Fixed: Spotify Not Playing Downloaded Songs

On Premium, the Spotify not playing downloaded songs issue might come up on the devices from mobile to desktop to interrupt the offline listening experience. No worries. For Premium subscribers, there're 7 fixes to Spotify not playing downloaded songs issue to make the app or device function well again.

Part 1. What Causes Spotify Downloaded Songs Not Playing

There're several causes that will lead to downloaded Spotify songs not playing, here's a list of them:

1. Your Premium Is Unavailable

One of the reason to activate a Premium subscription (Premium Individual, Premium Duo, Premium Student or Premium Family) is to have its features, including the download service. If the premium is no longer existing (expired, cancelled) for this feature, the access to downloaded songs will lose.

For starters please check whether the Premium subscription has been unavailable - test the download button to see whether there's a notification or check Your plan in the Account overview. To restore the access to the songs, choose a subscription plan.

2. Download Is Not Finished

If the subscription is fine, there's another cause. Due to the connection error or network issue, sometimes the download is not finished (For example: The songs have been remained "Waiting to Download" for a long time), thus affecting the songs. Even the affected songs won't show difference with others in the download list.

If this is the case with the Spotify download songs not playing issue at hand, it's simple to look for the download status or locate the problematic songs to remove and readd it to the download list.

Tips: If the Download is successful, it shows a green download icon. If the Download is unsuccessful or not finished, click the download in progress icon or download icon.

3. Downloaded Song Is Problematic

We've discussed multiple situations in which the downloaded songs are problematic, including the country restriction or regional block, censorship issue and more.

While a change on the country or region can fix this music streaming issue in most cases, it won't be a possible fix to the downloaded Spotify songs not playing issue because Spotify allows a change on the country or region within an active Premium subscription.

Tips: Still, if the Premium subscription has been expired or cancelled, users will lose the access to downloaded songs.

Part 2. How to Fix Spotify Not Playing Downloaded Songs

For starters, we'd like to mention a uninstall of the app is not recommended unless there's a safe music collection as local files because a uninstall will affect the downloaded songs from the music service, even delete them all.

What's more, even the downloaded songs are safe in the app, some steps here would harm them because the issues are with them. From here we'd like to recommend our software to download these music tracks into MP3.

1. Restart the Device

Sometimes a simple reboot can make the device function well to the request.

2. Update the Device and App

Sometimes there're possible fixes in the app's up-to-date version, same for the device OS. On mobile, check whether there's the update panel or the OS version. Go to app's Settings, app store, official website to see whether there's an available update.

3. Switch Off and Switch Back On Offline Mode

You should also switch off and switch back on the offline mode to see if this will make this function work fine to fix the Spotify not playing downloaded songs issue.

For mobile to switch off offline mode:

1. In the app, tap the Settings icon at the top.

2. In Settings, tap Playback.

3. Switch Offline off and back on.

For desktop to switch off offline mode:

On Windows:

1. At the top, click the horizontal 3 dots icon.

2. Click File, then Offline Mode.

On Mac:

1. In the Apple menu at the top, click Spotify.

2. Select Offline Mode.

3. Change Device Audio Quality

For Windows to change audio quality:

On Windows:

1. From the Windows Search box, go to Sound Setting.

2. Under Advanced sound options, see Related Settings then Sound Control Panel.

3. In the pop-up, from here see the same audio device (For example: speaker, headphones and more) that has been reset for the input and output.

4. Right-click the audio device, then Properties.

5. In the new pop-up, select Advanced from the top.

6. Click on the Chevron down icon under the Default Format, then set it as 16 bit, 44100 Hz.

8. Click OK to save this change.

4. Change Download Music / Audio Quality

Note the difference between the download music quality and the device audio quality here. While the device audio quality won't harm the Spotify downloaded songs not playing, this step will require a redownload of the songs (even delete) after the changes.

For mobile to change music quality:

1. In the Spotify for mobile app, tap Your Library at the bottom.

2. At the top, tap the Settings icon.

3. In Settings, scroll down to Music Quality.

4. Tap Download section, choose a lower music quality setting (For example: Normal or High).

Note: On mobile, the Very high is not recommended as the music quality setting.

