Play music from network drive, no server needed

[crimsontime]

I just wanted to share how I got my Optimus V to seemlessly play my entire music collection over wifi (>20,000 files) from a network drive, no server needed. I'm not sure if this requires root or not. My phone is rooted. This makes my music collection completely portable around the house and I don't need to run any power hungry always on server to do it. This solution does not make the collection available outside your home wifi network but works great at home.

1) Install MortPlayer from the market. MortPlayer can read any folder as your network share. In addition, it does not require volumeid so it can index your files that are on your network share that you will mount to your sdcard without issue. (Other players won't work -tested PowerAmp, Default Music player,Meridian... many others -they won't index from a sd mounted share)
2) Install Mount Manager from the market. This is better than CIFS Manager because you can automatically connect on wifi.
3) In Mount Manager, map your network share for instance 192.168.1.116\music or whatever it is to your sdcard. Set the sdcard mount point to be something like sdcard/music2 or whatever you choose. This will make your entire music collection viewable under sdcard\music2 or whatever you chose as the mount point.
4) In Mount Manager, enable the settings to connect automatically to your shares when you connect to wifi, and disconnect when disconnected from wifi.
5) Launch Mortplayer and select the share you created on the sdcard as the primary music folder. Next wait patiently as Mortplayer indexes your gazillions of files. This could take a long time so make sure your phone does not shut off wifi during the process. You may need to tweak your battery saver or other settings to make sure it stays alive depending on your configuration.
6) In Mortplayer, make sure to turn off the scanning. Configuration>Preferences>Initialization>Update Folder Structure>Never. I would only manually scan if needed if you have a lot of files because it takes forever to do the initial scan.
7) (Optional -recommended) Make a backup of Mortplayer and its data if you can so if something gets foobared, you can restore the app and its data so you don't have to re-index again. I use Titanium Backup for this.


That's basically it! No server needed. You can play all your files from attached network storage. I welcome questions, comments, criticism, or improvements to this setup!

 

[woodsb123]

Crimsometime, not sure if what you mean by "server" is an actual server instead of workstation pc and I would be curious if you are able to access your music without your pc, which the network drive is connected to, being powered off. I have the same access that you have, however, I have an external hard drive connected to my pc at home and my pc needs to be turned on at all times, which is actually not a bad thing. Also, all I needed to do was install the "Audiogalaxy" app on my workstation as well as my Android phone. No syncing is involved, also none of my music is in the "Cloud". What Audiogalaxy allows me to do is access my entire music collection(unlimited amount of songs) from either my phone or any pc with internet access, and this is done whether I have wifi, 3G, or 4G connectivity. Check it out at Audiogalaxy - Your Music. Your Playlists. Hit Play from Anywhere.

 

[crimsontime]

Crimsometime, not sure if what you mean by "server" is an actual server instead of workstation pc and I would be curious if you are able to access your music without your pc

My method works without any pc or computer. You only need to connect a network drive directly to your router and use your android phone following the instructions above. By "server" I mean any pc or other computer that is being used as a server, not necessarily a dedicated server.

I'm aware of Audiogalaxy, but I did not want to run my pc (an old laptop) just to play my music at home. If I ever need to play music away from home, Audiogalaxy is probably the method I will use but then I will need to run a server. Even then, I would probably only run a server when I specifically needed to and just read my network drive otherwise. This saves power and frees up my pc. Other cloud services are not a good option because I have too many files.

I have also researched accessing my music by just connecting to my router somehow over the internet but I don't know yet if it this possible. Since our phones are themselves computers it seems like we shouldn't need to run another computer just to make use of our own network storage.

 

[AlbinoAsian]

Thanks for your hard work with this, I've been looking for a way to do this but am a bit of a noob when it comes to media sharing. I was searching around the android market for some apps that might help. I did fine one that might actually do what you did but a little easier.

https://market.android.com/details?id=org.gmote.client.android

I was disappointed when I first got it because I thought I was misled and it only works as remote control, but it can actually stream any folder on your computer (needs installation of a program to serve it though). Just wanted to let you know its worked alright for me so far.

Also thinking of hooking it up to my wifes computer to put the volume down when she's deafening me =)

 

[tommyh]

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread, but this seems like a pretty nice solution in the absence of other decent options.

One issue I have is my Mp3s skip every few seconds. Anyway to tell the MortPlayer to buffer or ... ?

EDIT: It's definitely a buffering problem on my LG Ally. I installed MixZing which buffers songs IF the equalizer is turned on and the settings are changed. Works great now.

 

[GPounda]

3) In Mount Manager, map your network share for instance 192.168.1.116\music or whatever it is to your sdcard. Set the sdcard mount point to be something like sdcard/music2 or whatever you choose. This will make your entire music collection viewable under sdcard\music2 or whatever you chose as the mount point.
4) In Mount Manager, enable the settings to connect automatically to your shares when you connect to wifi, and disconnect when disconnected from wifi.

Hi Crimsontime; sorry for being an idiot here, but would you please dumb this step down for me? I'm completely lost.

Thank you

 

[cplloyd42]

Hi crimsontime,

I've just joined this forum having found your useful posting that seems to answer a problem I have been having. I have a Seagate Wireless Plus drive that I am trying to have either of my two audiobook players access (it's a pity there isn't one of these can access a network drive directly, at least not that I know of). My players are Akimbo and Mortplayer.

I have downloaded the latest version of Mount Manager and followed your instructions carefully, including adding user and password options (as you need to for ES File Explorer, for example, to access it). It seems to make a connection as the file_mode and dir_mode fields are automatically entered under the Options area. However, no files system is mounted under my nominated mount point, as checked by ES File Explorer. The Mount Type I have left as cifs. I have tried this by entering the IP address as per your method, and also by navigating to the directory within Mount Manager, but to no avail.

If you or anyone else has any suggestions, I would appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,
Paul.

 

[Grrrrrrrrr]

Where can I get this "Mount Manager"? I have 45GB of music on my PC and don't want to run a server (Turn on Media Streaming in Advanced sharing settings on a windows PC).

VLC beta has the option to add an "emulated directory" but I'm pretty ignorant (and frustrated) with all this mobile (Do what we want the way we want and like it!) software and can't figure this out. I'm thinking this mount manager can help me do this?

 

[Tom the Pain]

Most routers that attach USB disks to network have Samba services. Merlin is nice upgrade for ASUS routers with Samba. So you can just connect to network shares as folders with username/passwords as required by your configuration.

In that case just install either Samba Network Music Player or Soumi Player from Google Play Store then add your network share to library list for Soumi. Defining Mount points on SD card is not required - though more "natural" for *nix fiends. If you got more than 400 files in one library share/folder/location Soumi requires $3 paid version. Samba player just has one playlist right now.

But both these programs allow syncing/caching their playlists to local phone/pad storage so you can go roaming outside WiFi range and still have part of your music. Old phones become cheap Ipod/MP3 players. Just turn on airplane mode then turn WiFi off and on to save power especially if phone is no longer activated for cell service.

Warning! Samba player does NOT delete old downloads to local storage. So its quite possible to fill up system storage area for Android. You won't even be aware unless you scan local storage or use File Explorer to see why you have no storage. Samba player just gives file download error not out of space notice.