Emailed local files wont play as part of playlist

[asdfqwerasdf234]

I have always emailed myself files from my desktop to my iphone se 3rd gen to play on spotify. I save them to the Local Files folder from my email program. This has all worked fine.

Lately, files that I email and then save to Local Files appear on the playlist just fine. I can play them by tapping on them individually. However, if I play the whole Local Files playlist, the newest songs become greyed out and get skipped. I can still tap them to play individually.

If I view the Local Files folder in the Files app, the files that won't play have a mail icon under them and iOS offers to let me 'reply' to myself.
Maybe this feature broke spotify?

[asdfqwerasdf234]

To save you from the standard reply you give everyone:
turning local files off and on doesn't fix it.

clearing my storage cache doesn't fix it.

[Maria]

Hey @asdfqwerasdf234,

Thanks for reaching out on the Community!

Just to confirm, did you physically save the files on your phone after you received them via email? Also, would you mind trying a clean reinstall of the app? This will ensure that you're running the latest app version.

If possible, could you try syncing the files directly from your PC to the phone to see if it makes any difference? You can do so by following the steps under iOS > Mac/Windows (depending on your device) on this page.

Let us know how you get on.

[asdfqwerasdf234]

Yes I physically saved the files to my phone - that's why they show up in the files app.

I confirmed that I'm running the latest version of the app.

[Ivelina]

Appreciate the cooperation @asdfqwerasdf234!

Since you mentioned that the files that won't play later have a mail icon under them and iOS offers to let you 'reply' to yourself, could you check what format the files are in and if it somehow gets automatically changed? 

Some formats might not be supported and you can find more details about it here.

If it's the format that changes, we recommend trying to add the files in a different way on your phone than emailing them to yourself in order to test if that'll make any difference. 

Thanks and keep us posted 🙂

[asdfqwerasdf234]

They are still mp3s and as I mentioned in the original report, the files will play individually if you tap on them one at a time.  They only become greyed out and fail to play when you play the whole Local Files playlist.

[Eni]

Hey @asdfqwerasdf234, 

Thanks for your reply. 

Would you mind sending us a screenshot where we can see the mail icon and another one of the playlist with the local files? You can attach them to your next response by using the Insert image option in the post editor. Make sure not to send any private info.

We understand that you're running the latest version of the app, but in this case, it's  well worth running a clean reinstall of the app to get rid of any cached files that might be causing trouble. 

Let us know how it goes. 

[asdfqwerasdf234]

  Here you go.  If you just hit play on the Local Files list the songs are skipped as they are reached.  Once you loop through all the songs the full list shows back up again and the ones that were skipped are greyed out and get skipped again when they come around.

The Mail icon screenshot is taken from the Files app on iOS.

The greyed out list screenshot is taken from the now playing window in spotify

[Eni]

Hey there @asdfqwerasdf234, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

Would you mind trying to sync the files the regular way via USB to see if the same happens? You just need to follow these steps. 

Let us know how it goes.

[asdfqwerasdf234]

Copying the files another way works fine. I used the Files app to copy directly from my desktop machine over the network and now the files play fine in the app, so it's something about files saved locally from the Mail app.  Hopefully that's enough for your devs to repro the issue and fix it.

[Joan]

Hi there @asdfqwerasdf234,

Thanks for the reply. Glad to know it's working. Perhaps the files sent over via the email app aren't properly saved to the device itself and if the files themselves aren't available to play, Spotify won't be able to access them. If the same files work when transferred through other means, then it's most likely that the way the email app processes these files is the cause of the issue.

Let us know if there's anything else we can do for you.

[asdfqwerasdf234]

That explanation doesn't seem consistent with the files being able to be played individually just fine.  Remember I can tap on them to play them and they work.  It's only when trying to play the whole Local Files playlist that they get greyed out and skipped.

[Eni]

Hey there @asdfqwerasdf234, 

Thanks for your reply.

We understand where you're coming from and we appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us. We'll make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience, but we can't confirm when or if this will be fixed. That being said, we'd recommend keeping the app and the device's OS up to date so you don't miss out on any possible fixes or improvements. 

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.