[Q] Best / easiest way to manage/sync music to N4? - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

What is the most seamless way to sync music files to my internal storage beyond the Play Music app? Ideally it would be an app / program that would let me do it over wifi.
For reference, I would prefer it to be compatible with a macbook.

JohnnyTA said:
What is the most seamless way to sync music files to my internal storage beyond the Play Music app? Ideally it would be an app / program that would let me do it over wifi.
For reference, I would prefer it to be compatible with a macbook.
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Seeing as you're a mac user, I'm assuming you use itunes. If so, try this out:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...wxLDEwMiwiY29tLmpydHN0dWRpby5pU3luY3I0TWFjIl0.

I use media monkey to organize all my music files. Then I upload it to Google music and it just shows on my phone without taking any space. Its worth doing specially if you plan on flashing Roms and wiping your data often. Google music give it a try. You can manage it online too
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Another vote for iSyncr. Works great over wifi with my Mac and iTunes. I've used it through 2 or 3 phones at this point, and never had a problem with it. It will also backup pics/vids from your phone to your computer.

Ok, thanks for the input. I'll check out iSyncr - I'd used it a while ago on my Droid X but it looks like it's gotten a lot of new features since then.
And to clarify, I do use Google Music, I just really don't like the app, so I figured I can use another player for local files and then use the google music app if i want to listen to anything not store locally.

Related

Syncing music and video to iconia....

Morning all,
Has anyone found an 'itunes' style program that will successfully sync music and video to this great little unit? Miro wants the USB storage to be mass, which won't work due to the whole mounting as a device not a drive thing. Doubletwist actually sees it, and will sync, but won't sync podcasts and when you go to DT on the tablet it opens ok but says there is no media there, but going into the stock music player there it is. Is there anything that I can use? Or we're all still waaay ahead of our time?
Thx for any tips/help
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
i've never really big synch fan myself, I prefer manual copy for the limited amount of video I've moved over, and used Windows Media player (gasp! I know...) to synch my 4-5 rated songs over.
Notalotta help I know, sorry :\
That's ok...I'm sure something will catch up, i guess i'm just resigned to the fact I can't hook this thing up the way I'm used to with my galaxy s and just drop everything on my external so i figure i'll just forget it's there for the time being....such a pain copying gigs of video over then having to copy again....ahhhhhhhh!
I'm assuming an update to Doubletwist will make this easier and more workable....but tbh i'm not that big a fan lol
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
You can always use windows media player or mediamonkey to sync with it. I use mediamonkey to sync my audio. I don't see the point of syncing video, personally, since I change them often, and manually changing them is quicker than syncing
I use J. River Media Center. It sees the A500 as a drive when connected via USB and will sync audio and video to it.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App
There are many options, they all depend what you really prefer. Just to give you an option from a different angle, which is nice if you don`t have a collection larger then 5GB.
Install SugarSync from Market and on your PC.
Move your music to a sugarsync folder
That`s it - now your Iconia or Android phone can stream the music from the server and you don`t need to worry about sync and cable, since it will sync automatically.
You can even sync music for offline access. This is great, if you want a hassle free solution for multiple devices. Sugarsync offers 5GB free - so for most guys that could work. On top you can enjoy all the sharing and backup options, the service offers. It basically is a dropbox meets Google Music Beta service.
Prolly a million apps that support auto sync to your a500 - windows media center, windows media player, winamp, foobar, mediamonkey - pretty simple to set up,

[Q] Manage Music Library?

I'm looking for a windows client that can manage my music. I don't want to have to manually deal with folder structure and drag/drop, etc.
I would LOVE something that could either:
- Piggy back off iTunes library OR import iTunes library
- Manage "smart playlists" - one of my favourite is having a playlist of my 500 most recently added songs, which I often play in order or shuffle.
A friend recommended DoubleTwist and I later learned it does not (yet?) work due to the Nexus 4 being MTP USB mode..
Double twist app works kinda like iTunes... App on CPU and phone enables it to sync through USB or wirelessly. I'm sure there are other ways
Use the google play music manager. You can upload all your music from your itunes with all your playlists. I did that and its good.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Have you looked at iSyncr yet? http://www.jrtstudio.com/iSyncr
hern1989 said:
Use the google play music manager. You can upload all your music from your itunes with all your playlists. I did that and its good.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
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Not valid in Canada...
I used to use a Windows app called mdSync, which worked very well with my previous phone with an SD card. However, it seems that the mounting of the Nexus 4 storage doesn't work the same as a typical, "removable drive" as seen by Windows. So I suspect for this reason, traditional apps which detect connected external storage devices will have some trouble...

