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Unable to access music folders on Android M


slicendice

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Hi

I've just downloaded Poweramp having read a lot of reviews and been really impressed with its feature-list, etc.

 

However, I've run straight into a rather major issue - I have a Nexus 5 running Android M and have a number of albums that I've bought from Google Play and downloaded onto the device. I opened up Poweramp and was rather surprised when it told me that it had found precisely zero music tracks on my phone (I tried several re-scans). After getting very frustrated and spending some time poking around online, it unfortunately seems that it's not possible to access any music folders on Android M - it's like Google have stored the actual mp3 files in a hidden location that cannot be accessed. I've tried using File Manager to search for mp3 files and it doesn't find a thing - absolutely nothing. I've looked in the "standard" locations too (e.g. storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com/google/android/music/files) but there are absolutely no mp3s there.

 

I'm assuming this is a "feature" that Google have introduced in Android M (as I'm sure it used to be possible to access mp3 folders/files)? And is there any way around this, as it's proving to be a royal pain in the *ss and basically renders any music player, other than Google's own, absolutely useless? (Thanks a lot Google...!!  :angry:)

 

Thanks...

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Try the following locations (unless they have been changed in Android M for some reason):

/data/data/com.google.android.music/files/music

/mnt/sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music (or equivalent on External SD Card)

The files won't have recognisable names, just something random with an .mp3 extension. You may need to copy them to somewhere that Poweramp can see (especially the /data/data/ ones which need root to access). But you're right, they don't like to make it easy!

Andre

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Hi Andre...thanks for the reply, but unfortunately still no joy. Neither of the two paths you mention exist on my device. The /data folder exists but has no sub-folders in it; the /mnt folder also exists but there's no sdcard folder within in.

 

A full device search reveals none of the mp3 music files that I've downloaded from Google Play. So it looks like Google have indeed moved where downloaded content is stored and made it inaccessible to anything other than their own app(s) <sigh>

 

So much as I'd love to try out Poweramp, it looks like I can't  :(

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The other way to find your music may be by creating a playlist using google's app which you state works. Export to m3u file and open up with a text editor. Your path will show in the detail. Alternatively, use my app New Playlist Manager. You can find the location of tracks by long clicking a track when viewing playlist content.

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Your device is rooted I assume? Path details do change a bit by device, look for the Android folder at the top level of your device's main directory (normally called sdcard, but maybe they've changed it?).

Andre

 

No, it's not rooted...just stock Android M.

 

There doesn't appear to be an "sdcard" folder anywhere that I can find...there's a file name sdcard, but no folder.

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The other way to find your music may be by creating a playlist using google's app which you state works. Export to m3u file and open up with a text editor. Your path will show in the detail. Alternatively, use my app New Playlist Manager. You can find the location of tracks by long clicking a track when viewing playlist content.

 

Is this something that can be done from within Google's music app? I've had a look but can't find anything related to exporting a Playlist?

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Sorry, my mistake, Google music does not appear to have this capability. Can you first clarify if other android music apps such as Google Music or Mixzing etc actually see the music? If they do this means that the android media database holds entries for them in which case you could try my app. Ps. Any questions etc on my app please via a private message or via email which can be found on my website.

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