Google Play Music to SD card *Root Required*

[paintdrinkingpete]

I attempted this. When I select "create shortcut", ROM Toolbox freezes, and that's as far as I can go. Has anyone else had this problem? Any ideas for a workaround? I'm using a Galaxy S4.

Try using "Root Explorer" instead...that's what I used. The procedure is pretty much the same, but it shouldn't freeze up on you.

You might get more of a response if you linked to or otherwise described what it was you attempted. I'm also not sure why people are doing this the hard way. As I posted above, I had no issue downloading Google Play music I had previously purchased to my PC, then transferring it to the phone from the PC (it's on my SD card now and plays fine).

I agree 100%. I have a specific folder on my computer that has all of the music files I like to keep on my phone for offline use, so each time I get a new phone it's very easy to just copy everything over to the SD card and BOOM! it's ready to go.

I've done the trick to relocate the default cache location for Google Music as well, and it works, but if you've already put most of the music you want on your SD card there really isn't that much of need to do this unless you're really trying to conserve every bit of space.

None the less, the fact is that as long as Google's stance on SD cards remains as it is (and I have to believe it will), then manufacturers *should* start making their phones with more storage options, because while having SD expansion is nice, it's functionality is limited. This really isn't an Android vs iPhone argument as much as it is a case against Samsung for not offering at least 32GB with their base model...the other part of this too is that salespersons need to be better educated at explaining exactly what SD storage can be used for so that consumers can make the right decisions based on their needs. I knew when I bought my 16GB S4 exactly what my SD card could and could not do, but I personally don't have a need for more on board storage, so I was quite comfortable with my purchase...I hear too many stories however of folks being told by sales reps that they can use the SD card for apps and other functions that it really cannot do, and therefore can be misleading.

 

[davequinn2]

I attempted this. When I select "create shortcut", ROM Toolbox freezes, and that's as far as I can go. Has anyone else had this problem? Any ideas for a workaround? I'm using a Galaxy S4.

When you select the music folder and click create short cut, before you actually click the "create" box that appears at the bottom of the screen, go to the /data/data/com.google.android.music/ folder that is specified above and click create there ... then follow the rest of the steps above ... for some reason, the system is freezing because it is trying to create the shortcut in the same folder as the original file ... I just had the same problem ... I just did the same thing on my S4 and my wife's also... it did work to get the music from the SD card, and store more music to the SD card ...

 

[punitenshu]

Because All Access is a subscription service, the cached files are encrypted, so the only way to play them is via the Google Play app.

(There may be ways around this, I don't know...but that is how it's designed).

That's a bummer because the Play Music app is cute, but totally unrefined compared to many other players. It's awful if you use the phone to stream over bluetooth in the car because you always need to manually start the music, whereas with players like GoneMad it'll auto-start and pause when you turn the car on or off.

 

[punitenshu]

I
So I purchase a 64 gb memory card... phone can't use it for anything useful like playing music and videos. Who designs this at Samsung? Do they have any idea what they are doing?

.

There are hundreds of ways to watch video and play music stored on the SD card that involve no workarounds whatsoever. As far as I'm aware the only time you should have an issue where you are locked to the root storage is when unrooted and trying to view Play Store content.

It's true that it's pretty ridiculous that Samsung let their OS hit 7ish gigabytes on a 16 gigabyte phone though.

Don't be too quick to judge. Perhaps in the next year you'll have the chance to appreciate the things you can do only in Android that make it appeal to so many people in the first place.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

That's a bummer because the Play Music app is cute, but totally unrefined compared to many other players. It's awful if you use the phone to stream over bluetooth in the car because you always need to manually start the music, whereas with players like GoneMad it'll auto-start and pause when you turn the car on or off.

That works for me in my car...I tune the stereo to the BT, and Google Music starts playing automatically, I turn off car or switch back to radio and Google Music pauses and stops playing. In fact, sometimes it annoys me because Google Music *always* starts playing automatically, even if I want to listen from a different app (first world problem, I know).

 

[Watcher]

Thanks, scorpiodsu

But I'm not sure if you listed instructions for an old version of Google Play or not but that didn't actually work for me.

Here's what worked for me, which became clear after following what Opensourcegangster elucidated in the video at the bottom of page 1....

