How do I backup all my music on Android?

Why Backing Up Your Music is Important

Music is an important part of many people’s lives. Having your favorite songs and playlists accessible on your Android device wherever you go can be invaluable. However, the amount of music stored locally on Android phones continues to increase, with high-quality audio files taking up significant storage space. Sudden hardware failure, accidents, theft, or OS corruption can result in catastrophic data loss if backups have not been maintained. Backing up your music library should be part of your regular device maintenance plan.

According to a survey by ComputerWorld, 63% of smartphone users have lost all of their phone data at some point due to not backing up properly. Don’t let that happen to your priceless music collection and playlists. Setting up automated and redundant processes for music backup takes only a small time investment upfront but provides invaluable peace of mind and data safety.

This guide will outline step-by-step methods for backing up your music on Android devices. By following best practices, you can rest assured your musical memories, whether from your favorite bands or your child’s first piano recital, will persist independently of any single device.

Check Storage Locations

When backing up your music on Android, the first step is to understand where your music may be stored across different storage locations. There are a few common places to check:

Device Storage: Music downloaded directly to your Android device is typically stored in the “Music” or “Downloads” folder. According to imyfone, the default music folder can be found by navigating to internal storage > Music.

SD Card: If you have an SD card inserted in your Android device, downloaded music may be stored there as well. Mobikin notes that the Downloads folder on an SD card contains all media downloaded while the card was inserted.

Cloud Storage: Streaming apps like Spotify allow you to save music for offline listening. This downloaded content is stored in the app’s cloud locker. You’ll need to back up the app data itself to preserve cloud content.

Knowing where your music is stored will enable you to properly back it up from each location.

Back Up Device Storage

One way to back up the data on your Android device is by using the built-in Android Backup Service. This will back up your contacts, apps, settings, messages, and more to your Google Account ^[1]. To enable it:

– Open Settings and go to System > Backup.

– Turn on Back up to Google Drive.

You can also manually trigger a backup by going to Settings > System > Backup and selecting Back up now.

Another option is using a third-party backup app like Helium Backup ^[2]. This allows you to back up app data, WiFi passwords, call logs, messages and more. You can back up to cloud storage, external SD card, or your computer.

Back Up SD Card

One way to back up the files on your Android’s SD card is to copy them to a computer or cloud storage. Here are a few options:

You can remove the SD card from your Android device and insert it into a card reader connected to your computer. Then you can copy the files and folders on the SD card to a folder on your computer. This creates a backup of your SD card contents on your computer.

To backup your SD card to Google Drive, use the Google Drive app for Android. Open the app, tap the “+” button, select Upload, and choose the files/folders on your SD card you want to back up. The selected content will be copied to your Google Drive storage. See this guide for step-by-step instructions.

Another option is to use a cloud storage service like Dropbox or OneDrive. Install the app on your Android, select the content on your SD card to upload, and it will be copied to your cloud storage account automatically.

Backing up your SD card to a computer or cloud service allows you to restore the files if your phone is lost, damaged, or wiped.

Back Up Cloud Locker

One way to backup your music is by downloading or transferring your cloud music library. Many Android users utilize cloud music services like Google Play Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora, and others to stream and access their music libraries. These cloud apps sync your music collection to their servers so you can listen from any device.

To backup this cloud content, you’ll need to download the songs/albums locally to your device or computer. For Google Play Music, you can use Google Takeout (https://takeout.google.com) to export your library before the service shuts down. Select Google Play Music under the services and it will compile your uploads, purchases, playlists etc. Other cloud apps like Spotify have options in settings to make your music available offline. Once downloaded, you can back up the files themselves.

Backing up your cloud locker ensures you have copies of your music collection outside of the streaming service itself. If the service ever shuts down or you lose access, you’ll still have the files available locally or on an external backup.

Back Up Streaming Apps

Streaming apps like Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music make listening to music easy by providing access to millions of songs online. However, streaming services alone don’t provide a way to back up your playlists and music libraries. Here are some tips for backing up your playlists from popular streaming apps on Android:

For Spotify, you can export your playlists as CSV files from the desktop app. On mobile, you’ll need a third party app like Tunemymusic to transfer playlists to another service. YouTube Music allows you to export playlists from the Library section of the mobile app. Select the playlists you want to back up, tap the three dot menu, and choose Export. This will save the playlist as a text file.

