I am a lifelong Spotify user, but I recently experienced Apple Music for the first time and have since had my doubts. I’ve switched back to Spotify because that’s where the bulk of my music library is housed, however, Apple Music is WAY BETTER at suggesting music I might like— Spotify has only put my most listened-to songs into a playlist.
- Download Local Files To Spotify
- Show Local Files In Spotify
- Spotify Local Files On Mobile
- How To Get Local Files On Spotify App
- Getting Local Files On Spotify App Store
Spotify is great as long as you don’t hit a bump with some sync problem. Oh, there’s the issue of your premium account not getting activated (or recognized in mobile), but that’s often just a server glitch.
If local files from your Mac or PC don’t get synced with Spotify and instead, Spotify shows you ‘similar’ tracks that you can download instead, that’s going to be one big headache. This usually happens when you have music tracks with metadata that’s way too similar to the ones Spotify has on its server.
- Rather than manually backing up, you can simply change the Spotify downloads folder location. Doing so ensures that you can easily access the files and even when you reinstall Windows, the files will stay intact as long as they are not in the C drive. You can simply point Spotify towards the files and your offline library will be restored.
- Above, you can see that I’ve created a new location to store my data at D: craig Spotify. The pasted Data folder here contains the contents of that same folder in C: Users craig AppData Local Spotify. Next, be sure that the two folders are identical. Look inside both of them to see that you’ve fully copied all of the files properly.
Why does this happen? The issue crops up mostly when you’ve got fan-versions of a popular song, or remixes and other modifications that leave pretty much of the metadata intact. This makes Spotify think that you’re trying to upload a song that’s already up there and so, it prevents sync and offers to let you grab the cloud versions.
Too bad, eh. But there’s a quick fix.
This is what you should try if Spotify not syncing Local Files to iPhone:
(make sure you use the same account on Spotify for your Mac/PC as well as for your iPhone)
Step 1. First, connect both your PC/Mac and your iPhone to the same Wi-Fi network.
Step 2. Now, open iTunes on your PC/Mac and you should find your iDevice listed under the Devices tab on the sidebar.
Step 3. Create a new playlist from your system (on the device) and place one of the local files into this.
Step 4. Open Spotify on your iPhone and then select the newly created playlist.
Step 5. Enable “Available Offline.”
Step 6. You’ll now see a progress icon right beneath the song you’ve got on the playlist. This will get the song from the cloud to your Spotify app.
Step 7. That’s about it.
When you add more songs to this playlist, they get synced. Make sure you don’t turn off the offline sync feature.
Note that there’s a limit to the number of offline songs you can have on your device (each).
That’s all folks!
Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback with us in the comment section.
The founder of iGeeksBlog, Dhvanesh, is an Apple aficionado, who cannot stand even a slight innuendo about Apple products. He dons the cap of editor-in-chief to make sure that articles match the quality standard before they are published.
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
Use the app to play music files stored on your device, which we call local files.
Note: Files or downloads from illegal sources are not permitted.
Download Local Files To Spotify
For: Premium
- On desktop, import your local files (with the 'Desktop' steps).
- Add the files to a new playlist.
- Log in on your mobile or tablet using the same WiFi as your desktop.
- Go to Settings > Local Files and switch on Local audio files.
Note: You need to allow Spotify to find devices in the prompt that shows. - Download the playlist with your local files.
Didn’t work?
Make sure:
- You're logged in to the same account on both your desktop and mobile
- Your devices are connected to the same WiFi network
- The app is up-to-date on both devices
- Your device is up-to-date
- The Spotify app has access to your local network. Check in your iPhone/iPad settings under Spotify
For: Premium
- On desktop, import your local files (with the 'Desktop' steps).
- Add the files to a new playlist.
- Log in on your mobile or tablet using the same WiFi as your desktop.
- Download the playlist with your local files.
Didn’t work?
Make sure:
- You're logged in to the same account on both your desktop and mobile
- Your devices are connected to the same WiFi network
- The app is up-to-date on both devices
- Your device is up-to-date
- Click , then Settings.
- Scroll to Local Files and switch Show Local Files on.
- Switch off any sources you don't want.
- Click ADD A SOURCE to select another folder.
Music from that folder is now in Local Files in the menu on the left.
Supported file types
Note: Some of your files may be protected in restricted formats. Install QuickTime on your computer to allow most of these tracks to be played on Spotify.
- .mp3
- .m4p (unless it contains video)
- .mp4 (if QuickTime is installed on your computer)
The iTunes lossless format (M4A) isn't supported.
If your file isn’t supported, we do our best to match it with songs from the Spotify catalog. The version we match with might differ from the original.
Last updated: 24 September, 2020
Show Local Files In Spotify
Community Answers
Spotify Local Files On Mobile
Play 'local files' on my mobile deviceWhat's the easiest way to be able to play 'local files' that reside on my desktop device on my mobile? After bringing them in to the desktop Spotify client as a playlist I'm able to play them there, a...
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How To Get Local Files On Spotify App
Can you upload your own music?Yeah, I've tried to figure it out but I can't seem to find how I have to do it anywhere..