Some Local files downloading but graying out everytime opening app? IPhone

[rainwa]

Every time I open the app it'll start to download only the local files on my downloaded liked songs playlist. At first some songs even work and I can play them just fine only for them to grey out mid listen, yet they'll still be playing unless I click off the song and try to go back. I even have every song on my phones files synced that play just fine there, but half of them won't play on Spotify besides the most random ones, which will download and work every time I open the app. I've done every basic "fix" already even some out there ones involving iTunes or firewall settings. Really is just annoying, please help.

[rainwa]

Here videos showing what I mean. At first this was only something happening to the newest batch of local files songs but in the attempt to fix those I had to redownload my entire library so the rest of the local files got messed up in the process.

[AlejaR]

Hey @rainwa,

Thanks for posting in the Community and welcome. 

We really appreciate the video you kindly sent us. Would you mind letting us know exactly what troubleshooting steps you've tried so far? That way we can avoid repeating any. If you haven't yet, you can try:

• Reinstalling the app on your iPhone. By doing that, the app can be up-to-date, and you can make sure some damaged cache is not leading to this inconvenience. You can see the steps for a clean reinstall here.
• Removing some of the folders you've created on the Spotify folder within iOS files to see if you noticed any difference.

If this behavior should persist after that, we'd like to gather some additional info:

• Please send us the exact model and OS of your device along with the Spotify version you're running there.
• We'd like to know if it's always behaved like that or if this behavior started after a specific event/OS update.
• Does this happen on other playlists or just happens on the Liked Songs playlist? It'd be awesome if you could check.

Keep us in the loop!

[rainwa]

I have already logged out and in on both devices, reinstalled on both devices, cleared cache, moved where the files are stored on my laptop, went offline then back online to re-sync, made sure firewall settings on laptop are as they should be, followed a tutorial based around an ITunes fix, downloading a separate playlist only of the local files, made sure all correct settings are turned on on my Iphone, possibly more but thats what I can remember for sure.

The folders on my phone were automatically created either once downloading the songs originally or after the ITunes method, not sure which though. Deleting one of the folders on my phone with a song that previously didn't work doesn't appear to do anything, the song still doesn't work. However when deleting a folder of a song that was working originally, that song also no longer works and will attempt to download but will fail. 

Not sure exactly what you mean but I have  an IPhone 13 pro max, version 17.4.1, spotify version 8.9.38.455
for my laptop its 
Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.37.701.ge66eb7bc
Not sure if this happened after a specific update, but this definitely is new behavior. Last time I downloaded any local files songs was November 13 2023, up until a week ago when it stopped working properly.
This also happens on other playlists, I made a specific playlist just for local files and the same ones that do or don't work there are the same ones on my liked songs.

[MartinT]

Hey @rainwa,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community. 

Just to confirm, do you have the same songs in your PC and iPhone and you're using the local file discovery? If so, keep in mind that as the files come from different sources, it's expected behavior that the iPhone file doesn't play on desktop and vice versa despite being the same song/file. 

On another note, the old Sync local file option is being gradually deprecated. You can try to use it by creating a playlist with files from your desktop app and then downloading it from mobile using the same network and disabling the firewall while doing this. However, if this option doesn't work for you, then it might not be available for you anymore.

Hope this clears things up. If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.

[rainwa]

I already did everything you said, "old Sync local file option is being gradually deprecated" so local files from desktop can't be downloaded onto phones anymore at all??? Or am I misunderstanding?

[rainwa · Accepted solution]

Okay I figured out a way to do it, basically after downloading all the songs to my files on IPhone, still not sure how, (could either be just them downloading it's self onto my phone, or through the ITunes method) going onto the local files folder on my Iphone apparently has different files than the ones on my laptop so I had to re-add all of the ones on my phone to my liked songs. Annoyed that I have to have two of the same song one for laptop one for IPhone in the same playlist but whatever at least I get to listen to them.

I apparently only needed to do this with the songs that weren't working, because I guess Spotify only decides to sync a handful of random songs, the ones already synced will actually fail to download to your liked if you try downloading the iPhone versions, meanwhile the ones that originally weren't working did download from my phone. I really thought Spotify slowly stopping the syncing thing would mean with different users, not with different songs within your playlists, but whatever. Spotify needs to hurry up, make a decision, and finalize it because this whole process was really annoying and messy. Thank you to the Moderators who helped though.