Local files with a space in the name get greyed out!

[devfusio]

So, whenever I close the app, even when the main Spotify that hosts the files is open, files in a few specific playlists with spaces in the names get greyed out. I've done a clean install of the app on my phone and I've attempted to move the files to a new folder but it continues. The weird thing is, Spotify makes exact copies of the songs, but it removes the spaces and they just sit in the local files folder of my phone. I would like to play them from the specific playlist though as it is an album. This issue only persists in around 3 playlists, others are completely fine with no issues with spaces which has confused me a lot. Please help!

[devfusio]

I also forgot to mention, these files were working for a month before. I was away from home so the files couldn't sync back but they stayed saved. This confuses me further because it shouldn't be a problem with spaces as, like I mentioned, other local files work with it, and it was working before?

[Prize999]

I have the exact same issue on iOS 17.3.

What phone and firmware are you using?

iam glad iam not the only one with that issue and I hope it will be fixed soon.

[devfusio]

I am using an IPhone 12 on IOS 17.2.1.

[Joan]

Hi @devfusio, @Prize999 

Thanks for reaching out. This is some very strange behaviour. Could you please make a screen recording showcasing the exact behaviour and send it to us so we can investigate further? If the files are too large to attach here in the Community, you can send them to us via Google Drive or as unlisted YouTube videos.

Keep us posted.

[Prize999]

Hi @Joan ,

so in the video you see that the app saves the files without spaces in the name and without an ‘ ( for example in the song Flossin’).

This is the reason why local files that name isn’t only one word get greyed out.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1__uluaG-kin6A9F5HmelWNEEVGyp1ttW/view?usp=drivesdk

[kixes]

I have ended up with this weird situation where it's the same song, but available on my laptop and my iPhone with different song titles. One version is available on the iPhone but not the laptop, the other is available on the laptop but not the iPhone, and I have no idea how this happened—basically I now have to add duplicates to a playlist if I want to be able to listen to these songs on both devices. It's super weird 'cos I did a clean reinstall yesterday and re-added the local files and it seemed to work fine, then when I went out this morning I realised this had happened again.

[Joan]

Hi @Prize999,

Thanks for the reply and the video. So far, we've never seen a correlation between the names of files and whether or not the app can import them as local files. To test this behaviour, could you make two copies of the same file, one with the regular multi-word title and one with the same title but all spaces removed. Then, upload both of these to your device and see if one gets imported and one is greyed out. Send us another screen recording of that behaviour so we can investigate further.

Keep us posted.

[Prize999]

Hi @Joan ,

in the video you can see that I imported the file with spaces in the name and moved it into the folder with the file where the spaces got removed. After that the file is visible again in the app.

is it that what you wanted to see? Let me know.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vHFDbYotk9y8r3pMitfWmSNe8B-FpaJv/view?usp=drivesdk

[Eni]

Hey there @kixes, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

Just to confirm, do you have the same song in your PC and iPhone and you're using the local file discovery? If so, keep in mind that since the files come from different sources, it's expected behavior that the iPhone file doesn't play on desktop and vice versa despite being the same song/file. 

On another note, the old Sync local file option is being gradually deprecated. You can try to use it by creating a playlist with files from your desktop app and then downloading it from mobile using the same network and disabling the firewall while doing this. However, if this option doesn't work for you, then it might not be available for you anymore. 

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us and will make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

Hope this clears things up. If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you. 

[kixes]

I basically have these files added to my music library in Apple Music on my laptop, so not sure where my iPhone is getting it from!

[akashnv]

Plan

/Premium

Country

United States

Device

iPhone 13 Pro

Operating System

iOS 16.7

My Question or Issue

Local files are failing to sync in my Spotify app. Some files I’ve previously synced are there but new files I recently added are not there. I checked and the new songs appear under the relevant folder under files->On My Phone->Synced Files. However the Spotify app is not able to recognize the file. I’ve tried every combination of restarting my phone, swiping up the app, toggling the “show audio files from this device” in settings etc. I don’t know the best way forward because the files exist in my phones files and the previous ones are being recognized by Spotify but the new ones are not. I’ve tried reloading the app, as mentioned before, but the downloading alert / progress bar doesn’t move and then dissapears.

