“Song Not Downloaded” Local File Transfer

[Aryanmp]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada/US

Device

PC: Asus Laptop || Mobile: iPhone XR

Operating System

PC: Windows 11 || latest IOS

My Issue:

Hi there! I have been struggling to sync my local files uploaded from my PC to my iPhone. Whenever I try to play the song, I get an error message saying “Song Not Downloaded”. I have the song in a playlist, and that playlist has been marked for Offline Sync on all of my devices. I have even gone so far as to turn off my firewall and antivirus because I read in a Spotify community post that those could contribute to the issue. Still, though, I’ve had no success. Throughout this process, all of my devices have been on the same, private WiFi network. Any help would be greatly appreciated 🙂

[AlejaR]

Hey @Aryanmp,

Thanks for posting in the Community and welcome 🙂

So, in this case, you can sync the files from your computer to your cellphone through iTunes and then just activate the local files discovery on settings so the app detects the song on the device. 

So to do this, you can follow these steps:

1. From Settings, tap Local Files.
2. Switch Show audio files from this device on. 
   Note: A pop-up might be shown and ask permission to access your local network. Accept this permission to enable Local Files transfer between desktop and mobile.
3. Go back to Your Library and you should now see a new folder added Local Files.
4. Install iTunes and connect iPhone to the computer.
5. Open iTunes, then select your phone from the pop-up in the sidebar and click on the Music tab.
6.  Drag and drop the tracks. 
   Note: Make sure the option Manually manage music, movies, and TV shows is turned on. You can access this option on iTunes in your device sync settings, under the Options section.
7. Go back to Your Library and click on Local Files on your mobile phone, you should now see all available tracks in this folder. Note: You can refresh your local files by toggling on and off Show Local Files.

This is a new way that the Spotify app can help you find your music files that aren't hosted on the app. You can read more about it in this article. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Keep us in the loop!

[Aryanmp]

This worked perfectly! Thanks!

[Alex]

Hi there @Aryanmp,

Thanks for letting us know that helped 🙂 

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

Cheers.

[Moonbud]

So,  follow up to this. I have an iPhone, and I transferred local files right from the iPhone to the Spotify folder and it worked, now now when I try the same thing, it says song not downloaded. It’s a local downloaded file on the iPhone itself. Is it not possible to do this through just putting a file in anymore?

[31gxit3kblaqd5t2ucpy]

Can you help me make a local file public so nobody can not sync  to my pc so people can hear it anywhere they want because i want people to enjoy music that isn’t on spotify (yes its a kid friendly song) 

[Ivelina]

Hey @31gxit3kblaqd5t2ucpy,

Welcome to the thread!

Unfortunately, this is not the way that local files work and it's even worth mentioning that the synching process has been changed a bit so now you'd have to have the tracks stored on the actual device you're using. Once they're physically stored on your device, just head over to the app settings & switch on Show local audio files. If you like, feel free to have a look at this page for more info.

When it comes to content being available on Spotify, we'd love to have all the world’s music, but what we do have varies over time and between countries. It all depends on permissions from rights holders. We add new content every day, so if you can’t find something, it may appear (or reappear) soon.

Hope this helps clear things up and the Community's here should you have any other questions 🙂

Cheers!

[LoneVoice]

I have synced my local file playlists from my MacBook Pro Spotify account into my iPhone Spotify app. The local file playlists are there on my iPhone with all of the songs. There is a green downwards arrow next to each playlist and when I click on it nothing happens. When I try and play a song I get a message "Song Not Downloaded". It then says "If you own the song you can sync it from your computer". I thought that was what I had already done. What else do I need to do? I can play the songs from Apple Music on my iPhone but I want to try and get Spotify to work.

[OscarDC]

Hey @LoneVoice,

Welcome to the Community and thank you for joining the conversation.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, would you mind confirming if you've followed the process to add the local files mentioned in this article? If not, we'd recommend giving it a try to see if it makes any difference.

It's also worth performing a clean reinstall of the app on your iPhone before trying again as this process helps to get rid of any cache that might be causing trouble. 

Hope this helps, let us know how it goes. 

[LoneVoice]

I did all of this. After a quick reinstall some of the songs in 1 of my 3 playlists got downloaded and were playable. All of the songs had got downloaded and appeared in local files on my iPhone. I could play everything in local files but they were all jumbled and useless in this state.

I then did a clean reinstall and this time everything in playlist 1 got downloaded properly and was playable offline but nothing in playlists 2 and 3 got downloaded even though all of these songs were in local files and could be played from there. Something a bit flakey with the software I think. Do you have a solution for this?

[Novy]

Hey @LoneVoice,

Apologies for the delayed response. 

Keep in mind that the regular Local Files sync process is being deprecated. However, in order to prevent this kind of issue, we've implemented the Local File Discovery so you can add files directly from each device, instead of syncing between the desktop and mobile apps. We'd suggest making sure to follow the process as described in the previously mentioned article so you can sync everything directly from your phone.

Also, we understand this might be an inconvenience, so we've forwarded your feedback to the relevant teams.

The Community will be here if you need anything else.