Storage switched back to internal at every reboot (I've found the solution!)

[user-removed]

Plan

Premium

Country

Brazil

Device

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite

Operating System

Android Pie

My Question or Issue

I have encoutered this issue and many post with people with problems rebooting the phone and mantaining the storage option properly configured as SD card.

I've found the solution! (at least to my case).

I hope it can help someone else.

I've bought this new phone some weeks ago, and it has Android Pie (my old phone was Marshmellow) and in this version I've set a PIN number and, for some reason, didn't let configured to ask for the PIN before the system boots (with is the most secure option). Instead, it asked for the PIN before the first unlock and after the system boot. That's the catch:

I noticed that the SD card only mounts AFTER I unlock the first time after the boot. You can see it by the SD card icon who apears quickly at status bar just after the unlock. For security reasons, it make sense, since someone who stole the phone could try to load malicious software via external storage. Spotify service probably loads BEFORE the SD card mount, and then, like a mother who call the police when his son is 30 seconds late to come back home, it switches to the internal memory and starts to download all again. If the PIN is typed before the system boot, the SD card mount and when Spotify service loads, it can find the external storage. Works like a charm. 

This solution did not let Spotify devs off the hook, since many other apps that use external storage didn't present this issue at all.

SOLUTION:

Make sure, if you have a PIN or password set, to Android ask BEFORE the system boot.

Cheers!

[kupkrazy]

Thank you for this... I have this same problem with my Note 9. I tried what you said by setting up Secure boot which does exactly what you said, and sure enough, it works and SD storage is retained. Like you said, it's not a permanent solution since the app should actually work - but at least it works for now and I can actually download my playlists again. Thanks. Spotify, please fix this! 🙂

[shay_ortiz]

**bleep** this is exactly the problem i'm having atm! It's absolutely irritating for my 1k+ songs to have to download every.fricking.time. What did you mean by having android "ask" before system boot? Thanks!

[dcrosthwait]

Same issue on my Moto g6 running Android Pie. 128gb Samsung SD card.

After this issue of the Spotify app changing storage locations with each restart I tried switching to Offline Mode and then restarting. Unfortunately the app wouldn't even let me log in after that... Got stuck in an endless loop of Spotify sending me a login email, then the app saying the link had expired (2 seconds after I received it) - and round and round I went...

F&$# it. Going to try Google Play's 30-day free trial. I pay for Spotify Premium so I can have my music with me. If that functionality isn't available, there's no sense in stickin' around.

[Atexor]

I've found workaround for that issue. Unfortauntely it requires admin (root) permissions, what may be quite embarrassing for most of you. But still something and maybe it will help someone: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/SOLVED-PARTIALLY-Spotify-downloads-songs-to-internal-memory...

I didn't test with encrypted SD card but should work too.

[Daedalus100]

Proposed solution to require PIN before phone booting did not work for me on moto g6 play android 9

[Petya]

Hi @Daedalus100,

Thanks for reaching out to us!  

Can you try the following steps? These are:

1. Enable permission for storage option for Spotify. This can be accessed by going to Settings>Apps>Spotify>Permissions>Storage.

2. Do a clean reinstall as explained here. 

If this doesn't do the trick, you can let us know your device, OS, Spotify version and all the steps you've tried so far.
 

Keep us posted 🙂

[Atexor]

Hello @Petya. I am not Daedalus100, hovewer I tried your steps several times. Nothing helped.

You just need to implement postponed autostart for Spotify after boot or restrict permissions from starting its services.

For my phone only the solution with root works...

[Daedalus100]

I have permissions set correctly and I have tried several clean reinstalls.
I am still having the same problem, and it is highly frustrating. My latest
rather unsophisticated attempt to work around the problem is to try to
"catch" the problem right after boot up and make sure the data storage is
switched back to the SD card. That approach (not surprisingly) has failed
too. I end up having to re-download everything which is inevitable because
sooner or later, I need to reboot.

Moto G6 Play
Android 9
Spotify 8.5.33.831

Please fix this. I'm not the only one with this issue.

Thanks for your help.

Enable permission for storage option for Spotify. This can be accessed by
going to Settings>Apps>Spotify>Permissions>Storage.
Do a clean reinstall

as
explained here.

[wackygoose]

Thank you very much! I can't believe it was easy to fix... I've searched a lot and read aot of forums and similar topics, no one had indicated the password on boot. But still, spotify is faulty, it should wait for SD card mount or at least verify downloads like Tidal does. If I could move Spotify to SD card it would be easier but I just can't even with force move apps Tru dev options.

I hope more people find this as the problem seems to be somewhat common and not new

[citizenserious]

Thanks a lot!
I had to go to settings and remove my pin, when I then tried to reinstate a new pin it asked me if I wanted to use secure boot and provide my pin before boot. I use this feature now and it solved my issue.

