Can't play downloaded music when offline

Hi, I am sorry to hear that.
I am aware that some users have experienced this problem, but personally I am always able to listen my downloaded music while offline.
Are you able to see your downloaded music if you activate offline mode on settings?
Could you also check activating airplane mode?
Thanks and apologies for the inconvenience

I had the same issue last week on my flight back. I could not open the app after the airplane took off, and to my surprise, the music on Favourite Tracks was not available. However, I had the option to SHUFFLE DOWNLOADS and the albums were available.

Here is an screenshot I just took which airplane mode activated:

On the previous flight I had no issues because I was listening music from before entering the plane. So I guess that if one has the app previously open it does the trick. But honestly, this should not happen ever or otherwise is pointless to pay for a subscription.

Exactly this. It seems that the app needs to connect to the web on opening to check something before the downloaded music is available. 
 

the whole point of  listening to music offline (downloading tracks) should be that you can still access your downloaded tracks without a connection. 

It seem that Deezer is not going to do anything about it.

Still having this problem, and showing this. Any idea what is happening with Deezer.

Hi ​@LCYCowboy ​@Santiago Gomez ​@Youssef.Naiim,

I’m not experiencing any issues with listening to music in offline mode. However, it would be great if you could share a video showing the problems you’re facing, along with the following details:

• The brand and model of your device
• The operating system version (Android, iOS) installed on your device
• The version of Deezer you're using

Additionally, please confirm if you have an SD card installed and provide a screenshot by pressing the Deezer app icon, selecting the gear wheel, and choosing the “Data and Storage” option.

I'm not sure if you’re aware, but to help with that, we have a setting in the mobile app called "forced offline." This will force the app to play your downloaded tracks.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a workaround.

Thanks! 😊

Hello,

I don’t have a video about it, but the work around that I’ve been doing is to re-download everything, but the problem might come back again.

I am using a Samsung S23 ultra (android), current deezer version 8.0.25.4 (although the issue has been dragging for long), and I can’t understand the pattern. It is the most frustrating experience on a long flight trip, when I’m using the airplane mode, especially that I have a special playlist for my little baby to calm her down.

I have the exact same issue, i’m now redownloading 20 gigs of songs to see if it fixes the issue. I will post back if it fixed my issue. I had no issues for almost 2 years of premium usage until the last month and a half. I have to log on to the app on my home wifi before leaving for the day or wifi hotspot my phone to be able to load my music everytime I launch the app for offline mode. It’s really annoying and if it’s not fixed next month i’ll be cancelling my subscription to Deezer and find an alternative that has hifi quality.
 

Hi ​@AdalKatze thanks for your feedback. Please let us know if the issue persists.

​@Youssef.Naiim one tip that helps improve the performance of the app is you do some adjustments to the battery settings. Starting from disabling the saving energy mode. Then:

1)
- Open your phone settings > Applications > Deezer
- Check that Remove permissions if app is unused is disabled. If it's enabled, disable it.
2)
- Open your phone settings > Applications > Deezer
- Select App Battery Usage (you may need to tap on Advanced Settings to find it) > Unrestricted
- Open Deezer, then test a playlist

If the issue continues, do as follows:

• Open your phone settings > Battery and Device Care
• Tap on Memory > Excluded apps > + > Deezer > Add
• Restart your phone
• Open Deezer, then test a playlist

Hope it improves the experience.

Hello,

Redownloading didn’t help, I went to my devices settings and I have removed the downloaded files and deleted the cache for the deezer app. I am redownloading the files. I did notice that the permissions for the app did not have storage enabled. I will see if this fixes the issue. It’s juts bizarre this appeared as an issue 1.5 months ago.

Hello,

Just to let you know that it did not work. Even some of the song playlists i redownloaded didn’t download for offline mode. I’m using deezer on a M11 Plus from Fiio which basically runs like an android device. Still haven’t had any success getting it to work. Has anyone else had this issue and fixed it?

Hello ​@AdalKatze thanks for the information and sorry to hear that it didn’t work.

Can you please share with me these details:

• The brand and model of your device - M11 Plus from Fiio
• The operating system version (Android, iOS, ...) installed on your device
• The version of Deezer you're using
• Record the issue, step by step, so our developers can try to reproduce.

Hi all, how are you?

I am experiencing the same issues as described below:

Issue 1:
Playing download content in off line mode doesn't work - it asks for connection to play downloaded content in off line mode.

Issue 2:
Playing content over mobile connection keeps loading forever with strong stable 5g network signal available. App preferences is set to allow unrestricted background data, and audio settings os set to stream in basic quality over mobile network.

I have followed the instructions described by deezer support below:

A)Set App Battery Usage to  Unrestricted;

B)Set App mobile network data usage to Unrestricted;

C)Set app Audio quality download over mobile network to basic.

I also have reinstalled the app several times, and redownloaded all content, but it didn´t solved the issues.

Please, May someone help me to figure out how to fix it?

Device info:
Google pixel 7
Android 15 security pack December 2024

Deezer app details:
Deezer 8.0.28.4
Permissions if app is unused is disabled
App Battery Usage is set to Unrestricted

 

Hello ​@thiagotc! Thanks for sharing the details!

Could you let me know if the issue still persists for you? 

In this post, you can see that other users are saying the issue has been fixed.

Hi ​@thiagotc another user ​@jayarmstrong says “after clearing cache & storage and re-downloading on version 8.0.27.5, I no longer see the issue.”

Here to add to the list of users that found out too late on a trip that had no internet connection that my1000s of downloaded tracks wouldn’t work for offline’. Does Deezer know that this is a persistent issue? 

