Downloading (or ‘offline syncing’) music and other media from Spotify are some of Spotify Premium users’ favorite perks. However, we may often forget about our downloaded media, or it might start taking up too much storage space on your device. Whatever your reasoning, we’re here to help teach you how to delete Spotify downloads. To do so, simply follow our easy step-by-step guides below.
For any additional information or queries, please see the FAQs at the end of this article.
Note: You can only download media for offline use if you are a Spotify Premium account holder, you cannot do so (and thus cannot delete downloaded media) if you are a Spotify Free account holder.
Table of Contents
How to delete Spotify downloads (mobile/tablet)
- Open up the Spotify app on your device and sign in if necessary
- Tap the ‘Your Library’ icon in the bottom-right of the homepage
- Below the ‘Your Library’ title at the top of the screen, you’ll see a row of filters (playlists, artists, albums, etc.). Scroll along until you find ‘Downloaded’ and tap on it to apply this filter to your Library.
- You’ll now be presented with a list of only the media you currently have downloaded onto your device. Locate the download(s) you wish to delete.
- Now, tap and hold on the download(s)
- From the pop-up menu, select ‘Remove Download’
- If you’re attempting to remove a downloaded playlist, you’ll now be asked to confirm the deletion, to do so simply tap ‘Remove’
- Repeat as necessary!
How to delete Spotify downloads (desktop)
- Open up the Spotify app on your desktop and sign in if necessary
- From the homepage, tap on ‘Your Library’ from the menu in the top-left of the page
- Now, scroll through your Library until you locate the download(s) you wish to delete
- Tip: You’ll be able to tell what media you have downloaded to your computer/desktop device by the small grey downward-facing ‘downloaded’ arrow in the bottom-right corner of the media’s thumbnail
- Next, click on the downloaded media
- Next to the big green play button, you’ll see that the ‘Download’ arrow is bold and highlighted green. To delete this media from your downloads, simply click this arrow. The download will instantly be deleted from your computer/desktop device.
- Repeat as necessary!
And there you have it! Whether on your desktop, mobile, or tablet, you can quickly and easily free up space and ditch unwanted media from your offline Spotify downloads. Happy deleting!
For any additional information, or if you have any as-yet-unanswered queries, please direct your attention to the FAQs below.
Frequently asked questions
What are Spotify downloads?
Spotify Premium users are granted the ability to download (also known as ‘offline sync’) their favorite music, podcast shows, or playlists to their device, allowing said content to be played offline.
This is an ideal feature for anyone on the go, especially when traveling, as it allows you quickly access (through the Spotify app) all your downloaded media without any internet connection at all. Potentially saving you a tonne of money, which you might otherwise have spent on cellular data; saving you the time, frustration, and hassle of trying to find a free source of WiFi in an unfamiliar setting; or of course saving you the disappointment of having nothing to listen to whilst, say, on an airplane.
You can find all of the media you’ve downloaded (or offline synced) on Spotify by hitting the ‘Your Library’ icon and then tapping the ‘Downloaded’ filter at the top.
Why would I want to delete Spotify downloads?
Spotify Downloads are a fantastic Premium feature of the app, but we’d be lying if we said there weren’t any downsides. If you’ve ever owned an MP3 player or iPod, you’ll already know what we mean. Music (and high-quality music at that) takes up space, and even if you’ve only got a handful of albums and shows downloaded, that storage space can quickly start mounting up.
Before long, you may well find that your device is running slower than usual, and/or indeed fast running out of storage space. Since you need storage space to take videos and pictures, download more apps, and a whole host of other things, finding it eaten up by high-quality Spotify downloads can be quite frustrating.
This is one of the main reasons you’re probably looking to delete your Spotify downloads. Of course, you may also just be tired of a particular album, group, show, or playlist, and wish to remove it from your phone simply because there’s no point in having it downloaded.
Whatever your reason, we’re here to help. Simply follow our step-by-step guides above.
Can I recover accidentally deleted Spotify downloads?
Yes and no. No, in the sense that you can’t go into some deleted folder and recover the deleted files, but yes, in the sense that you can just as quickly and easily (in the same breath as you deleted the media, in fact) re-download whatever you’ve deleted.
How can I make Spotify downloads take up less storage space in future?
This is a great question, and certainly, one to look into if you like having lots of Spotify stuff downloaded, but still want to keep as much storage space freed up on your device as possible. To ensure that Spotify downloads take up as little space as possible, you’re going to have to compromise (just a little bit!) on the sound quality of the music and shows.
First, head to ‘Settings’ by navigating to them from the homepage (hit the gear-shaped icon in the top-right on mobile and tablet devices, or hit the down arrow next to your profile name in the top-right on desktop, and then click ‘Settings’ from the drop-down menu). Once in ‘Settings’, scroll down to ‘Audio Quality’, and locate the ‘Download’ portion of this settings sub-menu. You’ll see that the download quality settings are set to either ‘Low’, ‘Normal’, ‘High’, or ‘Very High’. Simply put, the higher the quality of the media you download from Spotify, the more storage space it will take up, the lower the quality, the less space.
We recommend setting this quality set to ‘Normal’ for a nice balance between quality and space storage, or to ‘Low’, if space is your priority.
Will deleting downloads prohibit me from listening to this music again?
No, not at all. Deleting downloads only stops you from being able to listen to that music offline. When online, you can still listen to anything on Spotify, whether you’ve downloaded and/or deleted it one time or one thousand times.