Cloud Storage

I need help with Cloud Storage for my N4. I have an 8GB model and I have like 3 GB left of space, but I don't want to use that up since I have to leave some room for rooting with CWM, Titanium Backup, and a few ROM's. I want to put my music into cloud storage. How would I do that? What about my photos, documents, etc? I have Box and Dropbox for now. The music part is something that is important because I want to listen to my tunes on my phone.
nviz22 said:
I need help with Cloud Storage for my N4. I have an 8GB model and I have like 3 GB left of space, but I don't want to use that up since I have to leave some room for rooting with CWM, Titanium Backup, and a few ROM's. I want to put my music into cloud storage. How would I do that? What about my photos, documents, etc? I have Box and Dropbox for now. The music part is something that is important because I want to listen to my tunes on my phone.
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You don't need to leave room for rooting, just your backups.
Far as cloud stuff, Google Play Music. Can just stream all your music that way (as I got over 24GB of music, I wouldn't put it all on my phone but I can stream it no problem with google music. )
Music is probably going to be the bulk of your storage, aside from that probably movies, which I'd stream too, either from cloud or from home PC.
I wish the Nexus 4 was compatible with USB-OTG (without the extra power adapter) because then I would just use an 8GB Thumbdrive like I do with my Nexus 7 and TWRP Recovery (which supports USB-OTG), since it will save my backups directly to the thumbdrive, as well as install roms and such from it, no space taken on the device to do it.
kbeezie said:
You don't need to leave room for rooting, just your backups.
Far as cloud stuff, Google Play Music. Can just stream all your music that way (as I got over 24GB of music, I wouldn't put it all on my phone but I can stream it no problem with google music. )
Music is probably going to be the bulk of your storage, aside from that probably movies, which I'd stream too, either from cloud or from home PC.
I wish the Nexus 4 was compatible with USB-OTG (without the extra power adapter) because then I would just use an 8GB Thumbdrive like I do with my Nexus 7 and TWRP Recovery (which supports USB-OTG), since it will save my backups directly to the thumbdrive, as well as install roms and such from it, no space taken on the device to do it.
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How do I use Google Play Music to store it?
nviz22 said:
How do I use Google Play Music to store it?
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You have to download it onto your computer and sign in with your google account. It will let you pick which source it will sync and upload music from (in my case it takes from my iTunes library and uploads it into google). I think currently the limit is like 20,000 of your own songs on the cloud that you can stream to wherever you sign into be it the web or on google's music app on android.
If you go here: https://play.google.com/music/ you should see an "upload music" button on the top right, which on a PC or Mac will download the Music Manager.
It's similar to how iTunes match works, except free (but only supports Mp3, it'll convert aac and such to mp3 as it's uploading to the google cloud). You can set it to only upload that first time, or to upload each time you add new songs like if I add new songs to my iTunes library, it'll upload.
Just remember, on your phone if you "pin" an album, it saves that album locally to your phone so it will take up space if you pin it, but not if you just stream it.
kbeezie said:
You have to download it onto your computer and sign in with your google account. It will let you pick which source it will sync and upload music from (in my case it takes from my iTunes library and uploads it into google). I think currently the limit is like 20,000 of your own songs on the cloud that you can stream to wherever you sign into be it the web or on google's music app on android.
If you go here: https://play.google.com/music/ you should see an "upload music" button on the top right, which on a PC or Mac will download the Music Manager.
It's similar to how iTunes match works, except free (but only supports Mp3, it'll convert aac and such to mp3 as it's uploading to the google cloud). You can set it to only upload that first time, or to upload each time you add new songs like if I add new songs to my iTunes library, it'll upload.
Just remember, on your phone if you "pin" an album, it saves that album locally to your phone so it will take up space if you pin it, but not if you just stream it.
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Ok, thanks. 8 GB with no SD has people moving around to manage space. At least my apps don't eat up all my memory like some other people. I couldn't afford the 16 GB edition, but the 8GB model is fine enough for me. I love my N4 since I have been using it for just a week.
PS: The main annoying thing about Google Music is that they tend to add a "free" track/song to your library every so often. Which I guess isn't necessarily a bad thing, if it was music that I actually liked. But you can always go over to the left on their site to "Free and Purchased", and just delete the free tracks you don't want as opposed to sorting thru your entire library.
---------- Post added at 11:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:53 PM ----------
nviz22 said:
Ok, thanks. 8 GB with no SD has people moving around to manage space. At least my apps don't eat up all my memory like some other people. I couldn't afford the 16 GB edition, but the 8GB model is fine enough for me. I love my N4 since I have been using it for just a week.
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Yea I know the feeling, I have both a 16GB Nexus 4 and 16GB Nexus 7 (I didn't have a choice on which Nexus 4 T-Mobile was selling, but 17/month for the phone ain't bad if you look at the 60$ higher price as interest on a loan).
For music on android, Google Music (I use iTunes Match for my iPad, but I haven't used it in a while since I got the Nexus 7, and I already have an iPod Nano 6th Generation that's 16GB).
For movies or videos, I usually stream off my home computer using Plex, it's rather handy once you get used to how to organize the folders and file names (Plex seems to prefer Files like "Movie Name (year)", and if there are any subtitles you just name them the same, TV series are usually "Show Name - s##e## - Optional Episode Name.avi")
But course now days a lot of people use stuff like netflix, hulu, crackle, etc, but plex is nice if it's something not available on those (plus it's free outside of the app for android/iOS/WindowsPhone).

