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Help A few questions about music, downloads, storage, and transfer

CoMaToast

CoMaToast

Well-Known Member
Ok, so still learning day by day with android, and am loving the OS, and phone more and more each day as well.. But here are a few questions.. I downloaded 3 music albums yesterday, and noticed ( when checking my storage ) that there was almost zero space used up? All 3 albums and cover art etc are on the phone, and will play great, but Im confused/.. Is this part of " the cloud" storage?


Also when I want to transfer music or pics to/from my computer, do I just use airdroid?
 
also I noticed that the 3 full albums I downloaded are the only ones tht are listed "on device" , whileif I switch it to "all music" all of my free downloaded songs are added as well.. This is on Google play music of course
 
Yes you can just use AirDroid to transfer files. It's one of my favorite apps, just make sure your using the same wi-fi. As for the music part. I'm not to sure as I don't use music much on my phone.
 
So what happens if I dont get service or a good data stream, considering the cloud uses data to play music from Google play music
 
Obviously, to stream music to *any* device or computer you must have a fair data connection. So if you expect to be where you have no data, put music on the phone first.

Music or any other files can be moved to/from the phone and a computer via wifi with Airdroid or simply with a USB cable.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0
 
I use GPM on my phone which isn't a nexus and it confuses me anyway.
I use it so I can get my whole 18+ GB iTunes library to play on my phone without having to pick and chose what fits onto my SD card.
I was always a little confused about where the "on device" music goes (so I can keep what I listen to the most to play when I turn my data off) because if I go to my stock music player it's not there...is it ACTUALLY on my phone?? It's like 5GB worth of music too.
I'm not complaining just confused haha. I thought that would be another major reason to get the n4, since it comes with limited storage for my larger music library - cloud. Wheee, cloud.
 
Ok... Im still lost... Last time Ill ask .. promise lol


Downloaded 4 albums from the play store.. When I am in GP music, I have the option to listen to music, either A) on my device, or B) All music..

When On my device is selected, on a few songs are available, why is this?

When on "all music" All songs are available..

So seeing that when Im selecting "on my device" < I would have thought those were on the phone, but they are not, when I look in ES file folder or Airdroid..

I tried everything and nothing is working for me here.. :(

Seems simple... but nothing is showing up!
 
Music from Play Music needs to be "downloaded" to be on device... when you click on the album (when "all music" is showing), you should see a pin logo under the name of the album... this means that the music is stored on your device :)
 
D-U-R-X said:
Music from Play Music needs to be "downloaded" to be on device... when you click on the album (when "all music" is showing), you should see a pin logo under the name of the album... this means that the music is stored on your device :)
Click to expand...


Yup I saw that under the drop down menu for each album... So why are only a few songs listed as " on device " when none of them really are?

I would have 'pinned'/ downloaded them to device, but that was taking way to long... over wifi/airdroid at least..

Now If I want to Download an album to put it on my laptop, can i download it to my phone, transfer it, then delete it so I dont hog up my storage? And if I do delete it from my phone once i transfer it to the computer, will it still be available from the cloud?




And Im guessing using a USB to hook it directly to the computer is the quickest way to file transfer?
 
The amount on device will depend on how you put them on there. I have 6 albums stored on my phone, which I downloaded from Play Music over WiFi, when at home... it took a while, but I didn't think it took THAT long :confused: All my music on the cloud was stuff I uploaded though... can't talk about anything you buy.
 
D-U-R-X said:
The amount on device will depend on how you put them on there. I have 6 albums stored on my phone, which I downloaded from Play Music over WiFi, when at home... it took a while, but I didn't think it took THAT long :confused: All my music on the cloud was stuff I uploaded though... can't talk about anything you buy.
Click to expand...

Ok.. So you uploaded all your previous music from your computer to your phone, which might be a bit different.. All my music is in my itunes folder.. When I would rip a cd I would just have it DL to itunes as well, then I would put that album in its own playlist, just to keep everything neat and organized , also easy to find.. I had ripped a cd a friend loaned me to my computer and Itunes, so I could make a cd for my girlfriend.. Ive tried to upload in airdroid, but nothing happens.. Ive made a seperate folder on my desktop on my computer, to try that way, and also copied and pasted , but no luck there either..

And when I say it took a long time to download to the phone from the cloud, I mean just one 14 song album was going for about 15 minutes and it was only at 19% done



Well I tried to DL ONE single I got for free from the play store, it was successful, and was pinned in the drop down box, but I could not see it in my file folder or airdroid.. wtf!!!!
 
Unless you are rooted you probably will not be able to see the files. I posted the directory in which they are saved a few posted prior.

If you really want music on the device I'd suggest removing the sd card and copying the files directly onto that from your computer.
 
CoMaToast said:
Ok.. So you uploaded all your previous music from your computer to your phone, which might be a bit different.. All my music is in my itunes folder.. When I would rip a cd I would just have it DL to itunes as well, then I would put that album in its own playlist, just to keep everything neat and organized , also easy to find.. I had ripped a cd a friend loaned me to my computer and Itunes, so I could make a cd for my girlfriend.. Ive tried to upload in airdroid, but nothing happens.. Ive made a seperate folder on my desktop on my computer, to try that way, and also copied and pasted , but no luck there either..

And when I say it took a long time to download to the phone from the cloud, I mean just one 14 song album was going for about 15 minutes and it was only at 19% done



Well I tried to DL ONE single I got for free from the play store, it was successful, and was pinned in the drop down box, but I could not see it in my file folder or airdroid.. wtf!!!!
Click to expand...

My music was already on my laptop. I copied it to Google Music. I then downloaded/pinned 6(ish) albums (over my home WIFI) to the phone (from Google Music).

I transfer music to my phone on an evening, connected to my home WiFi, so never really pay attention to how long it takes.

CoMaToast said:
Also when you rip or download music, where do you store them?
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean... My music is on Google Music and I store albums/tracks on my phone whenever I want... Can change if I feel like it. I still have the music on my laptop, as I use that at home and the CDs are all in a box (out of the way, as they were cluttering the house up) :)
 
I think you're not quite getting the google music idea (in the nicest possible way).

Google music is google's equivalent of iTunes. Trying to copy between systems sounds like where your problem is coming from.

The best idea would be to upload any music you have to google music from your PC. Then when you want to download an album to your phone, go to the google music app and pin it.
 
CoMaToast said:
Yup I saw that under the drop down menu for each album... So why are only a few songs listed as " on device " when none of them really are?

I would have 'pinned'/ downloaded them to device, but that was taking way to long... over wifi/airdroid at least..

Now If I want to Download an album to put it on my laptop, can i download it to my phone, transfer it, then delete it so I dont hog up my storage? And if I do delete it from my phone once i transfer it to the computer, will it still be available from the cloud?
Click to expand...

You're making it too hard on yourself. Most of us have iTunes as well. I still buy some music on iTunes because it has a MUCH better selection. But then, just let Google Music suck it all up into the cloud.

"Now If I want to Download an album to put it on my laptop, can i download it to my phone, transfer it, " You can access Google Music directly from your laptop - you don't have to download to your phone and then transfer. From GPM you can access from all your devices directly to the cloud.

You're right, it can be a slow to download the songs to your phone, but not that slow. At home, over WiFi, mine downloads a hundred or so in 90 minutes. Just get it started before you go to sleep.

TIP - you can pin by playlist. I have a ton of music, and instead of trying to keep it all on the phone I just have a few very large playlists that I'll rotate every month or so.

Have fun!
 
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