Apple Watch Downloads Disappear

[KeithAbb0tt]

I am a Spotify Premium customer. Downloading music to my Apple Watch for offline playback works fine, and playback also works fine. However, on occasion (once or twice per week), the downloaded music will just disappear from my watch, whether I have listened to the music or not. Can anyone point me in the right direction to keep this from happening? TIA

[KeithAbb0tt]

Hey folks,

Thanks for all your recent replies.

Some of you mentioned you followed the troubleshooting steps you found in this thread. It would be really helpful if you could include in your next replies the exact steps you've tried so far. That way we can avoid repeating any steps.

If you haven't, we'd suggest:

• Forcing close and restart the app, reboot the watch and reset the network settings on your iPhone.
• Perform a clean reinstall of the app on your smartphone. By doing that, the app can be up-to-date, and you can make sure some damaged cache is not leading to this inconvenience. You can find out the steps for doing it here.
• Take a look at your settings on your Apple Watch. Under Music, make sure that Optimized Storage is turned off (this option is not available in all Apple Watch models).

If the above doesn't do the trick, then we'll need to gather some additional info to better understand this behavior:

• The OS of both your Apple Watch and your mobile device.
• The exact Spotify version you're running in both.
• How many playlists have you downloaded? Have you noticed if the issue happens after a specific number of downloaded playlists?

We'll be on the lookout for your replies!

[AlejaR · Accepted solution]

Hey there @KeithAbb0tt,

Thanks for posting in the Community and welcome.

In this case, there are a couple of things you can try to see if you notice any changes:

• Perform a clean reinstall of the app on your smartphone. By doing that, the app can be up-to-date, and you can make sure some damaged cache is not leading to this inconvenience. You can find out the steps for doing it here.
• Take a look at your settings on your Apple Watch. Under Music, make sure that Optimized Storage is turned off.

If this should persist afterwards, it'd help us a lot if you sent us:

• Make/model and OS of both your Apple Watch and your mobile device.
• The exact Spotify version you're running in both.
• We'd also like to know if it's always behaved like that or if this behavior started after a specific event/OS update.

Keep us in the loop!

[KeithAbb0tt]

Thanks for the response.  I've followed the instructions exactly to perform a clean re-install of the Spotify app on my iPhone.  I'll update this post if the problem re-occurs.  Curiously, I do not have a setting under Music on my Apple Watch for Optimized Storage.

Make/model and OS of both your Apple Watch (SE 1st Gen / watchOS 10.4) and your mobile device (iPhone 15 / iOS 17.4.1).
The exact Spotify version (8.9.38.455) you're running in both.
We'd also like to know if it's always behaved like that or if this behavior started after a specific event/OS update.  Not sure what event may have triggered it, but it has not always happened.  Only been happening the past several months.

[Joan]

Hi there @KeithAbb0tt,

Thanks for the reply. How many playlists do you have downloaded? Have you noticed the issue occuring after a specific number? This can help us narrow down the possible root cause of this.

Keep us posted.

[KeithAbb0tt]

No playlists, unless downloading an album is considered to be a playlist.  I only download complete albums to listen to offline.  I've had maybe as many as ten albums downloaded at any given time, and I remove the album from the watch when I am finished listening to it.  I have never gotten close to running out of memory on the watch.

I have seen the downloaded albums deleted when there are as few as two downloaded albums.

I have a theory about what may have caused this.  I upgraded my iPhone in late January, and moved all of the apps over from my old iPhone as part of the migration.  Maybe something got corrupted during that process.  I am hoping that the clean re-install of the Spotify app on my iPhone may have resolved the issue.  It's too early to declare victory yet, but the timeline seems to line up with approximately when I started having this problem.

I'll update the post if I run into the problem again, if it doesn't re-occur I'll wait 1-2 weeks and update the post then.

[Joan]

Hi @KeithAbb0tt,

Thanks for the info. We'll be keeping an eye out for your reply. Just a heads up, instead of editing the previous reply, it would be better to post a new comment, as this will draw our attention more and allow us to notice and reply to you sooner. Fingers crossed that all you bring is good news 🙂

Keep us posted.