With Apple Music, you can view all your playlists online and export them. Log into music.apple.com, go to Playlists and select the playlist dropdown menu to export. Lastly, Amazon Music playlists can be exported from the desktop web player under Your Music > Playlists. Click the three dot menu next to a playlist and choose Export Playlist. This will download an XML file containing your playlist songs.

Overall, most streaming services do not have built-in backup options on mobile. You’ll need to rely on desktop web apps, third party tools like Tunemymusic, or manually exporting playlists as text/XML files to properly back them up from your Android device.

Back Up Playlists

One of the most important things to backup are your playlists from your default Android music player. Playlists allow you to organize and listen to songs in a specific order, making it easy to replay your favorite mixes.

Unfortunately, playlists are not automatically backed up and transferred when you get a new Android device. The default music players on Android do not have a built-in feature to export playlists. However, there are a couple ways to manually back them up.

A simple way is to use the app Syncios. You can connect both your old and new Android devices to your computer. In the Transfer module of Syncios, you can view your playlists from your old device and transfer them to the new device.

Another method is to use an app like Playlist Backup. This will back up your playlists from your Android’s default music app into a text file. When you get your new device, you can use the text file to recreate your playlists.

With a manual backup of your playlists before switching Android devices, you can ensure you don’t lose your painstakingly crafted song orders and mixes.

Alternative Backup Methods

For those who want to back up their Android music collection without relying on cloud storage or cables, there are some alternative wireless options:

One method is to use Bluetooth file transfer. You can pair your Android device with another Bluetooth-enabled device like a computer or external hard drive and transfer music files over the wireless Bluetooth connection. This allows you to back up your music without cables or an internet connection.

Another wireless option is to use a home WiFi network. You can connect your Android device and computer or external hard drive to the same WiFi network. Then use an app like Airdroid to wirelessly transfer music files from your Android device to the computer or drive on the network.

Some Android devices also support WiFi Direct, which allows a direct peer-to-peer wireless connection between your phone and another device without a WiFi network. You can use this to transfer music files if both devices support WiFi Direct.

For large music collections, you may want to use an external wireless hard drive designed for mobile devices. These wireless drives create their own WiFi hotspot that you can connect your Android phone to in order to back up your music library.

Automating Backups

One of the easiest ways to ensure your music is always backed up on Android is to set up automatic backups. There are a few different options for automating backups:

Enable Auto Backup for Apps in Android 6.0+ – Android has a built-in auto backup feature that can back up app data and settings. To enable it, go to Settings > System > Backup > Back up now. Android will then periodically back up app data to Google Drive [1].

Use Google One – With a Google One membership, you can enable auto phone backups that sync your device data like photos, contacts, and SMS to Google Drive. Open the Google One app, go to Storage > Backups and turn on Auto Backup [2].

Schedule Backups in Backup & Restore – In your device’s Settings app under System > Backup, you can schedule regular backups to store locally or in Google Drive. Set a frequency like daily or weekly and time to automatically back up data [3].

Automating music backups ensures your collection stays protected without having to manually backup. Considering enabling one of these options to effortlessly save your music over time.

Conclusion

Regularly backing up your music files is critical to ensure you never lose important work. As a music producer, your musical creations are valuable assets that deserve proper protection. Having a solid backup plan in place gives you peace of mind that you won’t lose files due to device failure, theft, accidental deletion, or other common issues.

This guide has walked through the main methods for backing up your Android device’s internal storage, SD card, cloud locker storage, streaming service files, playlists, and more. Whether you manually trigger backups or schedule regular automated backups, putting redundancy protections in place takes little effort compared to the headache of permanently losing original compositions.

In summary:

• Know where all your music files reside across local device storage, SD cards, lockers, streaming apps, etc.
• Leverage built-in Android backup features alongside third party apps as needed
• Consider redundancy across local device backups, external drives, cloud/locker storage
• Automate backups on a set schedule if possible

Follow these music backup best practices, review your approach regularly as storage needs evolve, and you can rest easy knowing your musical creations are safe and secure.