Spotify Free won't allow me to download local files

[JdCRC]

Plan

Free

My Question or Issue

I always download my local files from PC to Spotify Mobile by including all of them in a playlist and then downloading the playlist on mobile with Spotify open on PC, this is with a free plan. Now it says that I need Premium to download playlists (obviously for online music), but I believe it should allow me to do so with my playlist of local files and a free plan. Am I wrong?

[Yordan]

Hey @JdCRC!

Try uploading the local files directly on your phone as well instead of downloading the playlist. The files should sync afterwards. Make sure to check out the articles below for more info on how to transfer the songs from your PC to your phone:

• Local Files
• Local File Discovery iOS

That way you don't have to download the whole playlist if you only want to listen to the local files you've added: because they don't require internet connection, you can access them anytime. You can simply tap the Play button on your playlist and the app will automatically filter out the rest of the songs.

The message saying you need to upgrade to Premium pops up since the app thinks you want to download the whole playlist for offline listening, which is indeed a feature limited to Premium users only.

Hope this clears things up. Cheers!

[JdCRC]

Thanks for the reply.

I tried to upload the files on my phone but that brings other audio files which aren't music. I tapped Play on the playlist but it will only work when Spotify is also open in PC. That's why downloading the whole playlist was perfect for me but something changed in the last update and I can't do that anymore.

Is there another solution, or should this feature work as I have always used it?

[Yordan · Accepted solution]

Hi again @JdCRC!

The way local files work was changed a couple of months ago, so it's no longer possible to download the playlist on your phone to sync the local files from your PC. Instead, the same files have to be manually imported to your phone as well.

Are the local files in the playlist greyed out? If so, then they aren't properly synced, so try uploading them again by following the steps from the aforementioned articles. Make sure also that they are in .mp3 format, as Spotify works best with .mp3s.

If you still experience issues with the files, try changing their metadata and reupload them to your phone to see if that does the trick.

Let us know how it goes.

[JdCRC]

Ok, so I copied the local files to my phone and moved them to a separate playlist so they are apart from other mp3s that are on my device. The process is still a bit akward in my opinion, but it worked out. Hopefully one day there will be a new feature that allows me to select which files I want on Spotify apart from those which aren't music. Thanks for your help!

[AlejaR]

Hey @JdCRC,

Thanks for your reply.

We really appreciate you keeping us in the loop, and we're glad you could sort this out.

We'd like you to know that another user had a similar idea and posted it here. Even though the status is set as Closed - Not Enough Votes, it doesn't mean the idea has been rejected. We’d suggest adding your vote and subscribing to it to get notified as soon as we have any updates to share.

Hope this clears things up. If you have any questions or need anything else, the Community is here for you.