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Putting music on Chocolate phone

someguy

someguy

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 4, 2005
2,351
21
Still here.
My girlfriend just bought the new Chocolate phone from LG and decided not to buy the music package deal that came with it (software, microSD card, headphones, etc). They told us at the Verizon store that you cannot just put music on the SD card yourself and pop it into the phone and have it work, but we didn't want to spend $130 for the software when there's got to be another way to do it.

We don't buy music from the iTunes store, but we rip a lot of CD's and want to know if there is any way to simply transfer the songs to the flash memory, put it in the phone, and go?

I have a card reader and everything, so let me know if there is some way, or some software, to make this work.

Thanks. :)
 
eva01 said:
If it is verizon i think you may have to hack the phone for it to work via bluetooth. or your SOL
Click to expand...
I understand that part, but I don't want to bother with bluetooth. I want to put the flash card in my card reader, transfer music to it, put it back in the phone and play the music that way.

Verizon says I can't do it that way, but I think there's probably a way, I just want to hear what you guys think.
 
According to this article, the phone won't work with mp3 files, as Verizon has "temporarily" disabled .mp3 playback. I'm not sure if it will work with converting your .mp3s to .wma files, as those are the ones the Chocolate is designed to play, again, according to the article.

It also might not be as simple as dragging them to the SD card. You may have to find out what the structure of the folders on the Verizon-supplied card is, and place the music in a specific folder.
 
I don't know whether this will help or not, but I recently got a Samsung phone from Sprint and it was not well-documented.

The music folder didn't show up until I went into the Sprint Music Store. I didn't buy anything but the player works for both the store and local files. (Probably wouldn't be able to play local files without the internet connection.) Verizon might not work this way, but can it hurt to try?

In any case, putting the proper files into the folder allows the player to see them, although it displays them twice--once as the file name and once as it's apparently read from the ID3 tags.

Good luck!
 
tobefirst said:
According to this article, the phone won't work with mp3 files, as Verizon has "temporarily" disabled .mp3 playback. I'm not sure if it will work with converting your .mp3s to .wma files, as those are the ones the Chocolate is designed to play, again, according to the article.
Click to expand...

This is certainly true on the RAZR V3M. Files have to be .wma, and I spent a good two hours of my life trying to get music we already own from our Windows machine onto the woman's RAZR. I eventually gave up and told her to rebuy the music through VCast. She said "I think I'll just buy an iPod."

Such that:

Verizon doesn't get it. Not allowing users to plug and play does not mean an increase in revenue (and it likely means that, after our contracts expire in 2008, we'll move on to a provider that promises better customer service).
 
Does anyone else think that the rumored iPhone is Apple's attempt to turn these control-freak wireless companies on their heads? Entangling the hardware with the service so severely is surely no way to win over customers. Of course, Apple does this to some extent with .Mac, but you certainly don't have to use .Mac to experience all the great features of Apple's hardware/software. Could you imagine how nice it would be to have a completely unlocked phone without all the hacks?

Perhaps Apple's eye for opportunity is as sharp as ever. :cool:
 
someguy said:
Verizon says I can't do it that way, but I think there's probably a way, I just want to hear what you guys think.
Click to expand...
Have you actually tried to put music on a microSD card and then put it in the phone? My friend just bought a Chocolate and this worked for him.

You have to format the microSD card on the phone itself, once you've done that you'll have a music folder (or something along those lines, can't quite remember) and you'll just dump your music in there.

If you don't have a microSD slot on your card reader, you could get this one for $20, they even sell them at Verizon stores/kiosks.

I hope you're able to get this to work! I was going to buy a Chocolate, but I think I'm going to hold out for an iPhone. Of course, knowing my luck I won't be able to use the iPhone with Verizon. Or it will simply just be way too expensive. :rolleyes:
 
evilgEEk said:
Have you actually tried to put music on a microSD card and then put it in the phone? My friend just bought a Chocolate and this worked for him.
Click to expand...
No, I don't have a MicroSD card yet. I was hoping to get confirmation of wether or not it would work before I went out and bought one.

Question: I have a card reader that reads normal SD cards. Will it also read MicroSD for sure or is there a difference? I ask because I noticed that you put the MicroSD chip inside what looks like a normal SD card...
 
someguy said:
No, I don't have a MicroSD card yet. I was hoping to get confirmation of wether or not it would work before I went out and bought one.

Question: I have a card reader that reads normal SD cards. Will it also read MicroSD for sure or is there a difference? I ask because I noticed that you put the MicroSD chip inside what looks like a normal SD card...
Click to expand...
Yeah, it should work just fine.

In regards to your question, microSD is really small (as I'm sure you're aware), so when you buy a microSD card they come with an adapter. You just put the microSD in the regular size SD adapter so it will work with any reader.

If that's confusing, this is what I mean.
 
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Thanks for the info.

