Android convert! Please help!

[pthickett]

Hey Guys,

I am sure you get these posts all the time, and for that I apologize, but I can't find an answer yet so I thought it was about time I posted to see if anyone out there could help.

Basically I just switched from iOS to Android, no real complaints about iOS - in fact I really liked it, but I wanted a change and a bit of a challenge in learning something new. So I upgraded to a HTC One (AT&T). So far I really like it, its only been a couple of days but so far so good.

Anyway - so far I have been really impressed with google's suite of apps, the latest of which I have been playing with is the google play music cloud storage stuff. Especially because my macbook crashes when I try and sync my HTC with itunes using the HTC sync manager. So I thought a good workaround would be to upload my itunes library to google play (worked awesome) and then sync my phone with google play.

However I can't seem to find a way to sync my phone with google play. I can mark some songs/albums as offline, but ideally I would have them all download to my phone, and then sync when I purchase new music in itunes or google play? Also it would be fantastic if it would play the music through the native android music app rather than the google play app.

Is there a way I can get this to work? Any advice would be very well received!

Thanks in advance.

 

[WoohooGuy]

Google's Play Music is designed to stream only with the idea that your entire music collection would choke out your mobile devices memory. They added the ability to "pin" albums and playlists to your local memory for those rare instances you dont have a data connection, like riding a subway for 20 minutes.

Aside from pinning your entire collection to local memory in Play Music you need a different option.

You have 2 services available to you, Cloud based Play Music available anywhere you have data, and a second solution for syncing your music to your android.

The Play music manager on your computer can download your new play store purchases automatically and add them to a specific folder. The same applies to amazon.com purchases, and what not.

Using Play music manager, set it to watch your itunes folder and any other music service you subscribe/buy from. That way all your music is available in the cloud no matter where you buy it.

Using Itunes set it to watch the same folders, and the Google play's music location. Once Itunes is synced your entire music collection is available locally no matter where you buy it.

Now create new playlists in Itunes, or keep your existing playlists.

Get DoubleTwist on your PC or MAC - Love your music. For Android, Mac & Windows - doubleTwist

Get the DoubleTwist app on your Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.doubleTwist.androidPlayer

Now when you run DoubleTwist on your computer it will scan your Itunes install and make your entire collection available to your android.

Plug your android into the computer and you can sync it to your itunes collection just like a Ipod, in fact share and sync the same playlists.

Give it a shot, if you dont have that one song you want to hear you flip over to Play Music or if you want the playlist from your ipod you just fire up Doublesync and it's there.

 

[funkylogik]

Great info there ^ :beer::beer:

 

[pthickett]

Thats great info - after thinking about it some more I have realized I should try a different approach with my music management. So I went through and pinned my favorite albums, to make sure I always have them regardless of data connection. I will mess around with some playlists too. In hindsight it does seem a little crazy that I tie up 15+ gb of music with albums I rarely listen to, and when I do I am almost certainly on some sort of data connection.

Thanks for your help!

 

[funkylogik]

I think everyones having to change their mindset in terms of the cloud man. I still cant bring myself to get rid of my cds lol even though ill probably never have to play one :beer: