Cant download local file from mac to iphone

[lindytunes1]

Mac HighSierra latest

ios12.1

Spotify latest

I have a bunch of local files that I drop in a folder and set spotify to read.  I drag them to a playlist, then select the downloaded button and they all show as downloaded.  I open spotify on my iphone, see the playlist and it shows "14 songs" on the playlist screen, but when I open the playlist none of the songs are there -- just the stupid "suggestions" below.  Have reinstalled the desktop version, closed and re-opened the ios app, and no joy.

I will add that this seems to be a recurring theme with spotify -- every few months my local stuff just fails to populate the ios version, and I need to "reinvent" it to get it to work.  Thats bad enough, but this is the first time that it has just failed outright. 

It would be great if Spotify could please figure out how they want to deal with local files, then leave it the heck alone for a few years!  Anyway, any help greatly appreciated ...

[lindytunes1]

This is killin' me -- anyone got an idea?

[bmw789]

Spotify is really pissing me off. This is been posted dozens of times and nobody has an answer. Seems like a pretty basic function and it has been defunct for a long time. I bet a lot of people have moved over to Apple music for this issue alone.

[lindytunes1]

bmw, i tried everything on my imac including resintall on both imac and iphone and nothing would work.  my wife subsequently bought a new macbook pro.  I installed spotify on that, created a local file directory on that install and sync'd it to my iphone succesfully and was therefore able to accomplish my objective.  Totally bizarre.  I do think the function is really squirrely and in need of work.  I also picked up an apple tv from santa, and so at this point am definitely going to explore apple music.  You're correct; I suspect people get tired of the inconsistency and change platform ...