They know apparently, there’s an “Offline Mode” in the settings which is a workaround that helps… I sure wish I knew about it before taking a flight because my downloaded playlist told me that I can't play anything while I'm in Airplane mode...

Hi, tried all the tips mentioned here, but none helped. A few months ago I even redownloaded all the music in my phone, but after a while this problem popped up again.

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, Android 15

Deezer version: 8.0.48.6

If needed, I can send you a video where it's visible how either error message "There is a network issue" or "You are in offline mode" shows up when trying to play downloaded music. 

Hi ​@ddddd_ a video would be helpful indeed.
I’ve tested on my side and everything works fine in offline mode. I don’t know if it makes a difference but I always activate “offline mode” on settings and have never experienced what you mentioned above (on planes, trains, road trips, etc.).
Thanks and apologies for the inconvenience

Okay, I had this problem for awhile and it puzzled me. On Pixel 7, with Android 16. The device would not play downloaded music and would say “Please connect” and such, which was brand new. Turns out it, for me, was related to ‘Battery Saver’ mode. Turning it off allowed me to listen to every single track just fine with no connection. This was brand new because of an Update, as this never happened before on this device in the same Battery Saver mode. Changing the app to have ‘Unrestricted Background Usage’ for the battery seems to allow the downloaded music to work in offline AND battery saver mode. While I’m glad to have found a fix to this, my question is: “Why is the architecture of the App so beholden to Unrestricted Background Usage to play previously downloaded music?”. 

My hypothesis is that the Deezer application's architecture includes a mandatory session-based license validation check that is initiated as a background process whenever playback begins. This check is required to decrypt and authorize the DRM-protected local files. In its default state, Android's 'Battery Saver' mode aggressively restricts or terminates non-essential background processes to conserve power. Consequently, when a user attempts to play a downloaded track in this mode, the OS blocks the app's critical license validation process (regardless of internet connection). The app's error handling for this specific failure is not sophisticated enough to distinguish it from a lack of internet, so it defaults to a generic 'Please connect' error message. Furthermore, there is a separate, long-term offline grace period, likely around 30 days (this seems correct for a monthly subscription platform), which will eventually require a successful connection to re-validate the content licenses, regardless of the Battery Saver status.

Update: 

After further testing, it appears my initial solution of setting the battery to 'Unrestricted' is only a partial fix that reveals a deeper architectural behavior.

I discovered that even with the 'Unrestricted' setting enabled, not all of my downloaded music was immediately playable offline. I had briefly connected to Wi-Fi with the Deezer app open and then disconnected completely to test. I found that only a limited selection of my offline tracks would actually play. Specifically, the songs that worked were from playlists I had recently accessed while online. Songs in other downloaded playlists that I had not interacted with during that brief connection period still failed to play, giving a 'content not available' error.

This leads me to a more refined hypothesis. Instead of a single validation for the entire session, it is more likely that each downloaded track, or perhaps each album, possesses its own individual DRM license with its own expiration timer. When the application has an internet connection, a background process is initiated to renew these individual licenses. This renewal does not happen all at once; there appears to be a specific rate at which this process can validate the songs, suggesting it works through a queue.

Therefore, my core point is that this license renewal process is prioritized. The app likely addresses the tracks with the oldest or most-expired licenses first. My short time connected to Wi-Fi was only sufficient for the background process to renew the licenses for a small number of these high-priority tracks, which explains why only a fraction of my offline library became playable again. Another thing is that it seems to go in order of the playlist itself; a song in index i will be prioritized before a song in index i + 1. I’m not sure yet about validation across playlists (what order the process will occur for validation for playlists NOT accessed). 

​@aforbesj's hypothesis very closely matches my experience. Most of the time, downloaded music works fine. However, there are times when the app forces you to briefly connect, i.e. turn off "offline mode", in order to continue playing downloaded songs. Otherwise, nothing is playable. IMO, this is a MAJOR user experience (UX for any corporate managers looking for an excuse to get some engineers on this) problem because from the end users perspective there is no indication that the downloaded music is unavailable. It would be far better to clearly communicate to the user when a DRM "check-in" is necessary, as then many of these situations could be avoided proactively. It would also be great to have a "force DRM check-in" button available, that way users could manually refresh the countdown on their downloaded music before travelling. In its current state, I'm about ready to switch platforms because this issue prevents me from accessing the music I PAY MONTHLY ACCESS FOR. I appreciate that these DRM refreshes are likely legally necessary, and that's fine. But to perform them in such a way that obfuscates the state of downloaded music from the user and removes any and all autonomy the user has over their downloaded music is a cut and dry case of terrible app design. Please see my above suggestions for how the UX could be improved. Hopefully someone at Deezer decides to actually do something about this MAJOR UX ISSUE.

Thanks for your feedback ​@cjcn5538 ​@aforbesj, I have forwarded it to the corresponding team who’s investigating and trying to find a fix.
Thanks for your patience

Hi, I'm here just to add another testimoney of this bug. I'm using a Xiaomi mi 10 5g with app in version 9.0.0.4.

I noticed I can't play user created playlists I have downloaded (ones I've created or other users playlists I folllow), but I can play playlists made by Deezer or Albums.

This behavior happens when I enforce the "offline mode" as when I don't activate it, playlists try to load in an infinite loop if I have no connection.

I don't understand how this kind of behavior can happen with basic features we want as premium users. Please focus on making the app usable before making UI personnalisation updates.

This happens on pretty much every music streaming app, not just Deezer. If you open Deezer while you still have Wi-Fi and switch to offline mode before boarding, it usually fixes the problem. The app just needs to verify your subscription before it lets you play your downloads.

If it still doesn’t work, you could try a Deezer downloader like ViWizard to save all 1,600 tracks directly to your device, or use a music transfer tool to move everything to another platform.