The Spotify desktop application could be bombarding your hard drive with data. This is due to a bug which writes masses of unnecessary data to your hard drive. Spotify already has a bug fix rolling out to users, but in the meantime, it may be worth shutting down Spotify.

Users have reported the Spotify app being responsible for creating hundreds of gigabytes worth of data in a single day. The bug appears to persist even when the Spotify app is idle, meaning you don't even have to be streaming any music for this to be an issue.

This bug affects the Spotify desktop application on Windows, Mac, and Linux. However, neither the Spotify Web Player or the mobile apps on Android and iOS appear to be affected. The bug has only recently come to light, but has probably been affecting users since at least June 2016.

At best this bug will be putting unnecessary strain on your system resources, which would be especially felt by people using low-end machines. At worst this bug could be shortening the lifespan of your hard drive, especially if you're using a Solid State Drive (SSD).

Spotify Rolls Out a Bug Fix

After Ars Technica publicized this issue, Spotify issued a statement saying:

"We've seen some questions in our community around the amount of written data using the Spotify client on desktop. These have been reviewed and any potential concerns have now been addressed in version 1.0.42, currently rolling out to all users."

Unfortunately, new versions of Spotify tend to roll out slowly, so it may be a while until you can update your desktop app.

Shut Down, Workaround, or Carry on Regardless

If Spotify was ignoring this issue, or refusing to fix it, then we'd be recommending you try one of the workarounds detailed on the Spotify Community forums. But you should probably only go down that route if you actively enjoy tinkering with your computer in order to squash bugs.

As Spotify is already rolling out an update which fixes this issue, our advice is to sit tight and wait. If you feel uncomfortable using Spotify until the patch arrives, just shut the program down and your hard drive will be protected from this unique form of torture.

Do you use the Spotify desktop application? Have you noticed it acting up recently? Have you been able to update to Spotify v1.0.42 yet? If not, are you going to try one of the workarounds or just wait until the update arrives? Please let us know in the comments below!

Image Credit: Michael Fötsch via Flickr