[devfusio]

As you can see, when I redownload the playlist (while Spotify is open on my PC) they come back, but the second I reopen the app, even if the PC is still on they get greyed out, and like I showed there are odd copies with no spaces. This, like I said, only occurs in certain playlists and I have shown the one that annoys me the most.

[revilo32]

I'm getting the same problem, started maybe a couple of weeks ago. It's really frustrating.

[had2loginjust2cmmnt]

This issue has only been occuring for the last couple of weeks. The hundreds of local file songs on my playlist will randomly turn grey some time during the day and will be unlistenable from the playlist, however they are still playable from the local files tab. Today I realized the issue was not wifi, or the storage on my phone. It is partly both an issue of Spotify duplicating the files repeatedly, and an issue of these duplicates not having any spaces in their name. As seen in the attached picture, the original local file has a checkmark next to it, but it cannot be played. Instead, only the 3 duplicates without spaces in their name are playable. This is the extent of my research into this bug, and I sincerely hope it is fixed as it is by far the most annoying bug we've had on Spotify so far. A recent update is the likely culprit. Thank you for your time.

[had2loginjust2cmmnt]

It seems like the app is attempting to replace every song with a space or special character with a non-spaced duplicate, but our playlists are attempting to play the original spaced song.

[nnteri]

Having the same issue on my Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, using Android 13 and the latest version of Spotify.

The issues started around 2 weeks ago when I noticed that I wasn't able to play the songs synced from my desktop's local files anymore. Tried doing a clean install 4 times with different ways of downloading the playlists to offline-use (also cleaned the local files completely and removed all data).

- First I downloaded all playlists that I wish to have available for offline-use (multiple playlists contain the same local file songs and these were duplicated for example 5 times).

- Then tried to install only 1 playlist that has most of the local file songs (this time the duplications were only 2 per song...still all unplayable).

The duplicates are the exact song name, but without the spaces in the names (e.g. "Example Song" becomes "ExampleSong") and all of these songs are unplayable and are greyed out. However a small portion of my local file songs were not duplicated and I am able to play those normally.

Hope this gets fixed soon, as the local file functionality has been the major reason I've been sticking with Spotify.

[OllieLong]

After I download my local files on my phone then close and reopen the app, the songs grey out but keep the download symbol like what @bobs14 was talking about and I have to re-download all the songs. I noticed in the local files playlist in my library on my phone there is 2 of each track. 1 with the name I gave it and 1 with the same name but no spaces or brackets. For example, one track is called 'Oneirophobia (High Action)' and the other is called 'OneirophobiaHighAction'. They both have the download symbol next to them. The tracks with no spaces or brackets aren't in any playlist. Then after I close and reopen the app, the only songs in the local files playlist are the ones with no spaces or brackets and I have to download all the songs with the normal names again.

Is it just a bug that downloaded songs disappear after closing the app?

You also mentioned the local files sync process is undergoing development. Is this why I am having problems and I just have to be patient until development has finished?

[jigga7486]

I'm having the same issue on Android. Since this past month some update was pushed where local file song names on PC get downloaded to my phone then at some point randomly gray out. When redownloading the playlist, it downloads the songs again on my phone but saves the songs locally on my phone with no spaces between the words in the song. This causes an issue where I now have two sets of local songs on my phone. The first set is the local files from the pc which have spaces that are grayed out. Then the second set which I added manually to my phone that has no spaces between the words that works continously with no issue. However, this issue has only cropped up in the past month or so. It has something to do with how local files are saved and recognized on mobile having to do with spacing in song names

[TheGamersTG]

ive been having the same issue! its annoying, since i have put in local files before whatever update broke it and theyre just fine!!