Google Play Music to SD card *Root Required*

[scorpiodsu]

Hello All,

One of the painpoints with Play Music for me is not natively being able to pin music to my SD card and only the device storage. When you have over 10GB that's really not feasible for a 16GB SG4. Of course streaming is an option but with data caps and unreliable data connections at times, it's best to have this on extra storage. Afterall, that's why we buy storage cards, right? Anyhow, this little workaround was found a long time ago and I thought I'd bring it here. As in the title, device needs to be rooted.

The apps you will need are ROM toolbox and of course, play music.

1. Open ROM Toolbox > Root Browser
2. Navigate to your SD card and create a folder. e.g. music
3. Once created, long press and select "Create Shortcut" that appears at the bottom
4. Navigate to /data/data/com.google.android.music/
5. Select Paste. This will create the shortcut to your music folder here.
6. Delete the "cache" folder in this directory
7. Rename the shortcut to "files" Play music now will look at the "files" folder for the music library.

Any music you pin from Google music will be stored to the original folder on the SD card.


I know there are some better music players and streaming apps but this is probably the best all in one app for free and I always look to eliminate redundancy and this has helped me do so. No credit for coming up with this. I read it a long time ago and can't find the original thread to post.

 

[cyberchief]

If only there were a way to do this with the Google Play movies! I have purchased a few movies and they sure take up a ton of space.

 

[scorpiodsu]

If only there were a way to do this with the Google Play movies! I have purchased a few movies and they sure take up a ton of space.

I wouldn't be surprised if the workaround was similar. All we are doing with this is just recreating the folder it saves to as a shortcut to a folder stored on the SD card. So it might we worth a shot to try the same method.

 

[lmarsh21]

I'm surprised more people haven't jumped on this or mentioned it as much. I'm having this issue my S4 since I only have 16GB internal. I was going to cancel the all access subcribtion until i found this.

 

[scorpiodsu]

I'm surprised more people haven't jumped on this or mentioned it as much. I'm having this issue my S4 since I only have 16GB internal. I was going to cancel the all access subcribtion until i found this.

Yeah I think part of the reason is that many people probably still don't upload all their music to play music. Most still use standalone apps like iTunes or Media Player. So with knowing that Play music saves directly to the device they probably didn't care about a solution to get to the sd card since they have no use for it. But it is a good little workaround.

 

[jeffreii]

I first heard about this method here:
Transfer Google Music to SD Card Android - YouTube

Haven't tried it yet though - glad to hear it works.

 

[scorpiodsu]

I first heard about this method here:
Transfer Google Music to SD Card Android - YouTube

Haven't tried it yet though - glad to hear it works.

I think I first saw it on xda sometime last year. Very hard finding archive threads over there Lol.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[djmiked]

Anyone try this method? [APK Teardown] Google Play Music v5.1 - Beam Music To Devices With Chromecasting, And A Hack For SD Card Support! (A Download Link, Too)
Seems like you do not need root, just Apex or Nova Launcher.

 

[bearda]

Anyone try this method? [APK Teardown] Google Play Music v5.1 - Beam Music To Devices With Chromecasting, And A Hack For SD Card Support! (A Download Link, Too)
Seems like you do not need root, just Apex or Nova Launcher.

Tried it last night with Nova and seems to be working. I can see the files sitting on the SD card, and nothing on the internal memory. I have heard reports that this can cause issues trying to Chromecast music (it says sideloaded music can't be played even if it's in the Google cloud if it's on the SD card of the device you're trying to cast from), but I normally cast from my Nexus 7 so I haven't noticed it yet.

 

[bearda]

Nevermind, looks like the next Google Play Music update removed the SD card support:
PSA: Google Music v5.1.1109K Removes SD Card Support Hack, Adds Very Little

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

If only there were a way to do this with the Google Play movies! I have purchased a few movies and they sure take up a ton of space.

Haven't tried it, but there's no reason why it wouldn't work, the app is just looking for a path, and since you can't change the path it's looking for, you trick it by mounting a virtual directory from your SD card there. You would just have to find the location on your phone where Google Play movies stores the cached files and perform the same procedure in the OP.

I'm surprised more people haven't jumped on this or mentioned it as much. I'm having this issue my S4 since I only have 16GB internal. I was going to cancel the all access subcribtion until i found this.

Most likely because root is require for it to work, so it's not a "mainstream" solution.

 

[Spon4ik]

Nevermind, looks like the next Google Play Music update removed the SD card support:
PSA: Google Music v5.1.1109K Removes SD Card Support Hack, Adds Very Little

anyone knows how to get it back?

 

[cindylee60]

Thanks for posting this...it was what finally made me root and works like a charm!

 

[punitenshu]

Maybe a bit necro here, but does anyone know how to play the music that is actually from All Access (not your own uploaded music)?

The tracks stored on my SD card that were uploaded by me play fine, but the songs from All Access that I pin won't open at all in many players (including Play Music when opening a file), and when they do, the only sound that they produce is bleeps, buzzes, and blurps.

When I'm offline Play Music plays the pinned songs just fine (when initiated in Play Music itself as opposed to opening the actual song file on my SD card).

 

[STSVA]

As an alternative to rooting the phone, download the songs to a PC, then transfer from the PC to the phone's SD card. The main problem I encountered was the stupidly difficult process Google makes you go through to "pin"/download songs.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Maybe a bit necro here, but does anyone know how to play the music that is actually from All Access (not your own uploaded music)?

The tracks stored on my SD card that were uploaded by me play fine, but the songs from All Access that I pin won't open at all in many players (including Play Music when opening a file), and when they do, the only sound that they produce is bleeps, buzzes, and blurps.

When I'm offline Play Music plays the pinned songs just fine (when initiated in Play Music itself as opposed to opening the actual song file on my SD card).

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).

 

[Daniel Crispin]

I think the best work around would be to sell the Samsung phone and buy an iPhone.

My friends convinced me to switch to android. So the day the Galaxy S4 came out, I ran to the store and shelled out the 450$ to get one.

Ever since it's been nothing but issues with everything. The phone only has 16 gb and out of that only about 8 usage... 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?

Thanks for the work around, I find it completely stupid I need to find work around for stuff that should be built in, but I have an other year and a half of wait before I can switch back to Apple and NEVER EVER buy an other Android phone.

 

[steaxauce]

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.

 

[STSVA]

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.

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).

 

[garublador]

Ever since it's been nothing but issues with everything. The phone only has 16 gb and out of that only about 8 usage... So I purchase a 64 gb memory card... phone can't use it for anything useful like playing music and videos.

I keep all my music and videos on my uSD card. You just can't use Google Music, which I'm perfectly fine with. This is an issue with Google Music, not with Android or with Samsung. Fortunately, because of how Android works, you aren't forced to use any specific music management software.