Need Help Getting Music Library on New Galaxy S22+

[Androdika]

Long story short:
I have a Galaxy S8 with Samsung Music and a huge music library on my PC as AAC files in iTunes (I used to have an ipod). I would put the music on my S8 by connecting it to the PC, using Windows Media Player and moving my new songs over to the Sync tab on the right sidebar and click the green Sync button. Presto! Songs are added to Galaxy S8 as WMA files and play fine on Samsung Music.

Cut to: Yesterday, I just bought the Galaxy S22+ and it took 13 hours to transfer over my apps, music, etc, however none of the music will play in Samsung Music on the S22+. After Googling all day, I found out that Samsung Music (or is it Android) won't play WMA files on phones made after 2021.

I just want to keep using Samsung Music on the S22+ and don't want to install a third party app (like VLC or Poweramp). So I need to use another audio format like MP3 or AAC but I need to finagle it all quickly and painlessly (I could just move the AACs over but I think they're too big).

Soooo...
Can anyone recommend how to get the songs from my iTunes (AAC) onto my Android phone without losing too much quality or taking up too much space? Please help, I'm desperately in need of a solution.

 

[ocnbrze]

this?????
https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-transfer-music-itunes-android-230232/

or

this?????
https://www.howtogeek.com/444162/how-to-transfer-music-from-itunes-to-android/

never owned or used any crapple products sso i can't help or troubleshoot.

 

[Androdika]

this?????
https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-transfer-music-itunes-android-230232/

or

this?????
https://www.howtogeek.com/444162/how-to-transfer-music-from-itunes-to-android/

never owned or used any crapple products sso i can't help or troubleshoot.

Thanks for replykng! It's moreso the first link bc I dont want to keep using crApple or iTunes but I'm trying to do this as easily as possible. I'm not sure about just moving the AAC files over to the phone as I'm afraid I'll lose cover art and tags. I'm not very technologically savvy so I could be wrong. I just want my library with the smallest possible file sizes and, most importantly, to play on my new S22+.

Someone in the Samsung forums brought the issue to Samsung and they said it was a missing codec and replied to download a third party app to play WMAs. F***ing seriously??! They don't want/can't fix the codec so they just suggest downloading a random app instead of plugging their own and just fixing it.

 

[ocnbrze]

Thanks for replykng! It's moreso the first link bc I dont want to keep using crApple or iTunes but I'm trying to do this as easily as possible. I'm not sure about just moving the AAC files over to the phone as I'm afraid I'll lose cover art and tags. I'm not very technologically savvy so I could be wrong. I just want my library with the smallest possible file sizes and, most importantly, to play on my new S22+.

Someone in the Samsung forums brought the issue to Samsung and they said it was a missing codec and replied to download a third party app to play WMAs. F***ing seriously??! They don't want/can't fix the codec so they just suggest downloading a random app instead of plugging their own and just fixing it.

i use youtube music instead of samsung music. but some people(especially here) that do not like google, but i'm not that picky. and most of my music are mp3's and were easily converted to youtube music.

you can try this if you want to try youtube music:
https://ios-data-recovery.com/transfer-music-from-itunes-to-youtube-music/

 

[Androdika]

i use youtube music instead of samsung music. but some people(especially here) that do not like google, but i'm not that picky. and most of my music are mp3's and were easily converted to youtube music.

you can try this if you want to try youtube music:
https://ios-data-recovery.com/transfer-music-from-itunes-to-youtube-music/

Thanks, but I tried YT Music back when Google Play Music was being dismantled and I didn't like it. I liked GP Music but when that went away, I went to Samsung Music and fell in love with how easy it was with no extra B.S. I've tried one called Muzio player, which is sorta similar to Samsung Music but it's really slow and has ads. Honestly, it's better than VLC and Rocket and all these other garbage ones people keep recommending but still not that great.

I'm sooo stressed about all this because I need to send in my old S8 for trade in but this music B.S. is making me rethink my Galaxy S22+ purchase. Music means a lot to me and at this point, unless I can find an easy-ish solution, I may have to :::shudder::: go to Apple.

