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Spotify could soon fix a major storage issue that users have complained about for years
Sep 23, 2026 — 5:22 AM ET
- We’ve spotted Spotify working on a dedicated “Cache Limit” feature in its Android app that will let users cap how much storage the app cache uses.
- The feature will warn users that smaller limits increase data usage and affect playback, and will recommend a default cache size to balance performance.
- Setting a cache limit will only affect temporary files without affecting user-downloaded music or podcasts.
Spotify has been slowly but steadily addressing some of the pain points of its overall music streaming experience. Last week, the company announced that users will be able to separate kids’ and family music from recommendations, which is a welcome change for everyone’s yearly recap. We’ve now spotted Spotify working on a dedicated “Cache Limit” feature for its Android app that will let users cap the amount of local storage used by temporary files.
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Currently, Spotify caches music streams, podcasts, and album art to ensure smooth playback and reduce mobile data usage when replaying tracks. However, this caching mechanism operates largely unchecked and outside user control. While Spotify keeps a separate storage pool for user-initiated offline downloads, the temporary cache often balloons to several gigabytes over time, which can fill up your phone storage (a scenario that is worsened by rising RAM and storage prices, which is making higher-storage phone variants very expensive).
Users can manually clear the cache in Spotify Settings > Data saving & offline > Clear cache to free up some storage, but this is a manual step that can get annoying fast if you’re frequently filling up your phone storage. Users have been complaining about this behavior in the Spotify Community and on Reddit for almost a decade at this point.
Within Spotify for Android v9.1.88.815, we’ve found code that suggests that Spotify is finally working on a “Cache Limit” feature to stop the app from hogging your storage indiscriminately.
<string name="settings_item_cache_limit_title">Cache limit</string>
<string name="settings_item_cache_limit_description">Manage how much space Spotify uses for cached content.</string>
<string name="settings_item_cache_limit_up_to_gb">Up to %1$s GB</string>The strings indicate that the app will have a dedicated sub-menu where users will be able to set a hard limit for storage used for cached content.
<string name="settings_item_cache_limit_min_warning">A small cache may affect playback and increase data usage.</string>
<string name="settings_item_cache_limit_reassurance_cache">A larger cache means smoother playback and less data usage.</string>
<string name="settings_item_cache_limit_recommended">Spotify recommended</string>When setting the limit, Spotify will provide a prompt explaining the trade-offs of your choice. If you set the limit too low, the app will warn: “A small cache may affect playback and increase data usage.” Conversely, it will note that “A larger cache means smoother playback and less data usage.” The app will also include a “Spotify recommended” default limit.
<string name="settings_storage_delete_cache_limit_dialog_title">Set a cache limit instead?</string>
<string name="settings_storage_delete_cache_limit_dialog_text">Clearing your cache can temporarily affect your playback experience and increase data consumption. A cache limit manages storage automatically instead.</string>When the feature rolls out, Spotify will prompt users to set a limit when they clear their cache.
<string name="settings_item_cache_limit_reassurance_downloads">Your downloads are safe. Changing this never deletes music or podcasts you’ve downloaded.</string>The strings explicitly state that the cache limit will not affect your downloaded music and podcasts, so that users won’t panic unnecessarily.
The Cache Limit feature is not yet live on Spotify, nor has the company announced the feature. Given its utility, we hope to see Spotify roll it out soon. The feature will likely be available on the beta branch for testing before making its way to the stable branch.
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