Local Files Not Syncing on Spotify iOS App? Here’s How to Fix

There’s this recurring issue of Spotify that we’re all too familiar with: local files stored from our computer suddenly don’t sync over to Spotify’s iPhone app. A quick Google search reveals it’s an issue affecting thousands of users. And sure it’s straight out annoying, considering that you lose access to tens or hundreds of local tracks coming from sources outside of Spotify.

Spotify, despite being the streaming behemoth that she is, is still marred with performance and playback issues that are too random that sometimes you get a random fix. This Spotify syncing issue usually happens immediately after a major update on its iOS app. Spotify could be introducing new features or purging locally stored data, causing synced local files to get wiped out.

Why Local Files Are Not Syncing on Spotify

There are a few reasons why local files fail to sync. First, you might have unknowingly deleted or moved the local files on your laptop. This action of course confuses the Spotify app on your desktop so it can no longer locate the local files. Second, for local syncing to work, in your Spotify desktop app, you’ll have to “Download” those tracks as well.

How To Fix Spotify Local Files Not Syncing

If you’re sure your local files are untouched and you encounter this Spotify synchronization issue. Follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have the latest copy of Spotify installed both on your iOS and desktop app, and ensure you’re connected to the same network
2. Restart both apps on your iPhone and desktop
3. On your desktop, ensure you “Download“ the entire playlist where your local tracks are stored
4. Go back to your Spotify iOS app. Go to Settings > Local Files and ensure Local audio files is toggled.
5. Navigate to that same playlist and click the green "Download" icon.

You’re done. For best results, also ensure your iPhone is not on “Low Power Mode”. Low Power Mode limits background activity such as downloads & syncs.

Spotify iOS App Gets Native Sleep Timer Support

Music streaming giant Spotify silently rolls out an update to its iOS app which finally brings a sleep timer support for its app. No need to separately launch the iPhone’s Clock app.

Setting up a sleep timer on Spotify

To set up a sleep timer on Spotify, be sure you’re getting the latest update of the app. While your Spotify songs are playing, launch the Now Playing screen, tap the tiny three dots that sits in the upper right of your screen, and then scroll down a bit until you see the “Sleep timer” option. From there you can set a timer from 5 mins to 1 hour.

To turn off sleep timer on Spotify, just redo the above steps and in “Stop audio in“ screen, just tap ”Turn off timer“.

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As a music app, a sleep timer is a hotly-requested feature of Spotify which lets you doze to your favorite songs without draining your iPhone’s battery. It’s a feature first introduced to the Android version last year. iOS users, on the other hand, resort to the iPhone’s Clock app to stop audio playback on Spotify at a predefined time.

Spotify To Launch Experimental Social Listening Feature That Lets Anyone Enqueue Tracks in Real-time

Remember the now defunct Party Player Android app we featured before that lets your friends update the queue and play tracks by simply sending a text message to an actively-playing phone?

It was one promising app back in the early days when subscription-based music streaming services don't exist yet.

Now, it looks like we're going to see almost the same functionality on Spotify, but this time using QR-style codes instead of SMS.

Spotify is currently brewing a shared-queue Social Listening experience that lets anyone with an invite add songs to a queue in real-time. The feature was first spotted by Jane Manchun Wong in an Android app exclusively for Spotify employees.

Spotify is working on Social Listening, letting friends to control music together with their own devices

Scan Spotify Code or open link for it to begin

For example, I'm listening Spotify right now. Feel free to introduce me new music: https://t.co/f59D0sis7Y pic.twitter.com/nPOlcPwQdG

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 31, 2019

Why Spotify's Social Listening Is Cool

Imagine you're chilling by the beach with your group of friends and you only have one portable speaker to share. Why not create a shared queue where everyone can become a DJ and collaborate? All you need to do is to scan a dynamically-generated QR-style code and you're all good to go.

Spotify is yet to announce the launch of this co-listening feature, which is expected to arrive on Android and iOS first. Social Listening should not be confused with Spotify's Collaborative Playlists, where the latter lets your friends update a playlist while the former is designed for a shared, real-time listening experience.

Now, your move Apple Music.

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How To: Remotely Control Apple Music on Computer, Mac Using iPhone, iPad

Since its debut, Apple Music has seriously got some mixed reviews both from critics and fans alike. Some discontented Apple fans called it “a nightmare” while others lauded it as a refreshing and a nearly perfect music app.

And if you are one of those Apple fanboys who are convinced that Apple Music is the best music app in the planet, then, you don't want to miss out this one cool interoperability feature of iOS and OSX: wirelessly control, play Apple Music on your PC/Mac using your iPhone or iPad as a remote.

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Spotify Connect is one sought-after, premium-only feature of Spotify that lets you control the music from any phone or tablet using the Spotify app. And if you're looking for Spotify Connect alternative for Apple Music, then, good news is you too can have the same wireless convenience at no cost!

