Local files manually moved from PC to phone do not appear in my playlist

[jnrdzk]

Through Spotify support, I have recently discovered that the synchronization of songs from PC to phone is now a legacy feature. So I started moving the downloaded songs I have in local files on my PC to my phone.

Most of the songs were transferred without an issue, but some of the songs did not appear in my playlists on my phone after the manual move. Or rather appeared, but they are greyed out with a message "Spotify can't play this right now" and that the tracks are not available.

When in fact, I do have them downloaded on my device, and they appear in the local files on my phone just fine, they just cannot be played in the playlists they are added to. 

I can add them from the local files to the playlists again, but then I have them in the playlist twice. And if I try to delete the song, that cannot be played, from the playlists, it deletes it from the playlist from the PC.

[jnrdzk]

To add a little clarification if it helps, I tried to explain this to like 5 advisors through Spotify support but they were no help: 

" I’ll try to summarize the issue I’m having, to make it as clear as I can. I have an mp3 file. This mp3 file/ song is downloaded on my PC in local files and is in one of my created playlists. It works just fine there. Then, I moved this song manually to my phone. It is now stored on my phone as well, it is the same file as on my PC, they are identical. Then, when I try to view this mp3 file/song on my phone, it is perfectly fine in my local files on my phone as well, but it does not work in the playlist it is placed in (note that I did not have this problem with most of my song, only some of them, meaning it is possible for a user to move songs like this and then have them appear in playlists you originally created on PC). I have to add it on my phone from my local files to the playlist again, but then I have two of the same songs in that playlist, one that works and one that does not. And if I try to delete the one that does not work from the playlist on my phone, it deletes it from the paylist on my PC aswell, because that is the original instance of that song.

[OscarDC]

Hey @jnrdzk,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

We appreciate all the info you've included in your posts. Taking into account that the tracks are playing correctly if you pick them from the "Local Files" list, have you tried to remove those songs from the affected playlists and add them back but directly from your phone's "Local Files" list? If not, we'd recommend giving it a try to see if it makes any difference. 

We'd also recommend making sure you have the latest version of the Spotify app installed on your device. If it’s not, you can follow the steps mentioned in this article to update it.

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes. 

[jnrdzk]

I have tried that but like I said, if I delete the version of the file that does not work from the playlist, it also deletes it from the playlist on my PC. The issue is that basically the only way things kinda work is if I leave both versions of the song in the playlist, and then I have two of the same songs in both playlists - on my phone and on my PC, where at least one of them works. But this is really inconvenient, especially when I see that this issue does not affect most of my other songs, which appear just fine both in my local files and my playlists after moving them from my phone to my PC.

[Dessi]

Hi @jnrdzk,

Thanks for the reply and for testing!

If you remove the greyed out song from your playlist and add it again from your phone's local files folder, is the file then playable on your PC? It's also worth testing if adding it again from the desktop app causes the song to show up properly on both devices. In case this works, we'd recommend repeating it and replacing all affected songs.

Hope this helps.