 

[ocnbrze]

Thanks, but I tried YT Music back when Google Play Music was being dismantled and I didn't like it. I liked GP Music but when that went away, I went to Samsung Music and fell in love with how easy it was with no extra B.S. I've tried one called Muzio player, which is sorta similar to Samsung Music but it's really slow and has ads. Honestly, it's better than VLC and Rocket and all these other garbage ones people keep recommending but still not that great.

I'm sooo stressed about all this because I need to send in my old S8 for trade in but this music B.S. is making me rethink my Galaxy S22+ purchase. Music means a lot to me and at this point, unless I can find an easy-ish solution, I may have to :::shudder::: go to Apple.

hmmmmm tooo bad smart switch can be used with itunes. moving from anything apple will never be easy.......sorry you have to go thru this. but once you are over from the darkside everything will be rosy for you

 

[Androdika]

hmmmmm tooo bad smart switch can be used with itunes. moving from anything apple will never be easy.......sorry you have to go thru this. but once you are over from the darkside everything will be rosy for you

I'm over Apple as I only had an iPod from them back in the day. The sad thing is that I'm still using iTunes to organize my music and had to convert them to AAC, then drag and drop them into WMP and then sync to phone. I'm okay with that tedious process, but now Samsung just made things 1000x worse by removing WMA support and now I don't k now wtf to do.

 

[ocnbrze]

maybe convert aac files or wma files to mp3 and then move them to your phone:
https://www.lifewire.com/convert-aac-to-mp3-itunes-1999257

for me youtube music stores all of my music in the cloud so i do not have to worry about them......just saying.

 

[mikedt]

I'm over Apple as I only had an iPod from them back in the day. The sad thing is that I'm still using iTunes to organize my music and had to convert them to AAC, then drag and drop them into WMP and then sync to phone. I'm okay with that tedious process, but now Samsung just made things 1000x worse by removing WMA support and now I don't k now wtf to do.

Here's the thing, Android itself does NOT usually support WMA(Windows Media), Just about all Android phones and tablets supports MP3, AAC(without Apple DRM), OGG-Vorbis, WAV, and FLAC audio playback. Of course Apple devices, like iPhone and iPod, have never supported Windows Media. And Macs only support Windows Media with a third-party software add on.

FYI some manufacturers, e.g. Samsung, may choose to add WMA in certain devices. But if they do, they must pay thousands of $$$ to Microsoft for their proprietary Windows Media patent and IP licensing fees. Which I presume they didn't want to cough up the $$$ to Microsoft for the S22. .

Full details of Windows Media licensing here...
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/leg...icensing/programs?activetab=pivot1:primaryr10

BTW my Galaxy Note20 Ultra, didn't come with any Samsung music player apps, apart from some online streaming service. So I always use Foorbar2000, which can play just about anything, including WMA.

 

[Androdika]

maybe convert aac files or wma files to mp3 and then move them to your phone:
https://www.lifewire.com/convert-aac-to-mp3-itunes-1999257

for me youtube music stores all of my music in the cloud so i do not have to worry about them......just saying.

But won't converting them to MP3 lead to a loss of quality? The AACs used to be MP3s but I converted them bc that's what I thought i was supposed to do to get them to be accessible through iTunes. So them going back to MP3 is gonna make them sound horrible.

As for YT Music, I can't, I just can't. Tried them when Google Play went away and they were somehow worse than GP.

 

[Androdika]

Here's the thing, Android itself does NOT usually support WMA(Windows Media), Just about all Android phones and tablets supports MP3, AAC(without Apple DRM), OGG-Vorbis, WAV, and FLAC audio playback. Of course Apple devices, like iPhone and iPod, have never supported Windows Media. And Macs only support Windows Media with a third-party software add on.

FYI some manufacturers, e.g. Samsung, may choose to add WMA in certain devices. But if they do, they must pay thousands of $$$ to Microsoft for their proprietary Windows Media patent and IP licensing fees. Which I presume they didn't want to cough up the $$$ to Microsoft for the S22. .

Full details of Windows Media licensing here...
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/leg...icensing/programs?activetab=pivot1:primaryr10

BTW my Galaxy Note20 Ultra, didn't come with any Samsung music player apps, apart from some online streaming service. So I always use Foorbar2000, which can play just about anything, including WMA.

