Why won't my micro SD card play mp3 files?

[AC Question]

When i had mp3 files on my phone's storage, they played just fine. However, so i could have more songs on my phone, i bought an 8GB micro SD card, and put the songs onto there, my music player finds them, but whenever i try to play any song, it displays an error saying it couldn't play the track i requested, a "music playback error". I figured it had to be something to do with the SD card, and i would really like it fixed so i can have music anywhere, any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[mehigh101]

Welcome to Android Central.
If you use 3rd party mp3 players and have Android KitKat 4.4.4 those might not have authorization to go in the external storage.
This is what i know from using ZArchiver,i cand not alter the files in the external card with a 3rd party app,i can only with my stock file manager.
Try your stock Mp3 player (maybe Google Play/Google Music) and see what happens.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[TechTom101]

Google Play Music always comes up with the error message of "Couldn't play file you requested" because i think it only plays songs on internal storage, I've downloaded loads of music apps from the Play Store and yes, some do play msuic on my SD card but keep freezing or stopping, or don't display all my songs, these include: Poweramp, VLC Media Player, Rocket Player, Shuttle Player, DoubleTwist, Apollo, etc. Can you help?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Which phone do you have, and which version of Android is it running? Have you already tried a different SD card? In some cases, this can be a problem with the card, rather than the system. As mehigh101 pointed out, KitKat has restrictions on SD card access by apps--apps have to have specific permissions to access the SD card and create a folder, and then they can only access that folder.

As for other music player suggestions, try MortPlayer Music (although I'm not sure if that has SD access either).

 

[TechTom101]

Motorola Moto e phone, 4.4.4 android, which i think it KitKat. I did a full factory reset, now Google Play Music plays SOME but not all mp3 files on my SD card, and I have set it to external storage. I have also found that a song which doesn't play on google play music also will not play in WMP, though this is speculation because i only tired with one song, but it seems logical. Mortplayer i have tried, and doesn;t work. If all else fails, are there better alternatives to the slow and forever stopping VLC player? Or are there nay solutions to stop VLC from stopping, Thank you for your time

 

[B. Diddy]

If possible, try a different SD card. You can get a small one (4-8 GB) for pretty cheap these days (sometimes as low as $5).

You can also check to make sure your current card isn't corrupt or counterfeit. Run SD Insight to make sure the card is what it says it is. If it's legit, then check for corruption by Unmounting it (in Settings>Storage), removing it, and inserting it into your computer, then running chkdsk: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...guide-using-chkdsk-fix-corrupted-sd-card.html

 

[TechTom101]

Okay, so i got SD insight, it says my cars is invalid? Also i used chkdsk, and all that did was remove a lot of my mp3 files (assuming the ones which don't play), and when i put them all on there again from my computer, there were still some which refused to play. So i dont think any change was amde.

 

[B. Diddy]

If the card is read as invalid, it may be counterfeit. So the card might actually be a 4 GB card that has been programmed to say it's 8 GB. If you try to save more than 4 GB of data to it, you'll have problems, perhaps like the ones you're having. Try a new card--one from a reliable brand (like Sandisk) and a reliable store.

 

[TechTom101]

Ah I see, can you recommend any places i can buy them legit online?

 

[Laura Knotek]

Ah I see, can you recommend any places i can buy them legit online?

Amazon.com, Newegg.com, TigerDirect.com

Sent from my rooted Nexus 7 (2013) using Tapatalk

 

[B. Diddy]

I'd also suggest BestBuy.com, Walmart.com, and Costco.com (if you have access to the latter), since they all have pretty good return policies.

 

[John Rennison]

I had the same problem. BUT: the Total Commander's internal player plays MP3's from my SD card. (description on Total Commander - home) It's also an excellent file manager...