Local Files not appearing on Android

[ilios]

Plan: Premium

Country: Australia

Device: Pixel 5

Operating System: Android 13

Spotify Version: 8.7.74.443

My Question or Issue

I'm having issues getting Spotify to detect local files on my phone. The 'Local Files' folder is appearing in Spotify, but the folder is empty. The exact same audio files work fine when on desktop.

I've tried all the basic troubleshooting including updating the app, clearing the cache, reinstalling app, restarting phone, moving the audio files to different locations. Nothing has worked to get Spotify to detect the local files. 

Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to resolve this!

[OscarDC]

Hey @ilios,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

The new option to "discover" the local files stored on your device will add all the audio files found on the device to the Local files playlist. First, make sure that the option "Show audio files from this device" is toggled on in your app settings.

If so, and the issue persists, toggle the option off and back in to see if it makes any difference. Also, if you have an SD card inserted on your device, we'd recommend removing it while doing the process.

Lastly, we understand you’ve already tried some troubleshooting steps including reinstalling, but to be sure that we're on the same page - did you use the steps for a clean reinstall mentioned in this article?  

Let us know how it goes.

[rwmitch · Accepted solution]

I had this same issue and just fixed it today on my Pixel 6.

If you go into Spotify's permissions in Android settings, make sure that the 'Photos and videos' permission is allowed and that should then work.

With Android 13 permission settings were changed and it seems Spotify hasn't been updated to work with it yet.

[ilios]

@rwmitch Thanks so much! This resolved the issue immediately

[rwmitch]

No problem.

@OscarDC can you see if your technical team know that this can be an issue on Android 13 please, as it's not particularly intuitive to solve.

[Lyubka]

Hey there folks,

We appreciate you taking the time to report this and share your feedback with us.

We'll make sure to pass it onto the right team and we'll work on improving the functionality together with Android, as Spotify constantly strives to refine the user experience.

If you have any questions or need anything else, the Community is here for you.

Cheers!

[vanessatamora]

Thank you so much for posting this! I went through so many articles including clearing caches, clean uninstalling and re-installing on both my Android Samsung S22, Android version 13 with no luck.  Then, after probably 2 hours, I found this article and it was the dang permissions like you said.  I was just about to give up and cancel so hopefully Spotify will fix this soon for other people.

[marcel_mg]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

Google Pixel 9 Pro 

Operating System

Android 16

My Question or Issue

Hi everyone,

I'm having an issue with local files on Spotify with my new Google Pixel 9 Pro. On my previous phone, a Huawei P30 Pro, I had no issues adding local MP3 files to my Spotify playlists. After switching phones, I transferred all my files exactly as they were, and I enabled the "local files" option in Spotify. However, Spotify now shows zero files found. I've tried multiple folders, clearing the cache, reinstalling the app, restarting the Phone, and ensuring all permissions are granted, but nothing works.

It seems like this might be related either to the latest Spotify version or some compatibility issue with the Pixel 9 Pro. On my old phone, these files worked perfectly. Has anyone else experienced this, or does anyone have a solution?

Thanks in advance!

[Kylekoo]

I have same issue and have used multiple versions. I think its a feature they kept around but never implemented for newer Android systems 

[Dessi]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out!

We recommend making sure Spotify is allowed all permissions in your device's settings, including "Photos and videos". In case you meant not being able to sync local files across devices on the same network by downloading the playlist directly, we can confirm this is now a legacy feature which may no longer work as intended. In this case it's crucial to have the files physically stored on the device you want to play them on.

Hope this clears things up.

[marcel_mg]

My Spotify issue is now finally solved.

The Problem was, that its no more possible, that you can choose the Libary Folder, so Spotify scans ALL Music Files (also WhatsApp Audio) ... Thatswhy it needs to "Buffer" a long time ... After a few Days, the complete offline Libary was spawned in my Account 😂