Spotify to fix a bug in desktop app causing massive data writes that could reduce SSD lifespan

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Spotify’s desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux has been found to be continuously writing massive amounts of data to local storage for no apparent reason—even when the app is simply sitting idle. As noted in Spotify’s support forum, on Reddit and elsewhere, users are seeing the desktop app write tens of gigabytes of data to local storage every minute or so. On systems outfitted with SSDs like most Macs, excessive data writes can reduce the lifetime of flash storage.

That’s because SSDs have a finite amount of write capacity and are prone to wear and tear. A Spotify spokesperson told ArsTechnica that a fix was underway via an update that’s being rolled out as we speak.

ArsTechnica was able to confirm that the problem has existed for almost five months.

“Reports of tens or in some cases hundreds of gigabytes being written in an hour aren’t uncommon, and occasionally the recorded amounts are measured in terabytes,” the publication wrote, adding that the overload happens even when Spotify is idle and isn’t storing any songs locally.

As mentioned, such an assault on users’ storage devices with massive amounts of data writes could potentially “take years off the expected lifespans” of SSDs. Regardless of whether your Mac has a spinning hard drive or solid state storage (SSD), you’re advised to stop using the desktop Spotify app until the problem has been resolved.

The Swedish company is aware of the bug and has patched it in Spotify for desktop version 1.0.42, which it said was rolling out to all users. In the meantime, you can use Spotify’s mobile app and the web interface without issues.

To see how much data the app’s written out to your Mac’s storage, launch the Activity Monitor app from your /Applications/Utilities/ folder and click the Disk tab.

Source: ArsTechnica