So bc they want to save $ their customers suffer? Ok, guess I'm packing up that shiny new phone and sticking to my S8. I don't want to but they leave me no choice. I can't use AAC files on my new phone because they are all nearly double the size of the WMA files. So 3mb becomes 6mb and before you know it, I'm in need of a new phone bc they only give us 256gb in the first place.

I understand where you're coming from, it just makes me sick to my stomach bc I cant find a way out of this. I just want my damn music and I guess that's too much to ask for on a new phone. Smh

 

[Milo Williamson]

I'm over Apple as I only had an iPod from them back in the day. The sad thing is that I'm still using iTunes to organize my music and had to convert them to AAC, then drag and drop them into WMP and then sync to phone. I'm okay with that tedious process, but now Samsung just made things 1000x worse by removing WMA support and now I don't k now wtf to do.

Like oceanbreeze said: Youtube music is basically stores in the cloud, but you kind of have to fork over around 11 bucks a month to keep it that way, otherwise they will shut it down.

 

[Milo Williamson]

So bc they want to save $ their customers suffer? Ok, guess I'm packing up that shiny new phone and sticking to my S8. I don't want to but they leave me no choice. I can't use AAC files on my new phone because they are all nearly double the size of the WMA files. So 3mb becomes 6mb and before you know it, I'm in need of a new phone bc they only give us 256gb in the first place.

I understand where you're coming from, it just makes me sick to my stomach bc I cant find a way out of this. I just want my damn music and I guess that's too much to ask for on a new phone. Smh

Either that or get a CD burner build into a game system,like with the ps3, you can burn any media, but the downfall is they only will have "Track one, track two." so on, thus ending up googling the crap out of the tracks names and label them,but for the youtube music - you can download oodles of free be music that way, and the system will have the track names automatically. Head over on youtube to your videos,click on the Audio Library and you can download a bundle of free music that way, so you can have all kinds of hidden underground music all in your cell.

 

[ocnbrze]

not sure on audio quality, i'm not a stereophile so i can't really tell the difference. have you tried other apps? something like poweramp?

 

[Hadron]

But won't converting them to MP3 lead to a loss of quality? The AACs used to be MP3s but I converted them bc that's what I thought i was supposed to do to get them to be accessible through iTunes. So them going back to MP3 is gonna make them sound horrible.

If your reason for not just copying the AACs is the size then you do not want to convert to MP3: MP3 is a less efficient codec, so you need a larger file to get the same quality. And converting from one compressed format to another can never improve quality. Android players can handle aac anyway (unless you have DRM in them, but if you originally converted from MP3 that sounds extremely unlikely), so I see no gain to converting. You could use a higher compression with the aacs if size is an issue, but that's at the cost of reducing quality.

I'm not a Windows person so have no experience with WMA. But from what I've read it isn't more efficient than AAC (which, contrary to myth, is not an Apple format, just the format Apple chose to use themselves), so a factor 2 in size most likely means that you are already listening at lower quality WMAs

 

[Dannydet]

I save all of my music files as mp3 at 192 bit quality, which is equivalent to wma....
I'm also a musician, and believe me, I hear no loss of quality between the two.

 

[Androdika]

not sure on audio quality, i'm not a stereophile so i can't really tell the difference. have you tried other apps? something like poweramp?

The only one that worked that had a maneuverable UI was VLC and that's just garbage. Even after I played around with the settings it's so unintuitive to use and I end up accidentally refreshing my library half the time, making it pretty useless. I've tried Poweramp, Rocket, Musicolet, Audify and Muzio (which was my 2nd favorite after SM) but the codec/no playback issue happened with Muzio as well. I'm so stuck and trying to figure this out before I have to send back my old phone is really stressing me out. I haven't eaten all day and my sleeping has also been affected.

 

[Androdika]

If your reason for not just copying the AACs is the size then you do not want to convert to MP3: MP3 is a less efficient codec, so you need a larger file to get the same quality. And converting from one compressed format to another can never improve quality. Android players can handle aac anyway (unless you have DRM in them, but if you originally converted from MP3 that sounds extremely unlikely), so I see no gain to converting. You could use a higher compression with the aacs if size is an issue, but that's at the cost of reducing quality.

