Access music on memory card

[Mike Wright]

I have a memory card with music organised into folders - each has a m3u playlist. I am yet to find a player that can, simply, add the root folder of the disk and then access the playlists. Poweramp seems unable to do this.

I've looked at permissions - allowed Poweramp access to media - makes no difference. Am I really expected to select each individual folder?

[andrewilley]

Android's Storage Access Framework officially no longer permits general apps to access root levels of storage, it only allows granting access to specific folders. It's all in the name of security apparently - even though it's your SD Card, so I'm really not sure what's the problem with you allowing your own choice of apps to access it. Google is getting very Big Brother these days, they seem to be trying to turn into Apple.

That said, it usually still works if you use Legacy File Access Mode, available in PA Settings > Misc. Re-grant permission to your storage after you've done that.

However the easiest solution by far is to simply create a folder on your SD Card called 'Music' and move all of your audio folders into it using a File Explorer (which are permitted root access by the way). That would make the root of the card a bit tidier too, and if you only give the scanner access to that one folder it will probably be faster too. That's what I do anyway, and it's future-proof in case Google ever fully enforce their new rules.   

Do your M3U files use relative or absolute paths?

Andre

[MotleyG]

I agree with @andrewilley that using a main folder "Music" then all of your subfolders will solve this issue. That way you can select that Music folder, and all artist/album subfolders will then become selected with just one folder. Google has revoked the ability for almost all apps from having root access to any drive (not just music players). Plus it is much cleaner for future file transfers to and from this Music folder.