Why Does Spotify Use So Much Storage?

Spotify showcasing my odd music taste

Spotify caches music on-the-fly so it can load it faster when you start listening. If you've got a fast and stable internet connection, though, you don't really need it to cache so much data.

I actually discovered this while going through my SSD using WizTree, a really helpful little application that shows you which files and folders are using the most space on your drives. It only takes a few seconds to scan, too!

I got a 128gb SSD a month ago and I've already filled it up.

I have a problem.

— Sam 🔗 (@samisoffIine) July 11, 2020

How to Lower Spotify Cache Size

Lowering the amount of space Spotify uses is actually more difficult than it should be, but it only takes a few minutes to do.

The Steps

1. Open C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Packages\Spotify[...]\LocalState\Spotify\prefs in a code editor like VS Code or Notepad++ - the Spotify[...] directory has a very long, weird name, but there will only be one of them
2. Add the following to a new line: storage.size=512 - this limits the cache size to 512MB, or half a gigabyte. You can adjust as needed
3. Exit Spotify, and wait about 30 seconds for it to fully close
4. Delete the folder C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Packages\Spotify[...]\LocalCache\Spotify\Data - Spotify will recreate it next time it's launched
5. Open Spotify and thank me on Twitter <3

Thank you for reading! If you're interested, I've also written a post about finding free stock images for your website/blog/social media/anything else, and another about Windows 10's hidden emoji picker.

Also - why not follow me on Twitter? I've started posting again after a long break.