Spotify testing local music backup on Android

Spotify currently supports local music playback through its desktop app. It is now testing the same for its Android app so users will now have an easier way to back up local files to their Spotify account.

This feature was spotted by Jane Manchun Wong who shared a screenshot of the new test on Spotify’s Android app. The new feature will be available as ‘Import’ under the settings menu. Here, users will have an option to “show device files” which will make all audio files on the device visible in Your Library. Users can toggle this option if they want their local files on their Spotify library.

This will be a great option for users who have songs which aren’t available on Spotify. Users won’t have to shuffle through different apps to listen to songs, and find all of them in one place.

Spotify does let you import downloaded songs but only from its desktop app. This too, is restricted only to Spotify Premium users. It isn’t confirmed yet but the local files support on Android could be available only to Premium users. Spotify supports mp3, m4p and mp4 files for local files backup. It doesn’t support the iTunes lossless format (M4A).

Until Spotify rolls out this feature on Android, you can follow these steps to import local files from the desktop app.

Open the settings menu on Spotify.

Scroll down to find Local Files and turn on Show Local Files.

Select ‘ADD A SOURCE’ to pick a folder from your PC.

Now create a new playlist and add all the local files.

Open the Spotify app on iOS or Android while staying on the same Wi-Fi network.

Go to settings and turn on ‘local audio files’.

Then download the playlist with all your local files.