Where does Google Play Music store music files on the device?

[Cyberpotato]

I have music that is playable with Google Play Music player, but not with other players. I have chosen for the music to be "on the device", and it plays when even in Airplane Mode, so I know it is not streaming, but the music files do not show up in my "Music" directory tree, or under any other file trees that I can find. I have used ES File Explorer to do a top down search for some of the missing titles, but it doesn't find them. I'm perplexed. There must be a cache somewhere, but I can't find it.

 

[BigDinCA]

It used to be viewable but it's not that way anymore. I wish they would change that and let me see them in a directory. It's like I'm being punished for paying for music instead of stealing it. The way it is now the Play Music app is the only player that will see those songs. I prefer to use a different player but am kinda' screwed with the on-device music from Google. The only fix for now is to download all of your Google music to your PC and then transfer the files to your phone.

 

[Greg C]

I have music that is playable with Google Play Music player, but not with other players. I have chosen for the music to be "on the device", and it plays when even in Airplane Mode, so I know it is not streaming, but the music files do not show up in my "Music" directory tree, or under any other file trees that I can find. I have used ES File Explorer to do a top down search for some of the missing titles, but it doesn't find them. I'm perplexed. There must be a cache somewhere, but I can't find it.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/verizon-galaxy-nexus/205335-where-google-play-music-stored.html

 

[Cyberpotato]

I prefer to use a different player but am kinda' screwed with the on-device music from Google. The only fix for now is to download all of your Google music to your PC and then transfer the files to your phone.

That's what I was trying to do, use a different player, when I discovered this mess. Guess I'll just transfer the music from my PC to my phone and forget about using Google Play to store and stream music.

 

[Martin Whitlock]

You can get Google play music files downloaded to your PC. Go to the music store in a browser and I think it ask you to download a small app or maybe a browser extension. From memory thay downloaded as mp3.
Not perfect but at least you can then reload them on your device.

 

[B. Diddy]

You can get Google play music files downloaded to your PC. Go to the music store in a browser and I think it ask you to download a small app or maybe a browser extension. From memory thay downloaded as mp3.
Not perfect but at least you can then reload them on your device.

Welcome to Android Central! Yes, that's the best way to make the music from your Google Music Library playable on 3rd party music apps.

 

[dpbaril]

After selecting "external storage" in the Google Play Music app settings, I found the mp3 files in the following directory on my phone.

.....\Card\Android\data\com.google.android.music\files\music

There is no further structure within the Music folder, just a flat list of mp3 files with numerical names. I infer therefore that Google maintains a database somewhere in protected storage with the metadata that identifies those MP3 with the appropriate artist, album, etc.

According to Google, you are limited to two downloads to your PC of the content you have purchased through the Play Store unless you use the Music Manager application (which I have yet to try). I don't know yet what sort of data structure Music Manager uses and whether is shareable with other apps and players.

 

[raptir]

After selecting "external storage" in the Google Play Music app settings, I found the mp3 files in the following directory on my phone.

.....\Card\Android\data\com.google.android.music\files\music

There is no further structure within the Music folder, just a flat list of mp3 files with numerical names. I infer therefore that Google maintains a database somewhere in protected storage with the metadata that identifies those MP3 with the appropriate artist, album, etc.

According to Google, you are limited to two downloads to your PC of the content you have purchased through the Play Store unless you use the Music Manager application (which I have yet to try). I don't know yet what sort of data structure Music Manager uses and whether is shareable with other apps and players.

Music Manager downloads the files with a full folder structure and keeps all the tags intact. The structure is \Artist\Album\## - Title.mp3
It does force you to download your entire library at once, but if you use Google Chrome with the Play Music extension you can download individual songs as many times as you want (no 2 download limit).

 

[audiospeedwagon]

On my rooted nexus 4 running 4.4.4, I found these files in the following location: /data/data/com.google.android.music/files/music/

 

[ShchurMoney]

It pisses me off that Google has pulled this Apple-esq move. One major advantage of Android OS is that there is a file structure and you can find your files. The best way to go around this is to download music on amazon and then opening the songs up in google play. Amazon Music is usually just as cheap or cheaper than google play music. Google however provides you with more free storage.

 

[Garp Pearty]

After selecting "external storage" in the Google Play Music app settings, I found the mp3 files in the following directory on my phone.

.....\Card\Android\data\com.google.android.music\files\music

There is no further structure within the Music folder, just a flat list of mp3 files with numerical names. I infer therefore that Google maintains a database somewhere in protected storagewith the metadata that identifies those MP3 with the appropriate artist, album, etc.

This does work I did it and straight away they where there thank you using Sony Xperia z3 compact