How do I put all my music on my SD card?

What You’ll Need

To put all your music on an SD card, you’ll need the following:

An SD card – Make sure your phone is compatible with the SD card capacity you choose. Many modern Android phones support SD cards up to 512GB.
A computer with an SD card reader or slot – You’ll need to transfer the music files from your computer to the SD card.

The music files you want to put on the SD card – Make sure the files are stored on your computer before trying to transfer them.

Before transferring any files, you’ll want to properly format your SD card. Refer to your phone’s instructions for how to do this, as the process varies by device. Typically, you can format the SD card using your phone’s settings.

Check SD Card Compatibility

Before transferring music to your SD card, you’ll want to make sure the card is compatible with your phone. There are a few key things to check:

Confirm the SD card fits physically – Most phones use the microSD format, but some may require the smaller nanoSD size. Check your phone’s manual to see which SD card types fit.

Check the maximum capacity – Android phones generally support SD cards up to 512GB (https://www.androidpolice.com/best-microsd-cards/). Higher capacity cards may not work properly.

Look for speed ratings – For good music playback, Class 10 and UHS 1 cards offer faster speeds (https://www.androidauthority.com/best-microsd-cards-707519/). Slower cards could lead to choppy audio.

See if SDHC/SDXC cards are supported – Most current phones work with SDHC and SDXC, but older models may only be compatible with standard SD cards (https://www.kingston.com/en/blog/personal-storage/microsd-sd-memory-card-guide).

Consult your phone’s manual or specs to verify compatibility before purchasing an SD card. This ensures it will function properly when transferring music.

Format the SD Card

Before transferring music files to your SD card, you’ll want to format it. Formatting erases all data on the card and prepares it to store new files. There are two main formatting options for SD cards: FAT32 and exFAT.

FAT32 has been around longer and has wider compatibility with older devices. However, it has a maximum file size of 4GB and maximum card size of 32GB (Source 1).

exFAT is a newer format that supports larger files over 4GB and SD cards up to 2TB (Source 2). Most modern devices can read exFAT formatted cards.

So if your SD card is over 32GB or you have large music files, you’ll want to format it to exFAT. Otherwise FAT32 will suffice. Just know that formatting erases the data, so be sure to backup your SD card first if needed.

Transfer Music Files to Computer

The first step is to copy your entire music library from your phone or music player to a folder on your computer. This will allow you to organize the files before transferring them to the SD card.

To transfer music files from your phone to your computer:

Connect your phone to your computer using the charging cable. For most modern phones, this will mount the phone’s storage as an external drive on your computer.

Open your phone’s file explorer app and navigate to the folder where your music files are stored, such as Music or My Files. This is often in internal storage.
Select all the music files and folders you want to transfer. If you want your entire music library, you can select the top Music folder.
Copy or cut the files and folders.

On your computer, navigate to where you want to save the music files, like a Music folder.
Paste the files and folders here to copy them over. Make sure you have enough free space on your computer.
Once the transfer finishes, you can safely disconnect your phone.

You now have your full music library copied to your computer, ready to be organized and transferred to the SD card. Be patient as transferring a large music collection can take some time.

Organize Music Files

Before transferring your music to the SD card, it’s important to organize your files on the computer first. This will make it easier to find and play songs later on your phone.

Create a logical folder structure to categorize your music. For example, you may want separate folders for artists, genres, decades, or however else you like to split up your music library. Make sure folder and file names don’t have special characters that could cause errors.

It’s also helpful to edit the metadata for each music file. Metadata is data embedded in the file that describes the song details like artist, album, genre, etc. Check that song titles, artists, album names, track numbers, and other info are filled out accurately and consistently. This makes it easier to search and sort your music library later. You can use free software like Mp3tag to efficiently edit metadata for multiple files at once.

Correctly organizing your digital music library will make transferring and accessing your collection quick and seamless. Put in the time upfront to create a clean folder structure and edit metadata, and you’ll reap the benefits each time you play music on your phone.

Copy Music to SD Card

Once you have organized your music files on your computer, it’s time to transfer them to the SD card. The easiest way is to simply drag and drop the files or folders onto the SD card drive.

To do this, open the folder on your computer where you have your music files stored. Open a second window and navigate to your SD card drive. Select the music files/folders you want to transfer, then drag and drop them onto the SD card window. The files will start copying over.

Depending on how much music you are transferring, this process can take some time. Copying several gigabytes may take 10 minutes or more depending on your computer and SD card speeds (source). Be patient and wait for the transfer to fully complete before ejecting the SD card.

Some tips for faster transfer speeds:

Use a USB 3.0 port if available
Avoid transferring files while running other intensive tasks on your computer
Use a high-speed SD card rated Class 10 or higher

Once the copy is finished, safely eject the SD card before removing it from your computer.

Safely Remove SD Card

Before physically removing the SD card from your computer, it’s important to safely eject it first to avoid corruption. When you remove an SD card without properly ejecting, you risk corrupting files or making the entire card unreadable.

To safely remove the SD card on Windows, locate the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in the system tray. Click this icon and select your SD card’s drive letter from the menu. You’ll get a notification when it’s safe to disconnect the card. On Mac, right-click the SD card icon on the desktop and select “Eject”. Wait for the ejection process to finish before removing the card.

Safely ejecting the SD card ensures any pending writes are completed before disconnecting. This prevents file corruption and data loss. Failing to properly eject SD cards is one of the main causes of corruption, as noted in this Reddit discussion: Why are Micro SD cards more prone to corruption than a …

Always make safely removing the SD card part of your workflow when transferring files. This simple step goes a long way in avoiding problems down the road.

Insert and Mount SD Card

Once you have transferred your music files to the SD card and safely removed it from your computer, you are ready to insert it into your phone. Locate the SD card slot on your phone – it is usually on the side or bottom edge of the device. Gently slide the SD card into the slot until it clicks into place and does not protrude.

Your phone should automatically mount the SD card, meaning it will recognize it as external storage. You may get a notification that the SD card has been detected. If your phone does not automatically mount the SD card, go into your phone’s Settings app and find the Storage settings. There should be an option to mount or set up your SD card. Follow the on-screen prompts to mount it.

Once successfully mounted, your phone will be able to access files stored on the SD card. You may need to restart your phone after inserting the SD card for the first time in order for it to be properly recognized.

Locate Files on Phone

Once the SD card is inserted into your Android phone, you’ll need to open your file manager app to access the music files. Some popular and highly-rated Android file managers include Mixplorer, Solid Explorer, and Files by Google.

Open your chosen file manager app and look for the “Music” folder. This is usually in the SD card storage. Navigate into the Music folder and you should see all the music files and subfolders you transferred earlier.

You can also search for artists, albums, or song names to quickly find specific music files. Tap on a song to play it directly from the SD card storage.

Play Music from SD Card

Once you have transferred your music files to the SD card and inserted the card into your phone, you are ready to play music directly from the SD card. Here are the steps:

Open your music app on your phone. This is typically an app like Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play Music etc.
Look for the option to select music library or source. There should be an option to choose “SD Card” or external storage.
Select the SD card source. The music app should now display the music files available on your SD card.

Browse or search to find the songs you want. Select a song to begin playing it.
The music app will now play songs directly from the SD card rather than from internal phone storage.

That’s it! You can now access and play all your music files that are stored on the external SD card. Switching between internal storage and SD card is easy to do on demand.