Local Files won't play on Iphone

[shannentaplin]

My Question or Issue

I have my local files working perfectly on my laptop and in the past, I have had these local files songs easily transfer from my laptop to iPhone, at the most, it would take half an hour to get to my phone but always worked in the end and would show up in whatever playlist I would put the songs into. 

But just the other day my Spotify app was crashing, so I figured to just uninstall the app then reinstall it, which obviously deleted ALL of my downloaded songs. After downloading all of the songs that are already on Spotify, I did see my local file songs were no longer playable, just appearing grey and unable to tap on, and after doing what I've done in the past to transfer songs from my laptop to phone, it wasn't working like it always would. I've tried everything, both devices are on the same wifi, and both are fully updated on the latest version.

I even tried un-adding some of the local files and re-adding them to different playlists, changing the location of where some of them are stored in my laptop, even trying newly downloaded songs to add to local files that weren't previously on my Spotify. But although the new stuff appears on my phone, and is playable on my laptop, it still isn't playable on my phone. I keep resetting both the desktop and app versions to see if it'll work and I've checked and rechecked everything in both the versions settings and everything is the exact same as it used to be. I'm not sure what could be different as this used to easily transfer from laptop to my phone and nothing is different but I see no reason as to why it won't let me listen to them on my phone anymore. 

[AdamDamon · Accepted solution]

Hi @shannentaplin,

Thanks for posting in the Spotify Community!

If you’ve tried all the suggestions listed in the solution to this thread and are still having issues with playing local files on your mobile device, I would recommend trying to sync your local files using a different network, such as by starting a hotspot on your mobile device and connecting your computer to the hotspot via wifi.

Let us know how it goes, as well as if you have any other questions.

Have a good day!

[ahuang1]

Hi, I've tried everything in the solution as well for my Samsung Galaxy S9, but I still can't play my local files. They show up in my existing playlists but are grayed out - some with exclamation points and some without - and will only play on desktop. They were all fine until recently, some of them stopped working so I decided to reinstall today. After clean reinstalling both the desktop and mobile app twice, trying everything here as well as the hotspot and other networks, and creating new playlists + downloading them, none of the local files will play on the mobile app EXCEPT ONE. Which is strange because it is the same format and lives in the same folder as all the other files... Anything else that can help me solve this? 

[Ver]

Hey @ahuang1,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

If the songs are grayed out, they might be in an unsupported format. We'd suggest you check this article for more information. Can you send us a screenshot of what you're seeing? We'll investigate this further.

If you're using an SD card, you can remove it, reinstall Spotify with these steps and then try running the app without the SD.

You can also try changing the source of the local files on your device. You can create a new folder in a different directory on your device and move your local files to this folder. Then you can delete the old folder used for the local files. After that you can try again importing the files. 

Keep us in the loop! If you have questions, you know where to find us.

[ahuang1]

Hi Ver,

Thanks for getting back to me. Strangely enough, a few of the files starting working again, without me doing anything. Then, I proceeded to download the entire playlist, which solved the problem for me.

 Thank you!

[Alex]

Hi there @ahuang1,

Thanks for letting us know that everything works fine again.

Sometimes certain features of the app may malfunction due to internal errors of maintenance. It's always a good idea to enable automatic updates, so you'll get the latest version of the app.

Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have more questions.

[FloatinqFox]

I am having the same issue. It shows me that the files are downloaded but they are greyed out and I cannot play them, not even with my laptop open.

[OscarDC]

Hey @FloatinqFox,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community.

Just to make sure, have you followed the process mentioned previously by @AdamDamon checking the steps in this article and re-syncing your tracks?

If so, we'd recommend double checking if the file types of your local files are supported by Spotify. Keep in mind that only files or downloads from legal sources are allowed in Spotify.

In case the issue persists after this, let us know to keep helping further.

We'll be on the lookout.