[KeithAbb0tt]

Well, I thought that my problem had been solved, but yesterday all of my downloaded music disappeared again!  So I'm back to where I started.  I don't think I ever saw an answer as to whether downloading an album is actually considered a playlist by Spotify.  I had downloaded (and also deleted) several albums since my last post, one of the albums contained over 50 songs.  Still not even coming close to running out of memory on the Apple Watch.  Suggestions on what to try next?

[Medikast]

I have been facing the similar issue in my new apple watch ultra 2, in my case i dont even have a downloaded bar in my spotify in watch. I have tried everything till now- clean reinstalling, installing,turning off

[KeithAbb0tt]

Yes, I should have mentioned in my post(s) above that when the downloaded music disappears, the "Downloads" bar also disappears.  The only remaining bars displayed at that point are "Albums", "Artists", and "Playlists".

[Eni]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for your replies. 

In this case, we suggest that you try all the steps you can find in this FAQ to see if those make the difference for you. 

On another note, could you send us a photo where we can see that the "Downloads" bar is missing? You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert image option in the post editor. Make sure not to send any private info.

We'll be on the lookout.

[KeithAbb0tt]

I will definitely post a photo the next time the downloads disappear.  Fortunately, the app has been behaving itself since my post 12 days ago, so I think deleting and reinstalling the iPhone app did help.  Also, if it happens again, I'll follow the steps outlined in your post.  Thanks!

[KeithAbb0tt]

It's been over a month since any of my downloaded music has disappeared, so I am going to close this forum topic.  I believe that performing a clean reinstall of the app on my smartphone may have solved the problem.

[JMorten]

This happens not after any specific update. All downloaded music are gone infrequently. I uninstalled spotify premium on my phone an reinstalled on both iphone and watch. Both are updated to the latest version. Still, a few days later all was gone when I came to the gym.

[Maria]

Hey @JMorten,

Thanks for reaching out in this thread!

Just to confirm, did you try the troubleshooting steps in the FAQ mentioned by @Eni earlier in the thread?

Shouldn't that do the trick, could you let us know the make and model of your devices, along with the OS versions?

Let us know how you get on.

[ABlock]

Same issue with palle watch ultra, all Spotify downloads get wiped every 2 days

[AlejaR]

Hey there @ABlock,

Thanks for posting here and welcome.

Would you mind letting us know any troubleshooting steps you've tried so far? That way we can avoid repeating any steps. If you haven't yet, we'd suggest:

• Perform a clean reinstall of the app on your smartphone. By doing that, the app can be up-to-date, and you can make sure some damaged cache is not leading to this inconvenience. You can find out the steps for doing it here.
• Take a look at your settings on your Apple Watch. Under Music, make sure that Optimized Storage is turned off (this option is not available in all Apple Watch models).

If the above doesn't do the trick, please send us:

• The OS of both your Apple Watch and your mobile device.
• The exact Spotify version you're running in both.

Keep us in the loop!

[JMorten]

yes, the with delete of cache worked out

thxs

[Rexxu]

Having this same issue, downloaded musics would disappear after a day from installing them which is annoying. I did try the solutions:
> Performing a clean reinstall of Spotify
> Updating both the Software of the iPhone and the Watch
> Reinstall Spotify again after the update
> And no, there is no optimized storage under the music tab in the iPhone

The devices currently runs iOS 16.7.10 & WatchOS 9.6.3. Spotify build is 8.9.82.628. The downloads has disappear about 4 times now and I have tried the solution about 3 times so far.

[Dessi]

Hi there @Rexxu,

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the Spotify Community!

It'd be great if you can give the steps you haven't tried from this troubleshooting guide a shot - force close and restart the app, reboot the watch and reset the network settings on your iPhone. Can you also try downloading the content to your watch on a different network to see if the downloads still disappear afterwards?

Let us know how it goes.

[Rexxu]

I have tried all of the steps besides the "Reset Network Settings on the iPhone" which I'm currently testing, I will try the other solution of downloading with a different network if the issue still persists after trying all of the steps on the troubleshoot guide.