How to Enable Spotify's Offline Mode on Premium & Free

In today's media-driven world, music streaming has become a hot market, and those streaming music services offer a huge library of music. But to access unlimited music resource, you must have an internet connection. However, Spotify gives you the ability to download music to listen to offline. With this feature, you can enjoy music in Spotify Offline Mode anytime. Here’s how to get Offline Mode Spotify on your computer or phone.

Part 1. How Can You Enable Spotify's Offline Mode on Your Device

To enable the Offline mode on Spotify, the Premium subscription is required to download and play contents like playlists, albums, radio stations and audiobooks. If you use the free version of Spotify, you can download podcasts for offline play with your free account. Once you download a selection of items to your device, you'll want to use the Offline Mode to access your downloads only, but others will be become unavailable.

For Spotify Premium: Playlist songs, albums, podcasts, radio stations and audiobooks

With the Premium subscription, you have the ability to download almost any playlists songs, albums, podcasts, radio stations and even audiobooks by using the Download button in the Spotify app. However, you should know you won't be able to download individual songs on Spotify, you have to put the songs you want into playlist and download the entire playlist for offline play. From here you can start to learn how to create your Spotify playlist:

To create a Spotify playlist to download on Windows/Mac:

1. On Windows or Mac, open the Spotify desktop app.

2. To create a playlist, right-click on the Playlists section in the side menu and then select Create Playlist. Or press CTRL+N (Windows) or CMD+N (Mac) to create a new playlist.

3. Enter the name of the playlist. To rename your playlist, right-click on it > Rename.

4. Now add the songs to that playlist. You can access the built-in Search tool in your playlist to search for songs to add. If you don't see it, click the Find more button.

To create a Spotify playlist to download on Android/iOS:

1. On Android or iOS, open the Spotify mobile app.

2. To create a playlist, head to Your Library > Add > Playlist.

3. Name your playlist.

4. Tap Create, and then the new playlist will show up in Your Library.

5. Now add the songs to that playlist by opening up the options menu > Add to playlist, and then select that playlist.

For Spotify Free: Podcasts only

You're allowed to download Spotify's podcasts even you don't have the Premium subscription. You can even turn on the auto download for your following podcast on the mobile app, so you won't miss any new episodes. Learn how to download podcasts for offline listening.

If you wish to listen to other Spotify contents in the Offline Mode, you have to download the audio files from the music tracks you want to your device. That way, you can listen to any on-demand music files on any media players even without the Spotify app. If you still wish to use the Offline Mode to listen to your downloads, you're allowed to upload those files to the Spotify desktop app. All you need is to bring your Spotify music files. Learn how to listen to Spotify Music on Offline Mode without Premium in Part 3.

Part 2. How to Enable Offline Mode on Spotify for Windows/Mac

As stated, you should have your Spotify downloads to play in the Offline Mode. If you don't have yet, from here to learn how to download items. At this time a mobile/cellular data connection or WiFi network is required to download playlist, song, album, podcast and more.

To download items to play offline on desktop:

1. On Windows or Mac, open the Spotify desktop app.

2. Go to the contents you wish to download from Spotify's music catalog or your library.

3. Enter the profile of the selected item, and then find and click on the Download button (arrow down icon). Or click on the More button (3 dots icon) > Download.

4. Once all the items are downloaded, the Download button will be colored green. You should also see there's the downloaded sign next to all the downloads in your library.

To enable the offline mobile on desktop:

1. On Windows or Mac, open the Spotify desktop app.

2. For Windows, click the More button (horizonal 3 dots) to open up the Windows menu > File > Offline Mode. For Mac, select the Spotify app window and open the apple menu > Spotify > Offline Mode.

3. Make sure the Offline Mode is checked and now you're offline.

4. Once the Offline Mode is enabled, you can only play your downloads on Spotify and others are not available until you disable the Offline mode.

As stated, you need to go online every 30 days to keep your downloads. Sometimes the Offline Mode is switched off automatically when the Spotify application is not responding for a while or after a restart of the app. But you can still check if you are in the Offline Mode manually and to disable it at any time, so that you can access anything you haven't downloaded.

To disable the offline mode to play other items on desktop:

1. For Windows, click the More button to click File in the Windows menu at the top of the screen. For Mac, click Spotify in the Apple menu at the top of the screen.

2. If Offline mode is switched on (or checked), switch it off.

3. Now you're online. Start streaming.

Part 3. How to Enable Offline Mode on Spotify for iPhone/Android

You can switch on the Offline Mode in the app settings. But for starters you need to make sure you have the downloaded items for offline play. Once you are in the Offline Mode, anything you haven't downloaded yet will gray out and are unavailable.

