local files on PC not matching to local files on iPhone

[samantha_395]

I am attempting to import a physical CD to Spotify using local file support.
I've imported the album to iTunes on PC. I've added the iTunes Media folder to my local files sources and all tracks from the album are showing in the Local Files playlist in the desktop app as expected.
For my iPhone, I've synced and downloaded the album to my Apple Music app on my phone through iTunes and, like with the PC app, all tracks are showing in the Local Files playlist in the mobile app as expected.
However, if I add the local tracks to a playlist in either desktop or mobile app, only about half the tracks are matching to the same local file on the other device. The rest are all greyed out I'm unable to see all tracks in playlist on one app or the other.

[Vasil]

Hey @samantha_395,

Thank you for posting your question on the Community!

Could you turn your local files off, delete your cached data & turn them back on?
If the issue persists after this, try making two separate playlists for the local files from your mobile phone and from your desktop device. 
Check how the playlists behave and let us know how it went 🙂
We'll be on the lookout for your response.

[samantha_395]

I attempted to turn of local files both through the desktop and mobile,  clear the cache, and turn back on local files, but the behavior persists. It's still unable to match all the files between the two devices. The files that aren't matching between the two are the exact same files as before.

I tried creating two separate playlists. Created one on desktop, added local files through the desktop. I can see and play all those files on my desktop but only about half of those files are playable on mobile.

I am currently unable to add local files from mobile to a playlist on ios. That functionality appears to have disappeared with a recent update. Others seem to be experiencing that same problem: https://community.spotify.com/t5/iOS-iPhone-iPad/Can-t-add-local-files-to-playlists-on-iOS/m-p/55179...

[AeroZ]

This has been an issue since they introduced the new way of syncing local files. 

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

This is being investigated currently. In the meantime, try some basic troubleshooting like reinstalling and make sure to keep your app up-to-date. 

Cheers,

[ismahell]

I have the exactly same problem, I cannot create a playlist to the mobile songs because I have almost 400 songs almost and I can only add songs to a playlist one per one in the iPhone. Please help.

[Susan_GP]

Hi there @ismahell,

Thanks for your reply in this thread. 

The issue mentioned in this thread was fixed a while ago, and we haven't gotten any more reports. Just to check, could you send us a detailed description of the behavior? Do you not see the option to add the Local files to other playlists from your mobile? Or are you not able to play the tracks?

On another note, you can only move individual tracks to other playlists from the Local Files playlist on mobile. There isn't an option to add them all at once or select multiple tracks and move them. 

We'll be here.

[ismahell]

Hello Susan_GP,

The exact situation is as follows:

I have several songs on my computer and I use the local files option to listen to them on Spotify desktop, in playlists I created, everything works fine.
I transfer the songs to my iPhone using iTunes, activate the local files option on my cell phone, but several songs in the playlists do not play because they appear as "does not exist on this device", although they do exist, it seems that Spotify cannot validate in the right way that the music that is there in the playlist is actually the music that is on the cell phone locally, a few months ago this did not happen. Remember, the files in the desktop and iphone are the exactly same.

I left a screenshot below.

Thanks for your time.

[Yordan]

Thanks for the info @ismahell!

Just to confirm, the songs are stored in the Spotify folder, located in the Files app > On My iPhone, correct? If so, try rebooting your phone - this will force a restart of all apps and may help resync the files. Something else you can try is removing the greyed out songs from the playlist and adding them back to see if that does the trick.

If you haven't already, I'd also recommend checking out this detailed guide on how to sync the files.

Cheers 🤘

[ismahell]

Hello Yordan!

I've done it both ways, synchronizing my iPhone's music library through iTunes and also leaving the songs locally in the On My Iphone folder, I've restarted my cell phone, reinstalled Spotify and even my computer, all of this several times but it always happens the problem. Unfortunately I'm going to have to stop using Spotify to listen to local music as it's becoming very problematic.

Thanks for your time.

[Ivelina]

Thanks for the details, @ismahell.

On the screenshot you provided it looks like you've added the songs to a playlist made by you, but could you check if you're able to play them directly from the Local Files folder? Are they still greyed out?

Also, did you notice if this started happening after an update of the app for example or if something else caused this change?

Kudos for already performing a reinstall, but just to be on the safe side, we also recommend making sure you've cleared the cache in the app on your phone as corrupted cached files can cause issues with Spotify's performance. 

Additionally, check for any pending iOS-updates and if you haven't already, ensure you've also got enough free storage on your device.

Keep us posted.

[ismahell]

Hello!

but could you check if you're able to play them directly from the Local Files folder? Are they still greyed out?
Yes, all the songs are in the local files tab, but as previously mentioned, some are grayed out in the playlists, as if they were another file that is not the same as the playlist.

Also, did you notice if this started happening after an update of the app for example or if something else caused this change?

Unfortunately no, it was from one moment to the next that I realized this because many songs weren't playing and I went to find out.

I also tried clearing the cache without success, iOS is updated to the latest version too.

Thank you for your time.

[Ivelina]

Hey again @ismahell,

Appreciate you responding to these questions.

We think that the issue probably lies in the way the two devices (PC and iPhone) read the metadata of the songs and that's why they can't sync well. In this case, it'd be a good idea to start the process fresh.

To begin, we recommend that you remove all of the local files from your phone, then clearing the cache and giving Spotify a clean reinstall to get rid of any leftover files. After that, follow the local files upload process and let us know if the tracks are playable this time. 

Thanks for the cooperation and we'll be on the lookout.

[whispersnow]

I'm having the same issue and I'm trying to figure it out myself. I think the issue is in the duration of the songs. My windows PC and my iPhone seem to be rounding differently... for example, both calculate "Dancing Queen" to be 3:51, and that one syncs fine. But my PC calculates "Knowing Me, Knowing You" to be 4:01 and my phone calculates it to be 4:02. That one doesn't sync. I've only checked a few others, but the pattern seems to be consistent. When I check on my PC in iTunes, though, it says 4:02. Checking the metadata directly through windows file explorer says 4:01.

Looking at the exact lengths of the audio files, it looks like windows always rounds down to the second and iTunes rounds up or down to the nearest second. I don't think there's really anything I can do on my end to fix this unless I manually lengthen each audio file so that its length mod 1 is less than half a second. But that would be kind of ridiculous, lol. Is there any way this could be fixed on Spotify's end? It's not really the fault of either windows or iTunes, both of those are valid ways to round the length of a song, and the difference shouldn't cause songs to not register as a match on Spotify. Thank you!

[aidanSaun30]

@whispersnow, This might be the reason why the reason Local Files are duplicating without album art on my iOS device even though I have the albums downloaded on both Apple Music for PC and iOS.