"Playback Failed" For Video Podcasts

[AustinXCVII]

Plan

Premium

Country

U.S.A

Device

Samsung Galaxy S9

Operating System

Android Oreo

My Question or Issue

Are video podcasts supported for offline listening with Premium? Regular, non video podcasts work fine offline but if it's specifically a video podcast then it always says "Playback Failed". 

[Billy-J · Accepted solution]

Hey @AustinXCVII, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

This is the expected behavior. It’s not currently possible to download videos to watch offline. However, it's not expected to get the playback failure message when trying to play the podcast offline since the audio part should be playable.

There is some more information about this in this support article.

Hope this clears things up!

[henrik_6]

Wait what?

So, If I want to take a long walk and listen to JRE on Spotify.. I need to use my mobile plan? Even though I pay for Spotify Premium?

I always download my podcasts to save my mobile data plan.
But as JRE now becomes exclusive for Spotify I need to use my dataplan to listen on it outside wifi.. even if I download it??

[AustinXCVII]

Unfortunately that appears to be the case for the video specific podcasts. Hopefully one day we can just make them audio only.

[user-removed]

There's a tedious workaround that lets you download multiple podcasts for offline use. It will only download the Audio. And this is for people that don't have Offline mode work around.

1. Clear your Spotify app cache in storage. (I don't think it's a necessary step)

2. At Spotify apps 'Home' you Click on the podcast that you want.

3. Hit Green 'Play' Button.

4. Hit the Download arrow while it's playing and select other podcasts to download (if it instantly Downloads start from step 1 Again).

5. Go to your Phones Home Screen while they Download (you should see download %).

6. Pause the Podcast from the Home screen's drag-down media player while it's Downloading.

7. After the Download Finishes, WAIT 1+ minute, and then turn off your data, and WIFI.

8. Wait 3 + minutes with the WIFI off and data off, and then play it from your drop down widget. (this step is important. You really have to wait or it will not work. Longer wait time on this step usually makes it work on the first try.)

9. Have fun.

I recommend using the drag-down player, but you can click the player to maximize the Spotify player. You can then skip around on both the drag-down player and maximized player or even drag the time bar on the maximized player. Play all your downloaded episodes from your Library.