Using Purchased Poweramp on Android 13 Head Unit - Can it Play Music Files stored on my Android Phone?

[PipeDream]

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I purchased Poweramp several years ago and have been using it on my Samsung S21 Android phone. I recently got a China made Android 13 head unit for my car and installed Poweramp on it.

If it is possible, how can I have Poweramp on the head unit play music files that are stored on my phone using a wireless connection like Bluetooth? In the head units Poweramp settings, what should I change to make this work?

Thanks

[andrewilley]

No, Poweramp on your headunit cannot play music sourced from an external Bluetooth source. It needs to be able to find and scan the audio files from within the local storage.

You may be able to get your phone's storage to map into the headunit as if it were a USB drive though.

Andre

[PipeDream]

Sad to know this but thank you.

Is it just a limitation of Poweramp? I do know the default music player on the head unit works over Bluetooth to play the music stored on my phone and with my limited time messing around with Android auto I found it has a Poweramp icon in it and will play the music files from my phone. With the head units default Bluetooth player and with Android Auto, when either play music stored on my phone they are using Poweramp on the phone if that makes sense. In other words, I can control what is playing on the head unit with Poweramp on my phone. It is what it is but it seems odd that Poweramp installed directly on the head unit cannot do this. I installed Poweramp on the head unit to get the better interface and settings. Is it possible to add this as a feature in a future update? A feature that allows Bluetooth as a source for music files like other music players?

[andrewilley]

Poweramp is a local file music player, it is not a Bluetooth receiver.

The only way to use Poweramp in the scenario you describe would be to use a Poweramp app installed on your phone to play the content out via Android's Bluetooth output, and use the headunit to receive that signal for listening. The headunit would act just like any other Bluetooth receiver.

Android Auto on the headunit works the same way, with the actual audio being generated by Poweramp on the remote phone (playing its local files) which can be controlled from the AA implementation on the headunit's screen (or from the phone of course, that's where the work is actually being done). If you want to play files on the phone, let Poweramp play them and AA provide the screen interface.

Andre

[PipeDream]

Understood.

I ended up copying the music on my phone and putting it on a USB drive. I was then able to plug that into the head unit aux USB port which Poweramp can access and play. I just need to keep the car around WiFi for a while to get all the album art.

Thanks for your help.