Shared Music Playlist for offline music between Windows and Duo (any Android)

[GraniteStateColin]

I am able to sync music between PC and Windows either via Explorer or the old Windows Media Player (Developer Mode -> change default USB to File Transfer). But I don't think Windows Media Playlists are usable elsewhere. Groove no longer works on Android. I own (or buy) all the music I want, so I don't want to pay every month for a premium streaming service, but don't mind using a free service Playlist syncing via the cloud or paying for a one-time fee to purchase an app that works on Android and/or Windows to sync a playlist via cloud or USB. What are the best options to share playlists between Windows and an Android phone (if it matters, I'm using the Surface Duo)?

I wish Your Phone handled this.

I did buy CloudPlayer for Android, which can play the music from OneDrive, but that doesn't really help my issue of wanting to have shared playlists between devices.

Thanks guys for any advice.

 

[Ryujingt3]

This may be a silly answer, but why not just sign up for Spotify and make your playlists that way? The app works fine on Windows and Android.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

Originally posted by Ryujingt3
This may be a silly answer, but why not just sign up for Spotify and make your playlists that way? The app works fine on Windows and Android.

Maybe that would be good, but doesn't Spotify local syncing require the Premium (paid monthly) account? I'm not interesting in paying monthly when I already have the few hundred or so albums I want. If Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd start making new albums, I'll buy them. If I'm wrong and it's included with the free account, then that could be great.

 

[Michael Bromley]

Huge problem for me, as well. I have a 20 yo library of local music and playlists that would be impossible to recreate. When MS abandoned Groove streaming, they arranged to move music, including existing playlists to Spotify. But that was a one-time function, and Spotify stopped syncing with the local WMP music library and playlists.

So I went looking for another solution. The best I could find was Fubar, which allows importing of playlists, only it has a character limit on playable songs, so most of my library isn't functional with it. I wasted too much time trying to figure it out, so I gave up and have used Fubar on my iPhone only for those lists that function.

Now, like you, I bought a Surface Duo and I really want to connect it to my existing music library w/ playlist functionality. I might try Fubar one more time but would love if someone else around here knows/ finds a solution. I will not use iTunes or whatever the Google player is. Just won't.

Let me know if you find anything.

 

[Harveysjag]

I use google: youtube music app. In the setting you can have it search for music stored on your phone. There is on option in setting>library & downloads>Show device files (show all audio files on your device). I usually don't select this since it might play alarms or notification sound clips I have downloaded. So all you need to do, it store the music on your phone and have youtube music app search for it. You can then click on play offline music only, and only those songs or playlists will show.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

Huge problem for me, as well. I have a 20 yo library of local music and playlists that would be impossible to recreate. When MS abandoned Groove streaming, they arranged to move music, including existing playlists to Spotify. But that was a one-time function, and Spotify stopped syncing with the local WMP music library and playlists.

So I went looking for another solution. The best I could find was Fubar, which allows importing of playlists, only it has a character limit on playable songs, so most of my library isn't functional with it. I wasted too much time trying to figure it out, so I gave up and have used Fubar on my iPhone only for those lists that function.

Now, like you, I bought a Surface Duo and I really want to connect it to my existing music library w/ playlist functionality. I might try Fubar one more time but would love if someone else around here knows/ finds a solution. I will not use iTunes or whatever the Google player is. Just won't.

Let me know if you find anything.

I found the solution and it was there the whole time!


I had tried syncing the WPL through Windows Media Player (over USB), which did not work for me. That sync'd the songs, but not the Playlist. But the incredibly simple step of just dragging and dropping the WPL file(s) to the Playlists folder on the Android device immediately made the Playlist available and it worked with the songs (already sync'd via Windows Media Player).

So if anyone is still looking for a way to do this even on Android 11 in 2022 (e.g., what I have on my Surface Duo 2), here are the steps:

1. Connect Android phone to PC via Bluetooth
2. Swipe down and scroll to the bottom of the notification area and set USB connection to "File Transfer" (as of Android 11, this name has changed with different Android versions). This is necessary so that your PC can see the file store on the phone, otherwise, it won't have access (some of the posts above asked about this).
3. In Windows Media Player click on Playlists on the left.
4. Right click on one of the Playlists and select "Open file location" This will pop open an Explorer window with your Playlist(s). Set this aside for later (Step #8) and go back to Windows Media Player.
5. Click on the Sync tab in the upper right
6. Drag the Playlist(s) in the main window over to the Sync area on the right (see screen show below)

7. Hit "Start Sync" right below the tabs and above the Playlist(s) to sync. For me, this only synced the Songs, NOT the playlist, but that's OK. We'll get to that in a moment.
8. Click on the Windows Explorer window you opened in Step #4.
9. Open another Explorer window (Windows+E or from the Taskbar or Start). Navigate to your Android device (be sure it's still connected via USB and in File Transfer mode).
9. Open the Android device's main drive/volume, probably called "Internal shared storage" (not sure how this would work with an SD card, but I assume that can work and the process is similar)
10. You should see several folders at the home directory of the device, including Music and Playlists. Open Playlists.
11. Drag and drop any Playlists from the Windows source (found from "Open file location" for the Playlist in Windows Media Play step #4) to the Android destination.

At this point, you have the songs and playlists on the Android device. Use any Android local music player, like YouTube music that comes preinstalled on the Duo and many other Android devices. Or, use another. I like Pulsar, but any that supports local Android music files should work just fine.

Summary:

1. Sync music from Windows to Android over USB via Windows Media Player. You can sync individual songs, albums, or artists, or by Playlist, but syncing a Playlist through Windows Media Player will only sync that playlist's songs, not the Playlist itself.

2. Copy (can't sync) the *.WPL Playlist from Windows to the Playlists folder on the Android device via Windows Explorer.

That's it!

Windows Media Player does smart syncing, so even if you have dozens of GB of music, adding a few new songs will still only take a few seconds. The Playlist file always remains relatively small, even for hundreds or thousands of songs.

I hope this can help someone else. I wish I'd found this solution years ago.