Spotify promises fix for Mac glitch causing excessive writes on hard disks & SSDs
Spotify is currently rolling out a patch for a major bug, which can -- at least in some cases -- cause its desktop apps to write tens or hundreds of gigabytes to a hard disk or SSD in the space of an hour, according to an official spokesperson.
"We've seen some questions in our community around the amount of written data using the Spotify client on desktop," the person told Ars Technica. "These have been reviewed and any potential concerns have now been addressed in version 1.0.42, currently rolling out to all users."
The glitch has reportedly been in the Mac, Windows, and Linux versions of the app since at least June though, and can affect a machine even when the app is idle and not caching any music locally. Leaving the software open for over a day can generate up to 700 gigabytes of activity, Ars noted.
While the issue might not be immediately noticeable on unpatched systems, it could cause serious problems for people running Spotify on SSDs, which can only write so many times before they cease to work. The Mac Pro and all of Apple's modern MacBooks use SSDs, and the technology is an option on iMacs.
A dedicated desktop client has been one of Spotify's smaller advantages over Apple Music, which is mostly mobile-oriented and can only be reached on Mac and Windows systems through iTunes -- software burdened with several other tasks. Spotify also has mobile apps and a desktop Web interface.
"We've seen some questions in our community around the amount of written data using the Spotify client on desktop," the person told Ars Technica. "These have been reviewed and any potential concerns have now been addressed in version 1.0.42, currently rolling out to all users."
The glitch has reportedly been in the Mac, Windows, and Linux versions of the app since at least June though, and can affect a machine even when the app is idle and not caching any music locally. Leaving the software open for over a day can generate up to 700 gigabytes of activity, Ars noted.
While the issue might not be immediately noticeable on unpatched systems, it could cause serious problems for people running Spotify on SSDs, which can only write so many times before they cease to work. The Mac Pro and all of Apple's modern MacBooks use SSDs, and the technology is an option on iMacs.
A dedicated desktop client has been one of Spotify's smaller advantages over Apple Music, which is mostly mobile-oriented and can only be reached on Mac and Windows systems through iTunes -- software burdened with several other tasks. Spotify also has mobile apps and a desktop Web interface.
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Don't know where you are in the world but in the U.K. Spotify is the main streaming service.
Apple Music is a laughable joke here, along with Apple Maps.
The service is slow compared to Spotify and the UI is absolute rubbish.
Still some work to be done by Apple on this. Trhey know and have made things better in iOS 10 but thy are still way off
Doesn't excuse the mistake. But everyone makes them in software. Apple is not unscathed in this area.
Oh - and I also use both Apple and Google Maps in the U.K. and much prefer the interface and turn-by-turn directions of Apple's. Had a horrendous experience with Google Maps sending me down a ridiculous series of back streets to save time and actually adding about half an hour to my journey. I'd call that a joke it it weren't so unfunny.
I was at craft show a few weeks back. Got back to the car park (actually a field) and the phone had pinned the spot on the map where I'd parked the car. Nice touch; I hadn't even asked.