1. Open ROM Toolbox Lite and select Root Browser
2. Navigate to your microSD card and create a folder (I made mine "Google Play" and I put another folder within that called "music" - this is the name you must use as a folder)
3. Once created, long press the "music" folder and select "Create Shortcut" that appears at the bottom
4. Navigate to /data/data/com.google.android.music and delete the "cache" folder here.
5. Click on the "files" folder and within that delete the preexisting "music" folder.
6. Select "Create". This will create the shortcut to your "music" folder here.

To test if it works properly, go to Google Play Music and pin one of your music files. Navigate to your microSD card in the folders you created, specifically the "music" folder and the pinned file should appear there.

 

[Martin Rojas]

So when I did this on my S4 on Verizon it totally worked. Only problem now is that when I restarted my phone, play music added the music that was stored in my SD card, and added the album called music. In that album is all the pinned music, and each song is named after numbers. For example, "104", "344" etc. Does anyone know a way for play music to not upload these files on the app? I tried deleting the album "music" but it won't do it. Any help is appreciated! Thank you for your time!

 

[Gianfranco Gargano]

I've tried this workaround, but after I do this it seems that I've a copy of music in sdcard and a copy on internal memory... And when i go to control sdcard space it seems that no space where used, and all the files are in internal memory...

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Gianfranco Gargano]

Ok. Solved. The problem was that there is more than one directory named sdcard... And you have to select the right one.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[wayno52]

Thanks, scorpiodsu

But I'm not sure if you listed instructions for an old version of Google Play or not but that didn't actually work for me.

Here's what worked for me, which became clear after following what Opensourcegangster elucidated in the video at the bottom of page 1....

1. Open ROM Toolbox Lite and select Root Browser
2. Navigate to your microSD card and create a folder (I made mine "Google Play" and I put another folder within that called "music" - this is the name you must use as a folder)
3. Once created, long press the "music" folder and select "Create Shortcut" that appears at the bottom
4. Navigate to /data/data/com.google.android.music and delete the "cache" folder here.
5. Click on the "files" folder and within that delete the preexisting "music" folder.
6. Select "Create". This will create the shortcut to your "music" folder here.

To test if it works properly, go to Google Play Music and pin one of your music files. Navigate to your microSD card in the folders you created, specifically the "music" folder and the pinned file should appear there.

Thanks for the detailed instructions, and I really want this to work, but I keep getting an error when I try to create the shortcut to the "music" folder, which says:

"Error!

Creating the shortcut failed.

Please note that many SD cards and some other file systems so not support symbolic links."

So I'm guessing that I need to try using a different SD card?? Or formatting to a different file system?? I tried formatting the SD card from my phone. Right now I'm using a SanDisk 2gb microSD in my Samsung Galaxy SII skyrocket (SGH-i727R)

Thanks!

 

[Laura Lee Dooley]

4. Navigate to /data/data/com.google.android.music and delete the "cache" folder here.


I've followed the directions but have to stop as I'm having trouble locating the directory above. I have a SG S4 and got a 64G SD card.

What is more important to me is to know if anyone has tried to do a configuration for Google Play movies ... I'd love to pin several of my purchased movies to my device but, again, have already run out of space in my internal drive for pinning films.

 

[Mitteldorf]

How to tell Google Music to play from folder on SD card

(to STVSVA, concerning suggestion in post #15)
Can you give more details about how to do this? I have no trouble transferring music to the SD card. It's in a folder called "music" and Music Player finds it there, but Google Music is clueless. I'm also concerned about being able to use the hundreds of playlists I've created in GM. Music Player doesn't know about these, and that's the main reason I don't just stick with Music Player.

 

[Mitteldorf]

xxx

 

[STSVA]

Re: How to tell Google Music to play from folder on SD card

(to STVSVA, concerning suggestion in post #15)
Can you give more details about how to do this? I have no trouble transferring music to the SD card. It's in a folder called "music" and Music Player finds it there, but Google Music is clueless. I'm also concerned about being able to use the hundreds of playlists I've created in GM. Music Player doesn't know about these, and that's the main reason I don't just stick with Music Player.

I don't use Google Music for anything on my phone, so I'm not sure what exactly you're asking. I'm using either the stock Samsung Music app or the Rocket Player app to play music on my phone. As noted in my earlier post, I downloaded the music I had previously purchased from Google Music to my PC, then transferred it to my phone. I'm afraid I don't know anything about Google Music playlists; all of my playlists are from iTunes, and there are apps that will transfer those to the phone. I don't have any idea if there's a way to transfer Google Music playlists to the phone.

