Chromecast Saying Sideloaded Music can't play

vansmack

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For clairification is this affecting BOTH music that is downloaded/saved for offline use via the Google music app AND music loaded to the device vial PC or other method?

In my testing, the source of the transfer of the music doesn't matter - it's the storage location of the music that matters. It seems to be working like this:

(1) If the song is only on your device and not uploaded in Google Play Music, you can't cast it regardless of whether it's on an SD Card or the main storage.

(2) If the song is uploaded in GPM and stored on your device with no SD Card, then it can be cast (I can confirm this on a Nexus 4 and Nexus 10). I have songs both pinned and stored in a separate Music Folder.

(3) If the song is uploaded in GPM and stored on the SD Card of your device, then it can't be cast (I can confirm this on a GS2). It's not yet clear to me if the GS2 stores pinned music in the main storage - I will try to test tonight.

Any others seeing different results?
 

anon(3653)

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In my testing, the source of the transfer of the music doesn't matter - it's the storage location of the music that matters. It seems to be working like this:

(1) If the song is only on your device and not uploaded in Google Play Music, you can't cast it regardless of whether it's on an SD Card or the main storage.

(2) If the song is uploaded in GPM and stored on your device with no SD Card, then it can be cast (I can confirm this on a Nexus 4 and Nexus 10). I have songs both pinned and stored in a separate Music Folder.

(3) If the song is uploaded in GPM and stored on the SD Card of your device, then it can't be cast (I can confirm this on a GS2). It's not yet clear to me if the GS2 stores pinned music in the main storage - I will try to test tonight.

Any others seeing different results?

I can vouch for #3 on my Razr M. When I took off the side loaded music on my SD card everything played. When I pinned a playlist (goes to internal memory) everything plays. I'm my case it as the use of an SD card that caused the problems.

Sent from my second brain.. Okay it is the only one working.
 

Devlyn16

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I'm not entirely sure about this. I just ?pinned? a-ha Scoundrel Days in google music and it Casts fine. So IF you have the music uploaded to Google music services, then downloaded to the device via pinning then you can still cast.
 

anon(3653)

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I'm not entirely sure about this. I just ?pinned? a-ha Scoundrel Days in google music and it Casts fine. So IF you have the music uploaded to Google music services, then downloaded to the device via pinning then you can still cast.

Yes, pinning puts it in the internal memory, so it works.

Sent from my second brain.. Okay it is the only one working.
 

Devlyn16

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So the issue isnt with music being stored on the device, it is with Google Music needing to know the music stored ont he device is identical to the one in the cloud.
 

vansmack

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So the issue isnt with music being stored on the device, it is with Google Music needing to know the music stored ont he device is identical to the one in the cloud.

No - it's both WHERE it's stored on the device AND that the song is the same song uploaded to GPM.

I can take a song, upload it to GPM, and copy it to internal memory and it will play fine (so long as it is the exact song I uploaded - I tried to change the album name and it considered it sideloaded).

If I copy the same song to an SD card, it won't play at all. As soon as I take out the SD Card, it will play again.
 

Devlyn16

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No - it's both WHERE it's stored on the device AND that the song is the same song uploaded to GPM.

I can take a song, upload it to GPM, and copy it to internal memory and it will play fine (so long as it is the exact song I uploaded - I tried to change the album name and it considered it sideloaded).

If I copy the same song to an SD card, it won't play at all. As soon as I take out the SD Card, it will play again.

I think that is what I said "Google Music needing to know the music stored ont he device is identical to the one in the cloud". If you "side load" the music, even if it is the same track, Google Music has no way to know it is the same track that is in the cloud. I don't believe Google Music lets you "pin" [Download] music to removable storage. However if I am wrong please let me know if the Pinned music to the SD card fails to play. The issue isn't WHERE [beyond it being where Google Music stores it] it is Using the APP to Pin [download] the locally stored music.

Now I admit I haven't tried this from a PC. The PC where I have all my music stored is too old to be Chromecast capable, however I can authorize my wife's PC as one of my Google Music devices and then "pin" some music to it to see how it reacts.

Quick Question: you mentioned you tried to change the album name, what method did you use to change it? Wasit done using a Google Music interface? I think we will come to find that in using Google Music to cast all things must be done Through Google's Services.
 

vansmack

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In my testing, the source of the transfer of the music doesn't matter - it's the storage location of the music that matters. It seems to be working like this:

(1) If the song is only on your device and not uploaded in Google Play Music, you can't cast it regardless of whether it's on an SD Card or the main storage.

(2) If the song is uploaded in GPM and stored on your device with no SD Card, then it can be cast (I can confirm this on a Nexus 4 and Nexus 10). I have songs both pinned and stored in a separate Music Folder.

(3) If the song is uploaded in GPM and stored on the SD Card of your device, then it can't be cast (I can confirm this on a GS2). It's not yet clear to me if the GS2 stores pinned music in the main storage - I will try to test tonight.

Any others seeing different results?

I need to update this as I used a faulty method in my first go around of testing. Rookie mistake - I didn't clear out my cache before performing the test and it gave me false results.

For #2, I used a song that I had listened to a lot so it was in my cache, and despite copying the song to internal memory, the phone still played it. After clearing out my cache and using the songs stored in internal storage (not pinned, but stored in storage/music), they WON'T play on my Nexus 4 or Nexus 10 even though they are also in GPM. So the SD card is not a factor.

The only way to play music stored on a phone is if it's pinned and pinned to local storage, even if the song is EXACTLY as it appears in GPM.

