Hey there folks,
Thanks for posting in the Community and sorry for the late response, as I just come across this thread.
Not really sure if both your issues are connected, so I'd give you individual advises Hope they can help.
The original user here might need to switch to Listen offline mode first, to instruct the app that it's supposed to use the cached info. If this doesn't help then it could mean that the cached info is corrupted or it was simply not saved completely when downloading. To remedy for that I suggest to try a clean reinstall of the app, as this is more thorough than the normal one and ensures that no cached data will cause interference with the new installation. Keep in mind that this will also wipe out the cached info about the offline playlists, so they'd need to be downloaded a new after the reinstallation.
As for @venicebeach6 , this behavior could be due to how your device's notifications options are set in the iOS on board. I've found something similar in the Apple Community here, that could possibly be of help. If this doesn't help, then I can suggest you to also try a clean reinstall (steps linked above). See if any of these two make a difference for you.
Hope something here helps and does the trick for you both - reach out if you need more help!