[Desktop] Not all Local Files are playable

[Deweks]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Desktop

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

For years now local files have been finicky. I have a folder of roughly 2.3k playable mp3 files that I route to Spotify as my local files. I only see 2,072 songs in Spotify, and I have compiled a playlist of the greyed-out songs in Spotify to monitor this problem. I have tried the solutions previously posted in the forum i.e. Deleting the local files index in %AppData%, uninstalling Spotify completely (including registry information), copying and pasting the files to a new location, converting all of my mp3 files to a uniform 192 Bitrate, using the same local files through a different desktop, changing titles of songs with foreign characters, creating exceptions in my antivirus and firewall.

So far, I haven't found any discernable pattern between the 2k functional songs and the other 200, there are some old files that don't work and some new files that don't work. Titles range from English to Chinese and Japanese characters. I have files ranging in duration from 0:30 to 4:30:00, there is no consistency in which files do and don't work. I don't know what else to do short of doing a fresh install of Windows. Are there any solutions I am overlooking here? If the mp3 files are playable I don't see why Spotify would have issues importing them.

[Deweks]

Hi there @Deweks,

Thanks for the question.

Certain bitrates or masters of mp3 files might not be supported if they're downloaded from unofficial sources like video converters etc. What you can do is to try exporting those song which are not working in different bitrates, even though we don't recommend using songs that are not legally downloaded.

Another thing that might be preventing some files from being properly uploaded and steamtable might be your internet connection, as some routers block certain protocols which Spotify needs in order to upload files. Try deleting the grayed out files from the app. After that create a mobile hotspot and connect both your computer and phone to that. Have both apps open while reuploading the files. 

Note: Make sure the file names don't contain any special characters or letters outside of the standard English alphabet.

Hope you find this info useful.

[AwesomeSF]

same here! i can't find anything in common between the songs that still work and the ones that don't. even with the last 2 songs i downloaded, a day away from each other, one of them works perfectly fine and the other just doesn't at all. and it's not like i did anything in particular right before it happened, it just happened out of nowhere! hope y'all fix it fast, i'd hate to lose half my downloaded songs for no reason.

[anthog21]

Same for me, the desktop app only shows 5070 files (out of 6145).

I downgraded to an earlier version (1.1.39.612), and the missing files showed up !

But, I had to restart my computer this morning, and the Spotify app upgraded itself to the latest version (1.1.46.916). And now, it only shows 5070 files......... I really don't understand. Is there a way to disable auto-update ??

[Deweks]

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/Stopping-Auto-update/td-p/4785101
I might just try this and use an older stable Spotify client.

[Deweks]

This is apparently not possible, as the Spotify installer draws the files from Spotify's Live Server which only keeps the most recent version(s).

[Elena]

Hey folks!

Thanks for posting about this.

We suggest keeping the app updated to its latest version to ensure optimal performance. It's well worth running a clean reinstall by following these steps and make sure to download the app again from the Microsoft Store.

Also, take a look at the steps and recommendations you'll find in this Spotify Answer about Local Files.

Keep us posted on how it goes 🙂

[boehijt]

Hi! I have been having the exact same issue recently. I would appreciate it if Elena or some other team member could provide an actual substantive solution to this pesky issue rather than copypasting a meaningless message with tips that every single person would have already tried.

"Thanks for posting about this :)" - ugh.

[Xenia]

Hey all,

Sorry to hear the app is causing you trouble with your local files. No worries, we're here to help!

A clean reinstall is always a good choice to start with. Just a heads-up, this will remove all your downloads and you'll have to download everything again for offline listening. 

If this doesn't already do the trick, we recommend deleting your local files cache following the steps in this thread and then move the songs you want to be imported to a different folder on your computer and add that folder as a source for your local files in the app settings, as described here.

Note: If the local files that don't show up in the desktop app have special characters (Non-ASCII) in their name, it's likely to be related to this ongoing issue - in which case we suggest subscribing to that thread so that you'll be notified as soon as it gets resolved.

Hope this helps! Let us know how you get on.

[Deweks]

Hello, I have tried clearing the cache and doing a clean install on 2 different computers with the same result. I also tried removing the special characters from some song titles to see if that was the cause, however, there are songs with plain English that still receive the same problem in local files.

How does Spotify interpret imported mp3 files? As in, what are the requirements for an mp3 to function fully in Spotify? I think there may be something stopping Spotify from recognizing the songs because of maybe title data or something of that nature. I'm not sure how much crossover there is from the moderators and the devs for the desktop platform, but the programmers might have an idea why the file isn't reading properly.

[Jeremy]

Hey there @Deweks,

Thank you for your reply.

Can you make sure that the file isn't DRM (Digital Rights Management) protected Note: If the you have iTunes, you can check for DRM protected tracks by following these steps.

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Cheers!

[Deweks]

The files should not be DRM protected, they are mostly converted youtube videos to mp3. The majority of these files work, they are all processed through the same converter

[Ver]

Hey @Deweks,

Thanks for keeping us posted 🙂

In this case it is possible that the files are not supported. It's a good idea to check this article for more information about which files or downloads are permitted.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'll be happy to help.
 

[Deweks]

The files are all unprotected mp3 format so they should be fine. Do you guys have any information on why an mp3 might not play?

[Alex]

Hi there @Deweks,

Thanks for the question.

Certain bitrates or masters of mp3 files might not be supported if they're downloaded from unofficial sources like video converters etc. What you can do is to try exporting those song which are not working in different bitrates, even though we don't recommend using songs that are not legally downloaded.

Another thing that might be preventing some files from being properly uploaded and steamtable might be your internet connection, as some routers block certain protocols which Spotify needs in order to upload files. Try deleting the grayed out files from the app. After that create a mobile hotspot and connect both your computer and phone to that. Have both apps open while reuploading the files. 

Note: Make sure the file names don't contain any special characters or letters outside of the standard English alphabet.

Hope you find this info useful.

[Deweks]

I considered the bitrate issue and tried converting everything to 192 kbps, the same songs have the same issues. Songs are all obtained legally, drm should not be a factor. Would I need an internet connection to load local files to spotify desktop? That seems unintuitive, but it makes me curious. If I run my computer without ethernet connected and load the local files, is the problem still there? I tested this and found something strange. The songs now appear in local files, but in the playlist of broken local songs, only some appear playable. I would have to manually go to local files and search for the song of the same title. The data is the same, the location is the same, but for some reason spotify lost access to the reference of these files. I will copy over these songs manually now, and see if there are any missing afterwards.

[Alex]

Hi there @Deweks,

Thanks for keeping us posted.

It's better if you have an internet connection while uploading local files on your PC, because the app would try to sync these up with the servers, so local files become available on your other devices like Mobile.

Let us know how it goes 🙂

[kiboy6]

All my 1000+ local files, including some with non english character filenames,  are showing up in the lastest Spotify version.

However, local files no longer show up in search results. This is extremely annoying. I do hope it is an accidental bug with the new desktop (and Android too i think!?) version and will soon be fixed. 

[anthog21]

After the latest update (v. 1.1.47.684), I now have 5536 files showing up (out of 6145). I still miss 609 files... Some of these files have accented characters (I'm French), some don't.

[luxwing]

Don't know if you got it working in the end, but I had the same issue with music I had bought off bandcamp. I ended up having to make an entirely new folder, moving all the music I wanted to play in spotify to that one folder, then telling spotify to only play local files from that folder.

Still took it almost an hour to finally add the local files into the application but at least they were finally playable. Don't know why that worked but maybe it will work for anyone else having this issue.

[Ver]

Hey folks,

Thanks for posting here in the Community 🙂

@kiboy6 Can you send us a screenshot of the Spotify version that you have on your device? We'll also need more information about the issue. Then we can investigate this further.

What happens when you try searching for the local files? Do you get an error message?

@anthog21 We'd suggest to give the steps @Xenia mentioned a go. Are there any changes?

@Deweks We were not able to find a pattern for songs that are not supported. Considering the non-uniform nature of how local files are created there will probably always be some that will not be playable in Spotify. We however cannot assist with songs that have been downloaded and converted from video platforms, as that is not a legitimate acquisition method.
 

Keep us posted! If you have questions, you know where to find us If you have questions, you know where to find us.