Sorry about the erroneous information.
 

cdmoye

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FWIW, I can't play anything that is found on my HTC One (there is no SD card accessible on that device, though it may use one internally, I'm not sure). I have songs that are not downloaded that cast fine.
 

rcdietz1

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I have found the easiest, semi permanent solution is to take any music stored on your device or sd card and just rename the file folder that it is contained in. After this, Google does not recognize it, therefore reads just from the cloud, everything plays fine. Now this does entail going into any other music players you may use and redirecting them to the newly named folder, but this is a one time inconvenience and afterwards all players don't seem to have a problem. Works great for me, hope it does for you.
 

gonecks1

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I found that on my S4 all I have to do is unmount my SD card. Don't have to remove it, when I'm done just remount card works great for meYMMV

I did this for my S4 and it works except for the songs I've gotten from amazon mp3 store, even though I did upload them to GPM. I have the same songs on my Xoom and I still get the sideload error. All my music on my Xoom is on internal storage. If I upload my Xoom music to GPM, will I get duplicates in GPM?
 

kurt guseman

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Wow, you have to play your music from the CLOUD. what BS.... why dont they advertise it as such.... Talk about Apple behavior, I thought this was google, not the 3rd reich
Kurt
 

GadgetGator

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Wow, you have to play your music from the CLOUD. what BS.... why dont they advertise it as such.... Talk about Apple behavior, I thought this was google, not the 3rd reich
Kurt

Well, if you don't like that, you can either 1) Wait until things shake out a bit with the SDK and things start working with local content, OR 2) do what I do, use an app like BubblePnP, and stream all the local OR cloud music that you want directly to your TV. Assuming your TV has DNLA capability.
 

mzanette

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Wow, you have to play your music from the CLOUD. what BS.... why dont they advertise it as such.... Talk about Apple behavior, I thought this was google, not the 3rd reich
Kurt

Right from Google's Chromecast page -- first line:

The easiest way to enjoy online video and music on your TV
 

jeffxt

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I think that is what I said "Google Music needing to know the music stored ont he device is identical to the one in the cloud". If you "side load" the music, even if it is the same track, Google Music has no way to know it is the same track that is in the cloud.

I just deleted a song from my SD and now the track plays just fine. I can confirm that you cannot have the same copy of the song on your SD card you've manually sideloaded. But you can have it "pinned" to your device from Google Music.

THANKS!
 

Jeffrey Knox

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Well, if you don't like that, you can either 1) Wait until things shake out a bit with the SDK and things start working with local content, OR 2) do what I do, use an app like BubblePnP, and stream all the local OR cloud music that you want directly to your TV. Assuming your TV has DNLA capability.

Well said indeed, GadgetGator, and many thanks. Following up, 1) how would I stay in touch as to when Google Music starts actually working like I'd expect it to? (allowing local content and also music that I have absolutely no idea where I got it from (I'm a TBI survivor, & lost a lot of minor memories)) I hate the fact that all the music is listed the exact same, but some content plays and some doesn't because "it was side-loaded." So Google Music is currently a guessing game-- "Let's try to play this song... was it side-loaded... oh, yes it was, boo... let's try someone else... it's playing, yay!" But putting music that will not play in the same list as music that will play, with no way to distinguish between them, is just pure junkbutter from the end-user's standpoint. Which seems highly unusual to me since it's the first time in almost 2 decades I've seen Google make what I consider to be an errant choice. Granted, Google Music may still be a fledgling service, in which case I don't expect everything to be working the way I'd like it right out of the gate. Which brings me back to the beginning-- how can one stay abreast of changes to the Google Music service?
2) I found BubbleUPnP UPnP/DLNA-- thanks for the pointer-- and I like the concept since the content stays local, thus reducing or eliminating most of any lag time, which is kinda necessary for music (and I just noticed some lag when playing from G.M. through my Chromecast & TV), but 10 minutes of Googling didn't answer whether my Dynex 42" flat-screen TV has DLNA or not. (dunno where the manual went) Is there something I could do to figure it out?

Thanks for any help! We'll get there... someday...
 

GadgetGator

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Well said indeed, GadgetGator, and many thanks. Following up, 1) how would I stay in touch as to when Google Music starts actually working like I'd expect it to? (allowing local content and also music that I have absolutely no idea where I got it from (I'm a TBI survivor, & lost a lot of minor memories)) I hate the fact that all the music is listed the exact same, but some content plays and some doesn't because "it was side-loaded." So Google Music is currently a guessing game-- "Let's try to play this song... was it side-loaded... oh, yes it was, boo... let's try someone else... it's playing, yay!" But putting music that will not play in the same list as music that will play, with no way to distinguish between them, is just pure junkbutter from the end-user's standpoint. Which seems highly unusual to me since it's the first time in almost 2 decades I've seen Google make what I consider to be an errant choice. Granted, Google Music may still be a fledgling service, in which case I don't expect everything to be working the way I'd like it right out of the gate. Which brings me back to the beginning-- how can one stay abreast of changes to the Google Music service?
2) I found BubbleUPnP UPnP/DLNA-- thanks for the pointer-- and I like the concept since the content stays local, thus reducing or eliminating most of any lag time, which is kinda necessary for music (and I just noticed some lag when playing from G.M. through my Chromecast & TV), but 10 minutes of Googling didn't answer whether my Dynex 42" flat-screen TV has DLNA or not. (dunno where the manual went) Is there something I could do to figure it out?

Thanks for any help! We'll get there... someday...

As for how you keep up to date on things....same as you are doing now. Follow forums, check tech blog sites like Engadget and this one. Both of which are very good about letting people know when things are updated.

As for your TV, two things to try. One, when you start the BubbleUPnP ap, and select the last tab (devices) from bottom, what choices does it give you under renderers? Is your TV listed? Or just local Renderer? If your TV shows up, then it's connected and ready to go! If not, then you have some digging to do. Is it conncted to your network? As for if the TV has the capability, did you go onto the manufactures website? They might have an online manual PDF posted.
 

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