Where is music library on Android?

What is the Music App on Android?

The Music app is the default pre-installed music player on most Android devices. It replaces the previous Google Play Music app and allows you to play audio files stored on your device or synced from the cloud.

The Music app lets you browse, play, and manage music files in one central place. You can access songs stored locally on your device’s internal storage or SD card. The app also integrates with music subscription services like YouTube Music to stream songs.

Features of the Music app include playlists, equalizers, gapless playback, sleep timers, and Chromecast support. You can also purchase music through integrations with online stores. Overall, it provides a complete music playing experience without needing to download additional apps.

Accessing the Music Library

The music library on an Android device contains all of the audio files stored locally on the phone or tablet. This includes any songs, albums, podcasts, audiobooks, and other media files saved to the internal storage or external SD card.

The easiest way to access the music library is through the Music app’s Library tab. The Library provides an organized view of all the audio content on the device, sorting it into different categories like playlists, artists, albums, songs, and genres.

Tapping into any of these categories will then show the relevant listings. For example, selecting Artists will display all of the artists with songs saved on the device. Selecting an artist will then show a list of their albums, and tapping an album will show the tracklist.

This allows users to easily browse through their entire collection of music files stored locally on their Android device. The Library tab essentially serves as the central hub for managing and playing audio files on an Android phone or tablet.

In addition to stored media files, the Library may also display recent activity like recently played songs or newly added music. Overall, it provides quick access to the device’s music library in an organized manner.

Enabling External SD Card Access

One common task with Android devices is accessing music files stored on an external microSD card. Android restricts access to external storage for privacy and security reasons. Therefore, users must explicitly enable storage access to play music located on an external SD card.

According to the Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange post How to listen to music off an SD card?, enabling access requires going into the Settings. Specifically:

1. Go to Settings > Storage
2. Tap on the external SD card
3. Toggle on the “Allow access to storage” switch

This grants the Android OS and apps permission to read files on the SD card. Once enabled, music players and other media apps can access and play songs stored on external storage.

Uploading Music to the Cloud

One convenient way to access your music library across devices is by uploading it to cloud-based music services like Google Play Music or YouTube Music. This syncs your library and allows you to stream songs directly from the cloud without taking up storage space on your device.

To upload music to Google Play Music, you can use the Google Play Music Manager app on your computer to select songs and transfer them to the cloud. According to this YouTube tutorial, the app allows you to easily drag and drop tracks or entire folders to upload them. The uploaded music will then appear in your Google Play Music library on any device where you are logged into your Google account.

Similarly, songs can be uploaded to YouTube Music by using the Upload feature in the YouTube Music app or website. You can upload up to 100,000 songs for free. This Quora post notes that you cannot directly upload from a cloud source like Dropbox, but you can download the files first before uploading them.

The main benefits of uploading music to the cloud are being able to access your full library anywhere, not needing storage space on your device, and having your collection synced across devices. Streaming from the cloud allows you to save local storage while still enjoying your entire music collection.

Third-Party Music Apps

In addition to the built-in Music app, there are many third-party music apps available for Android that offer robust music libraries and streaming services. Some popular options include:

Spotify – Spotify (https://www.spotify.com) offers a massive library of over 70 million songs that can be streamed on-demand. It has both free and paid subscription options. The paid Premium version removes ads and allows offline listening.

Amazon Music – Amazon Music (https://www.amazon.com/musicapps) grants access to a catalog of over 90 million songs for Prime members or through a Music Unlimited paid subscription. It allows downloading songs for offline playback.

Apple Music – Apple Music (https://www.apple.com/apple-music/) has over 90 million songs available to stream along with music videos and live radio stations. An individual or family plan unlocks the full experience.

The major advantage of using a dedicated third-party music app is gaining access to a much larger catalog of songs than what may be available locally on your device. However, most of the premium features do require a paid subscription.

Transferring Music Files

There are a few different ways to get music files onto your Android device:

Transfer via USB Cable

One of the most common ways to transfer music is by connecting your Android device to your computer using a USB cable. Make sure your device is set to MTP mode, which allows you to transfer media files. Then you can drag and drop music files from your computer into your device’s music folder.

Share via Bluetooth

You can also use Bluetooth to send music files to your Android device. On your computer or another phone, turn on Bluetooth and select the files you want to transfer. Then on your Android device, turn on Bluetooth and accept the file transfer request when prompted. The music files will be saved to your device.

Upload to Cloud Drives

For larger transfers, you can upload your music library to a cloud storage service like Google Drive or Dropbox from your computer. Then on your Android device, install the app for that cloud drive and download the music files.

This allows you to transfer large amounts of music wirelessly.

Organizing the Music Library

Keeping your music collection organized on Android devices can help you find songs quicker and improve your listening experience. There are various ways you can organize your music library on Android:

Create playlists to group songs however you like – for example by genre, mood, activity, or decade. Playlists allow you to customize collections of songs for different occasions. On the default Music app, tap the three dot menu and select “Playlists” to create and manage playlists. You can also use third party apps like Musicolet that make playlist creation easy.

Edit metadata like artist, album, and genre information to keep your library tidy. The Music app lets you tap on a song and edit details like artist name, genre, and more. Third party apps like Coolmuster Android Assistant also let you edit multiple songs together.

Delete unwanted songs or duplicate files to save space. Long press a song and select “Delete from device” to remove it. You can also use the free app doubleTwist Music to easily find and delete duplicate tracks.

Backing up the Music Library

It’s important to regularly back up your music library on Android to avoid losing your music collection. Here are some tips for backing up your Android music:

Back up to your computer or external drive periodically. Connect your Android device to your computer with a USB cable and transfer your music files over. Or, use an app like Tenorshare to easily back up your music library to an external SD card or hard drive.

Use built-in cloud backup services. Android devices come with Google Drive cloud backup built-in. You can configure your device to automatically back up your music library to Google Drive.

Use third-party apps like oDrive, Mega, etc. These apps provide additional cloud storage and backup capabilities for your music library.

Set reminders to back up your library regularly. Don’t wait until you lose your music files. Get in the habit of periodic backups so you always have a safe copy.

FAQs

Some common questions users have about the music library on Android include:

Why can’t I see music files on SD card?

If you have transferred music files to an external SD card, but can’t see them in your music player app, you may need to enable external SD card access. Go to Settings > Apps & notifications > Special app access > All files access and enable access for your music app. This grants permission for the app to access files on external storage (Source).

How do I download music directly to SD card?

Most Android music apps don’t allow directly downloading to external SD card. However, you can use a file manager app like ES File Explorer to browse to the SD card location and paste music files there. Just make sure you have enabled external SD access for your music app, as mentioned above (Source).

Music not showing correct metadata

If your music files are not displaying the correct metadata like album, artist, etc., try deleting the app data and cache for your music player app. Open Settings > Apps & notifications > See all apps > [Music app] > Storage & cache > Clear storage and Clear cache. This will reset the app and force it to rescan the music library metadata (Source).

Conclusion

The music library on Android devices provides a convenient way to manage and access all your audio files in one place. You can add songs stored locally on your device as well as stream music from cloud storage services like Google Play Music.

The key features of the Android music library include:

• Viewing and playing all your music files whether they are stored on your device or in the cloud
• Organizing your music collection into playlists
• Customizing the library with album art, metadata, ratings etc.
• Options to shuffle and loop your playlists
• Searching for songs, albums, artists within the library

Overall, the music library is a robust built-in media player that lets you easily manage and listen to your personal music collection on your Android smartphone or tablet. With the ability to sync both local and cloud-based music, you can access your favorite tunes from anywhere.