Hello,

I recently purchased a Spotify Premium subscription, and started using it on my Android phone (2013 Moto X). I used Pandora all the time, and never had a problem with the amount of data it consumed, so I thought the same would be true for Spotify. Five days later, I realized that I had gone through 400 MB on Spotify alone, with moderate streaming usage. I looked at last month, and that was double what I used for Pandora for that whole month!

I noticed that it used an incredible amount of background data (at least 80% of the data usage was background data). The solution seemed obvious; restrict the background data. (I did this by dragging down the notification bar, tapping the gear icon, going to Settings>Data Usage>Spotify, and checking “Restrict Background Data.”) Surely I wouldn’t need this app to use data unless I was actively using the app.

But that’s not the end of the story. I stream a song (on a 3g connection), it stops 2 minutes in. I look for a new song; the app says, “You’re Offline.” (This was an incorrect statement. I open Pandora to check; works like a charm. Chrome and Facebook work as well.) After a bit of fiddling with the Spotify app (tapping on artists and albums and songs), it begins thinking I have a connection again, and works for a few songs. Great!...Oh no! That’s a fluke. “You’re Offline,” again.

Is there something I’m missing? An obscure setting within the app that cuts down the Background Data, or something that would allow Spotify to work without Background Data. I don’t understand how anybody could stream on a cellular connection without bursting through a Data Cap. I don’t stream that much, but the background data seems to be used even when I’m not using the app. I don’t get that. If I can’t stream music without using a literal ton of data, I’m going to have to cancel my subscription.

PS: I’m on Sprint, Streaming is set to “Normal Quality,” and “Sync over Cellular” is “Off.” I have restarted the phone, logged out and into the app, and uninstalled and reinstalled the app, to no avail.

TL; DR. The app doesn’t stream music properly on a cellular network when the “Background Data” is restricted. And when the Background data is not restricted, the app uses an obscene amount of data. Is there a solution?