Downloaded songs show pending download and preventing play when streaming signal low

[Tinkerbell3]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

iPhone 13

Operating System

iOS 16.0.2

My Question or Issue

Tldr; on app start my downloaded songs show as pending download (grey arrow) until I restart app on airplane mode, at which point they immediately have green arrows and play.

Over the last few months I have noticed a trend where on opening the app downloaded songs wont play when my signal is poor but will if I either go on airplane mode or wait until connectivity is suitable for streaming. My cellular quality, download quality, and wifi streaming are all set to normal.

Essentially, the area within about 500m has terrible 3G, and so I’ll click to play a song and it will delay until we’re out of the signal black hole. I’ve noticed this on the train etc. as well where connection is in theory there, put poor.

My workaround has been to close the app, go in airplane mode and reopen. At that point the songs no longer show with grey pending download arrows but green again, despite obviously no change since the first try. At that point I can play and turn off airplane mode and there is no problem for the rest of the listening session.

Is there a setting or bug here? It’s minimal effort to force it through with the above hack, but a total nightmare if I am the driver and so can’t fiddle with a phone when driving.

[MihailY · Accepted solution]

Hey @Tinkerbell3,

Thanks for reaching out.

Please note that downloaded songs are accessed only when there's no connection available or when you've enabled Offline Mode. We do however see your point, so we'd recommend voting for this idea since it's something that might help in your particular scenario.

Cheers,

[Tinkerbell3 · Accepted solution]

Thanks so much for your explanation, I have voted!