Spotify can't play local files

r7nuk

I have managed to add local files to Spotify. But when I click on a local file, I get this error (in a blue bar across the top of the window):

Spotify can't play this right now. If you have the file on your computer you can import it.

Has anyone managed to get local files playing on Spotify?

From the research I've done, there is a workaround for Arch (which looks like it uses an old version of ffmpeg):
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/spotify#Can't_play_local_files
But I couldn't work out an equivalent approach for Solus.

Also, I tried installing the snap version. But there is a bug with the latest version of Spotify which prevents you even adding local files; see:
https://discuss.getsol.us/d/5495-adding-local-files-to-spotify-makes-it-crash
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Linux/Spotify-Client-crashes-when-adding-a-directory-to-local-files/td-p/5050848

Harvey

r7nuk
I just added a single song to spotify (snap version) to test an it worked fine.

r7nuk

Harvey
Thanks for testing that out.
Which version of Spotify have you got installed? Is it 1.1.42.622.gbd112320? (Under Settings > scroll to bottom > About Spotify.)
And which DE are you using? I'm on Budgie.

r7nuk

Right-o! Managed to fix it by working around the "can't add local files" problem:

Uninstalled third party version of Spotify:
sudo eopkg rm spotify
Installed snap version of Spotify:
sudo snap install spotify
Used suggestion from this comment to copy local files configuration file across to snap config:
cp -f .config/spotify/Users/<username>-user/watch-sources.bnk snap/spotify/current/.config/spotify/Users/<username>-user/

Note: I think this last step only worked because on an earlier version of Spotify I'd been able to add in local files (and hence the watch-sources.bnk file existed).

stalebrim

No issues here on Snap version. I use local files like every day.