Local files on my android greyed out and skipped in playlists, but can still be played otherwise?

[AndOr47]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

Samsung Galaxy S10e, HP ENVY x360 Convertible 15m=dr0xxx

Operating System

Android 11, Windows 10

My Question or Issue

A couple songs which come from my local files are skipped over in playlists and I can't figure out why or how to fix them. They're shown as greyed out in playlists yet if i directly play one it plays just fine. The only issue is that when I go from song to song in a playlist, they're skipped over and can't be played even if I skip back. I've already tried deleting their files, redownloading them and putting them back into the same playlists but nothing has worked. Both are from albums and each song from the two albums were downloaded in the same places so I'm not sure why only two songs of them all can't be played.

[AndOr47]

Hey folks,

Sounds like you were syncing your local files from your PC to your phone (i.e. you're downloading a playlist that has local files on the PC and syncing them over to your phone). Spotify did some changes to the way local files are discovered a few months ago, so some issues with the sync may occur occassionally (or the sync may not work at all) for some users.

Something that's worth trying out is uploading the same files (and not downloading them directly from Spotify) you have on your PC to your phone's storage so that they're physically present on the device and toggle on Show local audio files in the app's Settings - the app should recognize them now.

Note that some file formats (such as .flacs) may still not be discovered by the app. It's recommended you use 320kbps .mp3s.

In case you run into other issues you can try a clean reinstall of the app on your phone and repeat the aforementioned process.

Cheers!

[ValakiHUN]

I had to clean up the local synced files on my phone first, because the previous downloads could mess up the naming. Like if there's a song named "example" and spotify had to download it again, then the second copy would become "example (1)". Maybe that's causing an issue for spotify during identifying the files.

[mynamemow2]

you can tell they really care about solving this issue because my post was moved into a post for a completely different problem. a song can be unavailable and still not be played. if apple music wasnt an EVEN BIGGER pos than spotify id swap over

[kalaazar]

i have pin pointed what's causing this issue, Spotify is actually detecting if the song has "names or artists" which are exclusive to Spotify and local files meaning that they were downloaded from illegitimate means, yt converts or Spotify rippers. 

The Solution is very simple just edit the file name and song name for example if the song name is Sleep (name) by ABC (artist) then change it to $leep by @bc or something and it should stop greying out after than. yes you need to change both the file name and the metadata if any.

[mobilehypo]

None of mine are named anything remotely like what they are of and they
still get killed. These are legit files of CDs that I OWN. It shouldn't be
happening because that's a legal means of listening to music that isn't on
Spotify.

[ColbySwell]

I have strongly been considering switching to YouTube Music because of all of this. It keeps happening and I'm tired of the chore associated with fixing all the music and local files I legally own. With the amount of money I give to spotify I could probably buy am actual CD and REALLY OWN my music on a budget of one per month. 12 new albums a year is not bad, especially when using YouTube Music alongside it. It comes bundled with premium, so I didn't even realize what I had. I don't love Google's ethics as a company, but it just comes down to the degrading service of Spotify. They want you to stream everything. You lose your music when they don't find value in the licenses, which is basically why we can't find certain albums on there anyway.

And then there's albums which are not streamed or re-released anyhere but physically, like Death Grips' "Exmilitary", etc... I think it's time to jump ship soon, to be real. Unless spotify gets rid of the arbitrary playlist limit and fixes up the local files issue, it's going to be native music players and YouTube Music for me within a couple of months. This is maddening for a service I've effectively paid over 500 dollars to. It won't get better until people stop putting up with being treated like suckers by losers in suits.

[bakari7]

The problems still exist after a clean reinstall. The only temporary option is to close out the app, make a copy of the greyed out track, paste it in a folder that does not hold the original track, & reopen the app.

[ChrisAhlund]

1. Spotify suggested to re-download all of the local files but this time as MP4's. Has anyone tried that?

[heckypants]

I'll try that and I'll let you all know.

[Chrimmin]

The work around ive been using is everytime a file gets greyed out, just change the location of the file in your file explorer on your phone and itll be ungreyed until the bug happens again, a minor inconvenience but a sacrifice im willin to make for unreleased bangers

[FarDaft]

I have the local files turned on and everything on Spotify allowed but it’s still not showing up in my library

[Brian987]

This is complete**bleep**.  So the answer to a bug, instead of Spotify researching the issue and correcting it, is to tell users to start over from scratch.  Sure, that's convenient.  Or, allow me to offer an alternative, Spotify fixes the **bleep**ing issue.