I had this issue on several Phones since 2014 now. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't.
I even contacted the support, they know about this for years. I never figured out what triggers the app to switch.

[CarlosE]

Hey there @Femzy,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community.

We're sorry to hear that you're experiencing this issue on your iPhone. Keep in mind that there are different Help boards in the Community for specific devices and topics, and this thread is in the Android Help board, so the solutions showed here might not work for different OS.

No worries though, we encourage you to post a new thread on the iOS Help board and we'll happily help you out.

You can find more info on how to navigate through the Community in this Spotify Answer.

We'll be on the lookout.

Cheers!

[ShallowHal]

My Question or Issue

Premium user, Android 11, moto g power (2021)

Spotify keeps trying to download my songs to my internal storage instead of my SD card.  Even after a clean reinstall and going to Storage and selecting SD card before doing any downloads if the app didn't select it, even if I successfully download all my songs to the SD card, eventually the app will try to download them to Internal Storage.

Please fix.

[D2SP3R4T3D4N]

Same here

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G, Android 13
Spotify keeps downloading to internal storage. This is a pain, because I have more data in soptify than the internal storage has.

It seems like this problem exists since 2016! - And still not fixed after 7 years?
Really?

Thats a shame!
It' so brilliant to download >100GB abroad in a hotel.

So please fix this!

[D2SP3R4T3D4N]

And sorry guys...

What you name a "SOLUTION" is never a solution...

At best it is a workaround - and btw a s***** one. Because we have to do something evertime we reboot our phones.

And the other "solution" (PIN Code before boot) does not work since Android 10!

And this one: "Settings>Apps>Spotify>Permissions>Storage" Does not existing on my Phone.

I would suggest you guys to fix old errors instead of bringing features nobody really needs.

And it seems like you are closing all the threads with this bug, instead of fixing it.

Many companies did this that way... and they are all gone... ignoring paying customers was never a good way 😉

My patience is thin right now. I am not gonna pay more than 200$ a year for this anymore...

And btw: at least an answer from some official would be nice.

[WillianWRM]

This solution does not work, never worked for me and most phones does not has such options available.

What I did try (and failed):
- paused Spotify (Android 12+ feature)
- reboot phone
- opened some SD card files just to check if it's was accessible (and it was)
- opened Spotify (removing it from the pause)
- Spotify is back to internal memory and started to download all over again

A less painful thing would be Spotify at least resume from SD library files after selecting back to SD; at least would avoid downloading it all again.

[David050558]

It's 5 years later and the problem still exists!  Why does't Spotify get its act together and fix the problem?

[Ian39]

Unfortunately this solution doesn't work for me (there is no option to use pin or else before restart, seems to me that it does already as default, so... nada)

Plan: Premium

Country: CA

Device: Samsung Galaxy A50

OS: Android 11

Spotify version in settings: 8.9.24.633

Wouldn't be possible to circumvent the issue with a forced command to "change and choose" storage folder only manually, and/or deny other folders? So that the app wouldn't virtualize its data on the internal memory every time it doesn't find the old path? or at least give a notification and an option: "Spotify hasn't find the xxx Storage, would you like to change the storage path to xxx? before we call 991, CIA, Blackwater, and a ballistic nuclear attack to your location?" because that would be nice when you are outside, in the rain, and the only comfort it's some music, THAT YOU PAID.

This would fix the problem regardless of the phone type or any external changes outside the app (phone updates/reboots, temporary change of SD card or occasional dismounting of the SD card, aka fall drops, etc)

The app should be a smart balance between automated and manual changes, manual for end user customization (settings) that should be unchangeable without direct user control.

Few more things maybe ca be helpful

1 before, several until several months ago I didn't had this issue, so it is a recent issue for me due to new updates of the app

2 no significant changes for the device, same phone with same app

3 all other apps have no issue with the SD card

4 Every possible standard solution has been done

 Clean reinstall (deleting all data and cache through a PC + rebooting of the phone and new installation of Spotify

 Using another SD card

To the most drastic as factory reset of the phone

[vaajy]

I was dealing with this for months. My phone boots automatically at tuesday night, so downloads lost.

I no more use offline, I just stream with unlimited 4G €4 month. 512 kbps.

I think they just don't want to fix it. My phone is 90 % full almost since Spotify cache alone is 10 Gb maximum.

32 Gb isn't much, after OS 21 GB only, but I can use my phone.

[Priyangkam_007]

Look's like they dont want to fix it. This is getting annoying as **bleep** now. All they do is redirect you to a different thread and term it as "SOLUTION". ITS NOT A DEVICE ISSUE, IT IS THE APP ITSELF. FIX YOUR GOD DAMN APP !