Songs don't download until I play them

[byseeing]

I've made a couple playlists Available Offline, but any given song won't download until I've played a little of it first. This also only works for some songs. Others won't download at all.

My phone's been on Wifi all night with App Background Refresh enabled, and no new songs have been cached.

[byseeing]

Worth noting: I have plenty of space and a fast connection.

[MattSuda · Accepted solution]

You mentioned you had background refresh on all night?

To sync, the Spotify app needs to stay open, otherwise after 5-10 minutes it will stop syncing in the background. This is due to Apple's background activity restrictions. 

The best way is to go into the iPhone settings:

Settings --> General --> Auto Lock --> Set it to "NEVER"

Now leave the app open on your iPhone and let it sit on a table plugged in to power to sync 

For me 1,300 songs (extreme quality settings) takes about 4-5 hours to sync with leaving the phone open to the app.

It might take you even longer to sync if you have more songs. You might have to just leave your phone open to the app so it can sync overnight.  

When you are done, make sure to turn "Auto Lock" back to your preferred setting. 

[Beaglebeagle]

I have the same problem and this didn't fix it. My iPad will automatically download playlists when I turn it to 'available offline' but my iPhone 5c won't. I have to actively play the song and let it play for 15 seconds or so in order for it to download

[MattSuda]

@Beaglebeagle 

Reinstall the app on your iPhone and then try to download the playlists.

That usually fixes it for most people.

[user-removed]

Same prob as as above and reinstalling didnt work for me.

[user-removed]

I have the same problem and none of the provided solutions helped.