iOS: Offline Content Disappears With Premium

[Hosprings]

Offline stations are regularly deleting themselves. Unless there are licensing restrictions that Pandora isn’t sharing, the only time a downloaded station should delete is when I initiate. What’s going on with this bug?

mod edit: changed title for clarity

[GeraldPandora]

Hi @Hosprings 

Thanks for reaching out and sorry to hear some of your offline content is disappearing.

If your offline content is missing due to a licensing restriction, the song will be labeled as "Radio Only" or be unavailable, which could be one of the reasons why some of your offline content are missing. 

If it is not labeled as "Radio Only", I'd recommend signing out of the app and signing back in, which will reset the download process. Then, make sure to keep Pandora in the foreground of your device while the download completes.

If you continue to have trouble, check the download icon for the content you are attempting to download. The two rotating arrows indicate that the content is still in the download process and the highlighted downward pointing arrow means the content has successfully downloaded.

If the icon is not highlighted, try downloading the content again and keep the app in the foreground while the offline music downloads. Keep in mind that stations and large playlists take a longer time to download.

If you are having trouble downloading stations, try downloading a single track for offline listening to see if that works.

Lastly, I'd recommend that you perform our iOS Troubleshooting Steps. However, Pandora Premium and Premium Family listeners may need to re-download some of their offline content after reinstalling the app.

Hope this helps and let us know how it goes!

[Findon]

Premium Annual Direct Plan

iPhone 13, iOS 18

My wife and I go on trips to locations with no internet access lasting anywhere from 10 to 30 days.  To avoid roaming and data charges while away from WIFI, we download radio stations and songs for listening while in Offline Mode (played via bluetooth speakers).

When we begin trips I put Pandora into Offline Mode.  When I do that, all of the stations/songs downloaded while still connected to WIFI are still displayed in the My Collections list.  All of those stations/songs in the My Collection list continue to display the green circle with the down-pointing white arrow in the station/song icon. I can also play each and every station and song in My Collection, while in Offline Mode, without problem.

However, after some days of being in Offline Mode, many of the stations and songs will disappear from the My Collection list.  At the bottom of My Collections it says "Showing downloaded music only."  That is entirely incorrect.

Why does that happen, and how do I prevent that from happening in the future?

Oops, it should read "My wife and I go on trips, sometimes to locations with no internet access, lasting anywhere from 10 to 30 days.

Moderator Edit: Merged comments

[AdamPandora]

@Findon Nice to see you around the community.

To clarify, are you traveling outside of the United States when this happens?

We can only legally offer Pandora services to listeners located in the United States at this time.

This applies equally to free and paid accounts, as well as Pandora on all computers and supported devices, including offline.

That said, if you are a Pandora Plus or Premium subscriber, you will be able to play your downloaded music while traveling outside of the country temporarily.

Please note you will need to download your offline content prior to leaving our service area. Android users must also manually set the Pandora app to offline mode before leaving.

Also, your offline collection will be removed if you uninstall or sign out of the Pandora app, or if you are unable to re-establish a connection with Pandora via a Wi-Fi or mobile network within 30 days.

So as long as you re-establish a connection with Pandora within 30 days, your offline content should remain in your collection.

Keep in mind Premium subscribers can download Stations, Playlists, albums and songs for offline listening and Plus subscribers will be limited to only four stations.

Visit the Pandora website to view your subscription options.

Hope this is helpful.

[Findon]

All in U.S.

Offline content is removed prior to 30 days of not re-establishing connection with WIFI.  Sometimes as soon as a couple of weeks of getting to the mountains (remote).

[MariaPandora]

Thanks for explaining.

Can you please check how many GB of storage do you have available under iPhone Storage?
Has your phone battery recently died resulting in the device shutting down or has your phone been shut down for any reason?

Also, just to clarify, I understand that you can see the content when going offline but after a few days it disappears, correct? Or does it immediately disappears when going offline?

Let us know!

[Findon]

512 gb memory

Correct, after about a week about 60 percent of the stations/songs disappear. It's random which stations/songs are removed, but the ones that remain will play without problem.

Although you know what you're doing, I don't see that the iPhone's amount of memory is at issue.  If it were, as soon as I went into Offline mode, the data exceeding the amount of available memory would be discarded, with stations/song immediately being gone.  In my case, every single station/song downloaded while connected to WIFI is still available when I go into Offline mode.  Also, every single station/song downloaded while connected to WIFI will play completely through when I go into Offline mode.

It appears to me there is an "anti-theft" feature Pandora has installed to prevent someone from downloading several gigabytes of stations/songs and then playing those stations/songs after cancelling their subscription.  Although I have been a Premium Annual Direct Plan member for many, many years (and I don't have plans to cancel), that might be why my stations/songs are being deleted.

We are preparing a trip to take place in a few weeks (overland camping) and I'd like to be able to rely on my stations/songs being available in the Offline mode for more than just a week or so.  I look forward to your help.

[LeonPandora]

@Findon I would like to report this issue to our engineers. Could you tell me more about your device?

• Device & Generation: (e.g. iPhone X, iPad Air (3rd gen), etc.)
• Carrier:
• iOS version: (Settings > General > About > Version)
• Pandora version: (Pandora > Profile tab > Settings gear & scroll to the bottom of the screen)
   

Are you connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data when this is happening?

Have you identified any other patterns or notable information?

Thanks for your help with this.

[Findon]

Sure (also, this happens on all of my iPhones, so I'll give the particulars for each):

Device & Generation: iPhone 14 (work phone)
Carrier: AT&T
iOS version: 17.6.1
Pandora version: 2310.1.1

Device & Generation: iPhone 13 (personal phone)
Carrier: Verizon
iOS version: 18.0
Pandora version: 2310.1.1

Device & Generation: iPhone 13 (wife's phone)
Carrier: Verizon
iOS version: 18.0
Pandora version: 2310.1.1

Are you connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data when this is happening? Neither, it happens when I'm using Offline mode. I download use WIFI to download, before switching to Offline mode.

Have you identified any other patterns or notable information? None.

Thanks

[MariaPandora]

Thanks @Findon for providing that info.

I've passed this along to our engineering team for further investigation. 

Thanks for your patience while we work on this!

[Findon]

I've not heard back, what is the status?  Thanks.

[MariaPandora]

Hi @Findon 

Unfortunately, I am unable to provide any additional information or a timeline for your case.

However, the info you've provided is helpful and I've made sure to pass it along. 

Thanks very much for your patience in the meantime!