Local Files Won't Sync from PC

[jaydicine]

 

I'm trying to sync a Local file from my PC to my phone as the song just got taken off spotify so I purchased it and downloaded it. I've gotten local files to work many times in the past but I've been through many ISPs since then and different spotify versions.

I added the song to a playlist that only contains that song and selected download on both my phone and PC but it won't download on my phone. 

 

The song plays perfectly fine on my PC and on my phone, I can see that the song is playing properly on the computer. However, I can't see the album cover as I can on the PC. When put in a playlist, the song is greyed out and where the green downloaded arrow should be, is a grey exclamation mark with a circle.

If I try to switch to my phone while it's playing on my computer, it stops playing and the now playing bar on my phone disappears.

Album art loads fine, song plays and is detected.

Greyed out on phone, no album cover

Shown as playing on desktop, with correct timestamp, but still no album cover.

 

I've done almost everything that's said to make local files sync such as:

- connected to the same network 

- both apps updated

- windows network set to private

- disabling windows firewall

- logging in/out of both accounts

- being logged in on the same account

- not being offline

- having space on my phone

- not reached maximum download numbers

It seems like the last option is opening a hotspot on my phone and connecting my computer to it. This seemed to work for a lot of people but it doesn't for me. When doing this, I also made sure the network was private on windows and I turned off my firewall just to be sure. Still doesn't work.

The one thing I haven't done is turn on UPNP in my router, as my router doesn't support it. I wonder if I might have to port forward something manually.

This still wouldn't explain why the hotspot doesn't work as it seems like that should work independent of all the other fixes. 

If anyone knows how to get around not having UPNP or the problem with my hotspot, it would be greatly appreciated.

Any info as to why I can't get local files to work and if there's any other things I should check with my wifi or hotspot would be very helpful.

Thanks,  

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Huawei P9 and Acer Predator PC

Operating System

Android and Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Unable to sync Local Files

[Xenia]

Hey there @jaydicine,

Welcome to the Community - We're here to help!

We can see you went through a lot of troubleshooting on your end already. No worries - sometimes it can take a few tries for this to work. 

First off, there's no need to download the playlist on your computer to sync it to your phone. From the screenshots you shared we can see that the song hasn't been downloaded successfully on your phone. Do you mind trying one more time, making sure you have the app open on both devices and in focus?

We'd also recommend checking if your phone appears in the Connect picker on your computer and vice-versa before you start the download. It's also important you're not using a VPN on either device.

Hope this helps - Let us know how you get on.

[jaydicine]

I have checked that both devices do show up on eachothers connect list. Neither device uses a VPN. I tried it again with both apps open and but it still won't work. 

I also tried it with the hotspot again, but turning on download with cellular on my phone, thinking it would make a difference but that didn't work either. 

Just to check, I borrowed my sister's iPhone XR to see if it would work with her phone on her account. She logged into her account on my computer and I created a playlist and after turning on local files in her settings, she was able to get it to download on her phone.

I thought this meant the issue was with the Android app but I remembered my mom has a Nexus 6P and so I did the same thing with her phone and her account and it worked instantly with no issues.

All the settings on mine, my sister's and my mom's accounts on the Desktop app and the mobile app were the same so my Spotify account settings were not the problem.

I highly doubt my Spotify account is glitched and so I feel like this just means my phone is the problem and not anything to do with Spotify, Android, settings or the network connections. I'm not sure if there's anything else I can do but get a new phone (My phone is pretty broken already so hopefully that day comes soon) 

On the plus side, the song that originally dissapeared from Spotify is now back on spotify after being gone for a few days so getting this specific local file to work is kinda redundant at this point and not really worth the hassle now.

I would obviously still like to get local files to work just in case I have any other local files in the future. If you think there's anything else I can do, please do let me know but I don't think it's really worth it now considering it's probably an internal issue with my phone and that the song is back on Spotify.

Thank you for trying to help though!

[CarlosE · Accepted solution]

Hey @jaydicine,

Thanks for trying that and for sharing all that info.

We're glad to know that the song is back in Spotify's catalogue so you can keep listening to it in the app.

This issue with the Local files could be related to your phone since it works properly with other phones and the same PC, and under the same connection and setup. You could try logging in to a different account, like your sister's or mom's, on your Android phone and sync the Local file to see how it works. That would help us understand if it's indeed a device or maybe an account-related issue.

If you'd like to import Local files again in the future and have issues, don't hesitate to reach out to the Community again.

Have a good one 🙂

[jaydicine]

Yeah If I need local files again I'll definitely consider figuring out if my account is the issue or my device.

I'll just leave this as it is for now.

Thanks for the help and have a good day!