Playing local files on android spotify app

[froomepong]

I got spotify earlier today, and after setting up all my playlists on the desktop app, downloaded the mobile app as well. I have some local files on the desktop (taylor swift and a couple others), so when viewing these from my phone, they are greyed out, as they are local files. 

However, i am on trial of spotify premium, and my understanding is that i should be able to download these onto my phone. All the other songs download fine (the non local ones), but these local ones dont. Any suggestions on what may fix this?

[user-removed]

Hi there and welcome to Spotify!

Here's what you need to do:

open up Spotify on your computer. Create a playlist for your local files then add all the local songs you want to that playlist. 

Now you open the Spotify app on your phone and go to that playlist and hit the Available Offline button. 

Spotify needs to be running on both desktop and your phone for it to work. 

Hope it helps 🙂

[froomepong]

Hi there, thanks for your reply. I organised all my local files that are greyed on my phone into a playlist on my desktop. However, when i click the 'available offline' button, it added 2 of the 91 songs.

[user-removed]

Alright!

And you have the desktop app running at the same time you're trying to make  songs offline on your phone?

Do you have a lot of offline songs on your phone? Because there's a limit to 3 333 songs

Also, what kind of format are the local songs? I know that Spotify doesn't support  FLAC for an example. 

[froomepong]

I did have the desktop app running simultaneously yes. I have a fair few, but its not over 1000 so it cant exceed the limit. The songs were originally used in iTunes, so i dont think they are FLAC.

Just to clarify what counts as local files. When i first launched spotify, it imported all my playlists from iTunes. I then attempted to download these onto my phone, with the majority working, but some being greyed out. I assumed the local files were these greyed ones, but would it actually be the case that all the songs count as local files, so merging all the playlists into one big one then importing it may work?

[user-removed]

The limit is for offline songs, local or not. 

That might work, it might depend on how many songs it is though. 

But if any of these songs already are on Spotify I would recommend you to not try to add those as local files, just find them and make them available as offline instead 🙂

[froomepong]

I believe i have a general idea why this maybe occuring. Some of my local files dont seem to be matching up with the songs on spotifys catalogue for various reasons. Sometimes it is because the song name locally is example[explicit], wheras the same song on spotifys collection doesnt have the [explicit] part. So it plays fine on the desktop as it local, but won't download as it can't be matched. To remedy this, it should be a simple case of editing the names etc. so this is corrected.

However, this still does leave an issue. For songs that simply arent on spotifys collection (namely Taylor Swift), the song can't be downloaded to my app because it isn't in the catalogue. So is there a way of getting local files not in spotifys collection onto my phone on the mobile app?

[user-removed]

Hmm, I'm not sure that would be an issue though. I have some albums that's only available on Bandcamp for an example, and those artist doesn't have any data on Spotify at all. And I had no problem adding those local albums to my phone. 

[froomepong]

Interesting. Thanks for your help, I have sent an e-mail to Spotify support to see if they can help me further.

Thanks again!

[user-removed]

Alright, let me know if you find a solution 🙂

[88evan7]

Hey, I seem to be having the same problem that you're describing here, did you ever find a fix??

[Rollo_]

You can add an unlimited number of local files to mobile devices, PLUS 3,333 tracks which are NOT local.  I have most of my CD collection on my Android phone.

[MickAtx]

I can't add any local files on Android, no matter what I do. I've tried adding them from the pic (they show up but are greyed out and won't dl even though the Playlist is available offline) and downloaded them manually to my phone but the spotify app says local music isn't supported. I'm a premium member but now am starting to think I don't know need it if I can't play local files.

[froomepong]

Hi, I'm afraid no I never did. I got an e-mail back from support saying the below

Hi Joshua,

Thanks for getting back to us and confirming that.

As of now, we’re working on improving the way local files are synced to mobile devices from the desktop app. The option should return before too long!

We'll keep you posted for any updates.

This was on 30th of December. They also reccommended that I download quicktime, and that did actually help most my files download onto my phone. The only local songs I can't get are Taylor Swift, but I'm not holding my breath over it getting fixed soon. Fingers crossed she agrees to her music being on spotify.