Local flac files do not appear in my library on Linux

[OhHeyItsEvvy]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Desktop PC and Laptop

Operating System

Linux (KDE Neon, with Ubuntu 20.04 base)

Spotify Version

1:1.1.72.439.gc253025e (from the official Spotify public repository)

My Question or Issue

I recently discovered that Spotify has added support for local music in file formats other than mp3, which is awesome, and had me really excited. However, they still weren't showing up in my library, so I did some troubleshooting. I discovered that on my Windows 11 install, Spotify is able to detect my flac files just fine, they show up in my library as they should. However, they do not show up in my library on Linux. I even tried it before and after I reinstalled Linux on my machine, so this is still true even after I did a completely fresh install of Spotify. It is also true across both my desktop PC and my laptop.

Is this a bug, or has the local flac files feature not made it to Linux yet?

[Sebasty]

Hey @OhHeyItsEvvy 

It could be that the Linux Spotify is a few versions behind and thus lacks some of the newest features, including the flac support. 🙂

[evybongers]

That feels strange to me, but if that's indeed the case, I wonder what would be the expected time frame for releasing this feature to Linux? It's been nearly a year since this question was asked, and still this isn't working for me. I would love to finally see this feature come to Linux as well.

[JackyCCC]

It's 2024 and it is still not supported in Linux.

Running 1.2.42.290.g242057a2 installed from FlatHub in Fedora 40.

[redman5087]

I would love support for flac files.

[voiceroy]

Me too

[Exotic0015]

Any updates on this? Spotify desktop still seems to ignore local flac files.

[rooot_]

I reverse engineered the Spotify Linux desktop client; and found out that it explicitly checks for files with the following extensions: .mp3 .m4a .mp4 - the rest seem to be ignored. You can actually change the extension of flac files to .mp3 without converting them, and Spotify will play them just fine - their metadata will not show up though.

[Vogon10]

Please add Linux support for Flac. This is working perfect on windows, mac and android. But Linux is my main machin. Im new on spotify and love it. But this would prevent me to go to a premium account.. Thanks a lot 

[Vogon10]

It would help also to get an official answer of spotyfy that flac is not supported on Linux and not will be. Older posts suggest to install older libavcodeXX version. I would love to get a statement before i spend a lot of time her, as the post of rooot abouve suggests, that there is no flag support. A simple yes / no / or we are working on that.. would be very helpful. The official Statement that "Flac is not supportet by Spotify" is not helpful, as Windows, Mac and Androuid workes like mint. Generally, i love the Client, as it is so easy to install and use and send audio to different devices. That is really perfect easy solution. 

Thank you alot!

[rooot_]

The Linux client can handle flac files, but *only* if you rename them to .mp3, .m4a or .mp4 - they'll play fine, but metadata (title, artist, album info and cover art) won't show up, making it impossible to have them in a playlist with other devices.

They'd very likely just need to enable support for .flacs when compiling the client, which would allow .flac files to pass the "supported file" check and then have the correct extension to have their metadata read properly.

From Spotify's side, this would be a simple thing to implement.

[zicstardust]

It's 2025 and it is still not supported in Linux.

Running 1.2.63.394.g126b0d89 installed from FlatHub in Fedora 42.

[Vogon10]

Still no progress on that! It is simple to solve! More and more user has Linux as main system and you just do not care about a simple fix for YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Vogon10]

I will not acept, i like your service, but I easily can live without spotify if you just not are willing to implemen basic support. You are such a huge company, the price what i cost s you to implement this is nothing. I not agree with your behavior here. Sorry when my words get a bit mor clear. 

[rooot_]

slightly unrelated to the thread; but I have switched away from Spotify in favor of TIDAL.

they don't have local files support at all as of right now (and don't even have official Linux support, but tidal-hifi works great!), but with Spotify completely ignoring their customers for years, while also cramming AI generated slop everywhere into their service, laying off employees and replacing them with AI to save money, all while barely paying artists, and then also having the audacity to increase subscription prices, ultimately pushed me away indefinitely.

I now listen to the music I bought and own as local files using other music players separately from TIDAL, and that approach works fine for me and is a trade-off I am willing to make to not support a company like Spotify anymore.

To anyone in this thread waiting, I hope that Spotify does allow FLAC on Linux soon, but I can't say that I have very high hopes.

[no4b]

Spotify on Linux supports FLAC. Lossless works if you have recent client.

tidal-hifi sucks because it resamples everything to 48 kHz.