Local files not showing on iPad or iPhone

[forsandandstars]

I confess, I am confused, what is the deal with local files? I have about 23000 songs in my iTunes library, they show up fine in Spotify for Mac 1.0.36.124.g1cba1920 under 'Local Files', but I cannot get them to show on my iOS devices. 

My understanding is that a Spotify playlist can hold a maximum of 10000 songs, but is this the reaon that Local Files are not showing on my iOS dev's? As long as I am on the same LAN as the iMac (Mac OSX 10.11.6) on which my iTunes library lives, I should easily be able to access those songs from all my devices shouldn't I?

I normally have a Smart DNS service server addresses in place of my regular ISP ones on my home router, I have disabled those, but this has not solved the issue.

I am also unable to import iTunes playlists to Spotify desktop for Mac. 

Seriously frustrating Spotify. Sort it out.

[mrgsteele]

On your desktop client you have to create a playlist and add the local files that you want to sync to your mobile devices to this playlist.

Once you've added the files, the playlist will appear on your mobile devices and you can choose to make it available offline.

Keep in mind though that there is an offline track limit per device.

[pattisoncameron]

 @mrgsteele

does that offline track limit count the music you own too?

[Jay-Lord]

I have the same issue and yes, the count still includes the local files, even though it only shows the nonlocal ones when I open the playlist itself.

[andrewhyman1]

Was this ever solved for you? I'm having one of the oddest experiences, where one of my 3 local files, I played through my phone last night. But now it isn't there in the playlist. And when I try to add it to the playlist on my mac, it tells me there's a duplicate song. So I can see the song on the spotify player on my mac, but it doesn't appear at all on my iPhone. What is going on?

[Jay-Lord]

I did manage to fix it, although I'm not sure this method works for all devices.

I keep all local songs on my computer in a "LOCAL" playlist and keep the "download offline" option on. To download this playlist, I first disconnected from wifi on both my computer and my iPhone. I then turned on my mobile hotspot by USB connection only, and plugged the device in. I switched on the "download offline" option for the playlist on my iPhone (not sure if this works for non-premium users), then turned on the wifi connection on my computer. This began downloading the songs onto my phone, but it required switching on and off the hotspot connection a few times, so I cannot confirm if it'd work the first time for anyone.

It seems that the support for offline files is not very advanced. My recommendation for anyone having trouble would be to mess with the wifi, USB, and maybe even Bluetooth connections between the device and the computer so that the songs have a route to travel between devices.

[AnnieRoad]

I have a strange thing happening. I imported my itunes playlists and can see them on my iphone and mac. But with the mac I see all the songs in the playlist with a download option. 

When I click on the iphone in spotify app, I can see the playlist but then it asked me to browse for more, but there are no songs shown, like it does on the mac, even though I have the files local on my iphone. 

Is the only way I can see these on the iphone is to download them even though there are the local files on the device?

[thedailygrind]

same exact thing is happening to me. I am looking for a solution as well with not much luck. It is so strange; i can be at my computer with spotify pulled up and at the same time have my phone with spotify pulled up, and usually the streaming device designation and control from either device is seamless.

I downloaded local files on my laptop, added them to a new spotify playlist, dowloaded that playlist into offline mode on my computer (still connected to Wifi). on my phone i try to download that playlist (or even just play it) and no songs appear (while connected to the same wifi). I then try to play a different song (non-local file) selected via my laptop but streaming through my phone (so that i can use my bluetooth headphones which are connected to my phone) and spotify songs play fine. i then try to play the local file which has been uploaded to spotify, saved in offline mode (but i am still on wifi this whole time) and my phone shows an error saying it needs to be in offline mode. 

i understand that it needs to be in offline mode on my phone, but the selected playlist containing local files has been set to "download in offline mode" on both my phone and laptop and i am certain that the songs are uploaded fine on my laptop as i have made sure that they work in offline mode. but the songs will not even show up on my phone or stream via my phone when they are so accesible and fully downloaded on my laptop.

it has been an incredibly frustrating issue.

my guess is that this is the issue you are facing so i wanted to describe it in full detail to get some spotify people working on the issue (my hope is that they read these?)

I initially thought it could be a firewall issue as i first tried this at work on their network, but i am doubtful that is still the case.

[brewing]

I'm experiencing the exact same issue. Contents of the playlist won't even appear on my iPhone. Selecting the download option does nothing. My computer and phone are on the same wifi, and I've tried restarting devices, connections, etc.

[thedailygrind]

On my phone i disabled the "hide unplayable songs" in the settings, and i can see the songs, but the playlist says "waiting to download" but won't download anything and i am unable to play the songs. no solution yet, but just thought i'd mention it.

[jay121312]

I was experiencing the same issues described by everyone in this thread and was able to solve it by going into the playback settings on the iphone in the spotify app and disabling the "hide unplayable songs" preference. The local files would then show up in my playlists but were still unavailable to be played until I downloaded the playlist.

[feirce05]

um well i can see the playlist i created on my ios device and the number of songs too but i cant actually see the songs

[bamdads]

Any news on your problem? Cause I am having the same problem right now and it is unbelievably frustrating to deal with.

[bamdads]

My phone is showing my that it is waiting for the WiFi but there is a WiFi connection so I have no idea...

[jakecastle4]

I am experiencing the same thing. Says my files are unable to play. I hit download and it just says waiting to download forever. I would love to keep subscribing to spotify but i mean I do not want to have to re-search for all my music library already on my computer. There should be an easy way to drag and drop so I can keep the music sorted all in my spotify app. Hopefully they fix this or they will be losing my business.

[x3Zxc]

Launch Spotify on your device and head to library. Tap settings on the top right of your device, then go to “Playback”. You should see an option to “Hide Unplayable Songs” turn that off. Once you turn that off head to your playlist and you should see your local file songs. Follow instructions if they need to be properly synced, the tutorial should show if you press on one of the unplayable songs.

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@forsandandstars

[Timi29]

I was struggling with the same problem but once I logged out and logged in (and even updated) my spotify on my MAC just like some magic suddenly my previously unavailable local files got downloaded as well into my playlist and now I can play them.