Music on Captivate

[kaljr82]

Okay, this is my first Android Phone (first smart phone in fact)
I was just wondering if there was a way to get my iTunes library onto the Captivate without saving all the of music files elsewhere?

I have about 5,000 songs and am planning to get a larger SD card for the Captivate so I can hold all of these, but just am not sure of the best way to get them all onto the phone.
Thanks, and sorry for the n00b question.

 

[objectuser]

There are a lot of threads on this. Search around a bit.

 

[kaljr82]

Thanks, I should have used the Search function first.

 

[Majikman]

You can always use a program called DoubleTwist. I used it for a while, but it did not have the ability to only sync checked songs from my itunes library and it didn't grab all my album artwork, so I uninstalled it. It did, however, sync all my itunes music to my captivate w/ no problem (it will not do anything for your DRM protected music). The other nice thing about DoubleTwist is it will also sync your iTunes playlists!

Now I just drag and drop all my media (music, video, photos) to my phone. I have found that it is just as fast as DoubleTwist.
1. open up your iTunes music folder (on OSX -> user>music>itunes>itunes music) I do not know where the music is stored on Windows.
2. Usually the folders in the itunes music folder are arranged by artist
3. plug the captivate into computer. Be sure enable USB debugging connection on the phone, and don't forget to mount the phone so the computer knows it's there.
*to enable USB debugging* on the phone settings>applications>Development>check USB debugging
4. the phone should be listed on computer as an external drive. Open it up look for the music folder and drag and drop what ever you want in there.

Extra! ** if you want all your album artwork from itunes there are lots of cheap apps on the marketplace that will fetch the art for you. If you want to do it the free way, find the art on the web, and save it in the album's folder as "artwork.jpg"


I hope this helps

 

[kaljr82]

Thanks much!

 

[kaljr82]

on a somewhat related note. I plan to use my Captivate as my main music source, so what is battery life like using it to play music?? I actually just got rid of my first Gen iTouch, but I have read the battery life on this phone is questionable?
Thanks.

 

[Dramer77]

u can use the samsung kies software to put itunes music on your phone

 

[alphadog]

MediaMonkey is another option. There is also an iTunesAgent that lets you use iTunes and sees your phone as a new device. It only syncs one playlist though.

As for battery life, the phone is rated at 25 hours for music. If the screen is off, it will probably get close to this.

 

[Cagey48]

I used iSyncr, worked fine. It's in the Market

 

[Majikman]

u can use the samsung kies software to put itunes music on your phone

Sadly it is only available for Windows at the moment.

 

[kaljr82]

okay, so I did as Majikman instructed to attach my Phone to my computer and still could not get the computer to recognize it as a Storage device. I mounted it, and enabled USB debugging and nothing. Any advice?
If I can't get music on here, it will most definitely be a deal breaker for me and it will have to go back iin exchange for an iPhone4 (and I REALLLY don't want to do that)

 

[Majikman]

Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble with this. Enabling USB debugging is really what did the trick for me (I am on a mac BTW).

I have tried going back and disabling it and, under USB settings, selecting mass storage. This setting did not work for me (i.e. the phone never showed up on my mac).

After re-enabling USB debugging, plugging in the phone, and mounting it...it showed right up (both in Doubletiwst and as a removable drive).

The only other option, I can think of would be to use a micro SD card in a card reader. Put your music on that and slap it in your phone.

Personally, if you keep having trouble, I think you should show up at the AT&T store and make them help you. The staff at my local store is always so eager to help iPhone customers with iPhone problems; the never seem to know crap about other hardware though. It pisses me off that their sales staff can't help people much with any phone but the iPhone.
~rant off~

 

[RobertInCypress]

on a PC you don't have to enable debugging. just make sure you mount the USB.

 

[kaljr82]

Okay. I got it figured out. I am a dummy, let's leave it at that.

Anyway. I installed a 16g memory card and started the process of adding music. I am currently using the stock music player on the device, are there any other music players that perform better? So far I have no porblems with the stock player, just curious if there was something better.

 

[Majikman]

I also just use the stock player. Although despite my best efforts, I can not get all my album art to display (I get about 70%).
I don't have much experience w/ other players. I have used Mixzing a bit, and it seems quite robust. It supposedly will also fill in your missing artwork, however I never got that feature working. Also the free version is ad driven.

 

[kaljr82]

Ahhh...Ads, EWWW.
Well, I will likely stick with the stock player (even though I am having Album Art Issues that is really a big deal)

thanks for all the help majikman! Repped!

 

[RobertInCypress]

i'm using doubleTwist which can import your iTunes music & playlists. It can also play your videos. adding music and videos with the PC interface is supereasy. just the plug in your captivate, open doubleTwist then add music/videos just like you would in iTunes. the program will convert them if necessary to a file the phone can handle - unless its DRM music.
for artwork & tags i use mp3tag, which is free. i'm pretty uptight about the tags on my digital music and this lets you edit them all. if you're not as perfectionist as i am i heard there are some apps that get the artwork for you but i haven't tried them.
the stock music player is pretty decent, i just like doubleTwist because it lets you rate your songs and makes transferring easy.

 

[kaljr82]

It would be nice to get movies on my phone....so many choices.

 

[kaljr82]

Alright, new issue.
I finally got all of my music loaded onto my SD card without a problem.
So this morning I got to work and started the nusic player and wanted to sort by artist. When I did it closed the music player and said "Not enough memory in music library"
So I re opened and tried sorting another way: by Song, Album, Genre, etc...they all worked fine, I just can't sort by artist.
Anyone know whats wrong?