Using Local Files on Android Phone

[Darryl_B]

Yes, I know this question seems to have been asked a thousand times, but the advice that always seems to be offered -- "make sure both devices are connected to the same network and the playlist is set to download on the phone" -- doesn't work.

I have playlists containing both songs that are available directly from Spotify and songs that are only available as local files. If I set one of the playlists on my phone to download, it proceeds to download all the songs that *aren't* local files, pointlessly wasting my phone's storage space, but does *not* download any of the local files to the phone, which are the songs that I actually *want* copied to my phone.

To be clear: what I want is to copy my playlists' local files from my computer to my phone, *without* also downloading files that are otherwise available through Spotify.

I know this is possible, as a month and a half or so back, when I first started playing with Spotify, I managed to do it. But I don't recall *how*, and can't now find any way to do it again.

And yes, I'm a Premium member.

Any help would be appreciated.

[AeroZ]

You have to make a separate playlist that only contains the local files that you want to sync to your phone.

I got multiple playlists that either contain only local files or some local files and I have one "master" playlist that contains all of the local files that are being used in different playlists.

Regarding issue with getting sync to work the last thing I can suggest is to create a hotspot connection with your phone and connect your computer to it and then flip the download switch and try to sync the local files to your phone.

[OneByBoo]

Hi @Darryl_B,

thanks for reaching out about this !

The app does not separate local files and app tracks upon toggling the download button.

As @AeroZ mentioned, in order to have them downloaded separately, you'll have to create separate playlists.

Hope this shed some light 🙂  

[Darryl_B]

I find it odd that you're saying Spotify can't just download local files without also downloading other songs in a playlist, since as I said, I somehow managed to get it to do exactly that just a month and a half ago. But regardless, I'm certainly willing to use the "local files playlist" workaround, if I can actually get it to work.

But as I also said, local files *aren't* downloading to my phone, even when other songs in a playlist do.

Right now, I've got Spotify open both on my PC (Windows 10) and on my phone (Google Pixel 3a). I've checked to insure both are running the newest version. Local files playlist has been created, and is visible on both. Both are connected to my wifi, and each shows the other as an available device. Playlist is set to be downloaded on both, and shows as downloaded on the PC. But on the phone, nothing's happening. I just have a "waiting to download" message at the top of the playlist display.

[AeroZ]

If it says it’s waiting to download on your device then there’s an issue with your wirless setup where the two devices can’t “see” or communicate with each other.

Did you try the hotspot method?

[Darryl_B · Accepted solution]

It seemed unlikely that there was a problem with the connection, given that both versions of Spotify could in fact "see" each other, as evidenced by the fact that each displayed the other on its "devices" list. But for lack of a better idea, I tried your "hotspot" suggestion, and it actually worked. So the immediate problem is solved. I'll have to dig through the connection settings later when I'm inclined to waste a bit more time, and see if I can track down what the problem was, so I don't have to bother with the same workaround next time.

Thanks for the help.

[AeroZ]

You can see devices even in other networks and locations in Spotify Connect. That doesn't mean your internal wifi network is configured in such way that syncing local files works.

Syncing local files and Spotify Connect work differently and have different requirements to work.