New Razr Maxx owner and new to Android with a questions about music and music players.

[MadManBro]

Hi everyone.
I am sitting here waiting for my brand new Razr Maxx to complete its initial charge. I have done some due diligence here and on other forums and I am eager to get started.
One thing that I am very interested in is loading and listening to music. I have decided to install an aftermarket music player and I want to keep my songs on the micro sd card.

My questions are:
Can I download the player of my choice to my laptop and install to my phone that way?
Does the player load to the phones main memory and can I keep all of my songs on the micro sd card?
Will my songs be managed by the player if I load them in this configuration?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[durango992007]

Hi everyone.
I am sitting here waiting for my brand new Razr Maxx to complete its initial charge. I have done some due diligence here and on other forums and I am eager to get started.
One thing that I am very interested in is loading and listening to music. I have decided to install an aftermarket music player and I want to keep my songs on the micro sd card.

My questions are:
Can I download the player of my choice to my laptop and install to my phone that way?
Does the player load to the phones main memory and can I keep all of my songs on the micro sd card?
Will my songs be managed by the player if I load them in this configuration?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

If I understand this correctly, you can just download a different player off the play store and it will install on your phone automatically. I'm pretty sure your songs will go onto the SD card if you let your computer install motocast and have it sync your songs from your CPU to your phone. I'm also pretty sure any aftermarket music player will find the songs itself.

This is just my guess. I just listen to Pandora all the time because this phone is actually can last all day on Pandora and I wont have to worry about it.

Yup, I sent that. Just me.

 

[B. Diddy]

My questions are:
Can I download the player of my choice to my laptop and install to my phone that way?
Does the player load to the phones main memory and can I keep all of my songs on the micro sd card?
Will my songs be managed by the player if I load them in this configuration?

It sounds like you're new to Android phones. There's no need to download apps to your computer first in order to install them on your phone--you simply find the app on the Google Play Store (which is already on the phone) or the Amazon Appstore (which you can download and install from the Amazon website), click "Install" if it's free or "Purchase" if it costs anything, and it installs itself on your phone.

Apps that you install will reside by default in the main app memory (which is about 3 GB for the Razr Maxx). You'd have to install a lot of apps to start running out of room, but if you do, there is an option to move apps to internal storage (the 8 GB of onboard storage memory that comes with the phone--it isn't 16 GB, because about 8 GB are taken up by system files and the abovementioned 3 GB partition for the app memory). The bulk of the app moves to internal storage, but the key part remains behind in the main app memory.

You can definitely put all of your songs on the microSD card, and any player should find them without any problem. Most players will automatically scan the microSD for music files, but you can also specify which folders you want them to scan. The best use for the microSD card is to store media like music and videos, because you can't move apps to the microSD.

The Motocast idea mentioned above is totally fine, but it does require you to use Motocast (an app which allows your phone to access files on your desktop or laptop), which might cause some slowdowns and persistent annoying notifications. It's probably easier just to hook the phone up to your computer via USB and then drag and drop your files using Windows Explorer. Or you could take the microSD out, put it in your computer, and transfer the files that way as well.

There are a lot of good 3rd party players out there, many of them free or free to try. Google Play Music is actually a decent music player, and you should really think about uploading all of your music to the Google cloud. You could then access any of it on any device (your phone, tablet, or PC) with Google Play Music and an internet connection. But Google Play Music will also play any music files stored locally on the phone, so it's not just a cloud service.

If you want to pay money for an excellent player, try Poweramp (which is free to try). There are so many music players out there, it's easy to find one that you'll like. Have fun!

 

[MadManBro]

If you want to pay money for an excellent player, try Poweramp (which is free to try). There are so many music players out there, it's easy to find one that you'll like. Have fun!

I actually went ahead and purchased Poweramp last night after reading a lot of posts comparing the 'major players'. I guess it installed but I cannot find it anywhere on my phone. I feel like a complete noob, but I just want to know where it is (and where any future installs will be). I think I will be able to figure a lot out with time, but this is one thing I really will appreciate some help with.

 

[B. Diddy]

To see if it installed, go to any of your homescreens, tap on the circular Apps icon in the center of the bottom tray, and make sure you're looking at "All Apps" (if you aren't, tap the upper left corner and scroll up until you see "All Apps," then tap it). Now swipe leftwards until you see your player. Apps are listed alphabetically.

If you don't see it, you may have purchased Poweramp but didn't yet install it. Did you purchase it on Google Play or Amazon Appstore? Go to whichever app store you bought it on, and search for Poweramp. If you purchased it but didn't install it, it should give you the option to install it.

 

[MadManBro]

To see if it installed, go to any of your homescreens, tap on the circular Apps icon in the center of the bottom tray, and make sure you're looking at "All Apps" (if you aren't, tap the upper left corner and scroll up until you see "All Apps," then tap it). Now swipe leftwards until you see your player. Apps are listed alphabetically.

If you don't see it, you may have purchased Poweramp but didn't yet install it. Did you purchase it on Google Play or Amazon Appstore? Go to whichever app store you bought it on, and search for Poweramp. If you purchased it but didn't install it, it should give you the option to install it.

This has been done and done again. I have installed and reinstalled and I still cannot find in my apps. I downloaded it directly from the Poweramp site. The downloaded file is still in my downloads folder which I can see very clearly in All Apps. The actual App is some sort of Bermuda Triangle on my Razer. On the plus side I did move all of my musid onto the Micro Sd Card. I still can't actually open a file that is the card itself though. As I said, all of this will probably become clearer with time. Maybe I should had downloaded through the google app.

 

[B. Diddy]

As a rule, you should install apps directly from Google Play when you can, because downloading apps from other websites can put you at higher risk for malware. Plus, installation is much easier.

In order to install apps that don't come directly from Google Play, you need to allow installation of non-Market apps. Go to Settings->Security, and check "Unknown sources" under Device Administration. Then, to install your Poweramp file, go to your Downloads in All Apps. Find any of the Poweramp.apk files that you downloaded, and tap it. It should now install.

But seriously, it'll be much safer and more reliable for you to get apps through Google Play or the Amazon Appstore.

 

[bradenfontaine]

As a rule, you should install apps directly from Google Play when you can, because downloading apps from other websites can put you at higher risk for malware. Plus, installation is much easier.


But seriously, it'll be much safer and more reliable for you to get apps through Google Play or the Amazon Appstore.

Google Play is already installed on your phone, just use it to browse for apps. i would never recommend downloading an app from a website. nope, not even once.

 

[dubfish34]

I prefer Play Music which I think comes pre-installed. You can set it up on your desktop to automatically download all purchases form iTunes and stream directly to your device. There is also a store to purchase music from as well. Works very similar to iTunes. Once you set your account up, open it up on your phone and you can then download your entire library or just selected songs/artists/albums to your SD card.

 

[MadManBro]

Thank you to everyone who responded with a lot of helpful advice and suggestions. I finally decided to eat the first $4.99 I spent and re-order the Poweramp from Google Play. It installed instantly and now all I have to do is fiddle with the equalizer, or find a few presets that will take some of the guesswork out of it.

On a side note, I really LOVE this phone! Even with all of the fine tuning yet to be done. I am accessorizing it like crazy. I just placed my order for an Otterbox Commuter ase and last night I received my Klipsch Image S4a headphones. All this and I haven't even gotten my first phone bill yet!

Thanks again folks.

 

[B. Diddy]

Glad you got it working! I agree that the phone is awesome.