Listen to spotify on a plane? Lies, I tell you!

[ifreecarve]

In preparation for a cross-country airplane ride, I loaded up spotify on my ipod touch with music from my library and put together a bunch of offline playlists.  "This is going to be a GREAT 6-hour flight," I thought.

Then I turned off my ipod when they said "all electronic devices must be turned off".

Then when we were in the air, I turned it back on and set it to airplane mode.

When I opened spotify, it asked me to log in.  Then it said "Turn Off Airplane Mode or Use Wi-Fi to Access Data".

Then when I did that, it said something about no DNS server available.  

Then, 6 hours of fidgety boredom in silence.

If I want to listen to spotify on a plane, does it mean that I can't shut down the ipod when they tell us to shut off our electronic devices?  How am I supposed to listen to my offline music when I'm -- wait for it -- OFFLINE??

[David]

Hello,

That sounds rather concerning. Could you tell us a little more? For example, what generation of iPod Touch do you have? What iOS version are you using? How about the version of Spotify?

[ifreecarve]

Sure!

• iPod touch 4G, 8GB (Model MC540LL, Model No. A1367)
• iOS 5.1 (9B176)
• Spotify 0.4.23.11.g86a7d473 (0.6.4.60.ge908bde4)

I see now that in the spotify settings screen that there is an entry for "Offline Mode".  I'm not sure how this would have helped me in the situation I described earlier, since I would have had to log in to access it.

[David]

Part of me thinks that this might be somewhat related to a cache issue - The login details were not stored, or were removed, and it asked you to connect to the website to pull your details. Although I'm not entirely sure why that would happen.

After syncing tracks, did you install any large apps to your device? Do you know how much space was used up on your phone after syncing tracks with Spotify?

[ifreecarve]

I don't remember installing any large apps, although it's possible that the update to Angry Birds that I installed happened between the music sync and the flight.  Still, I have over 1GB free now, and at least 3GB were free before I synced.

I can't seem to replicate the problem now, unfortunately.  But in general, it seems strange that you'd need to log into spotify to listen to MP3s that you'd uploaded from your own library.  I understand that spotify would want to protect its own content, but not being able to access mine in offline mode (without a login) is a bad move.  

Is there an expiration on the login that I might have hit after X number of days or something?  It was at least a day between when I synced and when I got on the flight.

[David]

We do require you to go online within the Spotify app once ever 30 days, to ensure your account is still active - but never the very next day. I've just tried to play about with my own iPhone, and got a fairly generic message that would need to turn off Airplane mode or Use Wi-Fi to Access data.

Force closing the app may have helped (holding down the power button until shut down screen, then holding down home button), but without being about to replicate this it's hard to be sure if this would work either.

[ifreecarve]

OK.  Thanks for looking into this.  I think we've more or less resolved this if I can get a few answers from you:

1. can you confirm that my issue (being locked out of offline content while offline) exists?

2. until this issue is resolved, is there a set of pre-airplane steps that I should follow to make sure that I don't get locked out in the future?

[dsgorham]

I have the same problem on my iPhone 4 with everything upgraded to the latest iOS and Spotify app builds.  

The problem is that a lot of times the iOS Spotify app wants you to re-login and if you dont have data or wifi you can't even listen to your offline music (because you can't login at that moment).

[aquatic25]

I had the same problem at the gym with my iphone 4.  I had zero cell phone reception and no access to wifi.  Spotify asked me to login, and since I was also "offline" I could not login and had no way to access my offline playlists.  I accessed the app on my iphone 3 days ago, so I know its not the having to login every 30 days.  It seems I almost always have to login to spotify before being able to access its content, which makes the "offline" mode useless.  I'd love to know how to remedy this. 

[ifreecarve]

I noticed that over the past few days, there were 2 separate occasions when I switched to the spotify app and an overlay of "logging in ...." came up.  This happens even if spotify has been open and running, which was why I thought it was strange.

Seriously -- the "logging in" message was shown overlaid over the album cover image of what I had been listening to the previous day.

[David]

I think the best steps to stop this from happening in the future might be to set the application offline while you can still connect "online". The way I personally use the app is to sync the desired playlists to be offline, and then set the application to "Offline Mode", until I need to add tracks or connect after the 30 days. 

[Magnus_B]

This is not only a Iphone/pad/pod-problem. I have the same problem with my Android phone (Xperia Active). When I put my phone in "flygplansmod" restart my phone and open the Spotify app I get a login screen and error code 4. I'm guessing that meansthat I don't have a network. Going in to off-line mode before might be a solution...

[user-removed]

I don't have the same problem.  If I leave Spotify in the online mode, then close the app and set the phone in Airplane mode, when I return to Spotify I get the same dialog, "Turn off Airplane mode or Use WiFi to Access Data".  I hit OK to dismiss the dialog and can play my offline Playlists with no problem.

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.1

[ifreecarve]

JohnF: that's true for me too, but if you get logged out somehow then you can't log in without a working internet connection.

[user-removed]

ifreecarve: that's true for me too, but if you get logged out somehow then you can't log in without a working internet connection.

You're absolutely correct.  In my case, problem not being able to log in via Facebook because I don't have an early account.  Should definitely fix it even though it means bypassing Facebook while offline.  Wonder if they will address it given they are so much in love with us going through Facebook.

[user-removed]

I'm having a similar issue. I receive the dialog box stating "Turn Off Airplane Mode or Use Wi-Fi to Access Data". If I hit "OK", I can play my music. As I have an american iPhone in Europe, I want to keep it in Airplane Mode for phone reasons (aka I use it as an iPod).

HOWEVER, it seems that this only works a limited number of times, or the app goes hangwire. After using it too much, or too quickly, it seems to get stuck.  I can hit "OK", and yet nothing will play. Even if I hit the Play button, go to different tracks, or even scroll, no music comes out.

This is very annoying, and then I can delete the app and reload all the music, but again the messages continue. This was not a problem until a few weeks ago, and I have been in Europe for longer.

[tmbritti]

I have had this problem while in offline mode. I generally only ever listen to my offline playlists anyway on my ipod touch (just bought the ipod new a few weeks ago). I will close out of spotify to listen to a podcast or something on my ipod and later launch spotify to have it ask me to login. Eek!! 

[MB2]

Is the moderator still there? I'd like to know if this will be resolved!

I recently purchased Spotify premium and encountered this problem today when visiting an other country. On my way there all was fine, but when I got in my car for the long drive back I had to login which was not possible without the internet connection!

To reproduce on iPhone 4S with IOS 5.1.1

1. listen to spotify

2. press home button

3. shut down spotify app (foce close from Multitask Bar)

4. Turn on flightmode in settings

5. Start spotify and login is required.

Just te be clear, I never manually shut down spotify (or my phone) when abroad so it happens on other ocasions as well, but the steps above will let you reproduce.

I hope there will be a fix for this cause if I cant rely on it to work abroad or in an airplaine, this ap will be useless for me and I might as well switch back to the itunes/ipod. I want one service that always works, I would prefer spotify but I am not going to manage duplicate playlists in itunes for visits abroad and flights...

[Andrewbmx]

Did you login through facebook rather than spotify when you first install and open the app, because if did, when you close it, it reasks you to login again...why? I don't know, I guess its another bug spotify has that never gets resolved. Had this issue with my ipod and found out te glitch was facebook login.

[ecr80]

this has happened to me quite a few times that i activate the app and it asks for my credentials, luckily it has never happened on a plane. But it's quite annoying.