Only one local file playing on iPhone, but not the others?

[kiran29]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

iPhone 12 mini

Operating System

iOS 15.6.1 / Windows 10

My Question or Issue

A while ago, I was trying to sync local files to my iPhone (7 at the time, now 12) but I couldn't, and eventually forgot about it. Now, almost a year later, I synced some songs to my phone, 4 in total, but they aren't playing. Unlike before, when they were greyed out and couldn't even be played, they aren't greyed out and I can click them but as soon as I click to play it, it pops up at the bottom for half a second like it's playing and then disappears without playing it. This is the case for all four of the songs, except one. For some reason, I can play this one song either directly on my phone or by changing it to 'Listening on my phone' on the PC app. Even if I try to play it on my phone through the PC app, it doesn't let me for the other three. I can play them on my PC, but as soon as my phone gets involved it doesn't work.

So essentially, 1 of the songs I can play on PC, on phone through PC, and on phone.

The other 3, I can play on PC, but not on phone through PC, and not on phone.

Thanks in advance for any help 🙂

[Yordan]

Hi @kiran29,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community!

Spotify has been gradually introducing changes on how local files are handled by the mobile app since the beginning of July. Currently, it's no longer possible to wirelessly sync local files from your PC to your phone. Instead, the files have to be manually imported on the device in order to be played by Spotify.

You'll also need to use one of the music library managing apps for iOS, like iTunes for Windows or Finder for Mac, to get your files stored locally and discoverable via Spotify on your iPhone. More information on the matter can be found in this article.

Hope this clears things up. Take care!