I'm not a Windows person so have no experience with WMA. But from what I've read it isn't more efficient than AAC (which, contrary to myth, is not an Apple format, just the format Apple chose to use themselves), so a factor 2 in size most likely means that you are already listening at lower quality WMAs

So you're basically saying to convert the AACs back to MP3s and it'll be the same loss of quality as if I converted the AACs to WMAs?
Or...

What would be better? Converting AAC to Mp3 or AAC to higher compression AAC?

If so, what convert program should I use? How do I get the new MP3s onto the phone?

Before, on the S8, WMP's library would sync up with iTunes' library so I'd wait for the songs to show up in WMP, then drag them into WMP's sync tab and hit "sync".

I downloaded Musicbee last night before finally going to bed and I was told I could sync AACs (or whatever format) to the phone via Musicbee.

 

[Hadron]

So you're basically saying to convert the AACs back to MP3s and it'll be the same loss of quality as if I converted the AACs to WMAs?

It depends on what quality of MP3 or WMA you converted to. If you have a factor of 2 size difference then there's certainly a loss of quality there, but if you converted to MP3 of the same size as the WMA the naive expectation is that it would be worse (as MP3 is a lower quality codec for the same bitrate).

But there's a caveat. You can "to convert back to MP3s", but what were the original MP3s? Generally when people discuss the quality of different formats they are assuming that you start from a high quality source and make the compressed music file from that. But were those high quality MP3s originally (i.e. bigger than the AACs you converted them to)? You can't create information when encoding or transcoding (converting from one codec to another), you can only lose it. So if you started out with smaller MP3s and converted that to larger AACs the sound contained in the AAC will at best be no better than the original MP3 (most likely slightly worse, because you are still encoding what is decoded from the MP3, even if it's a high quality encoding). So you might have less to lose if you translate a high quality AAC from a low quality source to a lower quality file than if you were translating a high quality AAC from a high quality source - perhaps. Of course what you have to lose also depends on what you are sensitive to: I really can tell the difference between my more recent, higher quality files and older ones that were encoded when device capacities were lower and my headphones were cheaper (despite my ears being 15 years older), but others don't notice. So what I'd actually recommend is trying whatever you decide to do with one or 2 songs and seeing whether you are happy with the result.

I can't recommend an app as I personally don't do transcoding: converting from one lossy format to another just sounds likely to give you an output which has the limitations of both formats. I've done a little light editing using audacity, but that's all (and not for hi-fi purposes).

And I have to confess that I just copy stuff over USB. But if you have an app that will sync stuff, give it a go.

 

[mikedt]

So bc they want to save $ their customers suffer? Ok, guess I'm packing up that shiny new phone and sticking to my S8. I don't want to but they leave me no choice. I can't use AAC files on my new phone because they are all nearly double the size of the WMA files. So 3mb becomes 6mb and before you know it, I'm in need of a new phone bc they only give us 256gb in the first place.

One should really blame Micro$oft, basically for their stiff licensing fees and draconian NDAs that are associated with their proprietary Windows Media formats. Perhaps they're still expecting users to have Windows Phone devices, or Zunes, or something?

Google never intended Android to support it, and left it to individual device manufacturers to add if they desire. AFAIK there's no Windows Media support code in AOSP.

Apart from Windows running on a PC. Are there any new devices available now, in 2022, that actually support WMA from the manufacturer, without having to use any third-party software? A Creative Labs player I bought in 2003 supported WMA, as well as MP3.

I understand where you're coming from, it just makes me sick to my stomach bc I cant find a way out of this. I just want my damn music and I guess that's too much to ask for on a new phone. Smh

FWIW I did import my mostly AAC iTunes library to my first Android device back in 2010. And I just copied the iTunes/music folder from the MacBook, straight to an SD card, and put it in the Samsung Galaxy S phone. Didn't need to convert anything, ID3 metadata, and the album art all showed as well. My music library has grown considerably since them, but do still have many of my original iTunes and AllOfMP3 AAC purchases, completely with embedded album artwork.

