Play "local files" on my mobile device

[politzer]

What's the easiest way to be able to play "local files" that reside on my desktop device on my mobile? After bringing them in to the desktop Spotify client as a playlist I'm able to play them there, and the playlist appears on my mobile client, but the songs are grayed out and say "the track is unavailable".

Thanks

[licenced]

You need to synchronize that playlist to your mobile.

Start Spotify on both your desktop and on your phone, with the phone on wifi on the same network as the PC. If there are no network issues your phone will appear under the Devices section in the desktop app - from there you can choose which playlists to sync.

D

[omglolbah]

I've done this but find that whenever the app has updated, or sometimes even when rebooting my phone I lose all synced 'local file' tracks.

This is highly annoying as I cannot sync them back while at work or while traveling (which I do for work...).

One would think not deleting local tracks would be a fairly simple thing to get working.

[politzer]

I synced the playlist that i wanted, songs that aren't on Spotify but on my C drive, and it automatically downloaded them to the device. That's not really what i wanted, although it gets me part of the way there.

Is there a way to play the songs on the device without downloading?

[omglolbah]

You cannot stream 'local files' type tracks.

You also cannot play files on your SD card any more.

Sadly a lot of features are going poof it seems 😞

[gavinsend]

Yeh it won't sync local files under the latest version of Android. 

It's not that it doesnt actually sync it, but on the phone on android. There is no option for local files. 

It doesn't come up. Tho it is on the computer Spotify app. 

The only way to do it, is to make a playlist. Drag everything from local files into the playlist. Then sync. 

You can even click offline mode for what its worth. Obviously its already on the computer as its local files. 

It seems files that are not on Spotify are faded out. It is very inconsistent about it. But none the less you can play everything. 

Once you have it all on your new shiny playlist. Sync it to the phone. And just sync that playlist which just has local files. 

There is no way to work out the bitrate of the files on the spotify app for Andoid, so I can see the kbps. So I know if it is a local version or what the sound quality is either. Anyway you can sync local files only through making a playlist. 

The problem lies in the Spotify app. It has the option to click sync local files. And it actually does it, but this is useless as there is no way to search or play these files unless they are in a playlist on the latest Android App. And because it isn't in a playlist you cannot play it. 

So yeh Make playlist. Copy Local Files into Playlist. Sync Android Phone with that Playlist. You can now play local files. 

[gavinsend]

Just tried this on iPod touch and it is working. As there is a Local Files folder. It actually shows one. 

Using the same archive. 

The latest Android software is basically the problem. 

[Afront]

The Spotify webpage Local Music Files (https://www.spotify.com/us/about/local-music/) states:

Listening on your mobile
With Spotify Premium, your MP3 collection can also be enjoyed on your phone. All you need is a Spotify-friendly mobile.

Syncing local files by WiFi
If you have Spotify Premium and you want to sync your MP3s from your computer to your phone, just connect your mobile to the same network as your desktop computer. Now add your MP3s to a Spotify playlist, then open Spotify on your mobile to sync them for your offline pleasure.

This still seems to be true with the new Android version, provided "your MP3 collection" originates on your computer and you import it into Spotify there first.

[amburnikole]

wtf? this is one of the main reasons i have spotify. guess ill be cancelling. I was wondering if it was just me not being able to see my local files or have the local files from my computer sync to my phone. grr..that makes me very unappy

[politzer]

From what you are suggesting it appears that you may only be able to play synced songs on the mobile device if you are still on the same WiFi network as the desktop, but if you leave it, you can only play them if they are downloaded to the device storage space.

Again, I don't want to download. I have thousands of songs on my harddrive that i'd like to play from the Spotify client on the mobile device. I thought it would support that without having to save them to the device.

Please clarify

[politzer]

And, to further clarify my concern, when i followed the sync instructions above, the software automatically started downloading (I only chose a small playlist), and gave me no options. So those songs are now showing as a playlist under  "downloaded" on the Playlists menu. With green downloaded arrows next to them - obviously indicating that they now sit in storage.

[licenced]

@politzer - yes this is how spotify works. You cannot play files that sit on your PC hard drive through the Spotify mobile client even if you are on the same network. There's no difference here between the and the old app app

[omglolbah]

The difference for me at least is that the app refuses to sync anything to my phone.

I had a bunch of tracks synced and they worked once. Then later that day they all went 'grey' and now I am unable to download that playlist over WIFI.

There is no error message that I can find, and there seems to be no way to actually figure out what the issue is?

Bad interface >.<

[boukjeh]

I have the same problem, I have my the local files I want on my phone in a playlist. On my phone the listed is marked offline, however it does not sync my local files :S before with the old app it was able to play these songs, they're in mp3 format so nothing to indicate it shoudn't work. Any one else have this specific problem, cause I don't mind spotify downloading the local files and all if it would just play my local files..

Either the new andriod app has some huge bugs or spotify is going a different way, in the last case spotify has lost a client because this is not what I signed up for.. 

[myplanet]

The problem is the firewall see this:

http://community.spotify.com/t5/Mobile-Android/Local-files-won-t-sync-with-Android-Phone/td-p/54821

In Windows 7, I went to Start -> Allow a program through Windows Firewall -> Spotify

Make sure there is a checkbox for the Home/Work (Private) network. That did it for me (I have the Android Galaxy Nexus GSM), I was able to see the new playlist with local files download to my phone.

[maritiny]

Same problem for me. But I accidentally pressed "uppdate info from gracenote" on one song and then it just appeared in my android "galaxy S2" . It's playable now 🙂 If that doesnt solve it, right click the track, press "edit info" clear everything but keep "artist" and "title"

[paeblits]

What I did is put the local music (desktop) into a playlist. Then on your mobile device you will see the playlist you just created with the local files, but the files will look greyed out. Just click "available offline" and right away the files will sync and are playable. No need to be on the same WIFI network (or any WIFI for that matter).

[luisjarman]

What was happening to me was that I could sync my local files from the desktop to the phone but couldn't see them anywhere to be able to actually play them. 

Answer was to drag them into a synchronized playlist from the PC.

But there should be an option to see local files that are synchronized from the phone, as if they were a playlist themselves.

[andyhurtt]

It may have been stated but, I got it to work on my GS4. As above I added the files on my computer to a playlist and on my GS4 went to the playlist which was greyed out. There's a download button to press and there you go. So far so good.

[Joniator]

So you want that Spotify save your MP3s on their Server for you to stream them to your mobile?

If 50000 people add 150/200 Songs, around 1 GB, spotify should get 50 TB free for this service.
Bjt i dont think your thousands of MP3s only have 1GB at allSo if everyone of the 50000 would Upload 2000 MP3s, they need 500 TB?