to what is spoken).  When the show tries to resume it stops completely until I regain a data connection.  I’ve reinstalled the app 3 times and have no battery or cache clearing apps on my phone.  

[CarlosE]

Hey folks,

Thanks for your replies in this thread 🙂

@stockcar391 thanks for the details. Is this happening on another mobile device at this moment? It’d be awesome if you could check. You can ask for the mobile device of a relative or a friend to open your account and check.

You can also create a free test account to check if the inconvenience persists there.

@tdubois can you share with us the exact operating system of your device along with the Spotify version you use? It helps us if you check if the issue persists on another mobile device as well.

We'll keep an eye on your responses!

[tdubois]

I am on iOS 15.4.1 but this has happened on other iOS 15 versions
previously.

[Dian]

Hey @tdubois,

Thanks for sharing the device details.

Is the background app refresh turned on for Spotify on your iPhone? Could you check that? Here is how.

Also make sure you've not activated the energy saving mode of your iPhone as described here.

@stockcar391 and  @ChrisZ06 could you make sure to cleanly reinstall Spotify with the steps from this article and afterwards make sure Spotify is set as an exception in the battery/memory optimization settings of your Samsung phones? More on that here.

Let us know how that went,

Cheers!

[tdubois]

Background app refresh is on and no battery/every saving settings are on.

[stockcar391]

it worked fine on my s7 before i swapped to the s10. i have a friend with spotify on a different phone and he also has the same problems. i have followed the steps as provided, there was no folder called com.spotify.music.

i am a little unsure about the next part, i have set spotify as an excluded app under memory. is that correct?

[stockcar391]

Problem still exists, music I can get to, podcasts I can not

[Dian]

Hey @stockcar391 and @tdubois,

Thanks a lot for the replies and the troubleshooting steps you've tried.

Would it be possible to record a short video of the experience with the podcasts in Offline mode? This will be very helpful to us.

We'll be on the look for your reply,

Cheers!

[stockcar391]

the file limit wont allow me to send you a video, can i email it

[ChrisZ06]

I have an update.  i uninstalled and reinstalled spotify and things are much better.  I probably could have just cleared cache, but this was easy.

For now it's good, I'll check back after I load all of my music and podcasts again.

in OFFLINE mode with ALL WIFI and DATA off,

In my playlist, If I press the white and black play button next to the podcast, it plays instantly.

If I press on the text of the podcast, it shows a bigger GREEN play button.  This one takes about 10 seconds.

For now, this is working great.

[Dian]

Hey there,

Could you give the steps provided by @ChrisZ06 a go? 

@ChrisZ06 could you also post a screenshot with the buttons, which you're using for this solution? We'd want to replicate it on our test devices exactly as described.

@stockcar391 Could you upload the video to YouTube and post a link? This would do fine.

For the other users, as this issue seems to be alleviated through a clean reinstall to some degree, make sure to perform a clean reinstall with the steps described here, if not done so already, so we can troubleshoot further.

We'd also need the device setup specifics, if you're experiencing this issue. Brand/model, operating system and Spotify version installed are enough.

We'll be on the look for your replies,

Cheers!