For desktop to change audio quality:

1. In the Spotify for desktop app, go to Settings.

2. In Settings, scroll down to Audio quality.

3. Under Audio quality, see the Download tab.

4. Click the Chevron down icon next to Download tab.

5. From the dropdown list, choose a lower audio quality setting (For example: Automatic, Low, Normal or High)

Note: On desktop, the Very High is not recommended as the download audio quality.

Once the change has been saved, please exit the Settings and better reopen the app. Then redownload the problematic songs at the music / audio quality setting you choose.

5. Clear Music Cache

For mobile to clear cache:

On Android:

1. From the Home Screen, go to Settings.

2. Tap the Storage to see more settings options.

3. In the apps list, find and tap Spotify.

4. If available, tap the Clear cache button to clear cache files.

For desktop to clear cache;

5. Go to Settings, then scroll down to Storage.

6. Next to the Cache, click on the Clear cache button to clear the stored files.

6. Remove Downloaded Songs

In our test, if all the steps have been tried with no success or need to remove download songs to make the change function, it's time to check and remove them.

For mobile to remove downloads:

To remove all downloads

1. Tap Settings.

2. For iOS, also tap Storage.

3. Select Remove all downloads.

Or to remove some downloads:

1. From the bottom, tap Your Library.

2. Tap Downloaded.

3. Open the downloaded album or playlist, tap the green download icon (green arrow button)

4. Tap Remove.

Once the downloads have been removed from mobile, the green download icon will turn black.

For desktop to remove all downloads:

To remove all downloads:

1. Go to Settings, scroll down to Storage.

2. Next to the Downloads, click on the Remove all downloads button

Or to remove some downloads:

1. In the side menu bar, click Your Library then open the downloaded album or playlist with a black download icon.

Or

1. In the side menu bar, see the downloaded album or playlist with a black download icon.

2. Click on the green download icon (green arrow button) with the "Remove download".

Once the downloads have been removed from desktop, the green download icon will turn black.

Since the downloads have been removed, please redownload them to see whether the Spotify downloaded songs not playing issue has been fixed.

7. Clean Uninstall the App

If the steps above have been tried with no luck, it's time to consider reinstalling the app. While most common issues can be fixed with a quick uninstall of the app, a clean uninstall is needed to fix Spotify not playing downloaded songs issue.

For mobile to clear uninstall the app:

For Android:

1. Go to Settings, then Apps & Applications.

2. Tap Manage applications to show the list of installed apps, then tap Spotify.

3. Tap Storage, then Clear Data.

Android users also need to delete the related folder:

4. Back to the Storage, then tap Android.

5. Tap Data, then delete com.spotify.spotify.music folder.

For desktop to clean uninstall the app:

On Windows:

1. Close the running app.

2. From the Start menu, Go to Control Panel.

3. Under Programs section, click Uninstall a program.

4. Locate the app, click Uninstall.

5. Follow the instructions on the screen.

6. Back to the Start menu, enter %AppData% and hit enter to open up AppData\Roaming.

7. Delete the related folders.

On Mac:

1. Close the running app.

2. On desktop, go to Finder.

3. In the menu at the top, click Go.

4. Hold the Option/ Alt key, then select Library.

5. Open Caches, then delete these folders: com.spotify.client and com.spotify.client.helper.

6. Click the black arrow icon.

7. Open Application Support, then delete other related folders.

Please restart the device, go to this website to download Spotify app.

8. Redownload Problematic Songs

We're confident the downloaded Spotify songs not playing should be fixed within one or a few steps above. However, most users will find the steps to remove downloaded songs and clean unstill the app are frustrating. From here to redownload problematic songs can work, but there' a better method to have more control of the downloaded music songs, however free or error - convert downloaded music songs to personal music collection.

Even the problem has been solved, Spotify still requires Premium subscribers to go online at least once a month to keep all the downloads, not to mention there're more subscriptions fee. We'd like to recommend using ViWizard Spotify Music Converter to download and convert the music songs into MP3 music collection. Just as important, it's hard to go wrong with ViWizard!