To find downloaded items to play offline on mobile:

1. On Android or IOS, open the Spotify mobile app.

2. Go to Your Library. Form the top you'll access various filter to view the items in your library.

3. Scroll to find the Downloaded filter and tap on it.

4. Now you find all the downloaded items in your library, such as Playlists or Podcasts & Shows.

If you don't have any downloaded items to play in the Offline Mode, you'll need to download them now with a mobile/cellular data connection or WiFi network. To speed things up, you're suggested to use the WiFi network.

To download items to play offline on mobile:

1. On Android or iOS, open the Spotify mobile app.

2. Select the contents to download.

3. Tap on the Download button (arrow down icon).

4. Wait until the download is completed and the Download button turns green.

With the Offline Mode switched on, you can now play your downloads only and switch off the internet connection.

To enable the offline mobile on mobile:

1. On Android or iOS, open the Spotify mobile app.

2. Go to Settings > Playback > Offline, and then toggle Offline to enable the Offline Mode.

3. Note that the little line at the bottom of the screen: "Spotify is currently set to offline". You can now head to the downloaded songs and play them in the Offline Mode.

Please note that the Offline Mode will be switched off automatically when you're away or after the restart of the app. If you wish to access the unavailable contents again, you need to disable the Offline Mode.

To disable the offline mode on mobile:

1. On Android or iOS, head to Settings > Playback > Offline.

2. If the toggle of Offline is switched on, switch it off to disable the Offline Mode.

3. Pick something to start streaming.

Part 4. How to Listen to Spotify Music on Offline Mode without Premium

To enjoy Spotify Desktop Offline Mode or Mobile Offline Mode, you need to be a Spotify Premium member. However, there is an alternative method to help you download Spotify music for listening when you lose internet access. With the help of Spotify music downloader, you can save a Spotify playlist locally to your device.

When it comes to Spotify music downloaders, we do recommend ViWizard Spotify Music Converter. It is all-in-one music downloader and converter for all Spotify users. By using it, you can download every playlist, album, or track individually without download limits. Moreover, you could also select your preferred format to save Spotify music so that they’re playable on any device.

Step 1Copy your chosen Spotify playlist’s URL

After installing ViWizard Spotify Music Converter to your computer, launch it then it will instantly load Spotify. Go to Spotify and select songs which you want to download. Then copy the URL of the track or playlist from Spotify and paste it to the search bar on the interface then click the "+" icon to add music. You can also drag and drop songs from Spotify to the interface of ViWizard application.

Step 2Set the output parameter for Spotify songs

Once all Spotify songs you want to download are imported into the converter, all you have to do is to set the output parameters. Click the menu bar and choose the Preferences option then Convert. Here you could adjust the output format, bit rate, sample rate, and channel. To achieve a stable conversion, you can check the Conversion Speed box and it would take more time for the converter to process the downloading.

Step 3Start to download music from Spotify to MP3

After all the settings are complied with your requirement, the converter will start to download and convert music from Spotify to the default folder or your specified folder by clicking the Convert button. The converter finishes the downloading of Spotify tracks and you can go to browse the converted Spotify songs. To locate the converted Spotify music files, just click the Converted icon and the converted list will appear.

Extra Tip: How to Upload Spotify Music Files to Play on Offline Mode

As stated, both Premium and Free users have the ability to upload your own music collection to the Spotify desktop app to play on the Offline Mode. However, if you wish to sync those files to your Spotify desktop app, the Premium subscription is required.

To upload music files to Spotify on desktop:

1. On Windows or Mac, open the Spotify desktop app.

2. Head to Settings > Local Files, and then switch off Show Local Files to enable the Local Files feature.

3. You should be able to access the Add a source button to upload the music files to the Spotify desktop app. Click on Add a source.

4. Browse for the folder that contains those music files and then OK.

5. Now all the compatible music files that the folder contains should be uploaded to the Spotify desktop app.

To find local music files on desktop:

1. Head to Your Library > Local Files.

2. All the music files uploaded to the Spotify desktop app will be displayed under the Local Files playlist. All the songs can be played in the Offline Mode. You'll want to put those files to your Spotify playlists.

3. Now repeat some steps to enable the Offline Mode to play those music files offline.

If you wish to sync those music files to your mobile device with your Premium subscription, you'll need to create your Spotify playlists based on those files.

To sync music files to Spotify on mobile:

1. Make sure both the desktop and mobile devices use the same WiFi network.

2. On iOS or Android, open the Spotify mobile app > Home > Settings > Local Files > Local audio files, and then switch on "Local audio files". This will enable the Sync feature across devices.

3. On Windows or Mac, head to the side menu and select the playlist that's created based on the local files. Click on the Download button. This will start to sync that playlist to your mobile device.

4. On Ios or Android, head to Your Library and find the playlist synced to your device. You can now download it to play offline.

Wrap Up

One of Spotify’s best features is its ability to enable you to listen to music in Offline Mode. For Premium, it is easy to use Spotify Offline Mode. But with the help of ViWizard Spotify Music Converter, you can also download your Spotify playlists and songs with a Spotify Free account so that you can listen to them when you’re offline.