topic IOS local files not working in iOS (iPhone, iPad)

IOS local files not working

TheChuckleChief — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 08:09:31 GMT

despite all my effort i cannot get my local files to work anymore. i have the songs in the spotify folder in my files just for them to not be there on the app. i’ve tried turning on and off my local files, reinstalling, changing the file extension from .wav to .mp3 and even .m4a

i didn’t have this problem up until today. last time i did this all i did was drop the song in the folder and it worked.

i only have a phone so i can’t do the iTunes method so any non PC solutions would be greatly appreciated

Re: IOS local files not working

Dessi — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 09:04:30 GMT

Hi there @TheChuckleChief,

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the Spotify Community!

Since this started happening recently, did you by any chance add a new batch of songs before it did or made any changes? Also, are these files downloaded on your device or are they in some sort of a storage app like Google Drive or iCloud?

You mentioned reinstalling the app, but we'd also recommend going for a clean reinstall to make sure any damaged cache will be removed. Apart from that, can you make sure you've allowed access to Media & Apple Music as described here and repeat the process of enabling local files and removing them from the Spotify folder and re-adding them?

Keep us posted.

Re: IOS local files not working

TheChuckleChief — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 09:34:30 GMT

both files that i added were completely local to my device and not in the cloud. also tried the clean reinstall to no avail

Re: IOS local files not working

Dessi — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 10:30:06 GMT

Hey @TheChuckleChief,

Thanks for the quick reply and for testing this out!

Did you also check if Spotify is allowed access to Media & Apple Music? You can do that in your device's Settings > Privacy & Security. It's really crucial for the files to show up and work properly.

Can you try removing these two files you mentioned to see if that makes a difference? Were they downloaded from the same place as the previous ones, which you were able to play?

Let us know how it goes.

my local downloads won’t work and i’ve tried everything.

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 00:08:51 GMT

My local downloads on spotify won’t work and i have literally tried everything. I’ve enabled local data. I’ve enabled everything in iphone settings. I’ve cleared the cache. I made sure the files are in the spotify file correctly in the files app. I made sure they were mp3. I restarted spotify. I restarted my phone. I uninstalled and reinstalled spotify. Nothing will work.