When it comes to the world of music, Spotify has almost all the tracks in its database you can wish for. However, due to licensing issues, there might be scenarios when you can’t find your favorite local music files in there. I am a fan of Bollywood music but there are many albums that are not available on Spotify due to same issue.
So when it came to listening to songs on Spotify mobile, either I had to stick to what was available or open the stock music player to play the songs that are saved in the internal SD card.
- Both your desktop and mobile devices are connected on the same network connection. If you're on an iOS device, make sure you've gone to Settings Local Files and switched on Local audio files. You'll also need to allow Spotify to find devices in the prompt that shows. The file types of your local files are supported by Spotify.
- Actually, if you add local music files to a playlist in the Spotify Desktop Client, the files will be uploaded from your PC to your phone. They will be in an encrypted form like all regular Spotify songs.
- I have a fairly unusual question. I have local files on my spotify mobile app from a previous computer, I no longer have access to those files from that computer but I would like to access them from my new computer.
- The trick is getting local files onto your iOS Spotify app is to use the Download option. (Make sure you’re on the same Wi-Fi network!) Note: Keep in mind that you’ll only be able to play local files on your iOS devices if you have a Spotify Premium or Spotify Family account.
- I'm having the same problem, and the songs have disappeared completely from my 'Local Files' tab. It only happens for one song out of a 14-track album; every other song works perfectly and syncs to my phone. I tried the tag editing workaround, which makes the song appear again, but as soon as I try to play it in Spotify, it's gone.
I was desperately looking for a way to sync local music files to a mobile device in a way Spotify would recognize and play them. After spending some time on the app and online forums I found a way to accomplish the task.
Spotify automatically scans a range of folders in your computer’s hard drive and indexes the music it finds. Click Local Files on the left sidebar in the Spotify window to see them all in the Spotify window’s main pane. The first time Spotify scans your local files may take a few minutes, depending on how.
So let’s see how we can sync local music files to Spotify mobile app.
Spotify Mobile App Syncing
Step 1: First of all, we will have to import local music to Spotify desktop application. To do this, open the Spotify app on your computer and click on the Edit –> Preferences to open Spotify configuration.
Step 2: In preferences, look for Local Files and check the sources you want to show the local music from. You can directly add sources like Windows Media Player and iTunes library by simply checking the respective options. If you would like to add selective folders, click on the Add Source button and browser for the folder. Spotify will scan all the files and folders and the music files to Spotify.
Step 3: All the files you import to Spotify can be viewed and played from Local Files section under Collection in the sidebar. If you have too many files in your local repository, creating playlists from local files would be a great idea.
Step 4: Now connect your smartphone to the same wireless network and open the Spotify app. Make sure you are signed in using the same account that you are using on the desktop app and click on the Devices section under Main in sidebar. iPod users can use the cable to connect.
Note: Android users facing problems in connection, make sure you have your device drivers installed on the computer and USB debugging mode is active under Android development settings.Step 5: Once the desktop application identifies the connected device, it will show you a pop-up asking whether you would like to sync the device with Spotify. Click on the button to open the sync window.
Step 6: The app will list all the playlists you have created in your Spotify account along with local files you have imported from your hard disk. If you would like to sync the entire local library, check Local Files. The sync process will start instantaneously and all the tracks will sync to your iPod for offline playing.
The syncing might take time depending on the number of tracks you are trying to sync. Just make sure you don’t exceed the device capacity.
Conclusion
So that was how you can sync local files that you have purchased from different sources to the Spotify mobile app. As far as free users are concerned, I feel that you can listen to locally synced songs on your mobile. According to Spotify TOS, only on-demand mobile streaming requires premium account. As I am on a premium account, I cannot test the functionality for basic users, but I was hoping you guys can let me know if it works.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See#music #spotify
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Microsoft announced yesterday that the company is killing its music streaming service Groove Music Pass. The company is partnering up with Spotify to let users transfer their music from Groove Music to Spotify, which will let you transfer (almost) all of your music and playlists from Groove to Spotify. But if you have used Groove Music to stream music from OneDrive, you’ll probably be disappointed to know that Spotify doesn’t offer any similar functionality that lets you upload your own music and store it in the cloud. The music streaming service doesn’t have any built-in function for this purpose, and it also doesn’t let you connect third-party cloud storage services for this.
But there’s a small trick that you can use to move your music from OneDrive to Spotify. It’s pretty straightforward, but you will still need to store your music on OneDrive or locally on your computer. Here’s how to do it:
- Open Spotify, and go to Settings (using the drop-down near the profile picture)
- Scroll down, look for the “Local Files” section and click the “Add A Source” button
- From the folder selector dialog, find the Music folder (or wherever your music is stored), and hit OK. This will add all of your music stored on OneDrive as local files to Spotify. You might also want to remove all the other folders as they might have random files that you don’t want to sync
- Now create a playlist called “Offline” or just type in a random name, add an image for the playlist if you want, and hit the “Create” button
- Open up “Local Files” from the Your Library section on Spotify. Hit “Ctrl+A” to select all of the music from your Local Files, right-click, and click on Add To Playlist
- From there, select the playlist you just created. Spotify will then automatically all the Local Files to the Offline folder
Now, this is all very obvious and kind of pointless if you can’t stream these files from your phone. But Spotify has a neat feature which lets you download all the music in a playlist on your phone for offline playback, even if they are locally stored on your computer. Here’s how:
- Open Spotify on your Android/iOS device
- Go to Your Library > Playlists
- Find the playlist you created on the first step and open it
- Look for the “Downloaded” label and click on the toggle beside it
- Spotify will then automatically start downloading the files to your phone, and you can then listen to them when you are on the go
Spotify Local Files On Mobile
This should really help if you have lots of music stored on OneDrive that’s probably not available in Spotify’s catalog. The app doesn’t support FLAC like Groove Music, which is a bit of a disappointment if you like to listen to really high-quality music. But Spotify is still much better than Groove Music in many different ways, so have a look around the app and you’ll find some really nice features.
Local Songs On Spotify Mobile
“Goodbye” artwork by Michael Gillette.