Play Apple Music Through Your Speakers, Mac or Apple TV Using iPhone, iPad as Remote

Follow this step-by-step guide on how to remotely control music playback active on your PC, Mac using your iPhone or iPad as a wireless remote.

1. Download and install Remote on your iPhone or iPad

2. Once installed, enable Home Sharing on your iPhone. You'll be asked to login using your iCloud account. You should see something like this:

   

3. Turn on Home Sharing in iTunes on your computer or Mac. Go to File > Home Sharing > Turn On Home Sharing. Once enabled, your Remote app on your iPhone should automatically retrieve all your music collection and display them on your iDevice.

   

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4. Let's test it. Browse through your iTunes library on your Mac and play whatever playlist/albums you've got. As soon as you hit the play button, your iPhone should automatically pick the track actively playing your Mac, as seen on the video below:

You're done! You can keep the music flowing on your Mac from anywhere in your house using your iPhone or iPad as remote.

Works flawless on my iPhone 5 (iOS8.4) and Mac (Yosemite).

Caveats

Apple's official Remote app for iOS only allows you to choose music you've added on your library. The app can't let you search for new songs in the cloud just like what you normally do on Spotify Connect.

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How To: Quickly Move, Import Your Spotify Playlists To Apple Music

Now that Apple Music is finally out, you probably have given it a spin and eventually fell in love with the app.

It is hard not to fall in love with Apple's streaming app; its much larger iTunes library plus better radio recommendation make it really a prime music app you can't miss.

And if you've finally decided to move from Spotify to Apple Music, your next step should be: export all your Spotify playlists and import them to Apple Music all at once. And that's the painful part as currently Apple hasn't rolled out yet its own migration tool that makes it easy to move, import your Spotify playlist to Apple Music. And no, both Exportify and Beats Music migration tool do not work either as yet.

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The Fastest Way to Automatically Convert Spotify Playlists to Apple Music Playlists

If you can't wait to jump ship, Applefy seems to be the only best & painless way to transfer your beloved Spotify music playlists to Apple Music. But it only works on OSX right now and can be a bit buggy if dealing with music available in Spotify but not in Apple Music. Here's how to get started:

Step 1 Download & install the latest build of Applefy (3.02MB)

Step 2 Launch Applefy and login with your Spotify details.

Step 3 Select the playlist you want to export from the dropdown list and hit 'Save Playlist' button, as seen below:

Step 4 Navigate to your home folder and there will be a folder called Applefy (bring your Spotlight and search for Applefy. This folder contains your exported Spotify playlist containing MP3s.

Step 5 Open iTunes, go to the Playlists tab and make a new playlist.

Step 6 Drag the MP3 files into your newly-created playlist, and then Select all and right click and Choose 'Add to iCloud Music Library' (SEE DEMO)

Step 7 Once the songs have been registered, right click again and hit 'Remove download', you can now stream or download the full song using your Apple Music subscription.

You're done!

How To: Remotely Control Apple Music on Computer, Mac Using iPhone, iPad

Use iOS Clock Timer App As Music Sleep Timer for Spotify, Apple Music, etc

It appears that the clock timer app in the latest version of iOS is finally working. So if you're wondering how you can add that sleep timer functionality on your Spotify or Apple Music on your iPhone or iPad, then, watch the video below and see how it's done:



This trick also works on other music player or podcast apps like Pandora, Rdio, etc. It basically kills whatever media playback active on your iPhone or iPad once the timer's up.

The Quickest Way To Remove Duplicate Tracks In Spotify Playlist

If you've been using Spotify for a long time, chances are you've come across an issue with duplicate tracks. It happens from time to time and as more and more songs you add in your playlist, so do the problems that come with it.

Dealing with duplicate files is no easy feat, much more if you're dealing with a large, collaborative playlist. Thankfully, finding and removing duplicate songs on Spotify playlist is not that difficult as what you might think. Here we're going to show you can easily declutter and deduplicate songs on your Spotify playlist in seconds.

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Find and Remove Duplicate Tracks in Your Spotify Playlists

Meet Spotify DeDuplicator, an online tool that allows you to remove all exact duplicate tracks from a selection of Spotify tracks. The tool works this simply:

1) You select all tracks in a Spotify playlist
2) Drag-and-drop them to the the textbox just above the “Deduplicate” button
3) Press Deduplicate
4) Drag-and-drop the result back to your Spotify playlist (or in a new playlist)

As seen on the GIF above, you may need to empty the entire playlist before you drag-and-drop the results back to Spotify, or else those tracks will be added as another duplicates.

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So if you start seeing tracks displayed more than once in your Spotify playlist, go check out Spotify DeDuplicator.