Spotify Problems On Mobile Data? 9 Known Issues (Solved)

With over 100 million songs and over 450,000 podcasts, Spotify is a fantastic choice to listen to your favorite artists and discover new content.

With this extremely convenient service, you are able to stream over your mobile data when your usual Wi-Fi connections are out of range.

But what happens when your mobile data ‘plays hard to get’? Many users have found themselves frustrated with being unable to connect to Spotify over their mobile data.

We will explore the mobile data problems experienced by users in this article and how to fix them.

Table of Contents

The Spotify app is Outdated

The most common reason that Spotify does not work over mobile data is the app running on outdated software.

Outdated software tends to run into compatibility issues, especially with mobile carriers.

Often technical glitches and minor bugs that are found by the platform will be updated with a newer version.

So the first place to start with getting Spotify to connect via mobile data would be to update the app using the steps below:

Open your App Store on iOS devices or Google Play Store on Android devices.
Type ‘Spotify’ in the search bar and then select it from the search results.
An ‘Update’ option will appear if there is a newer version.
Tap on ‘Update’ to install.

This will almost always get Spotify working again if there aren’t more underlying issues

Spotify Displays a ‘No Internet Connection Available’ Error

An Android app’s performance may suffer if its data usage is restricted, and it may also be unable to connect to the internet.

This may be the cause of Spotify’s “No internet connection available” problem.

Allow Spotify to use unlimited data on your Android device to prevent this.

Here are the steps to do this:

Tap the info symbol from the pop-up menu that appears when you long-press the Spotify app icon.
On the menu that appears, select ‘Mobile data & Wi-Fi’
Now, Turn on the ‘Unrestricted data usage’ toggle.
After restarting, check to see if Spotify connects to the internet using your mobile data.

The Audio Streaming Quality is Set Too High

Spotify provides its users the ability to set their desired audio quality.

The Free plan users can set their maximum audio quality to ‘High’, and Premium users can set their maximum audio quality to ‘Very High.’

In this case, the problem with setting the audio quality to the maximum is that it uses more bandwidth or data.

This results in the mobile connection not being strong enough to accommodate the maximum audio quality.

It can also be because your data usage is near its limit and you’re restricted from capitalizing on the remaining data.

In this case, you would need to decrease your audio quality when streaming using your cellular data.

Use the following steps to set cellular streaming to ‘Low’:

Open your Spotify app on your device.
Select the ‘Home’ icon then in the top right corner of your screen, tap on the gear icon to open ‘Settings’
Scroll to ‘Audio Quality’ and then under ‘Cellular Streaming’, select ‘Low’

Spotify is in Offline Mode

Spotify’s offline mode is great to listen to your downloaded content, especially when you’re on the go and don’t have access to data or a Wi-Fi connection.

However, if you don’t exit the Offline Mode, Spotify will only play the downloaded content even if you have enough data or a Wi-Fi connection.

Simply put, you cannot stream new content in Offline Mode.

Here’s how to disable Offline Mode:

Once you’ve opened Spotify, tap on the ‘Home’ icon.
Now select the ‘gear’ icon in the top right of your screen to open the ‘Settings’ menu.
Scroll to ‘Playback’ and then toggle ‘Offline Mode’ to disable it.

Now you should be able to stream new music and podcasts.

Your device’s APN is not set correctly

At times Spotify might not work over your mobile data which could be because your APN may not be functional and needs to be modified.

Your APN is often pre-configured.

What is an APN?

This stands for Access Point Name
All mobile data connections use it as a network path.
APNs enable your mobile network to connect to the internet (for example, 3G or 4G).

Here is how to modify your APN settings on your phone:

For iOS devices:

You should be able to access your APN settings in your carrier allows it.

First, go to the ‘Settings’ app,
Now, click ‘cellular’, then ‘cellular Data Network’

Or,

Go to ‘Settings’ and then ‘Mobile Data’
Now, tap ‘Mobile Data Options’
Finally, select ‘Mobile Data Network’

In either of these methods, you can tap each field and then enter the details from your cellular carrier. This will change your APN settings.

When you click, you’ll see the following message appear on your phone’s screen: “This website is attempting to open Settings in order to display a configuration profile. Do you agree to this?”

For Android devices, you need to input the APN information manually. Your carrier’s website should provide you with the APN details you’ll need.

Navigate to the Settings menu on your Android phone.
Select ‘Connections’
Go to the ‘Mobile networks’ tab.
Navigate to ‘Access Point Names’
Tap the ‘Add’ button in the top-right corner of your screen from here.
Enter the information required to configure your APN.
Make sure to choose your new APN as your top choice from this point on.
Launch Spotify to test it out at the end.

The VoLTE Network is Causing Interference

VoLTE Network permits you to place voice calls over your 4G or LTE connection.

It is the anagram for Voice over LTE.

The problem with using VoLTE is that it interferes with Spotify’s mobile data usage. Therefore, to be able to use Spotify, you would need to turn it off.

We’ve listed the guidelines below to turn off this feature on your device:

For iOS devices:

Open the ‘Settings’ menu on your iOS device.
Select ‘Cellular’ from the menu.
Tap on ‘Cellular Data Options’ and then choose ‘Voice & Data’
Toggle ‘VoLTE’ to turn it OFF and then turn ON ‘LTE/4G’.
You can also try the ‘3G’ option as well.
Now you can try operating Spotify from both mobile data network settings.

For Android devices:

Open ‘Settings’ on your Android phone.
Tap on ‘Connections.’ and then select ‘Mobile Networks’
Toggle ‘VoLTE calls’ to turn it OFF.
Now open the Spotify app. If that doesn’t work, select ‘Network mode’ and choose ‘3G.’
Try Spotify again.

The Spotify Account in Use is Signed into Multiple Devices

Spotify being synced to multiple devices can be convenient because you can use it wherever you are.

However, as advanced as technology is, it can confuse the platform causing it to malfunction, especially when connected to cellular data.

To fix this, when you’re out of Wi-Fi range, you should sign out of all of your devices.

Here are the steps to do this:

Launch your Spotify app on your handheld device.
Tap on the ‘Home’ icon and then select the gear icon to open the ‘Settings’ menu.
Scroll all the way to the bottom and choose ‘Log out’
Now, do this for all your synced devices.
Next, restart your smartphone and relaunch the Spotify app.

Spotify’s Cache Files are Corrupt

Spotify caches files that are frequently accessed. Spotify’s performance is enhanced, and bandwidth is saved as a result.

Although that’s a good thing, it can happen that this data becomes stale or damaged over time.

When that occurs, Spotify on your phone may stop functioning and annoy you with numerous errors.

In such cases, Spotify gives users the choice to erase the cache right from the app.

This is how to do it:

Launch the Spotify app on your device.
Tap the gear-shaped icon in the top right corner of your phone to open ‘Settings’
Scroll down and select Clear cache.
When prompted, select Clear cache once more.

The Mobile Carrier is Problematic

At times, the reason why Spotify won’t work with your mobile data is that your mobile carrier has recently had an update that makes it incompatible with Spotify.

The best solution here is to try opening Spotify using a different mobile carrier’s sim card. If it connects seamlessly, then the fault lies with your mobile carrier.