Playing local files.

[anoniiimous]

Plan

Free or premium but mostly free.

Country

Australia 

Device

(Umidig Bison GT2 Pro)

Operating System

(Android 12)

My Question or Issue

So my question relates to playback of local files an Android phone either home or while driving and using Android Auto.

1) while at home, can Spotify identify and playback audio files residing on Network Attached Storage i.e. NAS on a home network or do the audio files have to reside locally on the same device where the app is located: and

2) can the free Spotify app i.e. when no longer in premium mode, still identify and play local files and if so, organised in a hierarchical view, or only in one single long list albeit sorted by album, artist or what not.

I think the answer is no, no and no by design making the free version pretty lame except in online mode with ads.

[Alex · Accepted solution]

Hi there @anoniiimous,

Thanks for bringing your questions to the Community!

I'd do my best to answer them:

1 - Local files need to reside locally on the device. This can be a PC or a mobile device. We can't guarantee that local file would work from a NAS, even if it's connected to the same local network.

2 - Local files should be available on the free tier as well. You can play them either from the Local Files folder, where you can sort them by Title/ Album (if available as metadata on the file) and Duration. Or by adding them to your own playlists. Note that you can play playlists only in Shuffle mode on the Mobile app.

You can learn more about importing your local files here. Hope this helps.

[anoniiimous]

Thank you for posting and answering all but one aspect.

Can specific folder or folders be specified or can Spotify only scan all folders for local files and once found only display local files as one long list with a single sort criteria, or is it possible to sort by artist, then by artist albums etc. That's called hierarchical as opposed to a single list. 

Look forward to confirmation. Thanks

[Lyubka · Accepted solution]

Hey @anoniiimous,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Spotify searches the whole device's storage for local files and put them in this long list. While it is possible to change the order of the tracks based on artist/album, etc., they'll always be presented in a long list. It's not possible to select a specific folder like on Desktop. 

On another note, it seems like the Community folks have already gathered on a similar feature request and have created an Idea about this. If you'd like to see that option available, go ahead and check this idea here. Make sure you leave your vote to support it, so that it would have a better chance of being considered, as Spotify always strives to improve your experience.

You'll also find all the relevant info about our Idea Exchange and how the Community feedback gets implemented here if you'd like to know more about the topic.

Cheers! 

[hugolx]

Plan

Premium

Country

PTGAL

Device

(iPhone 15)

Operating System

(iOS 17.4)

My Question or Issue

I have two iOS devices where I’ve sync’d some music files via iTunes. Local files option granted on both phone and the files are listed on the playlist. The issue is that the files are only reproduced in one phone.  I’m not talking about simultaneous playing. One is my work phone and other my personal. 
When I’m at the office I want to listen from phone 1 , when I’m at home I want to listen from phone 2. The local files are only playable on phone 1.

[sasprod]

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

Device

(iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy 9, Macbook Pro late 2016)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue