Waiting to download? Why?

[Cephi]

I'm very frustrated right now, not being able to simply download local songs to my phone. I have been using spotify for probably five years at this point, and am becoming increasingly frustrated regarding how finicky the iOS app has become.

Basically, I have around 1000 tracks I want to sync to my phone, so I put them all in one big playlist to sync to my phone. That didn't work, so I organized all my local songs by album into playlists and then into a folder, just to see if they would download at all. They have not. I have enough storage, I am on the same wifi as phone. Wondering where to turn, I've always had issues with offline downloading and spotify. 

The top of each playlist that contains the local songs which I would like to sync say "waiting to download" on ios. 

[Goslopo]

I've had a few issues with this myself and may have found a reliable solution.

1. Make sure you are on the same network as the other device.
2. Make sure that the spotify application is open on both devices and the devices are unlocked.
3. Make sure that the songs are in a playlist and the playlist is set to "avaliable offline" on both your phone and on the desktop.
4. Restart the desktop application.
5. Restart the iOS application.

I'm curious if this works for others, so let me know if this helps at all.

P.S.: If you are on a highly restricted network such as a school's or business's network, that may be affecting the sync as well.

[Jimmerjammer]

How do I set a playlist to "available offline"?

[Goslopo]

Ah my apologies, it's actually labeled as "Download" if it is unselected and "Downloaded" if it is selected.

The sider is located on the right side of the Desktop application and on the top of the iOS application. These sliders are located when you open the playlist you are trying to sync.

Desktop: 

iOS:

[Cephi]

Oh you know what, I am on a university network. Perhaps that is the issue... But I am struggling to see why! This internet is not restricted and is very fast. I would imagine there are some security traits about it that stop spotify from offline downloading, but I can't imagine why.

[silenn]

Got the same problem and is so frustrating! 
Anybody have a solution? 

[Goslopo]

@Cephi - It may be worth shooting an email over to your school's IT department. There is a chance that your school is blocking the protocols used by Spotify.

Another thing that you could try on your end would be to follow the steps listed here to adjust your device's firewall. Hopefully this will allow for a bit more leniency.

If you have the ability, it may also be worth trying another network. Possibly if you have a friend off-campus.

Let me know if you want me to go into greater detail regarding adjusting your firewall or if any of these solutions did or did not work.

[Alpha_]

Edit: I had to dig a little deeper and there is one particular setting inside the firewall that I adjusted and was allowed to "download" my local songs.

In Windows 10 settings, I typed in firewall to take me to its settings and then clicked "allow an app or feature through windows firewall". Then I looked for Spotify in the list of apps and then made sure to check the appropriate box. Clicked OK.

Then I went on both the spotify app (on the phone and my desktop) and made sure "download" was ticked on. It worked right after that.