Spotify won't sync certain songs to iPhone

[vsf11]

Description

Despite songs being on local desktop spotify, connected to wifi, as well as iphone connected to same wifi, songs still greyed out as unavailable - except for one. 

A more detailed description, using numbered steps

1. Imported MP3 files to spotify. They play fine in desktop version

2. Then I added them to my normal playlists, which are marked for offline use anyway. Songs won't play.

3. I upgraded desktop spotify.

4. hard reset iPhone, logged out, logged in (of both iphone and desktop)

5. Deleted spotify from iphone, reinstalled, resyncing everything - songs still won't sync, except for one.

What I expected to happen

Songs would appear on my iphone, synced and available for playback.

What actually happened

Songs appear on iphone, but greyed out.

My iPad/iPhone model

Iphone 5s.

Device’s Operating System

iOS 7.1.2

Is your device jailbroken?

No.

Approximately how many playlists do you have?

33 - 6 synced for offline use

My mobile Spotify version

1.5.0.2728

My desktop Spotify version (if applicable)

0.9.12.10.g89b2a4fc

My provider and country

EE (mobile), BT (home wifi), United Kingdom

My username

1232065250 (vsf11)

Do you have any screenshots you can attach to more clearly explain your issue?

[vsf11]

also should say - there is 1gb of room on my iphone.

[harshnoise]

I'm having this same exact problem. I reinstalled the app and it just made it worse. Before, it was only oen or two songs, and now it's entire albums. 

[jeremygoh]

The new Spotify update should address this problem, go check it out!

[vsf11]

No, it hasn't fixed the issue. I've just tried.

[jeremygoh]

@vsf11 Recently I heard that songs in MP3 works well, but those in WMA doesn't, can you give it a check?

[vsf11]

Definitely mp3, not wma.

[jeremygoh]

@vsf11 there's still tons of music not synced properly? Can you try to create a separate playlist for local music and sync that? and also do a clean reinstallation as per below?

Click into your Spotify App -> Logout from Spotify (Spotify app Settings -> Logout) -> [If you are on premium and have songs that are on available offline, click here: https://www.spotify.com/sg-en/account/offline-devices/ and remove all devices -> Go to iPhone Settings, General, Usage and Delete the app -> Go to App Store and download the Spotify app again.

Also clear off Safari’s Cache under iPhone/iPad Settings > Safari and Clear all of the caches.

[hhheeather]

I've had the same problem, tried everything. This still won't work.

[ArtSpot]

You can add me to this bug list. I have an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.1.2 with Spotify ver 2.2.0.2464. I have 32.1 GB free. I tried to make a separate playlist of the "unsynced" local files, but they do not play. My desktop Spotify is Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 with desktop Spotify ver 0.9.15.27.g87efe634

Hope this can be resolved because I play many local files as much as Spotify songs. I'd hate to have to use 2 apps...

[shane_h]

I had the same problem as you guys with my 5s. I just got the 6 today and I'm still having the same problem.

[andyandyandy]

Had the same problem with iphone 5s.

Wondered if it was to do with the tracks name," It's futile, man " and the punctuation was causing some hassle in the sync process between the desktop working fine and the details being synced to the iphone.

Tried changing the track details by renaming the file in Finder, but in get info/more info still showed original name although file had been renamed. Tried it with Spotify - still the same problem.

Went into iTunes, changed the track details to remove the apostrophe and comma. This changed everything in the get info/more info section from Finder. When spotify picked up the changes, added to the playlist again, resynced with iphone, working fine.

Finally after 2 days of effing around!

Hope this may help one or two.

iPhone 5s running iOS 8.1.3 and Spotify 2.3.0.1573

Macbook running OSX Yosemite 10.10.1 and Spotify  0.9.15.27.g87efe634

[joshjnoble]

I can back Andy up on this.

Making some small edits to the track name or artist in the tracks meta data and then reimporting it into spotify seems to fix things and the tracks sync'd over to my mobile.

[harryjamesnorm]

worked for me 🙂 nice one! (Y)

[thi-57jdleifhfl]

Iphone 6 and ios 10.10.2, same issue, local tracks will not sync.  Ready to end spotify.

[christophernyck]

Having similar issues. Everything worked fine until recently. Now all of a sudden a number of songs previously synched are greyed out. I checked the settings on the desktop app, tried checking and unchecking the playlists, but certain songs just refuse to sync. At $10 a month, my tolerance for this is not very large. Really hoping this is an app update issue because I've logged enough time trying to figure this out to no avail.

[JTunes]

Spotify premium is well worth it when you can fully sync all of your personal music into the app on desktop AND mobile.  If you cannot then its simply not worth it to me and I will just go back to using iTunes for free.

Everything was fine a few days ago.  Now I cant sync certain songs and play them on my phone, which is when I most listen to music during my commute and workouts.  Also, suddenly things have disappeared from the desktop app like the "import playlist" option, the "library" option and who knows what else.

If these things arent resolved shortly I will be canceling my subscription.

[blakekhodges]

Having the same problem. Was able to sync songs as offline until a few days ago. Now any song I add to an "Offline Playlist" does not sync, it just stays "Greyed out." 

Prior to this I was running into the same problem, but I deleted the app and reinstalled it, then re-synced my offline playlists (this takes a LONG time because i have many playlists and sync at the "High" quality. When I did this, however, all of my songs DID RE-SYNC. Only problem is, the probelm returned after only about a week of use. 

This is frustrating. 

I really hope I don't have to delete and reinstall the app every time I want my playlists offline. We're looking for some help, Spotify! Love you, thanks. 

[Tim7]

It does appear correct that the problem lies with the track info - you can easily check this on the desktop version by right clicking on Edit Info (of a greyed out song) and re-editing the track. Then play the song on desktop, and if Spotify 'approves', it will no longer be greyed out.

This however is a cumbersome and boring procedure for anyone with a large pre-existing library, especially if you have a lot of remixes, acoustic versions, and other stuff that means it is not the standard version of the song. 

That said, will iTunes Music be any better? Maybe ... or maybe not ...

[Tim7]

Having tried the above solutions a couple of times, I cannot recommend it as, (1) it's tedious and, (2) it's difficult to get it work with all tracks (maybe it will not work unless the track info is exactly as Spotify expects - which I have noticed before can be different to other tagging systems such as Gracenote).
Grrrrrr.