Spotify does not find offline music after disconnecting / connecting the SD card

[DoinK]

Description

When I disconnect my SD card and connect it again Spotify cannot access downloaded songs. All playlists and the offline data are still on the SD card are still available but Spotify does not realize that these songs are downloaded. I need to re-download all offline playlists.

This issue happens also some time after restarting the phone as the SD card is only available some seconds after the restart.

What are the steps you took to get to the error/issue?

The error can be reproduced with the following steps

1. download a playlist

2. disconnect the SD card

3. start Spotify -> Spotify shows only a black screen and the menu button on the top left which cannot be clicked

4. reconnect the SD card

5. start Spotify -> this time Spotify starts normally

6. the downloaded songs in the playlist are not available offline anymore

What I expected to happen

Disconnecting and connecting the same SD card should not effect downloaded songs. They should be available.

Did you restart your device when troubleshooting in section B?

Yes

Did you read the connection troubleshooting tips?

Yes

Your device

Sony Xperia Z1 compact

Device’s Operating System

4.4.4

What type of account do you have?

Premium

Space left on your device

9.36 GB

Space left on your External SD card (if applicable)

27.2 GB

Is your device rooted?

No

Are you using a custom ROM, if so which one, exactly?

No

Did you manually install an older version before installing the latest version from the Play Store?

No

My mobile Spotify version

1.2.0.534

My mobile provider and country

Congstar (D1), Germany

My username

1125113970

Do you have a Spotify (non-Facebook) login?

No

Are you logging in with Facebook or with your Spotify login details?

Facebook login

Do you have any screenshots you can attach to more clearly explain your issue?

No

[happygilmoreuk]

I have the exact same issue on the same phone.

[Rodrigo · Accepted solution]

Hello @DoinK ! Welcome to the community!

I believe the app changed the storage location from the SD Card to the Internal Storage when you disconnected the card. Since the storage location is selected on installation, you need to perform a clean re-install with these steps:

- Go to System Settings

- Go to Apps/Manage Apps

- Find Spotify there

- On its page, tap "Clear Cache". After that, tap "Uninstall" and remove the app.

- Power off your phone and then back on.

- Using a File Manager on the phone or a Computer and an USB cable, delete all folders related to Spotify. Usually, they are com.spotify.music and com.spotify.mobile.android.ui and are located on Internal Storage > Android > Data.

- Make sure your SD Card is inserted and install Spotify from Google Play

When you launch the app again, it will automatically select the place with the most free space to store its data. If your SD Card has more free space, the app will automatically save there.

Let me know if this solves your problem ;D

[DoinK · Accepted solution]

Hi @Rodluizpant, thank you for your answer and the welcome.

Your answer solved my problem only partly. After reinstalling the Spotify app, it used again the external SD card as storage, as it is the memory with the most free space. I downloaded a playlist and disconnected the external SD card. When I started the Spotify app I got the notification that not enough memory is available and the app closed after pressing OK. When I started Spotify again I received the same black screen with only the menu button.

After reconnecting the external SD card Spotify did not find my downloaded songs.

As I know now how Spotify chooses the memory to use I disconnected the external SD card and installed Spotify again to use the internal memory of my phone. After connecting the external SD card Spotify is still using the internal memory, which is fine in my case.

[Rodrigo · Accepted solution]

Hello!

I believe disconnecting the SD Card is the problem.

When you install the app with the SD Card installed, the app selects it since it has a lot of free space. However, when you disconnect the card, the app still needs to save data, so it goes for the Internal Storage. Unfortunately, there's no way to manually specify where you want it to store its files. Because of that, I'm afraid there's no way to go back to the SD Card without performing a complete re-install to force the app to choose the place with the most free space, again.

I think the only possible solution for this is either avoid disconnecting the SD Card so the app doesn't need the Internal Storage or continue using the Internal Storage of the phone, if it can handle it.

I'm really sorry I couldn't solve your issue. Unfortunately, there's nothing else we can try, since that's the way the app was designed to work.

[Rodrigo]

Hello @happygilmoreuk ! Welcome to the community! I believe the same instructions mentioned above apply to your case, since you're facing the same issue with the same device.

Let me know if it solves your problem ;D

[user-removed]

Same problem on a Sony z3.

Decoded to cancel my subscription and try another service.

Have better things to do in life than continually download songs after my battery goes flat.

[betul122]

Same issue. But not just disconnect, also when I close the app, all music and login information are gone. When I move the app back to internal storage, everything is fine. I get that all files and database storage in my sd card, but Spotify doesn't find them. That is a huge problem.

[Joe]

Android OS won't allow the spotify app to be moved to SD card so are you using a third party utility to do this? I suspect you realise that moving the app to SD causes problems as it is designed to run in internal storage so just leave it there.

[smlmzlm]

After numerous answers, this I believe is the real cause of the problem. It'd be awesome if spotify choose to fix this bug.

[silber212]

This worked for me, thanks!

[smlmzlm]

Spotify, fix this asap, please. We shouldn't have to do a complete clean reinstall and redownload several GBs of music library over and over everytime the battery goes flat. Isn't it clear that a music service with Premium subscription for offline listening shouldn't work the way Spotify does right now

[Vaubin]

Hello !

I have kind of the same issue, the thing is my SD card keep being removed from my phone due to a misconnection.. So everytime I have to delete all the older folder on the SD Card, and then select and download all the playlist I want to have offline again..

Is there a way just to select the folder on the SD card and to add them back directly to the Spotify library without doing all the steps above?

Thanks !!

[Joe]

Unfortunately mot. With all the people having issues with their SD cards disconnecting it would be awesome if the spotify app threw up a warning giving us the option of reconnecting the SD card or starting a new cache in internal storage.

[deenahamer]

can't seem to figure it out.  I bought my new phone from Verizon and they transfered my data and all phone stuff at the store.  I tried to log in and it will not let me.  States that I am free, but I am paying for premium.  

[Joe]

Cpntact Verizon to sort this and don't post in random threads which have nothing to do with your issue.

[Ja1207]

I thought it was only me who have this problem. And then when I saw the date, I realized that this is common to others recently. At first I thought this is because I've exceeded the 3 Offline Devices limit (even though I only use my phone in saving Offline). This is so irritating because I constantly restart my phone due to widget problems. Afterwards, when I open Spotify, the downloads are gone and the storage transfers to the Phone Memory, but the SD Card memory is still in the GB (meaning, it still have my downloads). This sucks because I download more than 1000 songs Offline and in Extreme Quality (talk about downloading that in every restart).