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!

[Ej5s]

Sad to see no new replies after a while.

I'm certain of this issue even more so now though because of something new. When I go to play a song that is not a local file, sometimes it will randomly skip it and I will have to click it again. I think it is trying to grey it out like a local file but cannot. I would guess this only happens with downloaded music although, as I have not seen it in any other instance. Again the support is appreciated and I really hope this can get resolved soon as it's quite a pain.

[JSStaedtler]

I've experienced this for at least a year on three different Androids: Galaxy S9+, Pixel 4a 5G, and currently a Pixel 6a (I retired the first phone, and then lost the 2nd phone.  Ugh).  On each phone I would directly copy MP3 files to local storage (I wasn't even aware there was syncing from a computer?  That's actually pretty cool).  Then I would painstakingly create a new playlist from all of those files.  I'd be happy for a few weeks, then individual songs would start getting skipped.  When I check the playlist, the song is greyed out.  I can tap on it from there and listen to it right away, but it never comes up while listening to the playlist.

I can't get a cleaner install than completely replacing the affected phone *twice*, yet random individual tracks just start dropping like flies.  Is there any possible way we can further troubleshoot this, like enabling a debug mode, or pulling something from logcat?  And can anyone just tell us if this is some anti-piracy measure without dancing around the subject?  If not, and this issue is honestly unknown to Spotify devs, there are a bunch of us here who would love to help dig in further, without having to repeat the boilerplate troubleshooting script every 1-2 months.

[Sunfear123]

Try going to YouTube copy the link of the video and got to a YouTube video Downloader and downloaded them and look for them in you'r Google drive and click on 1 and put always open with spotify and It worked for me hope this helps

[jennydeath]

Hi Eni,

Yes, the problem still occurs randomly. I thought an update fixed it but what really fixes it is opening Spotify on the desktop where the files are downloaded. Sometimes playing the song on the computer is necessary to trigger it to stop being greyed out, which was the case today. It's as if it's in constant need of syncing, which defeats the purpose of downloading files for offline use.

Phone: Galaxy A50, SM-A505FN/DS

Spotify: 8.8.44.527 

One UI: 3.1

Android: 11

[Ej5s]

It seems to me that there has been some more replies from others in the community, even spanning to Pixel Phones. This is making me think it may be a bit broader of an issue than just Samsung phones. I think at this point there is significant evidence of a true problem here. I truly hope this issue gets investigated further and eventually fixed, as this is the only major problem I've had with Spotify and I really hope it can get fixed eventually. 

Again, please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

[Ej5s]

In addition to all this stuff, All my cover arts for the local files don't appear correctly. Spotify seems to like to associate a singular cover art with an artist (or artist combo) and only use that cover art instead of the unique art for each song. I would create a new topic but I cannot find it in this website.

These issues need to be taken seriously otherwise I will need to find a more long-term solution because this is a pain in the ass plain and simple.

[Francesco10]

This keeps happening on my Samsung A52s as well, I wish it was fixed

[Stronter]

I'll add that I also have this issue with a brand new S23 ultra. Files downloaded locally to my phone. One by one they start getting grayed out in a playlist and it skips them, but I can still play them by manually pressing them. 

[Francesco10]

So the files are actually stored on your phone? Then even the suggestion I got on the other thread won't work 😞

[Francesco10]

I did test with files on my phone and it keeps happening. It's so annoying. Can you try to fix it? None of the suggestions work long term it will just happen again.

[mobilehypo]

Happening here, too. Samsung Note 22 Ultra+. I wish you'd just come out and tell us it's a copyright thing. I have two songs that are remixes of popular songs that local artist did and they ALWAYS get greyed out. Another song is a song only available in Korea and it always falls prey to this "bug".

So come on, Spotify, be honest here. This HAS to be related to scanning these files for copyright issues. There's no other explanation for the same files to always fall prey. It's really maddening that you have control over what's local to my phone. 

[Francesco10]

I have read some older threads, and decided to try setting the app to have unrestricted battery access. So far it hasn't happened again. Will update on what happens

[Ej5s]

Hey Eni,

Reaching out again as I feel we now have enough "confirmed cases" to confirm this as an issue. Is there a next step that can be taken to have this issue more properly addressed and/or maybe pass this along for fixing ect?

[Francesco10]

Even making spotify have unrestricted battery didnt help. Today the local file wasnt even skipping playlists, I couldn't play it even when clicking on it. It said spotify cant play this right now its not available on this device. Its saved on my phone storage. The only workaround I found is to turn local files off and on from the app and it will work again, till next time but its quite annoying. It seems like spotify cant find this file but if its in storage how come? A fix would be gladly appreciated.

[mobilehypo]

Same here. This is driving me nuts. I am tired of having to remake playlists etc. 

[Tb2k]

I'm also having the same problem, however I do not have the time of day to delete  the amount of files I have, how do I solve this without a clean install?

[Tb2k]

Look, I'm having the same issues, but I have over 100 local files and over 700 downloads from Spotify, I am not willing to do a fresh install, and this has been reoccurring, current model is a Pixel 6 version 12.

[ColbySwell]

Make: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

Model No.: SM-S908U

Android Version: 13

One UI Version: 5.1

Software Version: 8.8.80.599 (Updated Oct 17, 2023)

This issue has been frustrating me for some time. I have had to do full uninstalls, not just cache clears, several times. I have removed all data and redownloaded songs at least 5 times over the course of 3 months as I've imported my local computer files to my phone. I suspected it was something dodgy with the way the downloads were batched, so I imported all my music into a .rar file and unpacked it all natively on my phone. Even with my computer and my phone carrying literally the same exact files, spotify has issues recognizing local files it hasn't yet loaded for play. The automatic response from the software is to mark songs that don't play upon queue as "unplayable", and then not even a full second later, you can tap on the song and it works like a charm. It's frustrating because there's no "re-try" or "re-load" feature, either. Once it's marked grey, its unable to be naturally queued in your playlists. I have had spotify for a very long time, and I have been subscribing to premium since I was in freshman year of high school. I'm now 24 years old, and it seems that feature bloat has been the focus for spotify. Smart shuffle also destroys local playlists. Literally, turning on smart shuffle (unavoidable if you're trying to turn shuffle off), completely wipes playlists of all local tracks. 

TLDR, I have the same problem as these fine folks, and its irritating that after supporting spotify for nearly a decade of my life financially and vocally, that the official response to genuinely poorly designed software is "just uninstall reinstall bro lol, you just have to remake all your playlists with local files". That's probablt fine if you only have a local album or two, but I have several albums, all with their own playlists because spotify does not recognize local albums, and yet we're still treating the program like it's the next big social platform. I just want a music player that doesn't blow chunks. I am heavily considering switching to Fubar and just buying all my music. At this point, it would have been cheaper, and I would own the music outright. Please, please, please prioritize stability before more garbage features like 'smart shuffle' get kicked out the door by airheaded execs who just want to increase the number of streams for already popular artists.

... oh yeah, and also, thanks for your time.

[Ej5s]

Yeah they truly don't **bleep** about this. No reply from anyone that will do anything, what a garbage support system**bleep** has been happening for years and they don't care.

[JustNyland]

Did the samsung bug get fixed? Or do we have a workaround? I am experiencing the same issues Ej5s was pointing out.