A way to synch iPhoto albums and iTunes music play lists to my Nexus 7?

[douglerner]

One thing I was interested in finding out by getting a Nexus 7 is "how locked in am I really to the Apple ecosystem?" I was suspecting maybe not as much as I thought because I use so many cross-platform apps, like Dropbox, Evernote, Skype, Kindle, etc. Those all work fine so far.

Now I'd like to try and tackle photos and music playlists.

Currently I synch those to my iOS devices using iTunes. Inside iTunes I can select which photo albums and which music albums or playlists I want to synch. Very easy.

It seems from articles here and there that something similar is possible with the Nexus 7, but I'm not sure what the most recent and best info is. Some articles I see are from 2010 and 2011 and seem quite complicated.

Any hints on the current, best ways to synch these over? Would I, for example, have to recreate the same photo albums in Picasa and do it that way somehow? And what about music?

Thanks,

doug

 

[B. Diddy]

Not sure about photos from iTunes, but I hear a lot of good things about DoubleTwist for iTunes music.

 

[douglerner]

Not sure about photos from iTunes, but I hear a lot of good things about DoubleTwist for iTunes music.

I'm trying it now. Apparently it also does photos from iPhoto. But there is also a note about Nexus USB syncing not being supported. I'm trying to figure it out now. It seems similar to iTunes. I hope it isn't making duplicates of all the data and is just copying references!

doug

 

[B. Diddy]

You should be able to sync wirelessly: AirSync: Sync Music, Videos, Podcasts & iTunes playlists over WiFi

 

[douglerner]

I think this is the issue (from DoubleTwist help):

To sync using a USB cable, your Android device needs to offer USB Mass Storage (MSC) mode. Some devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the Google Nexus 4 only offer USB MTP mode, which doubleTwist was not designed for as it expects USB Mass Storage (MSC) mode.

We are currently working on adding USB MTP support to doubleTwist.

If your Android devices offers USB Mass Storage (MSC) mode, your Mac will mount it like a disk drive when you plug it into your computer. If your Mac doesn't mount your device like a disk drive, your device only offers USB MTP mode and not USB Mass Storage (MSC) mode.

From what it says, it looks like the Nexus 7 does not have MSC mode.

doug

 

[B. Diddy]

Yes, but can you sync over wifi?

 

[douglerner]

Yes, but can you sync over wifi?

It looks like I have to purchase AirSync. It is listed at $4.99 but when I tried to purchase it shows up as costing ?579 (I guess because I'm in Japan), but that is a lot more than $4.99. ?579 is $5.95. I'd like to get the currencies in dollars because I am using a U.S. credit card, but can't figure out how to. I guess I'll call Google tech support.

doug

 

[douglerner]

Massive chaos with Google support with making purchases overseas. Not sure what to do now. Maybe I'll try to connect via VPN so Google thinks I'm in the U.S. That might be simplest.

doug

 

[FitzAusTex]

As far as itunes, have you tried syncing to Google Play Music? Stores matched music in the cloud, but you can also keep it locally on your N7.

You basically upload (or match) the music you want from me your iTunes via Music Manager app you install on mac, and it then resides in Google cloud, but you can choose to download to the N7.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/topic/2450455?parent=1663424&ctx=topic

Posted via Android Central App

 

[douglerner]

I'll check that out.

Thanks,

doug

 

[B. Diddy]

The only disadvantage of uploading your iTunes library and playlists to Google Music is that you can't sync music per se between iTunes and Google. That is, modifying your iTunes library or playlist won't result in an immediate change in your Google library.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[douglerner]

The only disadvantage of uploading your iTunes library and playlists to Google Music is that you can't sync music per se between iTunes and Google. That is, modifying your iTunes library or playlist won't result in an immediate change in your Google library.

But it will with DoubleTwist?

doug

 

[B. Diddy]

Not sure, since I've never used DoubleTwist, but their description talks about syncing your iTunes library and playlists, so I would assume that is the case.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[douglerner]

Not sure, since I've never used DoubleTwist, but their description talks about syncing your iTunes library and playlists, so I would assume that is the case.