Anyone got a super-cheap low-capacity MicroSD card they want to sell so I can try before I spend big bucks on a 2GB? :)
 
I just got the Chocolate as well, except I bought the package with the USB cable, CD and headphones. I don't plan on putting many songs on, just a few for ringtones, so I didnt need the extra space. The guy told me I could use them as ringtones, no problem. (he also told me AAC music was no problem :rolleyes: )
Anyways, wasn't about to give up. I looked on Google, found a forum asking the same thing. I found this.
You need windows for the software, at least he BitPim part, not so sure about Audacity on the Mac, never used it but I think it's available.
Anyways, I got two songs I like converted into mp3 clips and onto my phone, no problem. Whether you want to use them for ringtones, or just music, I'd say go get the cable, you're going to need it IMO. And if you're just transferring music, then just use the software they give you. I had to download wma's cause the idiots lied and said any music would work. Verizon is forcing me to illegally download music since I can't use my purchased music. :mad:

Anyways, I've been through this, so any questions just PM me. :cool:
 
iMatt mini said:
... I'd say go get the cable, you're going to need it IMO.
Click to expand...
If all you want is to put music on your phone then you don't need to spend the extra money for the cable. Just get the microSD card and drag/drop, works like a charm on both Windows and OS X.

My friend actually bought the package with the cable/headphones, etc.. but still couldn't get it to work. We then went and bought a microSD card reader (he already had a microSD card from a GPS) to see if we could just put the music on the card and play it. No problems whatsoever.
 
Thanks for the tips you guys. I'm really hoping I can just drag-drop music without having to buy the kit.

Can anyone tell me if the software that comes with the kit is Mac-compatible?
 
You'd think other companies besides Sony would get the hint, that easier=better. With my w810i, all I do is plug in the USB cable. 2 drives show up. One is the small, 20ish megabyte phone memory with ringtones and games. The other drive is the memory card. I drop my MP3s into the Music folder on the memory stick drive, unmount, unplug, and enjoy. It's so simple, that my phone has replaced my iPod unless I have a need to carry around 45 gigs of music with me.
 
evilgEEk said:
You have to format the microSD card on the phone itself, once you've done that you'll have a music folder (or something along those lines, can't quite remember) and you'll just dump your music in there.
Click to expand...
when i try to do this it asks me for some unlock code. do you know where i can find this code?
 
saythinkdomake said:
when i try to do this it asks me for some unlock code. do you know where i can find this code?
Click to expand...
I don't have the answer, but out of curiousity, are you using the Chocolate phone? And if so, which one? Is it the VX8500?
 
yg17 said:
You'd think other companies besides Sony would get the hint, that easier=better. With my w810i, all I do is plug in the USB cable. 2 drives show up. One is the small, 20ish megabyte phone memory with ringtones and games. The other drive is the memory card. I drop my MP3s into the Music folder on the memory stick drive, unmount, unplug, and enjoy. It's so simple, that my phone has replaced my iPod unless I have a need to carry around 45 gigs of music with me.
Click to expand...
It's not always that easy, though. Sony's phones don't always mount on Macs, and their tech support won't help at all, as Macs aren't officially supported. I have a w600i, and the phone wouldn't mount with my Power Mac G5, but would with my Powerbook G4 under Panther, but not once I updated to Tiger...but now it will mount on my MacBook. It's hit or miss.
 
tobefirst said:
It's not always that easy, though. Sony's phones don't always mount on Macs, and their tech support won't help at all, as Macs aren't officially supported. I have a w600i, and the phone wouldn't mount with my Power Mac G5, but would with my Powerbook G4 under Panther, but not once I updated to Tiger...but now it will mount on my MacBook. It's hit or miss.
Click to expand...
Well with any luck, we won't need the phones to mount, just the microSD card when we insert it into the card reader. I sure hope we can get this working. We are buying a microSD card sometime in the next couple of weeks and so I'm trying to gather all the information I can about this before we get started. :)
 
God.. I guess its true what I hear - America is teerrible for phones!

In the UK we get any phone we want free, on contract - 12 or 18 month, and can change the contract 6 or 9 months into it.

We most certainly don't pay for things like USB cables and 'Music Packs' - heck, they offer you top of the range phones and iPods, for FREE here, just by taking out a low monthly contract - and even then you get an offer like 50% discount for the first 6 months, and double mins - bla bla.

I've never paid for a contract phone in my life - the fact they require an extra $130 so you can play music is disgusting!

Also the phones in UK from most large retailers (not the network direct) come free of all operator branding, ie: no Verizon crap, just generic firmware.

Anyway, sorry for not being much help - just sad for you Americans :(

When I had a Chocolate in the UK a few months ago, it did everything out the box.. even came with a USB, I'll have you know! And it played all music types but .wma.
 
someguy said:
Well with any luck, we won't need the phones to mount, just the microSD card when we insert it into the card reader. I sure hope we can get this working. We are buying a microSD card sometime in the next couple of weeks and so I'm trying to gather all the information I can about this before we get started. :)
Click to expand...
Just remember that you have to format the card in the phone itself for it to work. At least that's why my friend had to do.
 
evilgEEk said:
Just remember that you have to format the card in the phone itself for it to work. At least that's why my friend had to do.
Click to expand...
like i just asked, did he have to put in an unlock code to do so? if so, where did he find it / what is it?
 
Fat chance

Let me first clear things up for everyone when I say that this issue has NOTHING to do with the type of phone. It's VERIZON.

They are ruthless in protecting their phones from any type of using that they could potentially charge for.

I have been helping 50+ yr. old friend of mine hack her Verizon LG phone to play imported mp3's and I actually got it to work.. but the next time she took it into the store they gave her a "firmware update" (that they claim was "absolutely necessary") which completely removed her mp3 player and patched the hack I found.

Vicious.
 
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