Locally downloaded songs not playable in playlist on mobile if added to playlist on Desktop

[Sirspam]

Plan

Premium Family

Country

UK

Device

iPhone SE (Second Gen)

Operating System

iOS 15.6.1

Recently, with Spotify removing syncing local songs between mobile and Desktop over Wi-Fi, I've had issues with local files being playable in a playlist. 

On iOS, the song is available to play on the iTunes app and on Spotify's local files playlist, so the issue cannot be with the song not being downloaded.

Now here the issue gets a bit more complicated. With seemingly random tracks, if I add the track to a playlist on Desktop the track won't be playable on iOS but then if I add the track on iOS to a playlist the track won't be playable on Desktop, despite both platforms having the track locally downloaded.

This issue persists across playlists and doesn't seem to resolve itself if I delete the song on iOS and then redownload the song from my Desktop. I'm using iTunes on Desktop to sync my tracks between devices.

As I said before this only seems to happen with random tracks, for instance today I synced an album from my Desktop to my iPhone and all but one of the tracks was playable on my playlist, despite that track being playable in local files.

[Elena]

Hey @Sirspam,

Welcome to the Community and thanks for getting in touch about this.

You can begin by performing a clean reinstall of the app with this steps on both your phone and computer. If you have a Windows 10 OS on your computer, we'd recommend that you download the Spotify app from the Microsoft store. Give your devices a quick restart as well before you open the newly installed app.

It's also a good idea to remove all the local files you've uploaded on the app and try adding them again.  
 

If that doesn't do it for you, could you let us your phone's Spotify version and, if possible, if you experience this on other mobile devices?

We'll be on the lookout for your answer and we'll see what we can suggest next.

[Sirspam]

Hello, sorry about the delay.

I've done a clean install on both platforms and deleted all my local songs on my iPhone. Unfortunately, after reinstalling my songs the issue is still persisting.

Currently I'm using Spotify version 8.7.64.518 on iOS and version 1.1.93.896 on Windows 11.

Unfortunately I don't have a spare mobile device, so I can't verify if the issue is happening across multiple devices.

Thanks for the help

[schaller]

Hey, I'm having the same issue, just thought I could maybe add something here. I use local files a lot, but in a playlist where I only have 1 local file I just readded it from the mobile local files library so I have the one copy of it for if I'm using that playlist on the computer, and one copy if I'm playing it on my phone. When I was back on the computer I noticed that the file I added from mobile is 1 second longer than the file from the computer. Keep in mind, they are supposedly the same file since I just dragged and dropped it into my phone's library from the folder I use to store all my local files. I have playlists with dozens of local files, and some of them end up being fine, but most don't. That basically leads me to believe this is an error on Spotify's end. Just thought I should add this, I'll probably submit a bug report or something similar if it isn't fixed soon since this is really a bother for me.

[Dian]

Hey @Sirspam,

Thanks for the reply and the troubleshooting steps tried so far.

Are you able to reproduce this issue with a different Spotify account?

If you use only one device, are you able to play the local files on it? I mean import the local files only on one device and don't import them on the other one. As the local files can be played only on one device, the one they're imported on, this may cause some confusion for the app.

When you use two devices, are you adding the songs to the same playlist?

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[Sirspam]

Hello

I've only got access to one Spotify account so I can't check if this issue happens across multiple accounts.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by playing local files only on one device. Are you asking if I'm using Spotify on my desktop to try and connect my mobile and play a song which is on my desktop's local files but not my mobile's?

I have the same local files on both my desktop and mobile device, I can play the same song on both devices from the local files playlist. The image I attached on my original post shows a local file playing on my mobile device with the same song on my playlist being unplayable, although this local file is then playable in this playlist on my desktop.

Yes I'm using the same playlist across both devices.

Thanks

[kd12345]

I'm having the same issue. I am unable to sync any of my songs on laptop to iPhone. They appear in my playlists but are grayed out. Both devices are on the same wifi, both playlists are downloaded, and local files are allowed on both devices. I am still unable to get the local files on my iPhone. 

[OscarDC]

Hey folks,

Thank you for keeping in contact and for the info shared.

Just to be on the same page, would you mind confirming if you have the audio files stored on both devices? If so, could you follow the device-specific steps in this article on each of the devices to see if it makes any difference? This will give us a better look at the issue.

We'll be on the lookout.

[Sirspam]

Hello.

Yes, the tracks are downloaded on both platforms. They can be played in the local files playlists from both devices.

