How to sync music between PC and Android devices

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

For those who are still not satisfied with music streaming services.

For quite a long time, I manually downloaded music to my phone from the corresponding folder on my home computer. Not so long ago I got another Android device in the form of a radio in the car. In addition, for a long time there was a working laptop on which there was no music.

Transferring all files manually to 2-3 other devices when updating the music library is a very long time. And you can set up a convenient, fast and free synchronization of your music between Android and Windows devices in half an hour.

I'll make a reservation right away why I don't use Bluetooth in my car: the quality is not right, considering the expensive non-standard audio system.

1. Choosing cloud storage

The cloud service you intend to use must have the following characteristics:

• enough space for all our tracks and headroom for the future;
• the ability to access entire folders offline.

As a rule, there are no problems with the first item. Even if the initial storage capacity is not enough, for all services there are ways to increase it for free.

The second parameter is a little more complicated. If it is provided on a PC by the presence of a Windows application for storage, then on mobile devices such a function is far from always available. Let's consider some of the most popular services in Russia.

• Google drive … Currently, the mobile application does not support the function of offline access to entire folders - only to individual files.
• Microsoft OneDrive … There is offline access to folders, but only in the paid version - when you subscribe to Office 365 (269 rubles per month). But this is not why you are saving on Apple Music or Google Play Music, right?
• « Cloud Mail. Ru". There is no offline access in the mobile application at the time of this writing.
• Dropbox … The same situation as with Google Drive.
• « Yandex. Disk". Suitable for our purposes.

Perhaps there are other cloud storages that meet our requirements, but among these five - only Yandex. Disk.

2. Choosing a music player on Android

The application should be able to create its own media library (many players use the standard Android media library) from any folder on the device. Namely - in the settings there should be an item "Selecting folders with music" or similar.

I use Poweramp - in search of a suitable application I tried at least two dozen popular players, and everything worked out only with it. A similar opportunity is stated in some other players, however, I did not manage to access the files stored in the folders of the cloud storage application through them.

3. Configuring the storage

First of all, we download the cloud service application to the devices that we want to sync. If you do not have access to all devices at the moment, this is no big deal. The new device can be easily added to our system.

It will be easiest to upload a folder with music to the storage from a computer, but if the latest version of your music library is stored on your phone or tablet and you know how to upload entire folders to the cloud from these devices, then this method is in no way inferior to uploading from a computer. If you don't know, just transfer the entire music library from your smartphone or tablet to your PC by connecting via USB.

To upload music to the cloud from a personal computer, open the cloud storage folder and drag your music library there.

Now on the devices on which you are going to listen to music, in the properties of the folder with the music library, select offline access (in Yandex. Disk mobile, this is the airplane icon) so that all your tracks are downloaded to the device.

4. Configuring the player on a mobile device

The whole setup of the application is to point to the correct path to your media library. The screenshots show an example with Poweramp and Yandex. Disk.

Open the audio player settings. Find the section where you can change the folders with music (it may be called "Media Library", "Scan", "Select folders" and so on), and select the appropriate function

Uncheck all the boxes and find the folder where your cloud saves files. As a rule, all application files are saved in the Androiddata folder * Application name * … For example, for Yandex. Disk: Androiddataru.yandex.diskfilesdisk * Your music folder *

Now you can add new and delete old tracks through the selected cloud service on any device. After adding / removing a track, simply launch the cloud storage app on the other device when you are ready to listen to music. It will make all the changes by itself.

In the music player, find in the settings the item "Scan folders with music" or similar to add new tracks to the list. Poweramp itself instantly reacts to changes in the music folder, which makes syncing even easier.

Hope this article helped someone. Good luck!