How do I copy music from my computer to my Samsung phone?

Transferring music from a computer to a Samsung phone is a common task for many users. This process allows you to easily copy song files and entire playlists to your phone, so you can enjoy your favorite tunes on the go.

In this guide, we’ll provide a step-by-step walkthrough of how to transfer music files from your Windows or Mac computer to a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet. We’ll cover everything you need to know, from connecting your phone to your computer to accessing and playing the transferred music.

Prerequisites

Before transferring music from your computer to your Samsung phone, you’ll need:

• A computer with your music library stored on it. The average music library contains around 7,000 songs, but your library may be smaller or larger depending on your collection (Hypebot).
• A Samsung smartphone you want to transfer the music to.
• A USB cable to connect your phone to your computer.

Make sure your computer and phone are both powered on and ready before beginning the music transfer process.

Connect Phone to Computer

To transfer music from your computer to your Samsung phone, the first step is to physically connect the two devices. This is done using a USB cable that typically comes included with your Samsung phone.

One end of the USB cable plugs into the charging port on your phone, while the other end connects to a USB port on your computer. Most modern laptops and desktop computers have multiple USB ports that you can use for this purpose.

Once the USB cable is securely connected between the phone and computer, your phone may display a notification that it is connected for file transfer. You may need to swipe this notification and select the File Transfer option to enable access to your phone’s storage from the computer.

With the physical USB connection established between your devices, you can now navigate to the music folder on your computer and begin the file transfer process.

Locate Music Folder on Computer

The first step is to navigate to the folder on your computer that contains your music library. This is usually located in the “Music” or “My Music” folder, but can vary depending on your operating system and how you’ve organized your files.

On Windows, open File Explorer and look in the left pane for a “Music” or “My Music” folder, often under the This PC or Libraries sections. On Mac, open Finder and navigate to the Music folder, usually found in your Home folder or sidebar.

If you store your music library in a different location, navigate there instead. Use the search bar in File Explorer or Finder to quickly find folders if you don’t know the path.

Once in your music folder, you will see all the artists, albums, and song files available to transfer. Take note of this location, as you will need to access it again later.

If your music files are organized into multiple folders or drives, you may want to consolidate them into one Music folder first to make transferring easier. Create a new folder and copy all your various music folders into it.

Select Music to Transfer

You can transfer individual songs, entire albums, all songs by a certain artist, or your entire music library from your computer to your Samsung phone. Here are some tips for choosing which music to copy:

To transfer a few specific songs, browse your music folders and select the individual song files you want. Click each song while holding the CTRL key to select multiple files.

To transfer an entire album, locate the album folder and select it. This will highlight all the song files within that folder to copy over.

To get all songs by an artist, you can sort your music library by artist, then select the artist folder or name. This will select all of that artist’s songs across their albums.

To transfer your entire music library, go to the top-level music folder on your computer and select it. This will copy all songs in all subfolders to your phone.

However, be aware of your phone’s storage capacity. As noted on Samsung forums, the typical 3-5 minute song takes 3-10 MB. So a 64 GB micro SD card might hold 6,000-8,000 songs total. Check your available space before transferring your whole music library.

Copy Music Files to Phone

Once you have located the music files on your computer that you want to transfer, you can copy them over to your Samsung phone by either dragging and dropping the files or using copy and paste.

To drag and drop files, select the desired music files on your computer, then click and drag them over to the open phone storage folder on your computer. Release the mouse button to drop the files into the folder.

Alternatively, you can use keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste the files. Select the files on your computer, press Ctrl + C (or Cmd + C on Mac) to copy them. Then open the phone’s folder, click inside it, and press Ctrl + V (or Cmd + V on Mac) to paste the music files.

Both drag and drop and copy/paste will successfully transfer the selected music files from your computer over to the connected Samsung phone’s storage. Now you will be able to access and play the music on your phone.

Disconnect Phone from Computer

When you are finished transferring music files to your Samsung phone, it is important to properly eject the device before unplugging the USB cable. Simply unplugging the cable without ejecting can corrupt data or damage the device.

To safely eject the phone on a Windows PC:

1. Open File Explorer by pressing the Windows key + E or double clicking on This PC.
2. In the left pane, right click on the Samsung Android phone drive and select “Eject”.
3. A prompt will appear saying it is safe to remove the device.
4. Unplug the USB cable connecting your phone to the computer.

Ejecting the phone drive ensures any file transfers have finished and disconnects the device from the computer properly without errors. Once ejected, you can safely unplug the phone.

For more details, see this guide on how to safely eject hardware in Windows.

Access Transferred Music on Phone

Once you have transferred music files from your computer to your Samsung phone, you can access and play the transferred music using your phone’s music player app. Here is how to access the transferred music:

Open the music player app on your Samsung phone. This is typically the Samsung Music app, but you may have a different default music app installed such as Spotify or Apple Music.

Navigate to the music library within the app. There should be options to view All Songs, Albums, Artists, Playlists, etc. Go to whichever section contains the music files you transferred.

The transferred music files should now be visible in your music library alongside any other music content you already had on your phone. You can browse through the transferred music here.

Tap on any song to start playing it. You can also add songs to a playlist, download them for offline listening, or perform other music app actions.

That’s it! You should now have access on your Samsung phone to play the music files transferred from your computer.

Play Transferred Music

Once the music files have been successfully copied over to your Samsung phone, you are ready to start listening to your transferred music. Simply open up the Music app on your Samsung device to access the music files.

The app should automatically detect the new music files that were copied over from your computer. Tap on a song in your music library to begin playback. The music controls will appear on the screen to allow you to play, pause, skip tracks, adjust volume, etc.

You can also create playlists if you want to organize your transferred music into different categories or view your music by songs, artists, albums, genres, or folders. Everything should work seamlessly as if the music was downloaded directly on your Samsung device.

Enjoy having your music collection from the computer now accessible right on your Samsung phone! With just a few simple steps to connect and transfer files, you can take your music anywhere.

Troubleshooting

Transferring music files from a computer to a Samsung phone can sometimes encounter issues. Here are some solutions for common transfer problems:

If your phone is not being detected by your computer when connected via USB, try connecting to a different USB port, restarting your phone, updating your USB drivers, or using a different USB cable. Older cables can become worn and fail to transmit data properly.¹

If file transfers are very slow or failing, check that you have enough available storage space on your phone. Also try transferring smaller batches of files instead of many large files at once. USB 2.0 transfers much slower than USB 3.0.²

On Windows, you may need to enable MTP file transfer mode in the notifications that appear when you connect your phone. On Mac, you may need to install Android File Transfer software.

Make sure you have granted the necessary permissions on your phone for your computer to access its storage. Check that USB debugging mode is enabled in developer options.

As a last resort, try rebooting both your computer and phone or perform a factory reset on the phone if none of the above solutions fix your file transfer issues.