Certain local files not available

[Deister]

I have an album of 17 songs, MP3, all work fine with Windows Media Player. 

I added them to my Spotify local files (I'm used to how to do this properly) but only the first two songs can be played through Spotify. The third one is appearantly automatically connected to an mixtape which is available on Spotify but it can't be played. And the songs 4-17 can't be played either, it just says: This song is not available. If you have it on your computer you can import it."

I already removed and added the files as a source but this happens every time. All songs work fine with WMP and Spotify will play the first two songs. But everything after this can't be played. 

What to do?

[Deister]

I guess the program does this because it recognizes song #3 as a Spotify song (same name and artist?) and connects the songs #4-17 to it, but as not available and therefore tells me I might import them if I have them on my computer.

The weird thing is that I can even show the folder destination of the songs. Everything seems fine from my side.

I did not find a similar case by googling so it would be really nice if someone from the support could help me out. Local file management is **bleep** anyways but I really want to be able to listen to my music through Spotify.

[Deister]

Update: If I add the "not available" files to a playlist and make it available offline on my phone they work there flawlessly.

Only desktop application refuses to play them.

[bennybooty]

I'm having the exact same issue!  So annoying how there is always issues with local files. How hard is it to make this work.  Seems like such a basic functionality for a music playing app. Works on my phone but not desktop like OP said.  

Desktop says :  "This song is not available.  If you have the file on your computer you can import it."  

But it is imported via local files playlist I see it in my play list but acts like not a local file.  

[jlco]

I'm running Windows 10 Desktop Spotify app, same problem. All of the local files except for two work. I really want to listen to those files on Spotify. There are 7 other files in the same album/folder that work just fine. Tried unchecking all of the sources, they rechecked themselves upon closing and reopening. Those same songs don't work. Those two and a third other show up twice for some reason as well, and when I unchecked all of the sources, they showed up greyed out on my local files playlist. Only the two that don't work are in a playlist, with a few other songs from the album. This is really weird. And Spotify needs to at least try to solve their customers' problems. It's pathetic to see all of these people suggesting that Spotify help their customers and yet Spotify making no effort to reply.

[foreverloud]

I have the same problem as well. Many local songs do not play properly. I have music which Spotify does not include in their catalogues from main artists; somtimes these play, sometimes not. Songs which my friends write and I include in my playlists refuse to play altogether. I can usually get them to play right after I have added them, then after a reboot, they no longer work. A clean install of Spotify also does nothing. Moving the files/adding a new source also does not work. File plays fine in VLC, iTunes, and Audacity, but cannot play with Spotify. I quite like Spotify despite its shortcomings and dearly hope this can be fixed, or a workaround can be determined. 

[shauncheam · Accepted solution]

I had the same problem - the local files were not playing on my desktop but worked fine when I made it available offline on my phone. 

I cleared the local file cache and now it works perfectly. I found out how to do so here: 'https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Linux-Windows-Web-Player/How-can-i-delete-local-files-from-...'

To clear (Windows):

1. Close Spotify
2. Navigate to "%appdata%\Spotify\Users\" in your file browser.
3. There should be a folder "username-user" - enter the folder.
4. Delete the file named "local-files.bnk"
5. Start Spotify

To clear (Mac):

1. Close Spotify
2. Navigate to "/Users/your_username/Spotify/Users/" in your file browser (where your_username must be changed to your actual user name)
3. There should be a folder "your_spotify_username-user", enter the folder(where your_spotify_username must be changed to your actual Spotify user name)
4. Delete the file named local-files.bnk
5. Start Spotify

Hope this helps!

[MrMaikiu]

OH MY GOD IT WORKED!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!