Disable Local Files

[TheGreatPiggy]

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

Device

(iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy 9, Macbook Pro late 2016)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue

I want to disable Spotify from accessing my local audio files on the desktop app, but there seems to be no option, or even any way to edit the directories where Spotify looks. I looked at the help article here: https://support.spotify.com/is/article/listen-to-local-files/, however that was unhelpful as it's information didn't match my current desktop settings. The only options in the "Local Files" section of my settings is to "Show Local Files"--nowhere is there a way to "Add a Source" or anything.

[jsannn · Accepted solution]

Hi @TheGreatPiggy 

The "Show Local Files" toggle work as a global setting. If it is disabled Spotify will no longer look in any directories for local files. If you enable it, under the setting will appear another section with different directories which can be toggled individually and "Add a source" button from where you can add additional directories.

I hope this makes it more clear.

Have a great day.

[ShiftedPhase · Accepted solution]

For me, it was still scanning for local files for me even with "Show Local Files" disabled (which then triggers the download of music files from OneDrive).

After enabling Show Local Files, deselecting all of the music folder locations and then disabling Show Local Files again, then it stopped trying to download them...

[demodul8]

I'm having the same issue. Even with Show Local Files disabled it is still scanning my hard drive for files. This is causing it to download my 400GB music collection from OneDrive which completely fills up my hard drive. This is very frustrating and inconvenient.

--edit--

I just tried turning Show Local Files on and back off again, closing Spotify, and rebooting my PC. Then I started Spotify. Local files did not appear in the UI. After 2-3 minutes OneDrive started downloading my music again with the message "Spotify is downloading from OneDrive.

[demodul8]

For what it's worth, I've cancelled my Spotify subscription and am switching to a competitor because of this bug. After being reported over a year ago I am not confident that Spotify is taking it seriously or has any intention to fix it.

[pootify]

This doesn't work. Even with the button untoggled Spotify still is searching for local files and the entire app is super slow now.

[Ver]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for getting in touch with us. This sounds odd and we'll do our best to help you out.

The troubleshooting steps you've tried so far are very good. We'd like to add a few more.

If the option for automatic download is enabled, we'd suggest you disabled it. You can also give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. That way you can make sure the cache is not leading to this issue.

Let us know how it goes. If you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us.

[demodul8]

I appreciate the reply and that attention has now been directed to this issue. I apologize but I'm not willing to troubleshoot this further as it will re-trigger the download of my huge OneDrive music repository which completely fills my hard drive.

[Xenia]

Hey @demodul8 ,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Your stance on this matter is definitely understandable, but for us to be able to know what's going on we need to troubleshoot so that we can get a clear picture of what's causing this issue.

There's another thread on a similar issue here containing some solutions worth checking. We'd recommend giving those a go as this seems to have fixed the issue for many users. 

If after that the issue still persists, it'd be great if you could send us some screenshots or a screen recording - It will help us understand more what's going on directly from your side.

We're eager to get this sorted and will be looking forward to your response.

Cheers!

[demodul8]

I tried the solution from that thread and it did not work for me.

I have my OneDrive music folders currently synchronized as placeholders. This means that my hard drive only contains tiny pointers that appear to applications as local files but only exist on the cloud until they are requested by a user or application.

I deleted the local-files.bnk file from Users/your_username/Spotify/Users/"

I then launched Spotify and just as before it immediately started downloading my music from OneDrive. This is what happened last time, and it will do this until my hard drive is full.

Note that I have Local Files toggled off in the Windows Spotify fat client.

Thank you for offering that recommendation but it did not resolve my issue.

[Katerina]

Hey there @demodul8,

Thanks for giving this a try!

You mentioned that the Show Local Files setting is toggled off. If possible, could you double-check if the sources below are toggled off as well? 

You'll need to temporarily enable Show Local Files off to check this and make sure all sources are disabled:

Further, on the last screenshot, there's an option to "Learn More in Settings > Automatic File Downloads." It would be helpful to make sure that there are no settings enabled there that could prompt the OneDrive to automatically download content for Spotify, like your local tracks.

Let us know how it goes 🙂

[demodul8]

Thank you so much, this seems to have done it! Were the Downloads and Library toggles always there and I missed them?

My recommendation is to have these turned off by default, or to at least prompt the user. 

I appreciate your help.

[neeksor]

all these years later.. it is still happening.

if you disable 'Show local files' without first removing the locations to search for 'local files', Spotify will CONTINUE to scan for local files..

you must first enable 'scan for local files'

then remove every location 

then disable 'scan for local files'..

 that is a poor design.

spotify seems to want to continue to collect data when told not to..