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Problems Loading Music on Phone

B

boweasel

Lurker
I have a UMX android phone Which I've never used for listening to music until now.

When I plug the phone into the computer it opens up another drive on the computer. One of the folders on this drive is Music and I've been able to copy music folders from my PC into this folder and listen to them via ear buds when I'm at the gym.

However I have a number of folders that I've manually created on the PC. Let's just say one of them is a Beach Boys folder and I've created this folder from songs on many of the Beach Boys folders already on my PC.

When, using the computer I drag this new compilation folder into the Android music folder it looks great on the computer. But when I open the music icon on my phone I don't just have the any Beach Boys compilation folder. Instead I have folders for all of the BBs albums that have the songs I used to make the compilation computer.

I tried copying the compilation to an external drive - one with no BBs music, and then using the PC to copy the folder to the Music folder for the Android phone. Once again it looked fine on the computer, but the phone had multiple Beach Boys albums.

Sounds too weird to be true. But I thought a forum devoted to Android phones might have someone who has an answer.
 
Try creating a Beach Boys folder under the Music folder on your phone. Then mass mark the files within the folder on the PC and copy them into the new BB folder on the phone.
 
olbriar said:
Try creating a Beach Boys folder under the Music folder on your phone. Then mass mark the files within the folder on the PC and copy them into the new BB folder on the phone.
Click to expand...
Thanks olbriar, and when I ran into problems, that was my next thought. The only difficulty: I know computers, but I don't know squat about Android phones. I can easily do this with File Explorer (and did when I created the compilation before moving it to the Android Music folder). But I have no idea how to do any of that on my phone. I don't even know how to directly delete all those Beach Boys folders through the phone, although if I delete the compilation in the Android/Music folder (using the computer, of course) then all the Beach Boys albums that got added to the phone do disappear. There seems to be no facility for creating a folder on the phone, and the populating that folder with the tunes I want. Actually I'm sure there is a way to do it, but I sure can't figure it out. Is there some sort of app that needs to be downloaded on my phone? Android Music for Idiots?

Embarrassingly, I'm a retired computer programmer, and I fix computers for my friends and neighbors in the little town in Pennsylvania. It just seems like my mindset isn't geared for the way this phone works.
 
You should have a app already on your phone called files or my files or file explorer.... You would use this app much like windows explorer, and navigate to your music folders. Long press on a folder to delete them.
 
Dannydet said:
You should have a app already on your phone called files or my files or file explorer.... You would use this app much like windows explorer, and navigate to your music folders. Long press on a folder to delete them.
Click to expand...
On the phone I have an app that came pre-installed called File Manager. When I open it there is a list of folders (Download, Movies, Pictures, Music, etc). Opening the Music folder displays all the folders I transferred to the phone. The compilation is there and clicking on it displays the songs in that compilation. It is the only Beach Boys folder listed. The sticking point is that I don't know how to play the songs from there. The only method I know of to play anything on the phone is to click on the app icon labeled Music. All of the other albums that I transferred to the phone are there. When I click on an album it displays the contents. Clicking 3 vertical dots in the upper right gives me the option of Play all. However, there are multiple Beach Boys albums listed in the Music icon. None of them are the compilation listed in the File Manager app.
 
Delete all of the beach boys folders using the file manager app.
Then copy 1 Beach Boys folder to your Music folder. I don't care how you get them there.
THEN please install a music player app from the play store.... Any will do. Then try playing the music by opening the music player app. Post your results. You will not PLAY these files using your file manager app....
 
Dannydet said:
Delete all of the beach boys folders using the file manager app.
Click to expand...
Done. Although using the file mgr app, there is only 1 Beach Boys file to delete - the compilation. The complete file path is This PC\U683CL\Internal shared storage\Music. U683CL is the folder that pops up on the computer when I plug my phone into the PC via USB connector. When I delete the compilation it also gets rid of the BB albums that are on or in that main screen music icon
Dannydet said:
Then copy 1 Beach Boys folder to your Music folder.
Click to expand...
Here's where I lose focus... What Music folder? I seem to have only one music folder on this phone - the one in U683CL. The very folder where I just deleted the BBs compilation. When I re-transfer the compilation from the computer back to that folder, I grant you the folder in U683CL.../Music looks fine. But I installed Audify Music Player on the phone and when I open the player, make it display albums, the compilation is not there - just the albums I used to create the compilation.

When I try to play music on this phone it opens whatever is in that music icon on the main screen of the phone. And although the U683CL music folder has the compilation, I cannot play it ....
 