Music syncing software?

I am coming from an iPhone and boy boy BOY do I miss the seamless syncing between iTunes and my iPhone..
It was nothing short of great.....
Now that I am rocking an S4, I am definitely missing this feature. I am using Winamp right now, but its not very good at deciphering stuff..and Samsung Kies is a joke.
I am looking for a piece of software that would rock at syncing my music with my S4 in a nice fashion. Any suggestions as I am really REALLY missing my iPhone 5 now simply because of a very simple feature...
EpicMango said:
I am coming from an iPhone and boy boy BOY do I miss the seamless syncing between iTunes and my iPhone..
It was nothing short of great.....
Now that I am rocking an S4, I am definitely missing this feature. I am using Winamp right now, but its not very good at deciphering stuff..and Samsung Kies is a joke.
I am looking for a piece of software that would rock at syncing my music with my S4 in a nice fashion. Any suggestions as I am really REALLY missing my iPhone 5 now simply because of a very simple feature...
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Songbird for sure! Here's the Google Play link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer&hl=en
and here's for the desktop client http://www.getsongbird.com/
Really? Plug in phone, copy Music folder on PC to phone.
Not sure why you would want to use crappy software like itunes when you can just drag and drop your whole music folder.
I'd recommend isyncr, it works flawlessly for me
Sent from my Nexus 4
MHousos said:
Songbird for sure! Here's the Google Play link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer&hl=en
and here's for the desktop client http://www.getsongbird.com/
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I use poweramp. Will it still work seamlessly with it?
EpicMango said:
I use poweramp. Will it still work seamlessly with it?
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I know it will with the SongBird app, but not sure about PowerAmp...here's a thread on the subject though http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1562816
DoubleTwist works the best for me. Not sure about the other apps. It has a slight (but not very much) iTunes feel.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
iSyncr works great!
I'll also go for doubletwist. It has an integrated podcast manager as well.
geoldr said:
Really? Plug in phone, copy Music folder on PC to phone.
Not sure why you would want to use crappy software like itunes when you can just drag and drop your whole music folder.
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I agree, if you are plugging the phone in, just treat it as a drive and drag and drop. Syncing with iTunes is a big pain and a waste if you don't use song counts or any of that nonsense. If you already have your music organized by artist and album, then copy/paste is a lot faster.
alphadog00 said:
I agree, if you are plugging the phone in, just treat it as a drive and drag and drop. Syncing with iTunes is a big pain and a waste if you don't use song counts or any of that nonsense. If you already have your music organized by artist and album, then copy/paste is a lot faster.
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Exactly. Especially since Android runs a media scanner whenever you unplug, so all your Music apps like stock or Poweramp will see the changes instantly. And you can sort by folder so this is a great solution.
Reviving the topic, to see if anyone has a suggestion for PC software to sync music with the Galaxy S4.
