Where does Spotify save the offline playlist files?

[beric0]

I have a samsung galaxy S2 and recently started using spotify. I set up the offline sync to the directory /mnt/sdcard/external_sd/media/spotify. After syncing up a few playlists, I can indeed listen to them offline using Spotify.

However, I would like to find these song files if possible or at least have the media scanner on Android find them so I can use a different player to listen to these songs from the offline playlists. Inside the SD drive, I can find the spotify folder with directories /android/data/com.spotify.mobile.android.ui/ and then /cache and /files. However exploring further, I cannot find any audio files.

Where are they hiding them? Thanks for your help on this difficult question.

[beric0]

Hey folks,

Downloaded playlists/ albums are stored on your device in the form of cache files. 

You can follow the instructions in this Support Article in order to change the default downloads location on your device.

NOTE: On Android devices, try formatting your SD card as Portable storage if you want to save data manually to it. If it is formatted as Internal storage, the OS will see it as the same pool of memory as your phone's internal storage and you won't have control over where Spotify saves downloads.

Please be aware that you need to go Online every 30 days in order to keep your downloaded files.

Hope you find this info helpful. Don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions.

[Afront]

Generally ou can only use Spotify to play offline music synced from Spotify.

The files are Ogg Vorbis format but encrtyped by Spotify, so no other media scanner will recognize them as music files. 

[beric0]

So even if I get a media player on my phone that can play ogg files, it still won't be able to detect the song files from spotify because theyre hidden? So there is basically no way to get these song files. This makes it kind of annoying because it means I have to switch between media players because spotify's local library usability is frankly **bleep**.

Is it possible to find the song files on my computer if I have those same playlists synced so they can be played offline on the computer? It'll be a hassle to transfer to my phone but at least ill have them.

Thanks, your the best lol.

[licenced · Accepted solution]

No, they are protected with DRM - encrypted - so that you cannot play them with anything else. If they weren't then there would no need to pay every month - just download everything you wanted, copy the files off then unsubscribe ... you can understand why they do this (aside from the fact that the content providers wouldn't submit any of their content to Spotify if the files weren't protected in this way)

[calebamiles]

Hello, 

I have an almost identical question. I have a Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 and I would like to use my SD card to store my offline music, however, in the current version of Spotify available from the Google Play Store, I see no "more" tab so that "more->settings" is nonsensical. Also pressing, also holding, the menu key on the device at the login screen has no effect. Finally I see no option now to clear offline files. Perhaps the tutorial snippet is in need of an update? Thanks for your help solving this issue. 

[licenced]

Hi calebmiles. Thats not really the same question.

Check this thread for the SD card question: http://community.spotify.com/t5/Mobile-Android/New-Android-app-preview-save-to-external-SD-card/td-p...

And this one for clearing the cache: http://community.spotify.com/t5/Mobile-Android/quot-Official-quot-new-application-release-missing-fe...

In summary, neither feature exists any more, so yes the tutorial needs updating if they are still mentioned

[calebamiles]

Thanks for the amazingly quick response, kudos to whoever is on support watch this week  Yes, the old doccumetaion needs to be refreshed. 

[Pongalong]

I have a partially related question; I install custom ROMS pretty often and each time I lose my downloaded playlists. So I have a few questions:

1. How can I backup the playlists? Titanium Backup doesn't seem to work, although I had one instance where I did not have to re-download my playlist.
2. If I can't backup the playlist, it seems like the downloaded songs are still taking up space on the phone/card. Do I need to "undownload" all my playlists before I install a new ROM to make sure I don't lose that space?

[agoodpub]

AFAIK The playlists are "backed up" (saved) on your account.  The data (the actual music files) are stored on your device (if you've downloaded them of course!) What you are seeing is that the link between your playlists and the actual files is lost.  That happens regularly to me (and I'm not flashing differerent ROMs) - its a bug.  In may case, when i "download" the playlist again, it re-establishes the link - without actually downloading the actual music files again.

[Pongalong]

That doesn't seem to be the case for me. Redownloading the playlist ends up eating up more and more space and takes quite a while rather than restoring the links.

[Pongalong]

* Bump* 

Hoping for a reply from licensed or another informed member.

[licenced]

Didn't reply before as I wasn't really sure.

Spotify does try and restore links when the content already exists, but in your case it sounds like it doesn't.

It will however manage the space available - when a link is broken (i.e. the content is on your phone but not in a playlist) Spotify will remove it ... but not always immediately. It could take a while.

It's a potential pain because, while it will try to make sure it has enough space for itself, it doesn't care about the space other apps might need. The only 'fix' then is to wipe the app data and start downloading again.

[Mishkin]

on android mobile phones they are located in a folder called "com.spotify.mobile.android.ui"

Just spent half a day figuring this out. You can't find the spotify data files using androids built in features. You need to download a file manager app such as astro file manage; or mount your phone to your pc as a disk drive. 

Then, bring up the folder structure of your phone -either on the phone screen itself, using the file manager app; or on your pc using explorer.

My phone is an android (htc one s) - on this device the spotify music files (which are encrypted) are data files. The route to these files is:

/mnt >sdcard>android>data>com.spotify.mobile.android.ui

within this folder are various and subfolders called things like cache, users,storage, etc. It's hard to work out which files contain the actual music as everything is encrypted, but it doesn't matter.

delete the folder called com.spotify.mobile.android.ui. by doing this you will delete all the data files and free up storage space.

then open up the spotify app on your phone and delete the playlists, albums whatever, themselves, as they are now 'dead ends'

[bigmick22]

you realy are an idiot , you asking how to bypass spotify, on a spotify community board, spotify is a great program, but what your trying to do is a good idea in theory, dont worry i've tryed, but dont ask those questions in spotifies own backyard.

[pcoka]

If i decorrupt the files and use them as an regular mp4 file am i doing anything unlegal?
Yea this question is dumb but i actually pay money for.this service so?

[Peter__]

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@pcoka wrote:
If i decorrupt the files and use them as an regular mp4 file am i doing anything unlegal?
Yea this question is dumb but i actually pay money for.this service so?

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Yes, you are breaking the law as you don't own those tracks so that is a copyright infringement. 

Peter

[licenced]

Yup, you said it yourself really - you are paying for the service which allows you to listen to music through spotify so they can track your usage and compensate the correct parties ... you're not buying the music itself

[csslakai]

I can't understand why are you being such a D. He did a pertinent question. As an user, I want and have the right to know, where the musics are being stored! I want to manage the files, so I can store them in the External SD Card. The files can't be invisible, the device is mine I need to be aware where they are.

[Joe]

Spotify stores music in a folder called com.spotify.mobile.android.ui which will either be in \Phone\Android\data or on the external SD card. If you move it, spotify will no longer be able to use it.

Spotify automatically uses the external SD card for the cache on first time installation as long as there is more free space there then in internal storage. If the cache is currently on internal storage, and you have an external SD card with more free space and want to use that you just need to:

1. Delete the cache from spotify options (at bottom of the sreen)
2. Play or download some music

[csslakai]

Thank you so much! That is the answer I wanted.