I have been using Deezer for a very long time over the course of several different accounts. It has gotten progressively worse for at least 3 years now. I want to know if it’s going to get any better, because I’m on the brink of switching to Spotify. Below are my issues with Deezer for Android. For context, I’m using a Samsung S20+ with no damage or anything with plenty of spare storage and my system software and app version are all up-to-date.
- Painfully slow search feature. I have Wi-Fi with 30mb upload and 30mb download consistently. The app continually struggles to search ANYTHING. Sometimes it works fine, but usually it buffers for several minutes before returning a result which is sometimes not even what I search for. It never used to do this, it started maybe a year ago or so. I have tried mobile data and that doesn’t help.
- Low download integrity. I had about 30GB of downloads which I’d say is on the small side for audiophiles like myself. They worked without issue for years until randomly a couple of months ago it deleted ALL of my downloads. This has since happened twice. Another thing it likes to do is show no downloads but I can still see the space is taken in storage, meaning I have to wipe the entire app otherwise it sucks up all my storage by stacking on top of itself.
- Awful download speed. Frustrated with that first purge of my downloads, I left my phone screen on, charging, overnight to re-download everything. I tried this THREE TIMES. Each time, the downloads failed again and again. It has been 12 months and all my playlists have that green bar maybe halfway or so. Furthermore, every time I open the app the progress is either further or less than previously, which makes no sense. Sometimes, intermittently, random songs in my album playlists refuse to download, which icks me on a level previously undiscovered by human kind. FURTHERMORE, sometimes playlists are downloaded with the green tick, but when I’m travelling and offline, the songs are greyed out (with the green tick) and won’t let me play them. The only solution I’ve found is to play every single song on the playlist consecutively before going out. This is ridiculous, and with playlists with like 100+ songs, impossible. Yes I have considered smaller playlists, that doesn’t work either.
- Poor download access / Offline mode failure. The last time I tried to access the downloads folder it was way too slow, and this was with the internet connected, when I disconnected my internet I timed it on a watch. 2 minutes and 34 seconds.. When I turned offline mode on it failed to load completely. However, when I turned Aeroplane mode on, it loaded, and much quicker?! This doesn’t make any sense and is a colossal faff. Why should I have to waste my expensive Data when I have access to internet at home or college. I am a student and music keeps me sane, this is absurd. Oh yeah, sometimes offline mode causes the app to bug out entirely and not load anything. When it does load, none of the album art for my downloads appears, just a black symbol; this is a small aesthetic detail but a profoundly annoying one. So yeah, I can’t really access my downloads even when they do work, but accessing them on the “recently listened” area works instantly, but only for the small selection displayed. This tells me the interface is just being stupid and it’s not my files.
- App crashes / stops. The app crashes randomly every now and again, I have tried clearing the cache regularly which doesn’t work. It also sometimes stops randomly in the middle of a song, or (my favourite), even though it’s set to not sleep, the music widget just disappears from my control centre and lock screen meaning I have to navigate into the app instead of pressing play on my phone / headphones. It likes to do this when my hands are full or I’m travelling. >:(
- Sound quality. Deezer is supposed to be the service with the best sound quality. I have noticed a considerable drop-off in quality over the last 6 months in all of my music. I usually have it set to high-fidelity but it has definitely decreased. Throughout my download turmoil I’ve tried increasing or decreasing the quality to reduce the load, but there is no audible difference, just that it’s worse than it was a few months ago.
- Sound glitches. Sometimes whilst I’m listening, there is a crackle or snap in the music. It is not my headphones as it does it on all my audio devices. It also does it on both Deezer android and PC. When listening to loud music this is particularly annoying and jarring.
- Flow. Sometimes it just disappears from my homepage/
- Buffering. Aside from the downloads, the entire app is laggy and takes ages to load. I was recently in a hotel with WiFi the speed of the Stig (very very quick), and it took just as long as usual to load.
Now that I’ve explained all the important issues, I’d also like to say that I hate how the app looks now. Just my opinions but the whole thing just seems goofy and I hate the fact that it seems like they spent all their resources on a re-design and neglected the face they made the app nigh-on unusable. Most people I know use Spotify but I know 3 people who use Deezer and they are all having similar issues to me.
This is what I’ve tried to rectify the issues in no particular order except where is logical:
- Logging out and back in, several times
- Clearing app cache
- Clearing app data
- Changing audio quality settings
- Using less / smaller playlists
- Uninstalling / reinstalling the app
- Using the BETA version of the app
- Rollback app version (didn’t work)
- Cleaning out my phone storage (I currently have more than enough free space)
- Increasing Deezer’s available cache
- Deleting / re-doing downloads
- Making sure the app can run on top, and that is set to not sleep
- Altering system widget settings
- Searching for bug fixes
- Using a different account
Nothing has worked, not even slightly.
I’ve long since become fed-up with Deezer, the only reason I haven’t moved app is because I don’t want to have to remake all my playlists and I’m worried some songs won’t be on Spotify.
Please, how, if at all, can I fix some of these issues?
Are they happening for lots of people?
Is Deezer improving the app or are Android users doomed to Spotify forever?
:(
