[Q] Is it possible to make Google Music's offline cache available to other players? - General Questions and Answers

I have already read some other topics about this, and I know Google Music stores its offline cache in android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music and that you need to delete the .nomedia files in the path for the songs to be available to other players.
I have noticed, however, that Google Music stores the files with random numeric names with no ID3 tags. So when you access them with other players, it's rrrrreally annoying to sort the songs out.
So my question is... how does Google Music know which file corresponds to which song? That info must be stored somewhere, right? Music is showing the ID3 info somehow.
Is it possible to create an app that renames and moves the cache files to other directory according to Google Music's internal information?
Thanks in advance.

Would love if there was a way, even if it involved hooking it up to a computer and getting another program to tag the songs.

Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A

In your sdcard, if your device has an internal sd it''l be there and not in the removable, go to Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music and rename the .nomedia file. I haven't tried this myself because I don't have another media player as i love the music beta player, but that file is what you put in a folder to tell the media service to not scan that directory so removing it will add those files to the media db. However that may cause issues with the Music Beta app so be cautious, hence rename instead of delete. I would reboot check the apps and if all is well u can then delete the file.

Offline Music Importer
Check out the app which makes this task easy.
The ID3 tag information is stored in Google Music's database on the phone. The app accesses that database and applies the proper ID3 tags and artwork to the cache files you're talking about.
With all that information added, the app moves the files to a public folder on your sdcard so that the Android Media Service Provider can see the files. The files then become available to any player on the device.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sapien.music.importer

I don't know how the syncing really works within the application or anything, but when I just installed Google Music, none of the playlists would download. I had to empty my music folder completely, and now everything syncs.
Is there anything that doesn't remove the music from Google Music's folder? It seems like moving it all would mess up the sync function. I'm just wondering if anyone knows before I subject myself to a day without music while the app downloads a couple thousand songs.

There is nothing on my local folder, android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music, actually there's no "music" folder inside "cache". I have try the above app and also the app "Google Music Importer" (which appears to be the same) but nothing, it's doesn't recognize the downloaded albums. I'm on ICS 4.0.4 with a custom ROM. What can I do?

I have finally managed to import my music. First of all, you need the latest version of the import app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sapien.music.importer
If the music is not on your internal sdcard under android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music then the path will be /data/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music. Now you have to set the proper permissions to the folder and files (I'm not sure if you have to set reading permissions or also write and execute ones, and also, I'm not sure if you have to set it only in the files or also on all the folders behind). You need to grant permissions on files under artwork and music folders .
You have to tell the import app your "cache" path under its settings. If your path is the second one, you will need root access (also configurable on the app's options).
Now the import app should recognize your music. If not, please let me know.
I have a problem here, how can I change permissions to more than just one file at the same time? Thanks.

It's a good idea

It doesn't work, sometimes the app recognizes the music and sometimes it doesn't. The funny thing is that sometimes it only recognizes the artwork, and not the music. This is starting to piss me off...

Related

How to delete some music files form Music Library ?

