Local files not working in "Favorites" list

[MrWatermelown29]

Plan

Premium

Country

Device

Samsung S20+

Operating System

Android

My Question or Issue

I have improted a local file. However since recently it doesnt seem to work in my "favorites" list. In all of my other playlists I can play the song. I had a file in my "favorites" list before and now I cannot play that song either.

Any fix for this? Seems to be a fairly new issue.

Both the files that I could play before and am trying to play now are MP3.

[therobinflieseast]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Samsung S23+

Operating System

Android 14

My Question or Issue

Basically, any local files I have in my liked song playlist doesn't play in spite of showing up. When tapping on them, it stops the currently playing song as if it's going to play, but doesn't. When playing other non-local songs, it skips over any local file songs. This is exclusive to the liked songs too, since the local songs work fine in both regular playlists and the local files folder within the app.

I've tried clearing cache, uninstalling and reinstalling, even did a clean reinstall to no avail.

Any solutions to this?

[Susan_GP]

Hi @MrWatermelown29,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community and welcome!

Just to check, does this happen with one song in particular or multiple songs? Also, do you have the audio files stored on your device's storage? In the meantime, if you haven't tried, we'd recommend performing a clean reinstall of the Spotify app by following these steps. You won't lose any content, but you might need to download your offline songs again. 

Lastly, let us know the OS of the device along with the Spotify version you are currently running. 

We'll keep an eye out for your reply!

[MrWatermelown29]

Hi @Susan_GP,

I have done the clean reinstall. Has not fixed the issue yet but thanks for the info, hadn't done that before.

This issue happens with multiple songs (basicly all files I have tried), but only in the mentioned list. Other playlists have no issues with any of the files.

My device is on Andriod 13, Spotify version 8.9.14.543.

[GorbHere]

Piggybacking off of this thread to say I'm having the same issue here. All of the local files I added to my Liked playlist were working just fine yesterday, then suddenly today every single one is grayed out. The files still appear in the Local Files playlist and can play just fine, and even have the checkmark acknowledging that they were added to the Liked Songs playlist - but they simply don't appear there. I have also gone through the process of restarting the app, restarting my phone, clearing the cache, toggling local files on and off, and even reinstalling the app. Not sure what else to do at this point.

[New user]

I have a local file in mp3 format that I created in Garage Band and transferred it to my Samsung phone. It is located in my local files folder and plays on demand. I clicked the like button and it shows up in my liked songs, but it doesn't play when I choose it.

[Yordan]

Hi folks! We've reported this to our tech team who'll investigate further. We'll keep you posted here as soon as we have any new info to share.

Cheers 🙂

[New user]

Since a few days the songs that are on the sd-card don't play anymore on my liked songs list. They are skipped. However when I add them to the waiting queue or go to the local folder list then they are played as before.

[RickHonoo]

Up until a few weeks ago, I was able to add local files to the liked songs playlist and listen to them all together, which was a huge improvement from the previous condition of having to listen to local files separately.

Now, that's not possible anymore. You can still add them to the liked songs, but if you try to play them from there, the app will stop playing. There's also no option to add them to the queue anymore. You can only play local files separately or in custom playlists, but adding them all to the custom playlists when I already went through the trouble of adding them to the liked songs is a huge turn down for me.

Let's not worsen what had improved. Go back to how it was, please.

[New user]

on my iphone, when i like a local file it adds to the playlist but i cant see it, on computer it says its there and plays on phone in the queue but wont appear in the list, i logged in and out of my account and then they appeared but then the suffle button dissapeared?

[GorbHere]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Samsung Galaxy 9+

Operating System

Android 10

This problem arose just a few days ago and it's been driving me nuts. The short of it is that all of the local files I have added to my Liked Songs playlist are suddenly showing as unplayable. These files have been on my phone for a long time, have worked without issue on Spotify in the past, and I had not made any changes to the files or my music library in general before the issue started. This is purely an issue with the Liked Songs playlist, as any other playlist that uses those same songs will play the songs with no issue.

On top of that, the local files in my Liked Songs playlist do in fact work if they are next in the queue. The app has no trouble with playing them next; it just refuses to let me click on them myself. I also cannot manually add any local files to the play queue, even if I search for them in the full Local Files playlist - the option simply does not exist.

Again, I have had these files for a very long time. They play inside and outside of Spotify just fine, and this issue does not occur with them on the desktop app. I do not believe there is any issue with the songs themselves, but for some reason the app does not believe they exist even if I can clearly see them within the app.

I have already tried restarting the app, clearing my cache, toggling Local Files on and off on the phone, and even uninstalling the app completely and yet the issue persists. I hope this is something that can be resolved because it is really ruining my listening experience at the moment. Thank you.

The screenshots below show the Liked Songs issue, the fact that those songs still appear and play in the queue, and how I cannot manually add any local files to the play queue myself.

[E3lSoup]

Also experiencing this issue. Please allow local likes songs to be allowed to play from my liked songs playlist.

[archiehartshorn]

Having the same issue…

[VintageMisery]

I asked SpotifyCares on Twitter and I got this response: "Got it. It sounds like you're seeing one of a few changes we've made recently. We always test improvements so you might see something your friends don't." 

So it seems like they've removed the useful feature and somehow think that's an improvement, not a bug 😬

It took me years to move over to Spotify because I didn't want to lose my collection of local files. But as someone who shuffles big playlists, this basically renders them unlistenable unless I want to interrupt whatever I'm listening to just to listen to one of these files because I can no longer just play it next.

I'm genuinely considering if it's worth the cost of keeping Spotify if I can't play my local files.

[GorbHere]

This just seems like a standard non-committal response from their script, and I wouldn't take it as gospel. There's no way this is some kind of intended feature, it makes no sense. 

[archiehartshorn]

Yeah makes 0 sense at all. I have all my local files on my phone & in the app, but not syncing to the playlist (or syncing then unsyncing the minute i go offline). So now i’m having to go through and add every local file back into the playlist, makes no sense! 

[Redcord]

damn bro, got the same problem here

i hope there will be a solution. until then I'll stick with previous version

[Aniss]

I've been having the same issue for weeks now and just found out it only happens with my Liked Songs playlist... It's a shame since it's the playlist I listen to the most, and moving all my liked songs over to a different playlist causes the local files to automatically go to the bottom instead of following the oldest-to-newest order I've been familiar with for years. Honestly, things have been shaky ever since Liked Songs became a playlist in itself, not a huge fan of that 😕

[davjos99]

My local files suddenly are greyed out in "Liked Songs" only.  They were all playing from Liked Songs until recently.  And they play in other song lists w/o any problem.  

[Novy]

Hey there, 

Thanks for reaching out here in the Community. 

First up and if you haven't already, we'd recommend following all the steps for a clean reinstall of the app, as this one is more thorough than a regular reinstall and can be helpful to get rid of any cache that might be causing trouble. 
 

You could also try toggling off and back on the option to "Show local files from this device" to see if it makes any difference.

If none of the above do the trick, please make sure to send over the following info so that we can forward your reports to the relevant teams:

• The make and model of the device in which the issue is happening. 
• The exact OS version of your device.
• The exact Spotify version you're currently running.
• If possible, a video where we can take a better look at this behavior of Local files showing up as unplayable in your likes.

If you're experiencing the issue of not being able to add Local files to your queue, note that it's a different one and it should be handled in a separate thread. Make sure to create a new thread in the relevant board in order to avoid confusion here. 

We'll be on the lookout for your replies.