Local Files/"No devices available" BUT device seen in Connect to device playback

[lllusion]

Plan: Premium
Device: iPhone XSmax / MBA M1
Operating System: iOS 15.0.1 / macOS 11.6 M1
 
My Question or Issue:
Spotify app on iOS is not seeing local devices from within Settings/Local Files. However, local devices ARE seen when choosing the playback device. Local files from the macOS app are showing up in the playlists, the playlist is "Marked for offline" (IOW, it's set to download all songs in the playlist) BUT the local files listed in the playlist do NOT sync to the iOS app.

All VPN’s and Firewalls are disabled.
Local network is enabled on the iOS for Spotify.

Both apps have been uninstalled and reinstalled after device restart.

All caches cleared.

Q1: What method is the iOS app using to discover devices?

Q2: Why are devices seen for playback but NOT local file sync?

[Alex]

Hi @lllusion,

Thanks for the post.

Can you clarify if you see your local file songs on your phone at all? Are they grayed out and unplayble or not visible at all?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[lllusion]

Local files on the macOS device are showing in playlists on the iOS device but those songs are greyed out on the iOS device.

[MafeG]

Hi @lllusion,

Thank you for your reply. 

Please try the following: Run a Clean reinstall on both devices, then create a new folder somewhere else on the PC and move the local files there. Then, install Spotify again and select the new source folder. After this, try to synchronize the playlists again on your phone. 

If the issue persists, please share with us a screenshot showing how your files look on your phone. This will help us take a better look at the issue.

We'll be on the lookout.

[lllusion]

Your instructions appear a bit jumbled to me. Let's see if I can clarify a bit.

1. Uninstall Spotify from the iPhone AND the MacBook (not PC).

2. Move local files on the macOS to a newly created folder. 

3. Reinstall Spotify on both devices.

4. Point Spotify on the macOS (M1 chip) to the local files.

5. Attempt to allow synchronisation between the devices for local files that are part of playlists.

Questions:

A. What's your reasoning for moving local music files to a new folder? Are you just trying to override any remaining plist files that state the current location?

B. When you say, "share with us a screenshot showing how your files look on your phone", what are you hoping to see? They appear as greyed out songs within the playlists. Is there something else you hope to see?

C. The steps outlined do not address my two original questions. Those are the issues to address first in troubleshooting.

……Q1: What method is the iOS app using to discover local devices?

……Q2: On the iPhone, why are devices on the local network seen when choosing a playback device but NOT seen for local file sync?

[CarlosE]

Hey @lllusion,

Thanks for your reply.

That's correct - those are the steps we meant. For step 4, go to the desktop app settings > Show Local Files > enable the newly created source. In case this behavior persists, try again using a different connection, like a creating a mobile hotspot on your phone and connecting your Mac to it. You can find all the steps to sync your Local files in this article.

Sometimes creating a new folder may be of help in case there are any issues with the original folder.

Since we're troubleshooting remotely, we often ask for screenshots to see how things are looking on the users' end to have a better understanding of what might be going on.

Regarding your original questions, can you let us know exactly what you mean by what method is the iOS app using to discover local devices? On the mobile app, devices that support the Connect feature and are connected to the same network as the phone will appear in the Connect list, as well as other devices where the app is available and you're logged in.

If they're not seen to sync the Local files is due to some syncing issue or some hiccup in the process, which we can't know exactly from our end, therefore we're suggesting these troubleshooting steps to try and make it work or narrow down what might be causing the issue.

Hope this clears things up. Keep us posted on how it goes.

[lllusion]

None of the suggested troubleshooting steps fixed the issue.

Attached is a screenshot from the iOS device showing, as I stated in the outset, greyed out songs in the playlist indicating local files from the macOS device that did not sync to the iOS device.

what method is the iOS app using to discover local devices?

It appears that Spotify uses two different methods/protocols to discover devices on the network. The attached screenshots show that a) the iOS app recognises the macOS app/device when connecting to play; b) the iOS app does NOT discover Local Devices to sync Local audio files.

[Alex]

Hi @lllusion,

Thanks for the reply.

We can confirm that the Connect and the Local file sync feature use different protocols.

For Connect - it's our proprietary Connect technology, that uses the Spotify API.

For local file sync on iOS devices, we rely on the Apple Bonjour protocol due to the specifics of iOS. It is very important that the network router also supports this protocol in order for the transfer to succeed. This is best checked with the router's manufacturer.

We know that one common reason for the sync to fail is because the Bonjour protocol is not supported by all devices involved, most commonly the routers.

If the protocol is supported, another thing you can try and check is to enable the "Show local devices only" option for Connect on your phone. If your Mac still appears with this setting turned on, then we can rule out any other local-network discoverability issues.

Hope you find this info helpful.

[deadtamagotchi]

I had the exact same problem as OP and tried absolutely everything — uninstalled and rebooting on both devices, checked for updates, moved files to a different folder location, used a different computer to try and sync with — everything. At least half of my favorite music isn’t available on Spotify, so i was becoming pretty hopeless.

In the end, unplugging my WiFi router and plugging it back in seemed to do the trick. I left it unplugged for 20min because I was being thorough, but it probably didn’t need to take that long. I didn’t see this mentioned at all while I was searching the web so I hope this helps somebody!