BTW it's not iTunes these days, Apple changed it to Apple Music. and split out podcasts, iOS App Store, etc. into a separate apps.

A few of the songs and albums I've subsequently obtained are WMA, but as I use Foobar2000(free open source software) on my Note20, playing them is never a problem...

My Samsung didn't actually come with any built-in music players that could play from storage, only had streaming, so I had to install one.

 

[mikedt]

OT:
If anyone is interested, in how much Windows Media licensing can actually cost.

...from the very lengthy 17 page Windows Media "CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY" legal agreement.
https://download.microsoft.com/download/c/2/e/c2efa801-13ab-4aa4-b9e3-51b193b7e645/WM Components Final Product Agreement_v7-18-2017 Sample.pdf

I'm not surprised that it's now only really Microsoft supports these formats in their own products, like Windows.

Sony did a similar thing with their proprietary ATRAC audio format, and ATRAC died a long time ago now.

 

[Milo Williamson]

OT:
If anyone is interested, in how much Windows Media licensing can actually cost.

View attachment 161834

...from the very lengthy 17 page Windows Media "CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY" legal agreement.
https://download.microsoft.com/download/c/2/e/c2efa801-13ab-4aa4-b9e3-51b193b7e645/WM Components Final Product Agreement_v7-18-2017 Sample.pdf

I'm not surprised that it's now only really Microsoft supports these formats in their own products, like Windows.

Sony did a similar thing with their proprietary ATRAC audio format, and ATRAC died a long time ago now.

Speaking of: I unearth my Windows Media player the other day... How odd I do not use it at all.

 

[mikedt]

I had a think about this. Does the S22 series phones and other very recent Samsung Galaxy devices still come with Microsoft Office and OneNote pre-installed?

Because Samsung had quite a long running partnership with Microsoft, to pre-load MS apps on Samsung phones and tablets. And that might have included Windows Media support, without Samsung having to pay millions of bucks every year in Windows Media licensing fees to Microsoft on their devices that included it, like the Galaxy S8. And maybe that ended?

 

[Androdika]

I had a think about this. Does the S22 series phones and other very recent Samsung Galaxy devices still come with Microsoft Office and OneNote pre-installed?

Because Samsung had quite a long running partnership with Microsoft, to pre-load MS apps on Samsung phones and tablets. And that might have included Windows Media support, without Samsung having to pay millions of bucks every year in Windows Media licensing fees to Microsoft on their devices that included it, like the Galaxy S8. And maybe that ended?

MS office was on my new S22+ yet I still can't play .wma files. Samsung keeps removing stuff I like so by the time I need a new phone in 5 years, I think I'll consider (cr)Apple for the first time in my life.

 

[mikedt]

MS office was on my new S22+ yet I still can't play .wma files. Samsung keeps removing stuff I like so by the time I need a new phone in 5 years, I think I'll consider (cr)Apple for the first time in my life.

Can't really comment about what Samsung might have removed, having only had 3 of their Android devices in 12 years, A Galaxy S in 2010(that I rooted and used CyanogenMod on it), a budget Galaxy Prime Duos I bought in Hong Kong in 2013(that was very basic), and my current Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G(that only came with the QQ Music online streaming player). But for my main use on-the-go music and media player up-to 2014, I was using a 60GB Apple iPod Video with RockBox(open source firmware) on it, and that could play many formats, including WMA. This iPod I've actually still got somewhere.


Of course that doesn't change that AFAICT Windows Media as become really a legacy format. That's extremely expensive(costs millions) to license, and is now only really supported by Microsoft on Windows computers, and not much else.
Apart from some third-party, non-commercial, free open source software(FOSS), like VLC and Foobar2000 that can play Windows Media(no DRM), that doesn't need to pay licensing fees or sign "CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY" agreements.

I'm pretty sure one can't buy music in WMA, as that stopped probably 15 years ago now. And I only acquired a couple of WMA albums, because I was poking though an old Thinkpad with Win XP I had given to me.

I really stopped using Windows myself back in 2008 after Windows Vista. and went (cr)Apple and Linux.