Spotify and Android Auto are fumbling one of the app's best features

If you use Spotify to keep your personal music collection mixed in with your streaming library, you might want to check your playlists before your next drive.

Spotify local files are vanishing from Android Auto playlists

A growing number of Spotify users are reporting that locally stored songs (tracks saved directly on their phones and imported into the app) are no longer showing up when they browse their playlists through Android Auto. The issue was first flagged in a recent Reddit thread, where the original poster explained that songs that played fine just weeks ago have suddenly disappeared from the car interface.

The weird part? The tracks haven't actually gone anywhere. They still exist on the phone and play back normally through Spotify's mobile app. But the moment Android Auto takes over, those local files become invisible within playlists. A handful of other users in the same thread confirmed the exact same behavior across different phones and vehicles.

Album art is breaking too

The disappearing tracks aren't the only symptom here. The original poster also noticed that album art on Spotify's main Android Auto screen has gone missing, even though it still shows up fine in the task widget. That kind of inconsistency suggests something deeper is going wrong with how Spotify talks to Android Auto, not just a simple display glitch.

So far, none of the usual troubleshooting steps have helped. Reinstalling Android Auto, clearing app data, rebuilding playlists from scratch: nothing has resolved the problem for those affected. Reports are still limited in number, so this might not be widespread yet. But the people dealing with it are stuck with zero working fixes and zero acknowledgment from either Spotify or Google.

Android Auto really cannot catch a break right now

This comes at arguably the worst possible time for Android Auto's reputation. Over the past few weeks, Galaxy S26 owners and Pixel users have been battling persistent connectivity problems that make the platform borderline unusable for some. Throw in the steering wheel controls bug from the Android Auto 16.0 update earlier this year, and the pattern becomes hard to ignore.

Android Auto is becoming the weakest link in the Android ecosystem. I don't think that's an exaggeration. Every major update seems to introduce new problems, and the fixes always feel like they're one step behind.

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