Spotify is one of the largest audio and media streaming services in the world.
Since its inception in 2006, Spotify has evolved to offer its users and subscribers a variety of impressive features – one of which is listening to their music offline.
Typically, Spotify would require its users to have a stable WiFi or data connection to stream media. However, those days are over.
Ready to save yourself some data and listen to all your favorite tunes without the internet? Keep reading to learn how to use Spotify without WiFi.
How To Use Spotify Without Wi-Fi
Even in this day and age, it’s not always possible to access the internet.
Whether you’re experiencing a power shortage, you’re on a long flight, or camping out into the wilderness, you may find yourself needing a hit of your favorite tunes.
So, how do you do it without the internet?
Well, Spotify has included an offline mode for its premium subscribers, who can now listen to all their favorite songs even without the internet.
Let’s take a look at how to use this method below.
Listening To Spotify Offline on Mobile And Desktop
To listen offline on your mobile, you’ll need to activate Spotify offline mode. To do this, navigate to the Settings page in the Spotify app.
Under the heading ‘playback;, select ‘offline mode’ to switch it on.
Note: to listen to your songs offline, they must already be downloaded.
You’ll have to download your favorite songs to your ‘liked songs’ or a selected playlist before listening offline.
This means you won’t be able to listen to any songs you haven’t already downloaded without the internet.
If you want to listen offline on the desktop app, simply open up the main menu in the upper-left corner of the screen.
This is marked by three dots on your screen above the Home, Your Library, and Search options.
Head over to the ‘FIle’ option, and select ‘Offline Mode’ to turn it on.
Do You Need Spotify Premium To Listen Offline?
Yes. To listen to your music offline, you’ll need to be subscribed to Spotify premium.
Your Spotify premium subscription will allow you to download the songs you want straight to your device and listen to them offline at any time.
If you’re a student, you can get a discount on the price of your monthly subscription.
If you’re just using Spotify’s free service, you’ll only be able to stream songs online, and you can expect adverts between songs.
You won’t have access to the ‘offline mode’ option without a Spotify subscription.
However, if you’re a free user, you can still download podcasts.
Set Spotify To Use Wi-Fi Only
Not all of us have enough data to stream endless songs.
If you don’t want to waste your mobile data streaming music, it’s possible to set Spotify to only ever use Wi-Fi.
Unfortunately, Spotify doesn’t have a feature that can prevent you from using your mobile data.
So, if your Wi-Fi goes out of range, you’ll be automatically put on to your mobile data.
However, it is possible to change these settings inside your phone. We’ll show you how.
Android Users
If you’re an Android user, close the Spotify app and head over to your phone’s settings page. From here, click on the ‘apps and notifications’ option.
Once you’re here, find the ‘Spotify’ option – you should now be able to click on Mobile Data and Wi-Fi.
Then, turn off background data, unrestricted data usage, Wi-Fi, or data usage, depending on what you want.
Turning of background data, unrestricted data usage, and data usage will prevent Spotify from using your mobile data when you lose your Wi-Fi signal.
iOS Users
If you’re using iOS, open your ‘Settings’ page, and scroll down to the ‘Spotify’ icon.
Once you’ve clicked on Spotify, go to the end of the page and find the Mobile Data toggle, which should be just above ‘allow tracking’, and below ‘background app refresh’.
Now, if your mobile data toggle is green, press it once until it turns gray. This will stop Spotify from using your mobile data.
Listening To Spotify Offline (Explained)
Before you listen to Spotify offline, here are a few quick facts you should know. Note: this guidance is for Spotify premium users only.
- You can download up to 10,000 songs to listen to offline, and these can be stored on as many as 5 devices.
- With a premium subscription, you can download albums, podcasts and playlists. If you’re using the free version, you can download podcasts only.
- You’ll need to access Spotify at least once a month to keep your downloads.
Troubleshooting: Spotify Downloads Not Playing
Are your Spotify downloads not playing offline? Here’s what you need to do.
First, check the ‘download status of your song. If your song has a green arrow pointing down next to it, your download has been successful. If the indicator is gray, your music has failed to download.
If the arrow is gray, try pressing the download button again. If this doesn’t work, you may need to reinstall the app. If you do this, you will need to redownload any music you had in your library before.
If your tracks were in your library before, but now the downloads are lost, this may be because:
- You reinstalled the Spotify app
- You didn’t use Spotify online once in the past 30 days
- You’ve downloaded tracks to more than five devices
- You haven’t updated your Spotify app recently
- Your SD card is faulty (if you use one)
The Bottom Line
There are many reasons why Spotify is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, and the power to listen offline is just one of them.
Remember: to listen to your downloads offline, you’ll need to have an active Spotify premium subscription.
Without Spotify premium, you’ll always need to use your mobile data or Wi-Fi to stream and download your favorite songs, playlists, or podcasts.
