How to use spare iPhone 4s as an 'iPod'

[Oglander]

Hello...
I use a mac air and due to limited space my music (20gig) is stored on an external drive. I heard before music can only be stored on a handful no. of devices.
Is it possible to copy all the music onto a new spare 4s and use it as an 'ipod' with speakers?
Could some be so kind to guide me through the process?
Many thanks.

 

[EDH667]

Hello...
I use a mac air and due to limited space my music (20gig) is stored on an external drive. I heard before music can only be stored on a handful no. of devices.
Is it possible to copy all the music onto a new spare 4s and use it as an 'ipod' with speakers?
Could some be so kind to guide me through the process?
Many thanks.

Yes, as long as your iPhone 4s is 32GB or 64GB your stored music will fit on the iPhone. As long as iTunes accesses your music stored on the external drive, just sync you iPhone with iTunes, once hooked up highlight the iPhone 4s go up to the Music Tab and check the box Sync Music and Entire Music Library. If your iPhone is smaller than 20GB you can still share your iTunes music library by going to the Music icon on the iPhone, click More on the bottom of the screen and click shared and choose your mac air. You also have to allow sharing on your Mac Air under iTunes, Preferences, sharing.

 

[Oglander]

how to use spare iphone 4s as an 'ipod'

thanks for coming back so rapidly.
I've connected the iphone to the mac air and pressed itunes. I then pressed File/Device/Sync. It thought for a while and then the spinning sync icon stopped.
You then mentioned "once hooked up highlight the iPhone 4s go up to the Music Tab and check the box Sync Music and Entire Music Library."
When I press music along the heading strip it offers me all the itune shop options like country/rock/pop... This is not my music but appears to be the itunes store? Thanks

 

[EDH667]

thanks for coming back so rapidly.
I've connected the iphone to the mac air and pressed itunes. I then pressed File/Device/Sync. It thought for a while and then the spinning sync icon stopped.
You then mentioned "once hooked up highlight the iPhone 4s go up to the Music Tab and check the box Sync Music and Entire Music Library."
When I press music along the heading strip it offers me all the itune shop options like country/rock/pop... This is not my music but appears to be the itunes store? Thanks

On the Left tab of iTunes you should see Devices listed below store. Your iPhone 4s should appear there when connected and that is where you need to highlight your iPhone, and then go up to music along the top heading strip.

 

[lordofthereef]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOSbwiKrd_A

That video will do more to help you than any lengthy tutorial anyone could type here.

Obviously you're iPhone should have at least 20 gigs of free space available.

A better solution is to pay for iTunes match. It's $25 a year and will match all your songs for streaming to any iOS device as well as any device with iTunes installed. You could also get Google's service, which is free, though it requires you upload your library, whereas iTunes will just try and match the songs to its own library and only upload the songs it cannot match.

Another options, assuming you already have an external drive (this was a bit unclear to me) is to just stream over your router, again assuming your router has a USB port and supports this feature. Even if not, such a router can be had for $50, maybe less. It will give you more storage space and you won't be constantly syncing.

 

[westrock2000]

A better solution is to pay for iTunes match. It's $25 a year and will match all your songs for streaming to any iOS device as well as any device with iTunes installed. You could also get Google's service, which is free, though it requires you upload your library, whereas iTunes will just try and match the songs to its own library and only upload the songs it cannot match.

There is also Amazon Music Cloud which is $25 a year for up to 250,000 songs (so basically unlimited). I just switched from that to Match because they raised the price on me from $20 to $25 so I thought I would try Match. Match is convenient in some regards, but in other regards it's a hassle compared to having a separate app for your cloud playback.

Also the algorithm that iTunes Match uses to put your music on the cloud is very confusing compared to something straight forward like Amazon Cloud that just uploads everything and gets it done with.

Also if you plan on using the iPhone strictly for music, be sure to put it in airplane mode so that all the antennas get turned off to save battery power. An iPhone can play music stored locally for a very long time if nothing else is done on it.

 

[Oglander]

Thanks you guys fro helping. Great stuff.

 

[FatPuppy]

Spare iphone 4s? Can I have it?

 

[lordofthereef]

There is also Amazon Music Cloud which is $25 a year for up to 250,000 songs (so basically unlimited). I just switched from that to Match because they raised the price on me from $20 to $25 so I thought I would try Match. Match is convenient in some regards, but in other regards it's a hassle compared to having a separate app for your cloud playback.

Also the algorithm that iTunes Match uses to put your music on the cloud is very confusing compared to something straight forward like Amazon Cloud that just uploads everything and gets it done with.

Also if you plan on using the iPhone strictly for music, be sure to put it in airplane mode so that all the antennas get turned off to save battery power. An iPhone can play music stored locally for a very long time if nothing else is done on it.

If I am not mistaken, match will match unlimited songs (literally) but only allow you to upload a certain number of your own (ie those it cannot match). I don't remember what that number is. I want to say 20,000, but that's just a number popping into my head right now. I could like it up but... naaaah. (edit: that number is 25,000... I decided not to be lazy)

I haven't tried Amazon because I find their business practices to be appalling. They are basically in the business to crush everyone else, even if at a loss, and that is dangerous for consumers. Anyway, that is for another thread. Their music service may be very good, perhaps even better than others. I just can;t support them as a company for my own moral reasons.