Single local files tracks are disappearing from my mobile phone

[MysteriousMango1]

I've been having the local files system work well for a while, but occasionally a track that I've had downloaded for months or longer will disappear from my Spotify mobile (IOS) . I tried undownloading and re-downloading the playlist, but when I shut down Spotify on my phone, the track disappears again. I've also tried redownloading the music on my PC and then onto my phone, deleting any files with the song name in my IOS files system (including the song itself), and clearing the cache on Spotify on my phone, and the track still won't stay downloaded. If anyone has any ideas on how to help here I'd appreciate it, thank you.

Also, I should say that this has happened with mp3 tracks that I've downloaded from reputable places. I am also using the latest version of IOS and Windows, and I'm not close to running out of space on my phone.

[Ivelina]

Hey @MysteriousMango1,

Welcome to the Community!

Just to clarify, does the specific local file track disappear even if you don't download content and go in offline mode? Have you noticed if the same thing happens with other local files as well? What happens if you move the track to a different playlist and download it?

Also, have you noticed exactly when this specific track started to disappear? Was it after a reinstall or an update for example?

Hope to hear from you soon 🙂

[ValakiHUN]

Hi Ivelina!

I face the same problem described by MysteriousMango1. The downloaded local files can be played by the spotify on the phone as long as the spotify on the computer is open. However when the spotify on the computer closes, the local files on the phone becomes unavailable and have to be downloaded again. Turning on offlien mode on the spotify on phone does not prevent the local files becoming unavailable and grayed out. 

Edit: This seems to be happening from yesterday. Was there a new update?

[Maria]

Hey there @ValakiHUN,

Thanks for posting in the thread!

Spotify recently did some changes to the way local files works. This means that you sometimes may encounter issues with syncing them between different device, and some users may no longer be able to sync them at all.

To ensure that you'll be able to listen to the local files on your phone, you need to have the actual tracks stored on your phone as well. Once they're physically stored on your phone, just head over to the app settings & switch on Show local audio files. The tracks should now appears for you in the app.

If you like, feel free to have a look at this page for more info on how it works. Also, keep in mind that some formats might not be supported, you can find some more details about it here.

We hope this clear things up! 

Cheers.

[ValakiHUN]

Hi!

I have followed and participated in a conversation regarding this topic in another thread: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Local-files-on-my-android-greyed-out-and-skipped-in-playlis...

Someone suggested and screenshoted that the synced files on the phone get their spaces removed from their title. I tried it and found out that anything that is not english letter, number or "-/_" symbols are removed as well. I renamed my audiofiles and now syncing are working correctly again. I think that the way local file names are handled could be corrected and then this syncing problem would be fixed.

[MysteriousMango1]

Thanks for the help everyone. It looks like the there is some issue with spotify generating the correct time signatures for the tracks when transferring them to a mobile device. So for example, the track will be 5:33 long on the desktop computer, but when I download it to my phone, it creates a track thats 5:34 long, and so Spotify treats it like a different track than the one on the desktop. See the screenshot attached, where the track got changed to be 10:03 when I moved it to my phone, whereas it was originally 10:04.

The way I got around this was just to add the second version to my playlist as well by going to the local files folder on my phone and searching it up there. Now theres doubles of a bunch of songs on my playlists, but at least I can still play them now.

Hope this helps anyone with the same issue 😄

[ajmaatos · Accepted solution]

I have been expriencing the same issue for a while but finally found a fix.

TL;DR: Uploading songs to Spotify's "Local Files", then transferring to a custom playlist on PC, results in songs becoming unplayable in the custom playlist after closing the app. Solution: Access the "Local Files" playlist directly on the phone's Spotify app, where all songs will be playable and can be added to other playlists without issues.

The Problem:

1. I would add a song to my designated "Local Files" folder on my PC.
2. I would open Spotify on my PC, open the "Local Files" playlist then transfer the same song from the "Local Files" playlist to another custom playlist.
3. I would open the Spotify app on my phone so that these new changes can be updated on my phone.
4. As soon as I close Spotify on my PC, and then on my phone, once I re-open the app on my phone, the song I JUST uploaded becomes greyed out and unplayable - specfically in the custom playlist I added the song to.

The Solution:

1. Find the actual "Local Files" playlist on your phone (playlist image is a green folder against a blue background)
2. All of your local files will appear here and will be playable - You can add the local files to other playlists from here and they will still be playable even after closing the app on both your phone and PC.

Adding the local file to a custom playlist on your PC, rather than your phone, makes the file unplayable in the custom playlist when you reopen the Spotify app on your phone after closing the app on your PC. However, this issue doesn't occur when you add a local file to a custom playlist using your phone.

I used Local Files for years and never experienced this issue until maybe just under a year ago. I would always transfer the Local Files over to a custom playlist on my PC and just use the custom playlist when listening to local files which made me forget that the actual "Local Files" playlist event exists on the iPhone app as well lol