Spotify Android app using a LOT of data on 3G!

[licenced]

Hi there,

I didn't use Spotify yesterday until the preview app was announced and I installed it. Since installing it yesterday shortly after it was announced I've been using it a fair amount.

I have only listened to music in playlists already downloaded for offline use, but Spotify itself has been online.

In Settings 'Download over 2G/3G' is set to OFF - although as stated I have not been listening to anything requiring a download and have also not sync'd any new playlists, except while on wifi last night when I sync'd one new album.

In the two days, 19th and 20th, Android shows Spotify as having used nearly 100MB of network traffic.

This is worrying. Why is it using so much data? I am on a data plan that restricts how much 'streaming and downloading' data I am entitled to use, so am worried that I am going to get throttled due to this.

Can others with the new app please check their own usage amounts?

Dave

[licenced]

I'd guess that the vodafone counts are off rather than your phone's - maybe they're no including uploads or a certain type of data or maybe they are a day or two behind.

Either way its still far too much data usage for an app with a specific setting for transfers over 3g and with that setting flicked to off

[airmax-b3]

Any news on this issue?

The problem is still active with the final version of Spotify for Android.

I played 10 songs (offline stored) and had a data usage of 9,68 MB data in foreground and 121 MB in background within two days.

[David]

Hey guys.

Any way for you to check CPU usage too? Could you tell me / post up a screenshot of what Spotify is doing the Background?

[lassi]

I have the same problem

When spotify is in the background with no music 6,17 MB RAM, 0,00-0,37% CPU

when playing music: 10,78 MB RAM,  CPU 0,00%

after playing music: 9,22 MB RAM CPU 0,00 %

Looks like the phone  uses very much data all the time, but especially when starting up the program

[lassi]

By the way: I have Samsung galaxy s plus.

And the last sentence once more: Looks like the phone  uses very much data all the time when spotify is running, but especially when starting up the program.

There it become right 🙂

[whuijten]

I had  the same issue with the beta release and it persists with the official version that was released just last week.

I never stream music while on 3G only on WiFi. I always have the app  in online mode though.

In the old version that didn't lead to any significant data usage, just a few hundred kB here and there.

With the new version this generates appox. 50Mb of 3G traffic per day. Today I consumed 43Mb of data (until 22:35h) and haven't even opened Spotify (see screenshot).

I now have to force the Android app in off-line mode otherwise I will hit my data cap very soon.

This is very worrying.

Spotify: please investigate.

[SiDtheTurtle]

For reference, for each half an hour of cached playback, Spotify seems to be consuming 5-8MB of data.  I'm on a HTC One X.  A colleague of mine on a Galaxy S3 doesn't have this problem.

I wonder if it's the Facebook integration?  I'm going to try turning that off and see if that makes a difference.

Also, it's definately 'constant' usage.  I walk half way to work and then get on the Underground.  A few seconds after going underground and losing signal my music stutters for a second like it would if I was streaming and then pauses.  I can unpause and continue listening though.

[caledoniaman]

I moved from iPhone to Android at the start of May. Previously I was lucky if I dented my 750Mb allowance to the tune of 100Mb in a month.

Received a text from O2 this morning saying I was at 80% of my data limit. After some investigation and installing data manager software I discovered that Spotify is bumming me to the tune of about 4Mb an hour.

I'm not using the BETA release any more (although I was). I've since upgraded to the full release.

Anyone know if putting Spotify into offline mode will stop this?

[caledoniaman]

To clarify, like other users, I've been using nothing but offline, downloaded playlists.

[VlarpNL]

Hi guys,

Well, I've got the same issue as reported. Using the most recent version from the Android Market (0.5.1.15).. Only listening to offline playlists. I have the app running only and have last.fm scrobbling enabled. I listen about 2 to 3 hours a day. Today that left me with Spotify using almost 40MB on mobile data. 

That much data is going to kill my data plan. I've got 1 GB a month which is fair for heavy use, but Spotify is killing it now. 

I must say that I think it is also using data when it is not playing any music because I noticed that my phone was using a lot of data even when it was resting idly on my desk at work. 

[damion121]

Another case here -- Spotify has chewed through about 220MB of data in three days, playing offline playlists for about 2 hours over that time. 

I had no idea what was chewing through data so I installed Onavo to see what was using data; it kept warning on the Android process com.spotify.mobile.android as opposed to the app itself. As it's a process and not an app, Onavo isn't able to block it directly, and it can't show me a top-down overview of what the Spotify app is using. 

I've changed Spotify settings to Offline Mode in the hope that this will fix it, but I'm wondering if anyone is aware of any other app that might block the com.spotify.mobile.android process from accessing 3G data, if Onavo is unable to prevent it? 

[licenced]

I hit my 500MB data cap a few days ago with more than a third of the month left. Spotify has apparently used 377MB.

As when I first reported this, I only ever listen to offline playlists, I only sync new stuff while of wifi and I try to remember to put Spotify into offline mode when I am done syncing - although a obviously forgot a few times.

[VlarpNL]

Setting Spotify to go offline everytime is not really what I would to do. I don't care if uses data when I'm on Wifi, but on mobile data it should just stick to downloading metadata etc. 

Does anyone know if this excess data use also happens on iOS?

[Keith00000]

How has no spotify employee even commented on this thread yet? Starting to wonder if they care 😛

[VlarpNL]

Well, it seems the iOS version of the app always has their main attention. That app already has Spotify Radio integrated while we (on Android) are still struggeling with an app that has just come out of the beta phase.

Using offline mode seems to "solve" the excess data use for now, though I really, really hope that the developers are going to sort this out soon.

[damunk · Accepted solution]

I had a temporary solution for this while in the beta. Should probably still work now, although I haven't tested yet if last.fm will still scrobble.

If you are on android ICS do the following:

System settings --> Data usage --> Set mobile data limit (tick this) --> find spotify in the list in the lower end of the data usage screen --> press it --> on the spotify stats scroll down and restrict background data

If you look at the stats you see you will cut about 90% of the data...  I had about 60mb currently, foreground was only 2,6...

I hope this helps those also under tyranny of their service providers. Mark as solution if this helped you.

[VlarpNL]

Hi,

It seems to do the trick by enabling the restrict background data option. Spotify now stays offline as long as the app is running in the background. It only sends data when the app is open on screen or when my phone is on Wifi. As soon as Spotify is online again (either on Wifi or when the app is opened on screen) it will also scroblle all played songs to Last.fm.

Thanks for the tip!

[joenixon]

I checked my data usage today and only have 50MB left of data out of a 500MB allowance - with another two weeks before my allowance resets. ICS says Spotify is what's using up all the data, even though it's set to only download songs over Wifi and I've only listened to about two songs that hadn't been downloaded over wifi (and after they'd been played once they were marked as downloaded so they shouldn't have streamed again - they were both in offline playlists). I also just switch from iPhone to a Galaxy Nexus in May, and never had these problems with the iPhone app.

I'm now having to pay another £5/month to Vodafone to increase my data tariff just for Spotify eating up all my data allowance, on top of the £10/month I already pay for Spotify premium. I'm very unhappy about this and as soon as the time I've already paid for premium is up I'm going to switch to Rdio.

[licenced]

@damunk - tis is a workaround shot a solution! It needs to be fixed properly rather than relying on us remember to turn on offline mode

[lassi]

Looks like there are many who have this problem. Does anyone know what Spotify says about it?