Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Google Pixel 4, Galaxy S10e, LG G8

Operating System

Pixel 4 - Android 10, Dec security patch

S10e - Android 9, OneUI 1.1, Dec security patch

LG G8 - Android 9, Nov security patch

My Question or Issue

This question mainly pertains to Android, but happens on iOS as well.

I have a modest library of around 12GB/1,740 music files on my computer. I sync a majority of them (according to the Android app, around 900 or 1,000 files) to my Spotify library, so the local files supplement the files Spotify has available to stream.

Here's the problem though - no matter what Spotify version I use (Pixel uses 8.5.36.747, LG G8 and S10e uses 8.4.84.874), whenever I sync my local files (I do this by adding the local file to my Saved Songs, and then downloading that playlist) to my phones, it always misses a minimum of 10 local files, but usually it misses much, much more.

They are either:

1) greyed out completely with no download icon next to it, meaning the app didn't even attempt to download it

2) it will be greyed out but have a green download icon. The file will be downloaded to my device and can be played if specifically selected, but when queued up via "add to queue" or when it comes on via shuffle, the song will just be skipped over, like the file isn't downloaded.

Here's the weird thing: I can turn off downloads, wipe the app storage, and redownload, and the songs that were previously greyed out will be downloaded. But then some other random songs will not be downloaded. Rinse and repeat.

And note, this is all while the app is in the foreground. Screen timeout is set to the longest amount of time, the Spotify app is on. If the Spotify app was in the background while the files were syncing, then even more songs would be missing.

A theory I have is that the app simply can't load the library before it finishes downloading. I notice that when I download a playlist, it downloads two songs at a time while increasing how many files it has left to download. For example, 700 songs downloaded out of 900. It will go from 700/900 to 702/901, then 704/902, and so on and so forth until it eventually catches up to the songs left, which the downloads will then stop.

All files synced to Spotify are MP3 files. They play in Spotify Desktop fine.  The iOS app (8.4.79.933, any newer versions present the same issue as the Android app) on my iPhone X on 12.4 is much better, as in it takes a couple tries of wiping downloads and redownloading, but all songs are eventually downloaded.

Attached below are some examples of non-downloaded songs present in the playlist.

TL;DR: app won't download all MP3 formatted local files, will skip over them/download them but act like they're not downloaded.

Any ideas how to fix it/force the app to download every file?

First attachment is my Pixel 4, second attachment is my S10e. What's greyed out on the Pixel is downloaded on the S10e and vice versa, so it's not a file issue.