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Dropbox instead of iTunes

SevengerNC

SevengerNC

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 19, 2012
151
14
Winston Salem, NC
I left iPhone for Samsung to get away from iTunes for transferring music.
I have searched & searched for iTunes alternatives, but I just don't think there is an easy way to transfer music like a droid connecting to a laptop and creating a drive - very simple.

So, I had the idea the other day about using Dropbox to upload my music.
Is it possible to download the mp3's from Dropbox into the iPhone music player, or do you have to play them from the cloud?

Thanks
 
SevengerNC said:
I left iPhone for Samsung to get away from iTunes for transferring music.
I have searched & searched for iTunes alternatives, but I just don't think there is an easy way to transfer music like a droid connecting to a laptop and creating a drive - very simple.

So, I had the idea the other day about using Dropbox to upload my music.
Is it possible to download the mp3's from Dropbox into the iPhone music player, or do you have to play them from the cloud?

Thanks
Click to expand...
If you're looking for storing music locally on your iPhone and playing from that I think iTunes is the only way.

If you don't mind streaming you could upload all of your music to Google Play Music and then listen from there. But to download your music to play offline you would need Unlimited which I think costs $9.99 per month.
https://play.google.com/music
 
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iTunes is what makes music happen on the iPhone. That's about all there is to that.
 
If your main goal is to just get music stored locally onto your phone, you could use an app called infuse, but you'd also have to install something like kodi or plex from whatever computer you're copying the music from.

I'll admit right away that I use this for videos and never for music. But it works very well for videos. I'll sometimes move over entire seasons of something to watch during boring elliptical or treadmill runs away from home. I know it has music support and may work for you.

There are free and paid versions, but I think the perks of the paid version only add extra codecs for video and sound (thx, Dolby, etc) so the free version would be as feature rich as the paid version for your purposes.
 
SevengerNC said:
I left iPhone for Samsung to get away from iTunes for transferring music.
Click to expand...

I hated the whole iTunes/pc sync thing also.

Have you considered Apple Music? No syncing, all your songs available everywhere, on all your devices.

It has its detractors here at Apple-hating macrumors, no shock there, but I've found it to be the best "pc-less" music option for me. And I had a 13000 song music library, so I'm not a casual listener.
 
timeconsumer said:
If you're looking for storing music locally on your iPhone and playing from that I think iTunes is the only way.

If you don't mind streaming you could upload all of your music to Google Play Music and then listen from there. But to download your music to play offline you would need Unlimited which I think costs $9.99 per month.
https://play.google.com/music
Click to expand...
It's free to do as you suggest. And you can select as many or as few songs to keep locally as you want.
[doublepost=1466508538][/doublepost]
M. Gustave said:
I hated the whole iTunes/pc sync thing also.

Have you considered Apple Music? No syncing, all your songs available everywhere, on all your devices.

It has its detractors here at Apple-hating macrumors, no shock there, but I've found it to be the best "pc-less" music option for me. And I had a 13000 song music library, so I'm not a casual listener.
Click to expand...
Why pay when Google Play Music is free?
[doublepost=1466509058][/doublepost]
lordofthereef said:
If your main goal is to just get music stored locally onto your phone, you could use an app called infuse, but you'd also have to install something like kodi or plex from whatever computer you're copying the music from.

I'll admit right away that I use this for videos and never for music. But it works very well for videos. I'll sometimes move over entire seasons of something to watch during boring elliptical or treadmill runs away from home. I know it has music support and may work for you.

There are free and paid versions, but I think the perks of the paid version only add extra codecs for video and sound (thx, Dolby, etc) so the free version would be as feature rich as the paid version for your purposes.
Click to expand...
Why bother copying anything across when you can just stream the video from the computer it is stored on? Unless of course you don't have WiFi where you exercise. I stream HD video fine to my tablet and the only extra software I have is Infuse and only download onto the device if I want to watch out of the house.
 
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have a go at an app called "jukebox"
it scans your Dropbox for any music and plays them on the iPhone as good as the normal music app
 
How about VLC?

An ipod can be put in USB mode to be a mass storage device in a pc can an iphone?

If so then dump ur music on it and use VLC.

I use VLC on my android phone and tablet plus on my windows pc.
 
M. Gustave said:
Google Play Music is only free for 2 months, then it's $9.99/month.

https://play.google.com/music/liste...fer&coupontype=vanity&coupon=TRYAASIXTY#/sulp

Apple Music is free for 3 months, then it's $9.99/month also.
Click to expand...

Google Play All Access is the pay service. Google Play Music is Google's music app which gives you access to their library if you have All Access and it lets you store 50,000 mp3's in the cloud to stream or download to your device. The latter is free.
 
M. Gustave said:
Google Play Music is only free for 2 months, then it's $9.99/month.
Click to expand...
I think I have been very fortunate then.

Waaaayyyy back when, Google Play had a beta and I got an invite because I had a gmail account (still have that). I was using it on my PowerPC Macs (with iTunes syncing my music/playlists to Google Play).

I have yet to hit their song limit and I have never been charged a penny. Been using it for years.
 
eyoungren said:
I think I have been very fortunate then.

Waaaayyyy back when, Google Play had a beta and I got an invite because I had a gmail account (still have that). I was using it on my PowerPC Macs (with iTunes syncing my music/playlists to Google Play).

I have yet to hit their song limit and I have never been charged a penny. Been using it for years.
Click to expand...
As above the service you use is free the subscription is only if you want access to Google's library of songs.
[doublepost=1466527118][/doublepost]
SevengerNC said:
I left iPhone for Samsung to get away from iTunes for transferring music.
I have searched & searched for iTunes alternatives, but I just don't think there is an easy way to transfer music like a droid connecting to a laptop and creating a drive - very simple.

