Local files on my android greyed out and skipped in playlists, but can still be played otherwise?

[AndOr47]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

Samsung Galaxy S10e, HP ENVY x360 Convertible 15m=dr0xxx

Operating System

Android 11, Windows 10

My Question or Issue

A couple songs which come from my local files are skipped over in playlists and I can't figure out why or how to fix them. They're shown as greyed out in playlists yet if i directly play one it plays just fine. The only issue is that when I go from song to song in a playlist, they're skipped over and can't be played even if I skip back. I've already tried deleting their files, redownloading them and putting them back into the same playlists but nothing has worked. Both are from albums and each song from the two albums were downloaded in the same places so I'm not sure why only two songs of them all can't be played.

[AndOr47]

Hey folks,

Sounds like you were syncing your local files from your PC to your phone (i.e. you're downloading a playlist that has local files on the PC and syncing them over to your phone). Spotify did some changes to the way local files are discovered a few months ago, so some issues with the sync may occur occassionally (or the sync may not work at all) for some users.

Something that's worth trying out is uploading the same files (and not downloading them directly from Spotify) you have on your PC to your phone's storage so that they're physically present on the device and toggle on Show local audio files in the app's Settings - the app should recognize them now.

Note that some file formats (such as .flacs) may still not be discovered by the app. It's recommended you use 320kbps .mp3s.

In case you run into other issues you can try a clean reinstall of the app on your phone and repeat the aforementioned process.

Cheers!

[Mihail · Accepted solution]

Hey @AndOr47,

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the Community.

Could you give the steps here a go and perform a clean reinstall of the app on all your devices?  They are more thorough than a regular reinstall and make sure that no corrupted files remain that might be the reason for such behavior. You should also remove all playlists with imported files and start the whole process from scratch using the instructions in this guide. We'd recommend to also change the source of the local files. Simply create a new folder in a different directory on your device and move your local files to this folder. Then just delete the old folder used for the local files. Now you can try importing the files again. 

Hope this helps. Keep us posted on how it goes.

[AndOr47]

Seems like it worked great! Thanks for the help!

[Alex]

Hey @AndOr47,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

Glad to hear everything works fine again.

Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have issues.

Cheers.

[e1l_5rlfq-jjt]

Simply this, and simply that. I simply did this 10 months ago, and now I get to "simply" do it all over again. And it will be fixed until next time. Fabulous. What some trash you get me to pay for.

[Ej5s]

ive done this multiple times and when I go to play them they will still get greyed out every once and a while.

[AlphaandOmega]

I discovered that if you unlock the phone wile is connected to android auto, that you can play those songs directly from the phone...more than that... I don't know how fix this

Tried everything, removed app, changed the local files folder(a different HDD) ...

[nlbomme2]

Same here, renamed the file and other location (Desktop). Thank you!!

[TaeKook92]

Im getting this very same problem too! And its happened repeatedly! 

I have ALSO discovered that if you try and set any of the songs in the local files as "Alarm Tones" for an alarm clock - it greys them out AND you can NO LONGER play the files.

The annoying point, though, is that to fix this on a phone, you need to use a laptop/PC in order to fix it by deleting the songs entirely from your device and using a laptop or some other device to download them again. This means it cannot be fixed on the go or if you're not at "home". 

Considering we pay for this service, it shouldn't be **bleep** happening at all. The problem has been going on long enough. 

[Ej5s]

This same problem is still running rampant and has been for some time. I'm on an s22 and I've done complete wipes and undownloading and redownloading, and yet my half my local files turn grey. This thing has to addressed or patched because it is infuriating.

[Mmoss57003]

Same problem here on S22 Ultra

[Yordan]

Hey folks,

Sounds like you were syncing your local files from your PC to your phone (i.e. you're downloading a playlist that has local files on the PC and syncing them over to your phone). Spotify did some changes to the way local files are discovered a few months ago, so some issues with the sync may occur occassionally (or the sync may not work at all) for some users.

Something that's worth trying out is uploading the same files (and not downloading them directly from Spotify) you have on your PC to your phone's storage so that they're physically present on the device and toggle on Show local audio files in the app's Settings - the app should recognize them now.

Note that some file formats (such as .flacs) may still not be discovered by the app. It's recommended you use 320kbps .mp3s.

In case you run into other issues you can try a clean reinstall of the app on your phone and repeat the aforementioned process.

Cheers!

[jan_rothenbusch]

I agree completely! This problem is still there. Its just not possible for me to deleted the Playlists which contain downloaded local files and re-download them again completely just because certain songs become greyed out randomly. Especially with playlists with several hundreds of local files, this is super annoying. One greyed out Song and you have to reload them all...

the suggestion to put the files directly onto my Phone ist not practicable for me either, because of the sheer number of local files in my collection. Also the options to customize the playlist order are fairly limited on mobile.

[Ej5s]

I have done every kind of wipe you could think off. I have removed every trace of spotify from my phone and then reinstall ect and the problem arises. I have also tried keeping the files "literally local" on my phone. It still happens to them. Basically at random, although more common when just booting up the app it seems. It seems this could be a Samsung exclusive issue, because before I switched to a Samsung, I only had this happen to one file over 3 years of use. I don't think there is a true way around this, it seems a patch is more than necessary. Btw this happens with every kind of file including 320kbps mp3s, and if I didn't mention it "clean reinstall" seems to have no effect.

[jennydeath]

Hey, I have the same problem for the first time today and I'm also on Samsung (A50), likely a software problem.

[Ej5s]

As confirmed by many users in a previous thread, people using local files on Samsung phones are having their local files greyed out randomly. When this happens, you can still click on them and play them, but they will be skipped in Playlists and they cannot be added to queue.

Uninstalling/complete wipe/ ect does nothing, and it is assumed to be a software specific problem. Is there any way this can be fixed? On spotifys side?

[OscarDC]

Hey @Ej5s,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community.

To continue investigating this case, would you mind including in your next response the make, model and OS version of your device, along with the Spotify version you're currently running? Also, do you remember if this issue starts happening after an OS update or app update? This will give us a better look at the issue.

Lastly, could you check if your device has any SD card inserted? If so, could you remove it, restart the app and try again to see if it makes any difference?

Hope this helps. We'll be on the lookout.

[Ej5s]

Samsung s22, base version

Model Name - SM-S901U1

Android 13

OneUI - 5.1

Spotify version -  8.8.28.409

The issue started as soon as I got the phone, and I've also heard of Samsung s10 e having the same problem. My phone does not have an SD card slot ( I have none inserted through USB C either). Forgot to mention that syncing them from your computer instead of having them on your phone does not change anything.

Here is a link to the original thread where we came to this conclusion.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Local-files-on-my-android-greyed-out-and-skipped-in-playlis... 

[Eni]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for your replies.

@Ej5s, thanks for all the info you've sent so far. We merged the thread you started on a different board into this one so we can have everything in the same place.

@jennydeath, @jan_rothenbusch, just to confirm, have you tried following the steps @Yordan sent previously? If so and the issue persists, could you send us the info @OscarDC asked for? 

We'll be waiting for your replies. 

[Ej5s]

Np, let me know if I can send anything else to help.