topic Some of the songs don't sound better, even when I removed local files. in Your Library

Some of the songs don't sound better, even when I removed local files.

12129723678 — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:59:25 GMT

Plan

Free/Premium

Issue

Hi Spotify lovers!

I believe I might have some issues with some of the songs I saved on my Spotify Library. These songs might not sound as normal (I feel like they might sound at a bit less than 128kbps MP3); even though I toggled off Local Files: More than 10 years ago, I downloaded more than 200 or 300 songs to the family PC (Windows), and I put them as Local Files for Spotify; however, these songs sounded at less than 128kbps MP3 - practically bad quality. On that then, as long as I opened Spotify to listen to music, these mentioned songs (Local Files) didn't sound as expected (the same sound in bad quality); meanwhile the non-local files sounded normally (128kbps~320kbps, better quality).

A few years later, I decided to toggle off Local Files: I thought that these 200~300 songs returned to normal sound; notwithstanding, by the time I realised the sound of these songs were still the same as they were Local Files. I truly believe that bad sound was merged on those mentioned songs when they used to be Local Files; I might know that when I turn on Local Files, the sound of these downloaded songs from PC/Mac (in bad quality) would merge on what's included on Spotify

For example, let's see the case of Song A: this mentioned song, before turning into Local File, sounds very good. Once I set Song A into Local File, the sound will radically change forever - bad quality. Once I toggle off Local File, Song A will still sound the same as it used to be a Local File, that is, still in bad quality.

I strongly need more help to find any solutions for this issue.

Re: Some of the songs don't sound better, even when I removed local files.

Ivelina — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 12:04:23 GMT

Hello @12129723678,

Thanks for sharing this on the Community. It sounds like your library might be stuck with these lower quality files.

To try to get your audio back to sounding better, give these troubleshooting steps a shot if you haven't already:

Try removing your local files folder(s) entirely, then re-adding them to force a new scan.
Toggle the "Local Files" setting Off then back On and after this log out > back in twice to trigger a full account resync.
Perform a clean reinstall of Spotify on your PC. This is more thorough than a standard one and clears out old cache data that might be the cause of these bad quality versions.
If possible, add those same files to a different device to see if the playback issue follows the file or stays on the PC.

If the sound quality still seems lower, toggle Off local files completely and ensure your Spotify Audio Quality is set to "Very High". This forces the app to pull the official high-bitrate stream directly from Spotify's servers.

Keep us posted and we remain here in the meantime if anything else comes up 🙂

Re: Some of the songs don't sound better, even when I removed local files.

12129723678 — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 23:42:39 GMT

Hi,

Even when I reinstalled the app, clear old cache data, and toggled off Local Files completely, I still have a feeling that the sound has merged on those former-local files songs on Spotify. Is there any possibilities to double check with a professional? What would you recommend?

Re: Some of the songs don't sound better, even when I removed local files.

Dessi — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 08:13:08 GMT

Hey @12129723678,

Thanks for your reply and for testing!

We can confirm that Spotify doesn't modify the file format of your local files in any way and can't convert them to a lower bitrate than the one they have, but in case you're using an equalizer or volume normalization settings on your phone, those might interfere with the way you perceive them. What we'd suggest is removing these files from your device and re-downloading them again, if possible, as well as checking if they're available in Spotify instead so you can stream them directly.

Hope this clears things up, the Community is always here in case you need any help.