Yesterday I had attempted to make a post with an annotated version of the image of the image I first posted attached, as I feel like there may be confusion on what exactly my issue is, although the post seems to disappear whenever I refresh my browser. No errors come up, the post just seems to post successfully and then disappears shortly afterwards.

[OscarDC]

Hey @Sirspam,

Thank you for keeping in contact and for the info shared.

This new info gives us a better look at the issue and it could be expected behavior. When you have the audio files stored on both devices, each one of them is storing its own local file for that specific song. This means that if you add a song to a playlist from your Laptop, the iPhone will not be able to play the track because it's different to the file stored in it. If you want to add a local file to a playlist that can be playable on the iPhone, you need to add the song to the playlist using your iPhone. However, this file will not be playable on desktop for the same reason. Hope this clarifies things a bit.

On the other hand, we cannot see the picture you sent either. It's possible that the page was refreshed during the posting process by mistake. If it happens again, we'd recommend trying changing the format of the image in case that may be affecting. You can use JPG or PNG.

We'd also recommend clearing your browser's cache, in case that could be affecting the proper behavior of the page.

If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[Sirspam]

Hello.

From my previous experience with using Spotify I wouldn't consider this to be expected behaviour. As I stated on my first post this has only became an issue when Spotify moved away from syncing local files between devices across Wi-Fi, so why would this choice be made if it was known it would introduce this issue, severely limiting the functionality of local files on Spotify? Additionally, this issue only happens with seemingly random local files, if this was expected behaviour then wouldn't every local file not work across platforms?

Because of the inconsistency of the issue this, to a user, seems more like a bug rather than some form of limitation Spotify has.

As for the attachment I mentioned, I'll once again attempt to attach it to this post.

Thanks.

[Dian]

Hey @Sirspam,

Thanks for the reply and the extensive descriptions.

The Local Files feature has been changed significantly, yes. Inter-device syncing of files is no longer possible. The files you want to play need to be physically present on the device you want to play them on. You confirmed this is the case on your end, but it seems there is some polishing work left in regards with the same Local Files being played on different devices.

What happens is that each app (desktop and mobile) understands that a Local File is added to a playlist and the source of this file is the respective device, so the "no inter-device playback" rule kicks in and doesn't let the file be played. Have you tried adding the files to different playlists, once per device? Let's try to not have the files from both devices in the same playlist simultaneously. How did that go?

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[FishSmokeChicken]

Hey @Dian,

just to make sure I understood correctly. We're supposed to have 2 different playlists, one for the phone and one for the pc? Is that seriously the magical way Spotify found to fix the Syncing quirks? 

Creating playlists on the phone is awful, I have 900+ Local Files which would need to be added by hand, since there's no "Add All" option I can see, and even then, I would lose mobile control over music playing on my PC and vice-versa since it would be greyed out.

Did I understand correctly?

Cheers

[Eni]

Hey @FishSmokeChicken, 

Thanks for your reply. 

That's right, in this case, since the local files need to be stored in the devices, there would be a different playlist on each device. We understand where you're coming from and we appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us. We'll make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

For more info on how the local files work currently, we suggest that you take a look at this article and at this FAQ. 

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you. 

[FishSmokeChicken]

Hey @Eni,

I'm sorry but that's just objectively not true. Some local files do get recognized between devices, namely between my PC and my iPhone. The ones that don't work are those which iTunes added 1s of duration to, since apparently Spotify and iTunes have slightly different ways of detecting duration causing this issue.

I first found out about it here https://community.spotify.com/t5/iOS-iPhone-iPad/Your-new-totally-stupid-local-files-sync-system-doe... and can confirm it is my experience as well.

It's really discouraging, especially as a 6 year user of this platform, half of said years as a premium subscriber, to see Spotify make a previously working feature worse and then not admitting the mistake and promising to fix it but instead trying to gaslight users into work arounds that still wouldn't fix the full issue since we would lose cross-device control, which I already have, and 2 playlists would just make it worse.

Even more insulting since creating playlists on the phone is an abhorrent experience.

I'd like to end this note with the disclaimer that I do not blame the moderators of this community for the issue and I'd like to apologize if my tone comes off agressive. I'd just like the message to be sent upwards so the user experience (my experience) can be improved to what it once was or even better. Sadly you're my only point of contact with the people who could fix this issue.

Cheers

[Lyubka]

Hey @FishSmokeChicken,

Apologies if we've created some kind of confusion here and for any inconvenience for the time being.

Thank you for taking the time to share your constructive feedback on the recent changes, we appreciate it and we'll make sure it reaches the right teams at Spotify! 
 

Cheers!