iphone mobile app background 3G data usage

[michaeldresser]

Hi

Can anyone confirm when the iphone spotify mobile app runs in the background (even when it is on pause) whether it still keeps on using up data? I've been seeing some alarmingly fast usage on my data limits recently and, having seen loads of complaints about this problem on android I'm starting to wonder whether it's the same on iphone?

I've googled and googled but can't find anything about this other than for android...any other iphone users know if this is an issue? (Apols if this has been dealt with in another thread, I couldn't find anything in this forum on a search)

[maskintoojay]

hi

i too have experienced the exact same thing. i have a 2gb limit on my plan which i have never used fully in the 2 years ive had my plan. i bought spotify in july 2012 and had kept my eye on the usage all month, all was well.. after buying premium and then saving a few playlists for offline mode, my data limit was over its limit  by $200 in the first 8 days of august..!

ive used a data recording app so far on my iphone 4 and i can see that i get a giant surge of usage when i use spotify now, whereas this didnt happen to me when i first began my subscription in july. i even get a surge of usage when its in offline mode.

eg, one song played, not on my playlist (3.45minutes) = 4MB. this is quite insane usage.

on a trip in my car, i also used spotify to search and play songs not on my phone. the total usage for the hours drive was over 150MB!!

to be safe, ive turned off my sync over 2g/3g button. and im keeping constant check of my usage. plus i turn spotify off when im not using it... but the thing is.. i shouldnt have to do all this constant checking for an app!!

[touaregberbere]

Hi, i think i have the same problem since few weeks. When my iphone play tracks downloaded, the 3G is runing. Before this last version, it was possible in the setup to put off/on the sync 2G/3G. Now, this button is disapeared. Maybe it's the problem. I think many many peoples must have the same problem. Please SPOTIFY, take care and give us the good release.

[Summa]

If you tap More > Settings > Music Quality > then scroll to the bottom, you should a toggle to enable sync over 2G/3G.

If you like using this then leave this on to sync tracks, but turn it off and set offline mode on when your out and about. This should solve things 🙂

[touaregberbere]

I think it’s wrong. All the tracks are downloaded on my iPhone. Even with SPOTIFY connexion and sync 2G/3G turned ON, i am sure that before one or two months, it was playing music without data connexion. But now it's exactly like a streaming data connexion on the 3G ! Don’t you think it’s really a new and young bug

[maskintoojay]

In response to some of your messages (thanks btw).
I have had sync over 2g/3G off since I've noticed it sucking from my data usage. The same effect is happening. And over wifi too.

I pulled out all the stops and tested it accurately today. I monitored my phones wifi data usage with a data counter app today for thirty minutes. I left the phone alone and The spotify app was fully closed Down on my phone.
In thirty minutes, 50.4mb was used . I tested my phone again by fully deleting spotify from my phone, leaving no trace of it at all. After testing the data usage again for another 30 minutes, only 21.4 mb of data was recorded..

That's over twice the data saved if I didn't have spotify installed on my phone at all. I encourage more people to do this, it won't take long. You will see the results.

In summary. The spotify app is using data even when it's not open on my iPhone 4. More than twice it would if it were not installed at all.

To clarify, yes I'm in offline mode, and yes my sync over 2g/3G button is off

The more we talk about this the sooner it gets fixed guys. Please respond spotify..

[Summa]

Ok, so am I right in saying that your phone consumes 21.4mb of data over 30 minutes - without Spotify installed? If that were the case, you'd be over your data limit within days! :S

If you are in the UK, and are on O2, are you aware of the mysterious midnight back up they do? It may explain a few things.

On the other hand, I find that completely unacceptable of an application to be consuming your data, when you have specifically toggled these options off. This needs to be addressed pretty urgently!

Have you tried resetting your phone etc mate, cause unfortunately I can't relate to this problem as my phone doesn't appear to be doing it. There is a template in a sticky on the iOS forum, in which you can submit a problem, perhaps fill that in with as much detail as possible so they can look into it?

Hope this helps mate.

[touaregberbere]

New test this morning : connexion Spotify is ON. Sync 2G/3G is OFF with the spotify button. Leastening playlist with only downloaded tracks. Exactly 20 minutes on bicycle to get the bread. Control when i am back at home : 6,9 mo of 3G data usage on ORANGE in France. Please Spotify, DO SOMETHING !

[Summa]

Are you sure that it is the Spotify doing that, and not another app that uses your location services?

Just a thought.

[touaregberbere]

Yes. i had turn OFF all others applications. If SPOTIFY LTD look at my account (touaregberbere), is it not possible to see a increase of streaming ?

