Folders & playlists disappeared/invisible in library unless searched for

[chels3489]

Recently I reorganised some of my playlists and folders, and found that those playlists and folders aren't visible in my library anymore. They ONLY show up now if I search for them in my Library>Playlists tab, but that relies on me remembering all of their names. The search results is limited to just those keywords so I can't drag & drop them anywhere else or pin them. I can't use the "Recover playlists" option in my Account because technically I didn't delete any of them. This has happened everywhere I'm logged into Spotify including Mac OS desktop app and Android phone app. How can I restore them to be visible in my library normally? Thanks in advance!

[chels3489]

To add to my post: I can right-click on playlists in the search results and "Move to.." to another folder – that does them visible again. But I can't move folders that way (so I will have to recreate folders). But I don't remember the names of every playlist and folder that I have, so I'm trying to just search for a single letter at a time (starting with the vowels) to hopefully find them all. If anyone knows of a better and more efficient way of recovering these playlists and folders (making them visible in my library again normally) please let me know! ‌😊‌ I think this problem happened when I dropped folders inside of other folders, even though I've nested folders before, this time it seemed to make the folders invisible. 😖

[Elena]

Hey there @chels3489,

Welcome to the Community and sorry for the late reply here,

This sounds rather odd as you should be able to see even the folders that are inside of folders when you open them up.

Could you send us some screenshots or a video of what you see both on mobile and desktop when you try going through Your Library? When we take a closer look at the issue we should be able to suggest a solution to this.

Give us a shout if you have any further questions.

[chels3489 · Accepted solution]

Hi Elena, thanks for your reply! Unfortunately, I don't have anything to show you via screenshots/video because I've already gone through my library and rearranged it. I ended up searching for different letters and using right-click menu to move the "missing" playlists from my search results to a new folder. So I'm not sure where they were in my library before, because the search results didn't show me any kind of breadcrumbing to help me find them. So I guess I can close this thread really, thanks again for your reply 🙂

[OscarDC]

Hey @chels3489,

Thank you for keeping in contact. 

We're glad to know that everything is working fine now. We appreciate the time you took sharing what works for you 🙂

In case you need anything else, remember that we're just a post away.

Cheers!

[nindasaura]

Hello Everyone,

I have the exact same problem as Chels3489, and, paraphasing to recount - on reorganising some of my playlists and folders, some of those folders aren't visible in my library anymore.  They only show up now if I search for them in my Library>Playlists which relies on me remembering what folders and their playlists are called. I would like to see them listed again in My Library.  They aren't in "Recover playlists". So like Chels3489 I began to recreate my playlists and folders - thing is I have a LOT of playlists and it's a huge task to recreate - especially given they are still there somewhere but just not visible. Is there a way to escalate this to the Spotify Team? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Dian]

Hey @nindasaura,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

Are the folders you mean folders in folders? Are you using the mobile app or the desktop app? Could you try with a different device and account for comparison reasons?

And just to be sure, could you perform a clean reinstall of the app as described here?

Let us know how that went.

Cheers!

[nindasaura]

Hi Dian,

Thanks so much for your reply.  I am on a desktop Win11, Laptop Win11 and Android os13., Premium user for a number of years but new to the Spotify Community and in Australia.

I did the clean reinstall you suggested on my Laptop (also Win11) and no joy (including installing the .exe  from Spotify then from the MS store as you suggested)

I mean folders of playlists I've previously created in 'Your Library'. Many but not all simply disappeared from 'Your Library' when I dragged a folder to another folder in 'Your Library'. I have checked all the folders still remaining in 'Your Library' and they aren't visibly there.

Even though the folders are invisible in 'Your Library', if I do a search for a particular folder I remember the name of, the folder comes up in the search window  - see attach, in this example, zMyYouthAlbums is not visible in 'Your Library' anymore but is there hidden away somewhere as it appears in the search.

The playlists that have disappeared were of albums  and the albums themselves remain in 'Your Library" but are unsorted. I initially created these playlists of albums as a way to sort them (eg Youth, Jazz, Motown etc) as i couldn't find a better filing system option in Spotify at the time. 

I

[Yordan]

Hey @nindasaura,

Thanks for the screenshot!

Do the folders/playlists come up when you search for them in Your Library using the magnifying glass (or Ctrl + F)? It's also worth checking if you have set up a filter, as it it may hide some of the results. Try without any filters to see if you can find the folders that way.

In case the issue persists, could you let us know roughly how many folders you have? Do new folders still show up normally in Your Library?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[nindasaura]

Hi and Thank you for your help.

Looks like we may have a solution - I did as you recommended - searched
with the magnifying glass using No filter and then right clicked on the
playlist >Move to folder> then the list of folders that comes up includes
my missing folders. No filters were used and I tried adding a track to a
missing folder and now they appear again in 'Your Library" again.
They are out of order and all mixed up with Spotify recommended playlists
etc but it looks they're all there. I'll monitor for a few days and make
sure it remains stable.

I recall the Spotify filing system being tricky when I set up my folders 3
or more years ago and it's a shame it's still as glitchy. I also don't
think you can move Albums to folders - can you confirm if that's correct?
Thanks again

[Yordan]

Hey @nindasaura,

I'm glad to hear you were able to get the folders to show again 🙂 To better organize the folder in Your Library, you can set the Sort to Custom order and drag & drop the folders to the desired location.

As for the albums, I can confirm that you can't technically move an album to a folder. If you try to do that, the app will create a new playlist with the tracks from it.

Hope this clears things up. Take care!

[kikafika321]

 so why are folders which I created on desktop app not showing in mobile app? Seems like a bug and needs fixing?

[AlejaR]

Hey there @kikafika321,

Thanks for posting here and welcome. 

In this case, there are a couple of things you can do and check first:

• It might be a temporary sync issue. We'd suggest you clear the cache of the app on your mobile device to see if you notice any difference. You can follow these steps to do it.
• Make sure it is the same account as the one opened on the desktop app, as it's possible you opened a different account on your mobile device. Tap the picture profile at the top-right of the screen on your phone> go to Settings and privacy> at the top, tap Account. There you can find your username and the email linked to your account (if any).

If this behavior persists after that, we'd like to gather some additional info. Please send us the following:

• The make/model and OS of the affected device.
• The exact Spotify version you're running there.
• Does this happen on the web player?
• Does this happen with some new folders you've recently created or does it happen with all your folders?

Keep us in the loop!

[hefferkat]

Using windows, selected "move folder" option to organize years of playlists & folders. Every folder I moved into the new folder disappeared including the new destination folder. Recover playlist tool seems to have some of lost playlists but not folders. Had over 1K of playlists disappear from folders. No time to use recover playlist tool for all of lost playlists. Know others had same issue but no solution given. PLEASE HELP!

[rootedinsilver]

I'm a very casual user of Spotify, (yet I'm the primary account holder of my family of 6) and had maybe 5 playlists with less than 200 total songs in them.  Two to three months ago my entire library disappeared.  I've never created or moved a file, renamed a playlist and I haven't even added a song for months. There are no playlists to recover since it says I didn't delete any. I only use the app on my phone. Where can I find them, my poor lost playlists?  Help!  Holly

[Yordan]

Hi folks,

Thanks for reaching out!

You might have accidentally set a filter that's hiding the rest of your library, so try removing it (or changing it to Playlists) from the top of Your Library to see if that does the trick.

Something else that's worth checking is if you're logged in to the correct account. This article will help you find if you have more than one.

Hope this helps! Cheers 🤘