EDIT: Here's "official" word from Google on how to use their music and playlists offline on your device; as I noted earlier, I find their method of saving music for offline play to be unnecessarily complicated - https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1250232?hl=en
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1233029?hl=en

 

[Tom Thompson3]

after many days of trying I found out what to do.
first if you want to move an app google have taken that away, you can only do that on rooted phones now. no app in google play can help you.
ok to move music and other files. I have just upgraded from samsung galaxy 2 to galaxy 3
all my music was on the sd card well the ex sd card, I hoped it would just work but no!!!!

ok first of all you will need to format your ex sd card to your new phone but you dont want to lose everything on it right.
two ways of doing this.
first move the files you want to keep to the sdcard0 or phone file from the ex sd card you can do this in the my files everything should show in the my files even if the music apps dont show them. my files,exsdcard tick the files you want to keep or hit the menu button and select all then top right on the phone screen and move then hit the sdcard and create new folder call it music. ande then the move here.
second way is by the computer if you have too many files and wont fit on your phone
if your computer doesn't have a sd card slot dont worry you can find an sd adapter on ebay for 99p like i have done.
make a new file on your compute desktop by clicking right on your mouse, new file then name it. plug in your sd card go into my computer in the start up menu click on removable disk. how drag everything you want to keep into your new file.

DONT BOTHER WITH AIR DRODE OR ANY OTHER APP TO DO THIS OR EVEN THE PHONE WITH USB. ITS TOO SLOW AND TO MUCH MESSING ABOUT. THESE APPS AND THE PHONES USB ARE GREAT FOR SMALL FILES, BUT A NIGHTMARE WITH BIG FILES.

now your ready to format your ex sd card.
to do this go in to setting on you phone go into storage (make sure ex sd card is in the phone) then format sd card.
now your ready to cope everything back on to the ex sd card. the same way you moved everything before. make a new file on the ex sd card the same way you did moving before if you moved it to your phone call it music (some music apps wont see it if now rooted to the main exsd card called music) if doing it on computer just make a file on the ex sd card same way you made the file on your desktop.

thats it everything should work.

one more thing if you want to cope music from your computer to your phones ex sd card this is how i did it and no fuss.

I use itunes player, doesnt matter which player you use. everything is copied as mp3 format.
you you need to do is find the folder that itunes or your music player has copied all your music too. plug in the sccard into the computer open it and the folder that has all your music in that drag and drop. again dont bother with any software to do its. YOU DONT NEED IT !!!!

 

[jculpepper400]

Will this work for the Galaxy S3?

 

[DaveWWright]

Thanks for the detailed instructions, and I really want this to work, but I keep getting an error when I try to create the shortcut to the "music" folder, which says:

"Error!

Creating the shortcut failed.

Please note that many SD cards and some other file systems so not support symbolic links."

So I'm guessing that I need to try using a different SD card?? Or formatting to a different file system?? I tried formatting the SD card from my phone. Right now I'm using a SanDisk 2gb microSD in my Samsung Galaxy SII skyrocket (SGH-i727R)

Thanks!

I got this error when trying to make the link in
/storage/sdcard0/data/com.google.android.music
rather than
/data/data/com.google.android.music

It worked for me once I had realized my mistake.

 

[Raz Ecoutre]

hey guys,

Thank you for this tutorial, i was able to do all the steps and the music files appear in my folder too.
But i cant listen to them, when i click on them and say open with any program i got, none of them is able to play the music.
I tried sending them to my windows pc but its the same thing there - an error opening it.
Any solution?

 

[shanghaichica]

There's been a new update to the Google play music app. You can now save music to the SD card without Rooting the device.

Posted via my Galaxy s4

 

[Justin_27]

NO ROOT REQUIRED-You can easily add music to any android phone with a windows computer (5 minutes or Less)
*You MUST delete all music on your phone before adding music to the SD card.
*This method is for adding music from Google Music, (If you need iTunes help just ask

1. Connect phone to computer with USB cable and enable it as a Media Device.


2. Use Google Music Manager to download your music files to your computer.


3. Find the Music File, copy all the songs you want on the SD Card.


4. Locate Phone by going to Computer and Clicking on your phone.


5.Click on SD Card.


6. Right click and hit paste and wait for upload to Finish.