Local Files won't play on mobile

[DrewN34]

Recently, I've made a playlist on Spotify based from my local files. I'm able to play this playlist on my computer perfectly, but when I try to listen to it on my Samsung S6 phone, it won't play at all and won't allow me to sync as all of the songs are grey. What happened? I really want to play my local files playlist on my phone!

[Daniel · Accepted solution]

Please read the support topic here for assistance setting up local file sync: Listen to local files

Make sure that you are on the same WiFi network and Windows & third party firewalls are configured to allow the Spotify connection through.

Another point to note is that sometimes if a track is stored locally & is also available to stream then when you sync to your device it will automatically use the Spotify streaming version but the data from your playlist. If for some reason the metadata such as track length differs this can cause conflict and break the track. In this instance you are best off removing the local file from your playlist on the desktop and adding the track from the Spotify server then re-sync. This should fix this issue.

[Racer32]

This solution doesn't completely solve the issue. I purchased Beyonce's Lemonade on Apple Music/iTunes. I then added the tracks as local files to Spotify on my Mac. I synced the songs to Spotify on my iPhone 7. I attemped to download them on the mobile. They all show a green arrow indicating they have been download but the titles are greyed  out. I then added created a playlist on my mac spotify with those songs and attempted to download them with only two downloading. I confirmed that my Mac and Mobile are on the same WIFI network. 

[nicholasula]

I'm facing that same problem and it irritates me to no end.

I understand Lemonade was exclusively released for Tidal at first. But it just doesn't make sense for those who purchased the Lemonade album, we're simply playing our local file... Spotify should really fix this, whether it's a bug or not.

[stephenie3]

So is anyone going to keep replying to these issues??! I have been searching like a mad woman what the problem could be. My Itunes is the latest version, Macbook is compatible version, and desktop spotify app is lateset update as well as the mobile app on my Samsung 7. There seems to be NO solution!

I can play these songs on my desktop spotify app and my Itunes perfectly fine but once it comes to the mobile app they are greyed out and cannot be played. I cannot download quicktime because it is ALREADY INSTALLED on my macbook. I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO! I'm supposed to be able to listen to all my music in one app, right? Well I have not been able to. All songs that I am trying to import are mp3 compatible. Also some of these songs I am adding will definitely not be in the spotify database (some are from mixtapes the artist dropped or friends who do music). So I am extremely disappointed that I cannot include all my music. I will have to reconsider the monthly payment because I don't want to have to go on my laptop just to listen to certain songs. 

[lharmsen08]

I selected the folder through preferences->folder.

Then, my music came up in the "local files" folder. I moved my songs to my playlist and downloaded the album on my computer, and then opened the app on my phone, and swiped "download" on the playlist. At first, it did not upload, so I closed the app, and when I reopened, it was downloading the files from my computer. 

Hope this helps, 

    Lola 🙂

[Rhiannonsj]

Restarting all apps (desktop and mobile) fixed this for me - they synced once I reopened the apps.