Spotify is a great music service, but it doesn’t allow you to play your own files. So if you want to listen to your local songs in Spotify, you have to either upload them there or use an external app. Luckily for us spotifiers, there are many great apps that allows uploading your songs into the cloud and enjoy them on every device that has Spotify installed. When you use those apps, those songs are not on your computer anymore, but still available on Spotify’s servers somewhere in the cloud. In other words: Your local files aren’t removed from Spotify when uploading your songs using a 3rd party app, they’re just “rented” to you for as long as you have your Spotify account. This is not a problem in the beginning, but when you stop using Spotify for a few months or so and next time when you try to login on it with another device, Spotify will “warn” you that some songs are missing from your library because they don’t exist anymore. After all these songs were removed from your local hard drive, but are still available in Spotify’s servers.
This happens to me for example when I’m at my parents’ home and want to listen to some music on their computer while they’re away working. They don’t have Spotify installed on it but I already own a premium account so I can simply log in there and stream the songs I want to listen – all this without downloading or uploading any files. But when I will finally go back home and login on my laptop, Spotify will tell me that some of my local files are missing from my library. Even though they’re still available in Spotify’s servers somewhere in the cloud. All you have to do is to tell Spotify that you don’t want to see any local files anymore, only songs from Spotify’s servers. Below you can find a step-by-step tutorial on how to do this:
How to remove local files from spotify
Making sure that you’re logged in and your local files are listed Log into the Spotify client (webplayer, desktop player or app) and click on Your Library or Account > View Account . You will see a list of the different media files available on your account. Click on new playlist and name it whatever you want to (e.g. Local Files Removed From Spotify ). Checking what local files are not in Spotify’s servers anymore – Open this web page: https://www.spotify.com/us/account/playlist/ – Click on the playlist you just created in your Spotify account- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Export local files
Make sure that all files that are not in this list anymore will be removed from your Spotify library when clicking on the Remove button. If you want to make sure, check a song from this list before deleting the local files. If you see a song there that you still want to keep, don’t remove any files. Spotify will automatically check if a file is already available in its servers and will then delete it from your local folder – otherwise it won’t do anything. You can now click on Remove and all local songs that aren’t in Spotify’s servers anymore will be removed from your library.
Only songs from Spotify’s servers will be listed now. That’s it! You successfully removed all local files that aren’t in Spotify anymore and your local files won’t disappear next time you login on a different device. As long as you’re logged into the same account, you can listen to those songs without having to upload them to the cloud first.