Local files no longer uploading

[Selbi]

I had a few local songs stored on my Android for quite some time now and I remember the time I uploaded those being rather simple, just as described in the tutorial. When I wanted to upload a few more local songs now I've been shocked to find out it doesn't work anymore, without any apparent reason.

The steps are still followed and I triple checked everything. I add a new source in the Spotify Windows app, add the local files to a playlist, go to my Anrdoid, and select Download on that playlist. The "Downloading..." text appears for about a second before disappearing again.

My apps are all up to date and I'm on the same WiFi network (the same one I uploaded my songs originally to as well). I don't know what to do anymore...

[Mario]

Hey @Selbi,

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community.

Have you also double-checked the source of the files? Asking since they won't be successfully uploaded to (or downloaded for offline listening on) your Spotify unless their source is official.

Regarding your Android device and considering the issue seems to arise when you try to download the new local files for offline listening with it, it'd also be good to double-check you’re allowing the app to run in the background and that you disabled any task-killer, cache-cleaning or battery-saver apps since they might prevent Spotify from running smoothly.

Let us know how it goes once you check. We'll be here to help with this as well as anything else. 

Wishing you a good (and a safe) day!

[Selbi]

Thanks for responding! I'm not sure what you mean by "official source". The songs are all self-ripped MP3s from CDs by artists that unfortunately don't have all their music on Spotify (I like to keep everything in Spotify for convenience).

I wouldn't know if there are any issues with Spotify thinking my MP3s are from illegal sources because I'm not even receiving an error message, it just doesn't do anything. Some of these songs have been uploaded fine before as well (same MP3s) so it makes no sense that NO songs are currently uploading.

My phone doesn't have any task killers and I just double-checked Spotify has all enabled rights. Remember, downloading songs from Spotify itself works without any problems at all, it's just the local files. It's the same phone as before and I've uploaded local songs less than half a year ago.

I just don't get why Spotify insists of uploading local songs in such a convoluted manner, why can't it just play MP3s directly from my local phone storage? 😞

[Selbi]

No more ideas?

[Selbi]

Still looking for a solution.

[Selbi · Accepted solution]

Finally solved this issue... To any poor soul who stumbled upon this thread through Google or something, maybe this also works for you.

Basically, one or more of my Windows Defender Firewalls must've been too aggressive. It was just a random shower thought, but just to test my luck I went to the Windows security settings and tried to see what would happen if I disabled all three of its firewalls:

Then I made sure I had my playlist of local tracks to upgrade ready, made sure my PC and my phone were on the same WiFi, and made sure "download" was selected on the playlist for my phone.

At first, nothing. Songs still refused to download. But then I hard-killed Spotify through the Android task manager and restarted it. And would you look at that! The songs finally, after all these months, were uploaded fine.

I'm still not sure which of the three firewalls was causing this issue (and I didn't tamper with any of the default settings, not knowingly at least). Maybe it was multiple of them, who knows. I'm just glad it finally works again.

Just make sure to enable your firewalls again after you're done, of course.