Xbox Music App on WP 8.1 Burning through Data?

[WPCentral Question]

I have the latest version of the xbox music app, have a lumia 928 with developer preview running 8.1, I have several playlists saved to the phone, with all the songs saved to the phone so that they won't be streamed and use up data while driving, but they the app is using a large quantity of data still when open and playing through bluetooth in the car. Any ideas?

 

[fz1man]

I just updated my Lumia 920 to 8.1 and now have the same problem. This is freaking ridiculous! I have been using Xbox musicpass since it came out and it never worked across devices as it claims. Now this stupid step backwards and I just might finally switch to another type of phone. I don't care about the music data that's getting downloaded without me wanting it, I just want to listen to my music. Fix this Microsoft!!!!!! I can't even listen to the music I pay you for!!!

 

[ShinraCorp]

Since you said all of your songs are in your phone it wouldn't be a "cloud" thing. The only other thing it downloads is album arts and info but that's only a few kilobytes. So I'm not entirely sure what could cause that.

 

[ChanceW]

I have recently noticed similar data usage by Xbox music on my 1020 running 8.1. The app seems to be using almost the same, if not identical, amounts of data playing locally downloaded songs as it does when streaming songs. What's more is that I can't play my downloaded music at all without a wifi or cellular data connection. This is an extremely frustrating step backwards in functionality without a logical explanation behind it.

 

[ChanceW]

So I have been trying to figure out this issue, and I've come across something very interesting. It turns out only certain downloaded songs use this large amount of data and are unable to be played off line. After opening the contents of my phone on file explorer, I found that all of these songs don't actually exist on my device. So even though I downloaded the song through the app and it shows as being downloaded in my collection, it isn't actually downloaded and has to be streamed when played. Another great example of the quality of the Xbox music windows phone app. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[fz1man]

What a bunch of garbage!! I paid good money for many renewals of Xbox music pass and wp81 undownloads some songs? I don't have a big data plan and I use my phone for music play alot, but NOT with 8.1. Why can't MS take Xbox Music seriously and make the app do what they claim it does... play unlimited downloads across all user platforms. Not even close!!! Please tell me there's an update in the works.

 

[CJ Thunder]

I have recently noticed similar data usage by Xbox music on my 1020 running 8.1. The app seems to be using almost the same, if not identical, amounts of data playing locally downloaded songs as it does when streaming songs. What's more is that I can't play my downloaded music at all without a wifi or cellular data connection. This is an extremely frustrating step backwards in functionality without a logical explanation behind it.

This is stupid and happening to me as well...

And it seems shuffle gives me the same 300 songs out of my 1100... So much grrrrr.

But yes data is about the same when looking through data sense, about 300mb cell and wifi, when it should be 0!!!

 

[ChanceW]

So I managed to find a solution to this problem! It appears removing any traces of the songs on my phone and re downloading them did the trick. I had to use the app itself to delete all of the songs off my phone. I thought this would also erase them from my cloud collection but I think it helped that I have a synced playlist with all of the music I keep on my phone. Immediately after, my phone started to re download all of the songs from the playlist and now I can play any music offline and without data usage!

 

[fz1man]

Chancew you may be a genius. I just tried your delete and redownload method and I think it actually worked! I was about ready to trash my wp. Thanks! Do you happen to have a fix for getting all my downloaded music to sync across all my windows platforms? I download on one and it doesn't show up on the others. Hers's your chance, Chance.

 

[ChanceW]

Well you're welcome fz1man, I'm glad to hear this worked for you too. As for your other problem, I can't really offer any specific advice besides the obvious ones like ensuring this setting is enabled on all devices and possibly trying to log out and back in again. I had the same problem once but it eventually worked itself it. Best of luck with your troubleshooting efforts!