[Windows Central Question]

- I have a Lumia 640.
- Copied all of my music via File Explorer with my phone plugged into my computer.
- It took a few times copying over the songs (for some reason it didn't copy all the first time).
- Most songs are there and I can play them offline but some I can not.
- The most frustrating part is the entire album I just bought through Groove Music won't play on my phone unless I am on wifi (OneDrive) or I manually go into the file explorer app on my phone and select the song.

- Is this a DRM issue? Does Groove only play songs that don't have DRM protection?
- If not, how can I get the Groove Music app to "look" for songs on my phone & my sd card?

Thanks for any help.

[jmshub]

The Groove app often takes some time to scan for new music and reindex it's database. It is a pain, but the songs will show up in Groove.

Let the screen unlocked while in the Groove app for a little while, it seems to help.

[wcshane]

Original question was from me, didn't have an account when I asked it.

Anyway, the songs I synched to my phone were done about 3 weeks ago and still will not play unless I have a connection. (I'm on Sprint but I have a Lumia 640 without cell service. Only Wi-Fi.)

I'm signed into my Microsoft account in the Groove app. If I long press on the song, select download, then the song is always available. It seems that Groove Music will not look at my music folder on my SD card, only my internal storage and I've found no way to get it to look at certain folders.

I can manually go to my SD card, find a song that isn't on internal storage, select it and have it play in the Groove Music app (only once, need to do it every time).

[Christopher Lindsay]

I've had this problem for forever. Groove is just a terrible app. There's just no way around it. Groove has yet to show all of my music since I've gotten it about 5 months ago. No update has ever fixed this problem.

[robsbrutal]

Groove on PC or phone?

Sent from mTalk

[david1alp]

I've had this problem for forever. Groove is just a terrible app. There's just no way around it. Groove has yet to show all of my music since I've gotten it about 5 months ago. No update has ever fixed this problem.

Oh my God!!! I have the exact same problem! Any you say there is NO update that has ever fixed this problem! And I've been fobbed off by the moderators on another thread, and told to go elsewhere to sort out my problem!

My problem is the SAME as everyone else -- I have music albums on my SD card that WILL NOT show up in Groove Music on my phone. Its just ridiculous.... I've been faffing about on the internet trying to find a solution to this now for 3 months (since I got the SD card) and now I discover that there IS NO FIX!! This is just dreadful!!!!!!

I wonder if I can take the phone back and get a refund?? Unless anyone knows of ANOTHER music App I can download which WILL recognize the 400 music albums I have on my SD Card!!!!

I must say I AM BLOODY FURIOUS AT MICROSOFT at this given moment!

[RTGent]

NO SD card problems here:
I still stubbornly, simply, and reliably manage all my personal and Groove subscription music with Zune software on my Win 7 desktop. Using Windows Explorer, I drag and drop thousands of owned and subscription tracks from my My Music folder, or Music Library, to two respective folders on a 128gb SD card: a "Purchased cache" folder, and a "Subscription cache" folder. I then insert the card into my Lumia 950's card slot. Groove plays all tracks flawlessly, and Groove is the only music app I have used on the 950. The device's Music folder is empty.

I learned to use this folder arrangement in my first week of 950 ownership last November; Groove had set that structure up on the device Music folder. The most common way I play music from my phone -by far- is in my two old/vintage cars through aux-input Bluetooth adapters. Good luck getting your SD lives in order.

[Mark F24]

NO SD card problems here:
I still stubbornly, simply, and reliably manage all my personal and Groove subscription music with Zune software on my Win 7 desktop. Using Windows Explorer, I drag and drop thousands of owned and subscription tracks from my My Music folder, or Music Library, to two respective folders on a 128gb SD card: a "Purchased cache" folder, and a "Subscription cache" folder. I then insert the card into my Lumia 950's card slot. Groove plays all tracks flawlessly, and Groove is the only music app I have used on the 950. The device's Music folder is empty.

I learned to use this folder arrangement in my first week of 950 ownership last November; Groove had set that structure up on the device Music folder. The most common way I play music from my phone -by far- is in my two old/vintage cars through aux-input Bluetooth adapters. Good luck getting your SD lives in order.

I don't see either of there folders on my 950 device music folder or sd card music folder. I will check my 950 xl also. I have hidden folders viewable.

[Mattprendo]

The only work around I have seen is to create a playlist of what you want to listen too. When the playlist is opened, you can toggle the available offline option which will then download the song so you can play. It downloads it to the phone in the download foler, still trying to find a better way.
Motorola g4 plus

[DennisvdG]

I have over a thousand songs on my SD card and Groove recognizes and plays all of them without problem.

[jason hendry1]

I'm fast loosing any patience with Microsoft. I just bought a s7 edge cause eapps are leaving windows mobile only to encounter same issue on groove android version. I either have to use 2 separate apps or move all my music to another cloud like Google just so I can have both my online music and my sd card music together on my phone. I'm ready to replace windows 10 too. Microsoft seems android app ps are so slope as they are missing all these features and abilities it should be doing from the start.

[Ryujingt3]

Out of interest, how are your music files arranged on the SD card? I just bought a 200GB SD card to move my music collection to my 950XL. The same music collection is indexed fine on Groove on my PC. I am just hoping the same happens on my 950XL too.

[Christopher Lindsay]

As an update I no longer have this problem. I now have the 950. I don't know if it's because of the 950 or it also could because I upgraded to a faster SD card.

[Motel75]

I moved up from a 128 to a 200 with my 950 DS, and copied 15,000 songs from one SD card to the other. Now I have this problem, at least with a single artist (I haven't found it with any others - yet).

Four of nine albums will not show up, no matter how many times I copy them or delete them, or rename the folder - at least when the filter is "Only on this device". But change it to "Available offline" and there they are.

[wgrs]

I moved up from a 128 to a 200 with my 950 DS, and copied 15,000 songs from one SD card to the other. Now I have this problem, at least with a single artist (I haven't found it with any others - yet).

Four of nine albums will not show up, no matter how many times I copy them or delete them, or rename the folder - at least when the filter is "Only on this device". But change it to "Available offline" and there they are.

Recent versions of Groove getting better. A few months ago it was a nightmare with faulty indexing.

One hint: before you copy your music collection to the SD card, make sure that "artist" and "album artist" are the same. If album artist is empty, Groove may do all kind of fantasy indexing and then your collection becomes a mess.