My HD2 just searches all storage card for any music files and puts them into library.
Some of them are ringtones and other useless stuff. So I don't want them to be in my music library
Is there a way to choose folder where audio manager should search ?
I'm not sure why your library is showing ringtones. None of mine ever end up in the library.
I had Fring and Talkonout installed on storage card. I both have mp3 files for ringtones.
I deleted them both from storage card and files disappeared but that is not a solution :/
Is there a way to choose music folder ?
marcio123 said:
I had Fring and Talkonout installed on storage card. I both have mp3 files for ringtones.
I deleted them both from storage card and files disappeared but that is not a solution :/
Is there a way to choose music folder ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i got the same problem. all music files show in my music library when i pressed update library. +1 on how to choose music folder and disregard the rest.
mine does the same. My HD2 came preinstalled with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire game. The manila audio manager displays all the acc music files that came preinstalled... what a pain....
you can make HTC album to ignore some folders. Do the following:
Go to HKLM/Software/HTC/HTCAlbum/Ignore
and add a sting value with a name (choose whatever you want) and string (here you put the location of a particular folder)
So if I want HTC album to ignore My Music folder on my Storage card, I will add a new string value: name-My Music and string-\Storage Card\My Music
hope this helps
ah forgot to mention soft reset after that
Am I doing something wrong? I did a soft reset and still no exclusion from the folders I specified here:
Ignore not Ignored
Oh, should I rename that folder to ignore? Because my HD2's registry came like that with that folder called ingnored.
Maybe the TMOUS HD2 has the d added? Not sure why they would have done that.
marcio123 said:
My HD2 just searches all storage card for any music files and puts them into library.
Some of them are ringtones and other useless stuff. So I don't want them to be in my music library
Is there a way to choose folder where audio manager should search ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tap Library - Playlist - New playlist (for example playlist 1)
Tap playlist 1 - Add songs - All songs (on bottom of screen) - select all songs you need - Done
Tap 1 song in playlist 1. Music player will play that song and library will update to playlist 1.
I'm sorry about my English, I'm Vietnamese.
Good English! I understood great.
But, I did what you said about adding a playlist & adding songs and it seemed to work great, but then later I went back to play the playlist & nothing played at all. It is strange that this default player doesn't work anymore since I tried the playlist trick. In fact, when I try to find anything to play, the "Music Tab" just hangs and never populates with MP3s at all. I think I bricked my Music Tab of my HD2 (I don't know if I said that right but it sounded good ). Well, at least I didn't brick the entire phone! Now I am forced to use Windows Media Player for all music, which I don't mind at all, but it was nice to use the other player while on the road.
I may end up trying what they say here:
ruscik said:
Well a lot of people noticed a problem with HTC Music tab. Library shows not only music but ring tones and other sounds. One way to stop it is to hide offending folders. One problem with that is if you hide for example ring tone folder you can not select your ring tones as they are hidden as well.
What I did is as goes. I have music on SD card, also there is tomtom, copilot and some other apps. I have hidden all of the apps that might have sounds so they do not show up in library. Obviously left folder with music not hidden.
That will take care of SD card.
For My Device sounds do steps below:
1. Start from removing your card and then going to music tab so it rescans and states no music found. (Skip to step 3 if you are starting from clean rom)
2. Go to registry editor of your choice and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\HTC\AudioManager_Eng (for german it will be AudioManager_Ger)\Information
Delete all items in that folder. You will not be able to delete Information it self.
If you are on clean rom you will not even have that folder it is created 1st time when music tab finds music.
3. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\HTC\AudioManager_Eng\Config
In there change:
"device_scan_path_path" from what ever there is to \Windows
"device_scan_path_path_0" from what ever there is to \Windows
"ring_tone_path" from what ever there is to \Windows
What this will do is exclude all files in windows folder. If you have any files in my documents they will show up. I assume if you just put "\" instead of "\Windows" it will exclude entire my device but did not test it.
4. Soft reset, insert your SD card and enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't want to do it that way, but it looks as if I may have to. I liked the first way better (...HTCAlbum > Ignored...)
(I removed "Music" from my Home Screen Tabs as there was no reason to have it there anymore)
I just create playlist and do nothing else. I needn't edit registry.

Media scan missing Google Music offline cache

So I've noticed that the Google Music offline cache is located in /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music. This should be accessible to other apps, and in fact if I browse to that location with PowerAMP I can see the downloaded files and play them perfectly fine. However, on both my DX (GB) and Xoom, the system media scanner refuses to pick these up, so they never show up in the library for any apps but the official one. I've tried rebooting and using apps to run a manual scan, but no luck.
Has anyone gotten this to work?
Forget the bump, I figured it out. Turns out there are .nomedia files in /sdcard/Android/data/ and /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music. Removed both of those and the scanner now picks it up. No more hand copying music for me!
Thanks for the info.. does anybody know for how long or how much space the Google Music cache is limited to? This is great for roadtrips.. but i don't want GM to fill my SD Card.
not there
So I have google music and there's no com.google.music where you guys pointed to (sdcard/....) now I may have moved the app to /system... incase of soft resets if, but anyways anyone help me?
Thanx in advance
Good to know. Does anyone know if/how I can copy music to my phone to make it available via the Google music app without having to pin the songs on my phone and then have it download from the cloud? I have the music files also saved on my computer, but it looks like the music app is renaming the files with some sort of numbering scheme.
I would assume that the online/offline settings are saved in some sort of a database file. This makes me think that if I just copy the music to the google cache folder it is not going to register properly in the google music app. Has anyone tried this, or am I stuck having to download them from the cloud again?
Google Music Importer
Check out the app which makes this task easy.
The ID3 tag information is stored in Google Music's database on the phone. The app accesses that database and applies the proper ID3 tags and artwork to the cache files you're talking about.
With all that information added, the app moves the files to a public folder on your sdcard so that the Android Media Service Provider can see the files. The files then become available to any player on the device.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sapien.gm.importer