[Klguest9]

On the topic on data usage as I cannot find a thread with my problem ... I have the iPad app for spotify and pay £9.99 a month for an unlimited account.  I am really angry at the offline mode. How can I play music offline when I need to log in constantly first? This is really darn imitating as how am I meant to play music when I am traveling around when I need to log in?! Very poorly advertised spotify.

Any help would be fantastic, thanks!

[touaregberbere]

Please, your ploblem is not the same. Don't stay in this conversation, and open an other one. Thank you to understand and do this.

[Summa]

Klguest9 - try this out mate: http://community.spotify.com/t5/Mobile-iOS-iPhone-iPad-iPod/Keep-getting-requested-to-login/td-p/126...

There's a post by thndrdan that solves this problem.

It's been a known issue for a while.

Touaregberbere - perhaps fill in the template in the sticky on the iOS forum page, and hopefully you'll get a response from the Spotify Moderators?

[gslondon]

Hi touaregberbere

Just had a massive bust up with Network providers because I thought they were cheating my out of my data. Turns out Spotify is the culprit. 7 gigabytes in 3 weeks - all supposed to be offline synced - I've noticed now I'm not the only one. Spotify are rather quiet about this.

I am going to re record every one of the tracks I have downloaded / offline synced to mp3 (google how) and then at the end of the month ditch this load of crap. really upset by this - been with spotify on iOS since day 1. Time to go with someone who can produce a decent app and who doesnt mess with the layout (ruining it) and can listen to their customers.

ANGRY

[29axe]

Really big issue with synced playlists. When on 3G the songs are redownloaded instead of playing local songs.
Result : data download limit reached for my 3G abonnement (1.5Go!!!).
You should really fix this problem.
Only trick found was to put in offline mode, but the app should use local songs instead of redownloading them even when app is in online mode.
Tested with a data network checker. And every time I listen to a song it Downloads a around 4mb :s

[Knight511]

This is not just a Euro problem.  I just got a warning from my carrier that I have breached the 3GB limit where they throttle down my "unlimited" data speed.  I have NEVER come close to this usage in the past for an entire billing cycle and I am only 16 days into this cycle.  The only thing I changed was switching from Pandora to Spotify for my music at work.  No downloading of songs, just using the Spotify Radio at work. 

Complete BS and a total joke on data usage... Spotify is a dat hog and will be a money making scheme for carriers!

[Peter__]

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@Knight511 wrote:

This is not just a Euro problem.  I just got a warning from my carrier that I have breached the 3GB limit where they throttle down my "unlimited" data speed.  I have NEVER come close to this usage in the past for an entire billing cycle and I am only 16 days into this cycle.  The only thing I changed was switching from Pandora to Spotify for my music at work.  No downloading of songs, just using the Spotify Radio at work. 

Complete BS and a total joke on data usage... Spotify is a dat hog and will be a money making scheme for carriers!

---

Hey! Welcome to the community 🙂 

Are you connected to WiFi whilst radio streaming at work? 

Peter

[Knight511]

No.  If I were connected to wifi, there would be no data use issues.  I have always used 3G at work for both Pandora and Spotify.  This data usage issue is purely an issue with Spotify (which makes me sad because I like Spotify better).

I only stumbled into this thread by searching Google for "Spotify Data Usage" and it was one of the top results...

[Peter__]

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@Knight511 wrote:

No.  If I were connected to wifi, there would be no data use issues.  I have always used 3G at work for both Pandora and Spotify.  This data usage issue is purely an issue with Spotify (which makes me sad because I like Spotify better).

I only stumbled into this thread by searching Google for "Spotify Data Usage" and it was one of the top results...

---

Would you be able to post roughly how long you are listening to Spotify for each day, and what quality is set in the application preferences? 

To be honest, 3GB of data if you are streaming Spotify radio for several hours a day even at low quality is not going to last you 30 days. If you have premium, you could try using offline playlists which will dramatically reduce your data usage. 

Peter

[Knight511]

There in lies the problem with Spotify.  I listen to Pandora the same amount off time if not more per day while I was using it and never got close to the limit.... that means with Pandora, I was able to stay well under the limit while listening 4-6 hours per day at work.  Spotify with the same listening habits, I blew through 3GB stannding still.  I did not even have Spotify installed for the entire time into the billing cycle.  I was 16 days into the billing cycle and maybe had used Spotify 8-10 days of that time. 

So yes, streaming music uses a lot of data, but Spotify uses an incredible amount of data when compared to other sources.  This is someothing folks are not aware of until it is "too late."  As for premium, the idea was to use free for a while to build up a play list by :liking" music on the radio function and then switch over to premium.  That didn't work out so well. 🙂

Don't get me wrong.... I still LOVE Spotify, but it is a terrible "free" radio service to use over cellular networks as it is a HUGE drain on data services.  Spotify will remain king in my house for the foreseeable future.  🙂