Help Nexus doesn't see music files

Matreyu · Feb 21, 2012

Hi all, I got my Nexus Friday night and I love it. Love the design, feel and ICS. However, I spent all weekend moving files from Dropbox to the pre-defined Music folder, but no matter what music app I've tried (PlayerPro, WinAmp, Google Music) nothing recognizes the mp3 files at all! What happened?

I can long-press a file in EStrongs File Explorer and play in Google Music, but why can't those apps see the files and album artwork? Do I have to move all files to a different folder?

Matreyu · Feb 21, 2012

Well, I simply dropped all 314 music folders into the Downloads/Music folder and my music app recognized them. Why the default Music folder didn't see the files is beyond me. Hope this helps others.

Jay3 · Feb 21, 2012

It may have something to do with the phone being set up for Google Music. Google Music is a cloud based service (like iCloud) that streams to your device. It can "pin" songs for offline enjoyment, but the song resides with a special code name for recognition by Google Music.

The Android Music player is more conventional. I think maybe that first folder you tried was the special purpose folder for Google Music (just a theory).

I recommend you give it try -- upload your songs using Google Music from the web-based app on a desktop computer. You're allowed 20,000 free hosted songs. It keeps them seamlessly synced with your device, and you can play your music from any computer in the world off the internet.

When I acquire a song now, it's very simple -- download it to my "main" computer folder, Google Music discovers it automatically, and automatically uploads it to the cloud.

I always add songs to at least one playlist, and I always select "Make available offline" for all my playlists. So my whole collection is on my device.

Matreyu · Feb 21, 2012

Jay3 said:
The Android Music player is more conventional. I think maybe that first folder you tried was the special purpose folder for Google Music (just a theory).

That actually makes total sense now. So Google Music doesn't "see" other files in there? I wonder if that's reserved for Google Music's offline storage?

Does the songs you upload to Google Music have to be purchased? I 'found' some off the internet awhile back. Will GM kick those files out?

I need to have local mp3 files since I work in the basement and get inconsistent data connectivity and IT doesn't open up the WiFi for anyone.

GrandMasterB · Feb 21, 2012

Matreyu said:
That actually makes total sense now. So Google Music doesn't "see" other files in there? I wonder if that's reserved for Google Music's offline storage?

Does the songs you upload to Google Music have to be purchased? I 'found' some off the internet awhile back. Will GM kick those files out?

I need to have local mp3 files since I work in the basement and get inconsistent data connectivity and IT doesn't open up the WiFi for anyone.

I have 6800 music tracks (my entire collection) uploaded to Google Music and they don't have to be purchased. That's every single CD I have purchased since I was 15 and I have never really purchased many online. A few from iTunes just to try it out a few years back...

Anyways, kinda the same situation as you, I have poor service in our giant poly-steel production shop/offices so I keep a handful of albums on my sdcard/saved to sdcard/music and I primarily use the Google Music app and it see's them fine. I also have a few tracks just dropped on the root of the sdcard and it see's them fine. I believe the music player will see them most anywhere on the sdcard as long as there isn't a .nomedia file in the same location.

Also as mentioned above you probably don't wanna drop them in any of the sdcard/Android/Data folders either. If you just create a folder on the sdcard called "Music" the player should see them fine.

Matreyu · Feb 21, 2012

So is there a faster/better way to put 14Gb of music files on my Nexus?

I am probably very OCD about this, but I need to have my album covers included. I spent a lot of time collecting the original covers, not the "Best Of" covers that iTunes and WMP tend to pick. I originally used WMP and MTP to sync the files, but it didn't push my artwork.jpg with the files so I un-synced them. Told you I was nuts.

I ended up pushing the folders to my Dropbox, and then downloaded them from there. If I ever need to get a replacement Nexus, what's the best method?

GrandMasterB · Feb 21, 2012

Matreyu said:
So is there a faster/better way to put 14Gb of music files on my Nexus?

I am probably very OCD about this, but I need to have my album covers included. I spent a lot of time collecting the original covers, not the "Best Of" covers that iTunes and WMP tend to pick. I originally used WMP and MTP to sync the files, but it didn't push my artwork.jpg with the files so I un-synced them. Told you I was nuts.

I ended up pushing the folders to my Dropbox, and then downloaded them from there. If I ever need to get a replacement Nexus, what's the best method?

I honestly can't tell you a better way. I can tell you I have spent numerous hours in iTunes locating and applying the proper artwork because I am generally pretty OCD about it myself.

Not all of my artwork displays correctly for the music I transferred and I haven't really dealt with it yet for a couple of reasons. First the device is stil very new to me and I am busy playing with all the ROMs and themes kernels etc in the meantime....and I can't stop! Secondly the way the Galaxy Nexus displays the now playing artwork on the lockscreen is very unflattering and hidden in the background anyways...so its not going to look good no matter what you do, IMO.

If you are an iTunes user you will probably have favorable results just dragging and dropping the albums straight from iTunes onto the sdcard into your folder, at least that's what I am going to try when I get home tonight. It seems like that worked well on my previous Android devices.

prostang · Feb 21, 2012

I set up my wife's Gnex with gmusic and twice now, it doesn't show her music for a short period of time. It does come back, but I usually have to change her sync'd account and back.

Matreyu · Feb 22, 2012

GrandMasterB said:
I honestly can't tell you a better way. I can tell you I have spent numerous hours in iTunes locating and applying the proper artwork because I am generally pretty OCD about it myself.

Not all of my artwork displays correctly for the music I transferred and I haven't really dealt with it yet for a couple of reasons. First the device is stil very new to me and I am busy playing with all the ROMs and themes kernels etc in the meantime....and I can't stop! Secondly the way the Galaxy Nexus displays the now playing artwork on the lockscreen is very unflattering and hidden in the background anyways...so its not going to look good no matter what you do, IMO.

If you are an iTunes user you will probably have favorable results just dragging and dropping the albums straight from iTunes onto the sdcard into your folder, at least that's what I am going to try when I get home tonight. It seems like that worked well on my previous Android devices.

Just when everything was working. I've got my PlayerPro up and running with album covers, finally. But I noticed the Nexus duplicated ALL the album artwork and made copies in the sd/pictures/ directory! Which means they all showed up the Gallery app! So I deleted those. I wonder if GMusic reserved those there too.

Help Nexus doesn't see music files

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