Google Play Music upload from phone?

I've just started using Google's Music app. With the desktop Manager I had exactly 1,300 songs that came up as "temporary files" during the scan of my music folder. I figured out that a way around this was to throw those songs on my SD card. They show up in the Play Music app on my phone, but I do not know how sync them to the cloud, so I can't access them from other devices. I'd like to be able to do this, then delete them off my phone (though the last step isn't 100% needed).
Does anyone know how to do this? I've been searching the internet to no avail.
Also - I tried moving the files to another place and syncing a new folder in the Manager - out of 46 songs it recognized 1 as a "new song" but it failed to sync. I tried copying the files back from my phone to a new folder and had the same problem. I don't understand what caused the "temp files" flag on these 100% functional .mp3 files. Bitrates, bands, and tagging-depth vary greatly between the 1,300 files, so I can't tell what did it.

nexus 5 play music

Hey there, I have a problem with the play music, I want to set a time limit to the Audie files, because now it shows on the playlist call records for some reason.
Any idea how to fix it?
guy6136206 said:
Hey there, I have a problem with the play music, I want to set a time limit to the Audie files, because now it shows on the playlist call records for some reason.
Any idea how to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Play music is unspecific when it comes scanning device and it selects all files associated to be shown in the play music. Play music scans entire phone, versus some third party players which can be set to scan a single music folder for files. Since you have call recordings that are audio files and play music scans it, it will appear in playlist. To overcome this, you need a file explorer to separate the recordings and place .nomedia file in the folder so the phone skips them when scanning for the audio files. To create the file, go to file explorer, place all call recordings in folder (if not already in one), option to create file, name .nomedia, and that should work next time the play music goes to scan the folder to skip it. Make sure to close completely the play music before all this so it resets the playlists to not include them. If .nomedia doesn't work, you'll have to archive the recordings so the phone cannot scan them.
If you decide to use the .nomedia method then just know that you will only be able to access those files via file explorer.
Very annoying, tnx anyway.

Music Player

Hi all, I have try using Google Music and Shuttle Music Player.. it's quite weird that it even detects my mpg files or my recording files which are store inside other folders ...
It's frustrating that I have to go through the Song list and start to blacklist one by one...is there a way around this ? I can't see it in the app Settings ...
doran_lum said:
Hi all, I have try using Google Music and Shuttle Music Player.. it's quite weird that it even detects my mpg files or my recording files which are store inside other folders ...
It's frustrating that I have to go through the Song list and start to blacklist one by one...is there a way around this ? I can't see it in the app Settings ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't a Google Music/Shuttle Player issue. This is how Android hunts for media.
To prevent any app from indexing a location that has media files (and by extension, showing up in any music/gallery/movie player app), you have to add a .nomedia file inside the directory that contains the files.
You can do this one of two ways; you can open a blank notepad file, save it with the filename ".nomedia" and set the filetype to "all types", or you can download this one which I made here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xat4bgykd5tugvl/nomedia.zip
Extract from the above folder, and copy and paste the .nomedia file into any folder that contains things you don't want to see in your media players. Then close Play Music/Shuttle or force close/clear data on them, and open them back up again. You won't see them anymore.
thank you so much ... that helps a lot

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