Certain local files won't play in queue

[EXMIL]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

Samsung Galaxy S21 / Lenovo Yoga 7i

Operating System

Android 11 / Windows 11

My Question or Issue

Some of my local files do not function properly on my Samsung Galaxy. These local files work perfectly fine on my Lenovo laptop, but they have some strange issues on my phone. The problematic local files have the faded text of an unavailable file, but they still have the green download arrow that indicates a successfully downloaded local file. If I tap directly on one of the problematic files on my phone, the song will play normally; however, the problematic files will be skipped over like an unavailable file when listening through the playlist. I have tried taking the problematic files out of my imports folder, putting them back in, and redownloading them, but nothing changed.

It may be worth noting that this has only affected local files by Big Black, who had their entire discography pulled from Spotify in March. I legally downloaded their two albums (Atomizer and Songs about **bleep**ing) as MP3s from Touch and Go Records' website using codes that came with the vinyl records I purchased. 

[Yordan]

Hi @EXMIL!

Is it always the same files that are greyed out? Something you can try out is setting the app on your phone to Offline Mode > Force Stopping the app (from your phone's settings > Apps), then opening the app again and disabling offline mode. Repeat this process twice since it triggers an internal refresh that may cause the tracks to appear normal.

In case the issue persists, try the following:

1. On your phone, clear the app's cache and data by heading to Settings > Apps > Spotify, then reboot your phone.
2. Once it boots back up, open Spotify (make sure it's opened on your PC as well), log in and download the playlist with the local tracks again.

Let us know how it goes.

[BeanTime]

I have the same issue, except my files are also stored locally on my Android device (also an S21) When imported at first they all play as expected, but over the course of a couple weeks they will one by one in a random order display the attached message: 

 

and then become greyed out and exhibit the same behavior as the original poster's. This has happened with all of my local songs, from every artist and even with legitimately obtained music or mp3 files I recorded myself. They are also stored on a linked windows PC in my case.

[BeanTime]

After deleting downloaded songs (on Spotify's side, not the mp3s), the files did reset and stopped being greyed out, but then immediately one of them failed again, and I have to assume that the other tracks will follow soon. 

I can't express how annoyed I am that Spotify somehow found a way to break local song playback. The song is on my local device and can be played but still gets skipped when playing from a playlist. 

[Far-Kayra]

Heyo!,i had a similar issue going on for a while!

i got a samsung s23 and had this issue back on my s20,but now i did find a solution!,go to your phones storage and find your downloaded files,you should be able to rename em,but make sure to keep the ".mp3" in the name,otherwise the file gets corrupted and doesnt work anymore

if the song gets greyed again,rename it again!.

also tip,make the rename silly and absurd but still reconizable to you,the more silly the less likely it is to get greyed out again in my experience

i hope i was i able to help!