I would prefer to have a program to handle this, so I don't have to manually build the folder structure (artist\album\file.mp3) and also, so I don't have to remember which new files I've gotten that need to be uploaded. Right now I'm using Windows Media Player, it worked reasonably well with my Xperia Ion, but with the Galaxy I have to stop and restart the sync and then stop it again, since it never reaches 100% even though all the mp3 files were uploaded. Also, it is not really syncing, if I change anything in already uploaded files, like tag or artwork, the changes don't go through, even if I manually delete the old file from my phone card.
I've tried Winamp, it doesn't recognize the SD card and wants to upload the files to the phone internal memory. Both Kies and Songbird never really connect to the device, they stay trying to connect for a long time. And Doubletwist Desktop does not update the music library when some files are added, deleted or changed.
SPOTIFY... 8 bucks a month for an unbelievable amount of music. The offline mode makes tracks accessible without and data and you can share music with your friends. You can also check out what they are jamming to and discover new music. I don't even know what people use iTunes anymore. Spotify also has a desktop interface so you can enjoy your music at the office on the Pc or Mac
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium
Thanks for the info. I'm not at all interested in all the "social" stuff, I just need an efficient way to sync my PC music library with my phone. I considered Google Music at some point, since it was offering 20,000 songs (double my library) for free, that you need to upload. Problem is that there is no easy way to tell the program to store it in a specific folder in the SD card. Also, I don't think you can just make the whole library offline, you have to do it track by track, or maybe album by album. How is Spotify in these two issues? Although, quite frankly, for almost $100 a year I'll probably stick with WMP for free.

[Q] How do I get music on my Nexus!?

"Syncing" music to my Nexus has been a massive headache since day 1. At one point I tried a solution I think it was called Synctunes, but the free version only synced like 50 songs or something.
I'm willing to make certain compromises at this point, but I'm wondering two things:
1) How can I get all music on my phone? I have it in a folder structure from MediaMonkey, but I don't believe it can sync to Nexus 4 via USB *or* wifi?
2) Is there any free option to SYNC music with my iTunes and/or MediaMonkey library?
I live in Canada so I don't have a lot of the options such as Google's cloud music manager solution
If you have a bunch of songs on a PC and you want to put them on the nexus 4, you can simply plug it in via USB and drag and drop the files/folder.
If you are looking to do this wirelessly check out DoubleTwist.
Chromium_ said:
If you have a bunch of songs on a PC and you want to put them on the nexus 4, you can simply plug it in via USB and drag and drop the files/folder.
If you are looking to do this wirelessly check out DoubleTwist.
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Thanks
I understand that DoubleTwist also requires the DoubleTwist app usage on the phone?
And hmm maybe in the past it was because I was hung up on SYNCING, but I didn't think drag+drop was even an option (although still to me it's a bit of a 1-time solution, what if I add say, 1 new song a week+1 new album a month? Hard to manage manually adding them!
The desktop companion app doesnt require the android app to work, it simply adds in metadata for the android app in addition to the normal syncing it does.
Unless you're really hung up about the fact that the desktop companion app adds in an extra folder with metadata for the android app, it should work as you'd expect with or without the android app.
You might need to wait for mediascanner to realize that the contents of /sdcard changed afterwards though if you're using a different music player. But it shouldnt take long/there are apps to force it to immediately scan on play if you want to do that.

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