My local files are not working and appear gray on iphone

[ItzErin]

Plan

Premium

Device

iPhone 14

My Question or Issue

I just got a new phone and my local files do not work on it. I have tried everything, and nothing works. My laptop works completely fine with local files and has cover art on it. When it was working on my old phone (iOS) there was no cover art. It still has no cover art. I have asked people to help, and they had me try everything and they even gave up. I have tried closing it and re-opening it on both devices, re-adding it, re-downloading it, etc.

[Jeremy]

Hi there @ItzErin,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community. We're sorry to see that you've been struggling with your local files on your phone. Let's continue to have a closer look into this together 🙂

Local Files on mobile have been completely revamped. We can confirm that it's no longer possible to sync files from the desktop app to the phone - instead the audio files need to be stored on the phone itself. Can you confirm if you followed the steps provided here?

Keep us in the loop so that we can continue to investigate this if you need us to.

Cheers!

[ItzErin]

It is also downloaded on my phone and it still doesn't work. I also turned on local network and its still not working. 

[Eni]

Hey there @ItzErin, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

Just to confirm, have you turned "Show audio files from this device" on in the app settings?

If so, would you mind sending us a screenshot of how the local files are displayed on your device? We'll take a closer look. You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert image option in the post editor. Make sure not to send any private info.

We'll be waiting for your reply. 

[ItzErin]

I am not signed in, but i have local files turned on and all the songs are download on both devices. when i play a song from local files on my phone, i get a pop up that says “Song Not Downloaded - If you own this song, you can sync it from your computer.” I click “learn more” and i follow the steps but it still doesn’t work

[ItzErin]

I just logged in, here’s the photos:

 

 

[Elena]

Hey there @ItzErin, thanks for the screenshots!

Are you trying to play the tracks from a playlist that they were previously added to or from the Local files folder you can find in Your Library? It's possible that they haven't synced up if you're going directly from the list, but you should be able to find them in the folder.

If not, it's a good call to try clearing your cache to remove any old files that might be causing issues.

Keep us in the loop!

[ItzErin]

i did it and it still doesn’t work and i have them downloaded 

[ItzErin]

 

[Eni]

Hey @ItzErin,

Thanks for getting back to us. 

Just to confirm, are you trying to play them directly from the Local files folder in Your Library or from a playlist that they were previously added to?

Also, we suggest that you check if the OS of your phone has any pending updates. 

We'll be on the lookout. 

[ItzErin]

Okay i’ll try that, thank you!

[ItzErin]

i tried that and it didn’t work

[Lyubka]

Hey @ItzErin,

Thanks for getting back to us!  

It sounds like you've tried a couple of things already, but we'd like let's try some more troubleshooting.

We'd recommend to try removing the files from the desktop app as it may cause a conflict with the phone app if they're the same files. 

If the songs are duplicate there is a slight chance that the app may be looking at the playlist containing the desktop app files and not finding the phone ones.

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.

[ItzErin]

I am trying to play them from both and they both don’t work

[ItzErin]

I’ll try that! i’ll update you in a second!

[ItzErin]

I tried that and it still doesn’t work.

[Eni]

Hey @ItzErin, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

In this case, we suggest that you perform a clean reinstall of the app on your phone to get rid of any cached files that might be causing trouble. This one is more thorough than the usual one.

Also, we'd recommend trying with a different internet connection to see if that makes the difference. 

Let us know how it goes.

[tobemaster1]

ive had this exact same issue and can’t seem to figure out anything that works. ive downloaded files in the past perfectly fine but now nothing works

[AlejaR]

Hey @tobemaster1,

Thanks for your reply.

In this case, can you share with us the troubleshooting you’ve already done? This way we can avoid repeating any steps. Just to confirm, are the local files on your device or are you trying to sync them?

On another note, can you share with us the exact make/model and OS of your device, along with the Spotify version you have currently running?

Lastly, did you notice if this started to happen after a specific event such as an OS update? If yes, please send us the details.
 

Keep us in the loop!

[bryonsbanks]

This is a complete disaster. The amount of frustration and anger this is causing me and many other Spotify users is enough to make me want to leave Spotify. All I want to be able to do is play a song I wrote for my wife on my iPhone. Two hours, followed all Spotify's instructions. Zero progress.