Local files not syncing to iphone

[Commander1]

I'm a Spotify Premium user, and I have a playlist with a number of local files on it. These are on my computer, and then I synced them over to my iphone (SE). For months, this had been working fine, but all of a sudden, everything on my iphone undownloaded, just showing greyed out. I tried turning on and off wifi, deleting and reinstalling the app, restarting both my phone and my computer, but nothing worked. I also tried turning off and then back on the local files option on both my computer and phone, and undownloading and redownloading on the computer, but I'm still stumped.

[hotmilk]

Update: this issue has been fixed on my side... Kinda false alarm. Surely don't want this to happen again.

[Commander1]

this has now been fixed, thanks spotify! it also fixed in the process another issue i'd been having frequently with local files, which i wrote about here: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Your-Library/Local-files-undownloading-on-iphone/td-p/5991400
i'm definitely happy that it's fixed now, although it was a bit annoying that it took this long to get there when i wasnt the first person to be raising the alarm either

but yeah thanks again spotify team i appreciate you guys

[captain_kabuki]

what was the fix? this is still happening to me. I also have an iPhone SE. I can get any old local files to play, but anything new isn't working. Theyre all MP3s so I know it's not the file.

[Commander1]

its happening to me again too

[Commander1]

Spotify I don't know why it was working for like two weeks and now it isn't again but it's a little bit annoying for the fix for this to be so temporary

[Joan]

Hi there folks,

Thanks for the replies.

As previously explained in this thread, the sync of local files is being deprecated and thus we cannot guarantee this functionality. The expected way to play local files on mobile at the moment is to import the files themselves onto the device in question. 

If you insist on still using the old sync method while it still works, consider trying the steps shown in this thread, they appear to help make it work for now.

Hope this helps.

[Gee-Arr]

That explanation makes sense. To those replying to this thread who say it works intermittently for them, or those who assume it is fixed, I advise you learn the new method that requires the source files to be on your phone. I don't like it either but it seems it will be the only option.

[hotmilk]

Can confirm this fix only works for like 2 weeks, now this issue is happening again.

The temporary solution is copying every source file to the device, which impacts the user experience badly (annoying).
The question is, who is deprecating this feature?

The local sync was working before and barely took any bandwidth from Spotify. It was such a good feature when the listener's favorite songs weren't included in their subscription region and you could add them to playlists without duplicated efforts.
Please!! Spotify, fix this issue, make it work again  😿

[Gee-Arr]

There's nothing to fix. Copying source files to the device was not described as a temporary solution. Moving forward, that is only method to listen local files on your devices. The reason WI-FI syncing may intermittently still work for some is because they are depreciating that feature. By "depreciating" I don't know whether that means they are slowly intentionally disabling it or they are not updating it, causing it not to work.

[Commander1]

What I don’t understand is why, if they have a perfectly workable feature
that large numbers of people use, they’re deprecating it in the first
place. Why not just keep it in use? The local files system is one of the
biggest reasons I got Spotify in the first place, so if they really are
deprecating it without any ways to replace it that aren’t ridiculously
time-intensive, I’m probably going to end up switching to another platform.

[Gee-Arr]

The new process is confusing and their steps to do it are are very poorly written. I did it two weeks ago but can't figure out how to do it again. I no longer see the Spotify folder in iTunes.

[hotmilk]

Is it possible that Spotify users upvote for this function, telling them not to deprecate it?

[hotmilk]

Happily... it's working again!
Praying for Spotify team to keep it !!

[gottakazoo]

Hi Aleja - this still didn't work for me.

I'm running 8.9.82 on an iPhone 15. I've reinstalled Spotify on my mac and my iPhone, I've downloaded the files to the device, and I've tried downloading the playlist as well. None of this has worked for me.

[boria]

What worked for me was to add the local files to a downloaded playlist. Otherwise, it wouldn't work

[BeOliver]

Whenever I make a playlist with songs from my PC which I download from my Iphone the songs cannot be played from the Iphone. I have made sure that I am logged into the same account, the filepath is correct, the songs can be played from the PC, logged out all my devices, restarted spotify multiple times and cleared cache as well as reinstalled the apps. However, the problem persists.

The only error I see from my phone is an alert that shows on my Iphone which says "Song Not Downloaded, If you own the song, you can sync it from your computer. Cancel / Learn more" whenever I click on learn more nothing happens. Please help Spotify...

[GarfieldGamer24]

I have an issue with local files, this has never happened before. I have a /music folder on my windows synced to spotify and usually transfer via USB to iTunes. The tracks do appear in my local files, and usually sync up with the windows equivalent in my playlits. However, today, whilst transfering two tracks over to my iPhone, they appeared in Local Files, iTunes, but would not sync up to my playlists. I have no clue what the issue could be.

Plan

Premium

Country

Device

iPhone 12 Pro, Windows 11 

Operating System

Windows 11, Latest iOS (idk)

[Blue_Meanie]

I seem to have found a workaround, although it shouldn't really need it. On a laptop/PC create a new playlist, add all of your local files into it. On your phone, download that playlist and now you should have all of your local files on your phone.

[mrbreadcrumb]

For those users getting mp3s from sources such as YouTube, I found the most consistent success with deleting the existing mp3, redownloading the mp3 from the source, and then transferring it over. I assume making more and more changes to a file increases the chance of it not syncing as intended to another device - in my case I made a lot of changes with mp3tag - but I've had a 100% success rate with redownloading the file, retagging it, and transferring it, while having file continuity between computer and phone.

[deborahmomof2]

Hi all,

I’m having a serious issue with Spotify's local file sync and have already gone through multiple support agents and specialty advisors with no resolution.

Here’s what’s happening:

• I have 270 MP3s stored on my computer. These are AI-generated songs using my own lyrics — correctly encoded and playable.

• A few days ago, 234 of them synced successfully to my iPhone and played fine.

• Then they suddenly disappeared. Now, none of them will sync. Every song shows up in the playlist on my iPhone but is grayed out with the message "Song not downloaded."

• My iPhone shows up under “Devices Available” on desktop Spotify.

• All 270 songs play perfectly on desktop Spotify.

• My iPad still syncs and plays 197 of the same files.

I’ve done everything:

• Re-encoded files using Audacity (constant bitrate .mp3)

• Recreated playlists

• Cleared cache

• Reinstalled Spotify on iPhone and desktop

• Disabled Norton firewall and VPN

• Reset network settings on iPhone

• Tried syncing a single test file in a fresh playlist

Nothing works. This isn’t a file formatting issue — it’s a sync failure on one device (my iPhone) that started without warning. The sync used to work, and the same setup still works on iPad.

I’m requesting this be escalated to the Spotify technical or development team. This appears to be a bug, not a user error. I just want to be able to listen to my original music on my own phone — something that was working until something changed this morning.

Thanks in advance for any help or insight you can provide.