Posted via Android Central App

well it does look interesting. It uses references instead of copying data, so it doesn't have a big hit on disk space. I think I'll give it a try.

Doug

P.s. dictation seems to be working better now, except I can't get new lines to work.

 

[douglerner]

I have DoubleTwist running on my Mac and it seems harmless enough. I guess I'll buy AirSync and try it. I don't like the way DoubleTwist overcharges (in my view) for people purchasing in yen from Japan (it's 25% higher cost!) so I'll see if I can buy it in dollars via my VPN.

doug

 

[douglerner]

Hmm... New issue. About 10% or 15% of my music seems to be DRM protected by iTunes (you can tell by the little lock icon in DoubleTwist). So now I have to decide whether it's worth subscribing to iTunes Match ($25/year) which will allow non-DRM versions to be downloaded. Or I understand I can burn them to DVDs and reload them to remove it, but supposedly at a loss of quality.

Almost all my music was originally from CDs, so this frustratingly only applies to about 10-15% of my music.

doug

 

[B. Diddy]

Thanks for your continued updates--it's always nice to know how things are going after a discussion about a problem.

That DRM issue is always a pain in the rear. You could always try a program like Tunebite that legally allows you to remove DRM (from tracks that you own, of course), essentially by rerecording the track while it plays. There will likely be some loss in fidelity, but probably not much. Tunebite does cost some money, but at least you don't have to pay an annual fee. I think there are some free solutions out there, but I'm always a little wary of free programs in this field, since I imagine there's a higher risk of malware.

 

[crankerchick]

I prefer iSyncr over double twist. I've been using it for 2 years now and it works great for me. It is cheaper than DoubleTwist and works with any music player. Highly recommend it. It syncs the songs, ratings, play counts, playlists, and of course the music. Works over USB and WiFi and has automatic timed syncing. It even works with Google Music and songs streamed from there. It still updates my iTunes play counts even though the songs aren't physically on the device. DoubleTwist what?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[douglerner]

Thanks for your continued updates--it's always nice to know how things are going after a discussion about a problem.

That DRM issue is always a pain in the rear. You could always try a program like Tunebite that legally allows you to remove DRM (from tracks that you own, of course), essentially by rerecording the track while it plays. There will likely be some loss in fidelity, but probably not much. Tunebite does cost some money, but at least you don't have to pay an annual fee. I think there are some free solutions out there, but I'm always a little wary of free programs in this field, since I imagine there's a higher risk of malware.

This is a great site, and I appreciate the responses here.

I will check out Tunebite. I wonder which would be faster though. Burning 104 songs to CD and re-importing them might be quicker than playing all 104 songs. Plus I would end up with CD backups (not so important). I actually haven't used the CD/DVD drive on my iMac for a few years now!

One issue... In DoubleTwist I can easily see which of my iTunes-purchased songs are DRM locked because a little locked icon appears next to it. But in iTunes itself there doesn't seem to be any easy way of telling which songs are DRM locked. I can always go back and forth 104 times and catch them all, but it would be great if I could figure it out from within iTunes itself.

doug

 

[douglerner]

I prefer iSyncr over double twist. I've been using it for 2 years now and it works great for me. It is cheaper than DoubleTwist and works with any music player. Highly recommend it. It syncs the songs, ratings, play counts, playlists, and of course the music. Works over USB and WiFi and has automatic timed syncing. It even works with Google Music and songs streamed from there. It still updates my iTunes play counts even though the songs aren't physically on the device. DoubleTwist what?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

Doe iSyncr also sync photos from iTunes? (pause to look at their site). Oh, that looks good. You can sync via USB to the Nexus apparently because it supports MTP storage while DoubleTwist does not. With DoubleTwist you have to buy the optional AirSync app for $4.95 to sync over wi-fi, and there were complaints at the DoubleTwist site about how slow that is.

Off to give it a try!

Thanks,

doug