Google Play Music - downloading tracks not working any more?

[Android Central Question]

The last few months I have been downloading music online, then using Google Music Manager to get the songs/files into my Google Play Music library on my laptop. Then I would download the songs to the SD card I have in my Android phone, so I can listen while on the move. It had been working brilliantly. Last week I downloaded 2 new albums and despite trying everything (clear cache, select/deselecting 'stream only on wifi', select/deselecting 'download only on wifi'), the downloads either failed or just sat on 0% indefinitely until I cancelled the download.

So I uninstalled and reinstalled the app, but still no luck. To make matters worse, the albums I had downloaded to the SD card over the last few months no longer seem to be showing as downloaded either, meaning I cannot listen to these ones on the move unless I have a mobile data connection. My assumption was that if I downloaded the albums to the SD card, they would remain downloaded to the SD card, but apparently not?

So I now have 2 separate issues. Does anyone have any solutions to either of them? Thanks.

 

[hallux]

I just tried on my Pixel 2 XL (which has no SD card so it's not exactly the same as whatever device you have, you don't say) and had no trouble caching a couple additional albums for offline playback. So, nothing changed as far as I can tell. Do other functions work on WiFi?

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[Yost72]

Thanks. I have a Samsung Galaxy J6. I am not really looking to cache for offline playback. I am trying to download the music so they are stored on my sd card. I had done that before without issue but now this isn't working. Also, as mentioned, when I uninstalled/reinstalled the app, the music I had 'downloaded' to the sd card before had now disappeared (which I assumed wasn't possible unless I deleted it?)

 

[hallux]

I am not really looking to cache for offline playback

When you choose "download" for an album or song you are effectively caching the music for offline playback. When you removed the app it's very possible any data it had downloaded (including that cache) was deleted. If you truly want the songs downloaded to your phone, plug it into your computer and just copy them over.

 

[Yost72]

OK, so the 'download' to my SD card is not really a proper download. In that case, I will do as you suggest and copy and paste the recent albums so they are there permanently, and will do the same in future. Doesn't explain why the download option isn't working for me any more but at least it is a way of resolving the issue! Cheers.

 

[Yost72]

I'm just having a nightmare with this now. Any new music added which isn't already stored on my SD card gets an error message - 'music temporarily available. no space available'. I've got 30GB left on my SD card so I don't know what's going on. As it stands I can only listen to my most recent downloads using the web browser or on my iPad, and have no way of listening to these songs on the move. Are there any solutions or do I need to look at finding a new app to use?