Something to keep in mind is when you're using both a file manager app on your phone and a file manager utility on a computer, they're doing file/folder management in very different ways.
-- When you use the file manage app on your phone, it's an Android app that's fully compatible with the operating system and the file system (in this case, ext4). It's running natively and the only limitations on it are because it's a user-level app so it doesn't have complete access to system-level files/folders.
-- When you are using the file manager utility on your PC, it's running a different operating system so every time you're accessing your phone it will be trying, in a very limited way, to work with a different operating system that uses a very different file system. Things like handling metadata on files, or permissions for files/folders are also an issue.
I'd redirect your focus on getting more accustomed to the file manager app on your phone to do all your file and folder management tasks, and just use the file manager on your PC as a transfer utility.
 
boweasel said:
However I have a number of folders that I've manually created on the PC. Let's just say one of them is a Beach Boys folder and I've created this folder from songs on many of the Beach Boys folders already on my PC.
Click to expand...

It sounds like your compilation are just links, a playlist so to speak. Won't work that way.
 
Dannydet said:
So I think we are getting somewhere now.
/QUOTE]
I'm glad at least one of us thinks so....
Dannydet said:
Your compilation is actually a Playlist, so you'll need to play the Playlist file.
https://www.lifewire.com/m3u-file-2621955
Click to expand...
Hmmm, the link you supplied refers to M3U files. When I look at the contents of the albums in that music folder in the U683CL path, they're all mp3 files, including the compilation.

What the h is wrong with the way these phones are engineered? On a computer I can very simply create a folder containing whatever kind of music I want. When I right-click on that folder in file explorer I can select to play that folder with WinAmp or WMP or foobar. Easy-peasy. No need to fiddle with playlists. I naively assumed that the same simplicity of operation would apply to Android phones.

But even though I found nothing helpful in your link, I did manage to create a playlist, a playlist I can get to with the Audify Music Player. But I see no facility for playing the playlist. It will display all the songs in that playlist and when song 1 is finished it will play another, but probably not song 2. I've certainly made sure shuffle is turned off.

I'm wondering if I again remove the compilation with File Mgr, then on another PC I create a folder on a thumb drive, then use the thumb drive to transfer the compilation back to the phone. ???
Click to expand...
 
Using the file manager, create a folder by either clicking the + button and naming it, then adding mp3s to it, then using the music player app, choose that folder and pick one to play... Depending on the music player app it will either shuffle all songs in that folder or alphabetically.
 
boweasel said:
So what's the method for creating a folder of mp3s and getting it to play on an Android phone?
Click to expand...

Every audio player will give you the opportunity to create playlists. Just copy and paste folders containing the actual audio files, not symlinks, to the music folder on your phone or you can create other folders too, music folder is just easiest, just go through the phones library with whatever audio player you've installed on your phone, and add stuff to your playlists. Not sure what you're using on your phone, although if you're using Google music player I would recommend going to the play store or f-droid and getting another, there are loads of really good ones out there including free and open source, Foobar is a good example of a quality open source player, VLC is another. I hope I'm reading you correctly and am giving the replies you're looking for, good luck.
 
There's also something else playing a part that you aren't considering..you mentioned there's music in your phone that you actually didn't transfer(the bb believe)..I've learned by interaction with my music player that music files don't have the same name you thought they had..but when they are being plaid you realize what's the real name on that music file..so I don't think you had import those bb music files by accidents..that was just their real name..

If you go to settings inside your music player you can change how your music player display their names..
 
Eureka! This Audify Music Player that I downloaded to my phone has these icons across the bottom - sort of like a taskbar. It has Playlist, Songs, Artist, Album and Folders. I struck out with all of 'em, but last night I clicked on Folders again. It brings up another folder called emulated. If I select that folder it displays yet another folder named 0. And finally, when I select the 0 folder I see a folder named Music. That folder contains all of the music I transferred from the computer, including the Beach Boys compilation.

Everything seems to be playable and in the original order of the files on the computer.

But what an incredible hassle to figure this out.

I'm assuming nobody else has ever come across anything so effed up..... Now if I could just figure out to stop the music once it starts to play...
 
Glad to hear you figured it out.
Baby steps.
Now go and install some of the others and explore
 
Those things you found called 'emulated' and '0' are the built in memory of your phone.

For now, you are good.

But your music collection will eventually grow, and you will want to move it to your memory card if the phone has provisions for one.

That will be labeled as 'SD card', '1', or maybe even a number dash number code.
 
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