(Desktop) Playback issues with local files

[Maria]

We're receiving reports of users experiencing playback issues with local files. This seems to happen specifically on the desktop app, where playback stops at 0 seconds after every song.

[Maria]

Hey guys, 

I've tried out a temporary fix mentioned before and thought I would share it here:

This was mentioned before but I thought I would elaborate with a step by step guide - the 'corrupted' audio files will have a sample rate of 48000, when you want it to be 44100. You can check what the sample rate is by right clicking your file and looking at properties, under 'Details' it will say "Audio Sample Rate" with a number. If it's 48000, write it down because you'll need to change it.

Open up the Audacity software and dump in your corrupted audio files, then immediately hit export (you don't have to do anything yet!) Before you export it will show a couple options on how to export (mp3, mp4, etc) - ignore everything except for the "Sample Rate" section, and select 44100 in the dropdown. 

The file should now work. 
It sucks that we have to resort to these methods but I hope this helps at least a couple people.

Good luck, 
Bloodtraitor

[Deuseph]

I tried both things, but in safe mode with networking Spotify almost immediately crashed everytime I wanted to open it and I changed the location of the local files to another drive but the problem remains, so I'm going to send you the additional info:

• At this moment I use Spotify for Windows (64 bits) 1.2.65.255.g85e641b4 
• I don't remember exactly if it was exactly after a Windows update, I have update my OS 3 times in one week and on the week it started to happen, so there is a chance one of them may be causing the issue.
• This happens over WiFi, not only on my house's, but I have tried on another one from another place and the problem also happens there, so I don't think the internet I'm using is the problem.
• I should also note that this doesn't happen always, I have thinking it might happen exclusively to some mp3s but I have checked that the mp3s from a same "album" (which some of them have been downloaded from different places and have been modiffied its details like album name and song cover more or less manually by me, which I think in some way it could affect) have been failing, so it means that it doesn't depend on that and instead could be another thing that's causing the issue. I'm still listing the "albums" in which this happens to completely confirm this.

I don't know still what could cause something like this, I hope its just and update because I have seen that some people have this problem and then it stops ocurring, but I hope it can be a way to know what could be causing this. 

[rim_]

I also want to mention that this is happening to me too. It only started after the latest update to 1.2.65.255.g85e641b4 (Windows 10 64bit)
I've tried running Spotify in offline mode, reinstalling it, turning off crossfade and nothing has worked.
Local songs will just be stuck at 0:00 when going to the next song...

This issue has never happened to me prior to this update. So I strongly believe something has gone wrong in this update and I'm hoping it gets fixed soon as I'm having to use a different program to listen to my local files.

[Deuseph]

Hi Vasil, I've tried all of the things you've said and the problem remains. I don't consider the problem is something about the mp3s, because then this problem could have occurred before, but I have been using local files for 3 years and until now this started to happen. If I can do something else I am checking the thread actively.

[Deuseph]

I want to comment that what @zijon said is totally correct, putting a track that's on Spotify's system between two local file songs makes this error not appear for some reason. Maybe the problem could be an error with the program on Windows (because on iOS this hasn't happened to me this week) wanting to play one local file song and then another one of those. 

[nebsterww]

did you ever find out what the reason was? im having the same issue and its really annoying me out

[Deuseph]

Hi nebsterww, no one here has said anything else and I haven't figured it out because I don't know what else to try for now. I still think the problem is with the actual Windows's Spotify version of the app, so what you can do for the moment is to always put a song that's on Spotify's system between two local file songs if they are in the queue, that is the current solution to this because it does work all the time for some reason. I don't know why or how does the problem could relate to this, it has to be a problem with the program's current playback logic that's causing the issue but I think that matter is more of something for a Spotify programmer that needs to investigate the issue's origin and fix it rather than a customer who doesn't need to try and fix a product they're paying for every month. 
Even so, if something else occurs and/or think about any solution I am going to comment it here like I've had, but for now sticking to the current "solution" I've told is what you can do.
(I would really appreciate if someone from the moderators, if they can, could say something or contact Spotify's team so they can investigate the issue if anybode hasn't done it yet because the issue probably cannot be fully fixed with any normal solution that I could do.)

[Deuseph]

Hi, I also want to enter this topic because I also have the issue and understand why Szaszkee could think that the issue could bee the mp3s because of where its downloaded or transformed, but I have tested for some days with many of the mp3s that I have which come from different websites or have other details that "could affect", but I consider that the issue happens from the program itself rather than the mp3s that we are using. I say this because this issue can be partially fixed if in the queue you put a song that's on Spotify's system between two consecutive local file songs, doing that makes the issue to never happen as long as you always have a "normal" song between two from local files and confirms that the issue is not from the mp3s because you can hear them without the pausing if you do this process.

This issue started (at least for me) since the version before the one thats the curent version right now which is Spotify for Windows (64 bits) 1.2.65.255.g85e641b4 and I have tried many things which I have told on another post in Spotify Community (Local files stuck at 0:00) so if you want to ask anything that could be useful please consider what I have tried and if you're a moderator please try to contact an Spotify employee who could investigate this issue because more than one person has this issue and the best solution someone from Spotify's support has given to someone else has been to create a new account with one free month of Premium which doesn't sound very good as a complete solution. 

[Bloodtraitor]

I have a local playlist loaded on spotify with ~30 files. When I play them all (with shuffle and repeat on), when one song ends, the next song does not start.

When this issue is happening and I click play/pause, the song will not start, and will only start when I move the slider to anything above 00:01. 

This is really annoying because I have to keep tabbing back in to spotify to start my next song when I want it to play automatically in the background while working.

Any ideas?

[tabonnemokspot]

started having this issue since a week ago and it's incredibly annoying. How is the spotify PC experience getting worse every month? Absolutely useless. I do not pay for this awful experience

[croacx]

have this issue since the same update that Deuseph mentioned aswell. strongly believe it's a bug with that version, since i've been listening to this playlist with mixed local and normal files for months without issues. still tried all the "fixes" mentioned in this thread but no success. i hope spotify dev team looks into this so it can be resolved with the next update, because it is extremely annoying always having to manually start songs again