Sorry if this is a bit trivial. My adoption of Roon is as a result of my quest to get rid of Apple Music, but I still need to add music to an iPhone and also an old iPod (the iPod is used in a car that has no bluetooth capability).
Any recommendations on how to add music to these devices without Apple Music? I know it’s done via Finder now but that seems to use music that’s store in Apple Music, i.e. it looks in an iTunes media folder - or am I wrong about that?
I’m a Windows and Android guy. However, I have friends who in ditching Apple Music, started by choosing what Music Player they would use, and most of them went with Vox.
If you go with that, I think the Vox has a cloud storage option. Copy files to cloud storage, have them available on your phone through the basic app.
Thanks for that. I’m not sure if that solves my problem, as I want to be able to use the iPhone offline. I do have the DS Audio app, which will play all of my music from my Synology NAS when I have a network connection.
What I want is a way to transfer my music files from my Mac onto my IPhone, not into the cloud, and then play them locally.
Vox sounds as though it will cope with downloading, but looks like I’d have to do that album by album - the same as Tidal, which I also have on the iPhone.
Plex might be what fits. It will download files for offline use from in home or when your out and about if you set it up in your firewalll to be accessible. If you pay for it you can then use PlexAmp on the phone to download or stream from your home server and is their audio front end app but is not free.
Maybe I’m not explaining myself well enough.
I play all the music in my house through Roon, and all the music when I’m out of the house from my iPhone and an old iPod, which goes in a car that has an old in car sytem which has an iPod plug in.
On my iPhone, when I have internet, I can use Tidal, or access all my music which is on my Synology NAS via the Synology app.
But, I want an offline solution too.
Currently, I add music files, from my library, onto both my iPhone and my IPod. On my Mac, this is done via Finder, but it’s not just drag and drop - the old sync function has been moved out of iTunes (now Apple Music) not Finder.
I believe that Finder does this, by looking in the iTunes media folder and then syncing this music to a location on the iPod and the iPhone. No file structure is evident at any rate.
I want to ditch the Apple Music app on my Mac, and not bother to maintain it any more - I now just have my music on the NAS, outside of the Apple Music file system.
So what I would like is a solution to sync/add music, i.e.music files, from my Mac, to my iPod and iPhone, for off-line listening, that doesn’t need iTunes on the Mac. The iPod obviously has no connectivity so I can only play music that’s actually on the device.
If there’s a better music player app for the iPhone, that a bonus.
My suggestion plays local music just fine. No need for the added on cloud part, I just mentioned that as an easy way. It should use local files you just copied over to your phone just fine.
It’s a couple of years ago now, that my iPod video finally died while taking the upgraded 250GB disk with it.
What I can wholeheartedly recommend, still, is using RockBox, an alternative operating system, that installs on top of Apple’s OS.
You use it like a USB flash drive to drag and drop your music onto it, and has plenty of fantastic features especially for car use.
Check, if your iPod is supported and how to go about installing and using it - yes it’s a learning curve but worth every second you invest!
PlexAmp will play local files you can offline them to your phone or iPod touch from their app. I use it in this manner. You point the server side to your music files it will then catalog them similar to Roon but it’s a lot more limited in other ways. You then via the app either stream them over the internet or you can offline them all to the device whilst at home for offline playback.
Not sure what Nas you use but qnap have an android app not sure if it’s the same on iOS that will sync files from you Nas. I use this on my DAP to pull in new music.
And that’s the issue - how to copy local files to the phone. If I have the local files on my phone, I don’t need Vox cloud to access them. Currently the local files are added via iTunes, which is what I want to stop doing
Thanks for that, as far as I can see to use this I’ll need to set up the Plex Media Server on my NAS, which is a bit overkill for finding a way to add music files to my iPod. Also, I doubt it works on the iPod
Thanks Marin, that might well be a way to keep my iPod updated! I will check it out,
Best regards
Martin
If it’s not a touch then no it won’t.
Hi Martin, have you tried Doppler. An app that allows you to download MP3s, FLACs, etc to your phone and play them locally. For streaming, I have a Synology NAS at home with all my music on and their DS Audio App is great (and free!)
BR Sean