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separating music from audio books & podcasts

Zcherub

Newbie
Jul 27, 2013
31
2
I've read several posts/articles, but I can't seem to settle on a solution that does exactly what I need (also most of them are 3-5 years old and the Google apps suggested either changed names or aren't around - not sure as I'm new to the Android scene).

By default, all of my audiobooks show up in my music list, obviously. This isn't just inconvenient when I want to locate them, but it's a hassle when I'm shuffling all of my music and come upon an out of context section of a podcast/book.

I use OneCast for my podcasts, and my books are in MP3 format. Is there any way (just using the phone preferably, but if the best solutions is using a computer, I'd like to know how to do that as well) to segregagte the podcasts/audiobooks into their own section (preferably a section for each) so that they will not appear in my songs list or play when I'm shuffling music?

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
Play Music is total pants at that sort of thing - actually, it's totally pants at most things: why should that be an exception? :D I really don't understand how my Nokia could distinguish between Podcasts and Music nearly 10 years ago but Droids apparently still can't :thinking:

Anyhoo, the only work-around I've found requires a PC. I use Windows Media Player - other tools are available - to list all of my music (Media Library then select All Music). This lists various metadata/information about the tracks, one column of which is Genre. I can't remember, but I think you can select all the tracks, then edit this once and it will change for everything selected.

I amended the Genre for all the tracks, but I guess you could actually update by musical genre.

The reason I updated music rather than podcasts is that I add podcasts pretty much every week but my music rarely changes.

Anyway, once the updated files have been moved to the phone, go to Genres in Play Music (top left menu, My Library, Genre tab - why use one tap when you can use 101 :banghead:), scroll down (past miles and miles of GIGANTIC icons) and you will eventually find a seperate icon for all your music :D

I discovered yesterday that if you tap the menu on this icon and select Add to queue you can actually have it all play without being randomly interupted by pods .. I think. I guess you could also use Instant Mix, but lord alone knows how that works - 30 years in IT and I can't begin to work that out :stupid:
 
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ReadItOut requires you to specify the directory where your audio books are stored. So as long as you keep your music and audio books in different folders, ReadItOut will not show you any music. Play Music simply displays all audio files on your SD card.

In recent versions of Android (e.g. 4.2) some of the apps available in Google Play that should make adding '.nomedia' files simple don't seem to work correctly. Therefore I always use a file browsers (ES File Explorer) and manually create a new file called '.nomedia'. Also, you might need to refresh the Play Music database before it starts ignoring folders containing new '.nomedia' files.
 
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ReadItOut requires you to specify the directory where your audio books are stored. So as long as you keep your music and audio books in different folders, ReadItOut will not show you any music. Play Music simply displays all audio files on your SD card.

In recent versions of Android (e.g. 4.2) some of the apps available in Google Play that should make adding '.nomedia' files simple don't seem to work correctly. Therefore I always use a file browsers (ES File Explorer) and manually create a new file called '.nomedia'. Also, you might need to refresh the Play Music database before it starts ignoring folders containing new '.nomedia' files.

That makes sense, thanks. If I can do it all on the phone with a file browser, that's even better! Since I'n new to all this, how do I go about refreshing the Play Music database? And is that still necessary if I go with another music player available in the Play Store?
 
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I also have this problem and can't understand the directions. I added a nomedia file to the folder where I keep the books and still see the books on my music list, books are on sd card and music on phone..this is driving me crazy! why should you have 2 players? thats nuts anyway I was trying mixzing player (which is nice) and mort audio book which is also nice. any help would be GREATLY appreciated if you have the time. thanks
 
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