So, I had the idea the other day about using Dropbox to upload my music.
Is it possible to download the mp3's from Dropbox into the iPhone music player, or do you have to play them from the cloud?

Thanks
Click to expand...
The easiest way i can suggest is downloading the Google Play Music desktop app and point it at your folder your iTunes stores it's a songs then any new purchase will automatically be added to Google music. Install the app on the phone and download all the songs you want to keep on your device. Simples
 
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IFRIT said:
It's free to do as you suggest. And you can select as many or as few songs to keep locally as you want.
[doublepost=1466508538][/doublepost]
Why pay when Google Play Music is free?
[doublepost=1466509058][/doublepost]
Why bother copying anything across when you can just stream the video from the computer it is stored on? Unless of course you don't have WiFi where you exercise. I stream HD video fine to my tablet and the only extra software I have is Infuse and only download onto the device if I want to watch out of the house.
Click to expand...
Because I'm watching out of the house too; there is no free wifi here with a reliable enough connection and I'm not about to chew through my data plan to stream something I can easily transfer over . The OP seems to want to do the same; avoid having to rely on streaming.

On a side note I have been enjoying streaming Hulu and Netflix without being charged for data, but not everything I watch is available on those two platforms. I've been using the equivalent of about 15-20gb a month doing that on T-Mobile, so streaming my own higher quality content would be a no go.

Unfortunately infuse is the best free option I know of for when streaming is not a possibility. I'll repeat though, that I'm unsure how good this works with just music files since I've never had the need/desire to try that.
[doublepost=1466531302][/doublepost]
Fuchal said:
You can use an app such as WALTR to move music without iTunes. http://softorino.com/waltr
Click to expand...
I'll have to try this out. Way back when there was something similar with iPods but I had no idea we had iOS capability. Thank you for sharing.
 
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lordofthereef said:
Because I'm watching out of the house too; there is no free wifi here with a reliable enough connection and I'm not about to chew through my data plan to stream something I can easily transfer over . The OP seems to want to do the same; avoid having to rely on streaming.

On a side note I have been enjoying streaming Hulu and Netflix without being charged for data, but not everything I watch is available on those two platforms. I've been using the equivalent of about 15-20gb a month doing that on T-Mobile, so streaming my own higher quality content would be a no go.

Unfortunately infuse is the best free option I know of for when streaming is not a possibility. I'll repeat though, that I'm unsure how good this works with just music files since I've never had the need/desire to try that.
[doublepost=1466531302][/doublepost]
I'll have to try this out. Way back when there was something similar with iPods but I had no idea we had iOS capability. Thank you for sharing.
Click to expand...

I understand that the OP wants to avoid streaming but you can void streaming with the likes of Google Play Music as you have the option to download to your devices as much as you want so arguably more flexible then the likes of iTunes.
 
IFRIT said:
I understand that the OP wants to avoid streaming but you can void streaming with the likes of Google Play Music as you have the option to download to your devices as much as you want so arguably more flexible then the likes of iTunes.
Click to expand...
I've never seen the option on non-payed google play (All I've ever used so it's my only point of reference). I was going to suggest that but, after logging in and selecting a track, it doesn't give me the option to download single tracks, only albums.
 
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timeconsumer said:
According to: https://play.google.com/music/ you can't download your music unless you have the "Unlimited" which I believe costs $9.99 monthly.
Click to expand...
You definitely can download full albums. I just tried a rise against album and I've never subscribed to google play in my life. Since tracks don't have the option. I'll do some screenshots in a sec.

Edit: screens uploaded
 
lordofthereef said:
I've never seen the option on non-payed google play (All I've ever used so it's my only point of reference). I was going to suggest that but, after logging in and selecting a track, it doesn't give me the option to download single tracks, only albums.
Click to expand...

Single tracks there is no option to download, but you can download albums and and playlists and since people usually play full albums or playlists or both it's not really an issue.
[doublepost=1466534561][/doublepost]
timeconsumer said:
According to: https://play.google.com/music/ you can't download your music unless you have the "Unlimited" which I believe costs $9.99 monthly.
Click to expand...
From Google Play Music help page
"
Download music to listen offline
You can download music you've purchased or added to Google Play to your mobile device or computer so you can listen when you don't have an Internet connection. If you subscribe to Google Play Music, you can also download subscription tracks to your mobile device."

You're wrong
 
IFRIT said:
Single tracks there is no option to download, but you can download albums and and playlists and since people usually play full albums or playlists or both it's not really an issue.
[doublepost=1466534561][/doublepost]
From Google Play Music help page
"
Download music to listen offline
You can download music you've purchased or added to Google Play to your mobile device or computer so you can listen when you don't have an Internet connection. If you subscribe to Google Play Music, you can also download subscription tracks to your mobile device."

You're wrong
Click to expand...

Well then Google needs to update their main page because on the URL I linked it clearly says you have to have unlimited to "download your music and play offline"
 

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IFRIT said:
Single tracks there is no option to download, but you can download albums and and playlists and since people usually play full albums or playlists or both it's not really an issue.
[doublepost=1466534561][/doublepost]
From Google Play Music help page
"
Download music to listen offline
You can download music you've purchased or added to Google Play to your mobile device or computer so you can listen when you don't have an Internet connection. If you subscribe to Google Play Music, you can also download subscription tracks to your mobile device."

You're wrong
Click to expand...
I'm speaking because it would be an issue for me; I've not really ever made a playlist in my life since that's not how I tend to listen to music. Maybe that's unusual, I really don't know how most people tend to listen to their music.

I'm not sure why we are having this back and forth, really. I was just trying to share some helpful information; if you want to download single tracks it seems there is no better option outside of the drag and drop software someone else posted (or infuse or something similar should you want to pull media from a media center). If google music works for you and your listening habits, great.
 
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