Put Music on Your iPhone Without iTunes

The iPhone can do a whole lot of things, but one area that can be difficult is adding music. This is especially true if you don't want to use Apple's iTunes media player. This is the only way to officially sync media files with your iPhone, and the latest iOS updates have broken most unofficial alternatives. Safari also doesn't allow you to download MP3 files from websites. Luckily there are still some ways that you can get music on to your device without using iTunes using different music players.

Steps

Using Dropbox

  1. Sign up for a Dropbox account. You can upload your songs to Dropbox and then play them through the Dropbox app on your iPhone. Free Dropbox accounts come with 2 GB of space. If you have more music than that, you can pay for additional storage or try one of the other methods in this article.
  2. Install the Dropbox client on your computer. This will add a Dropbox folder to your desktop. Anything in this folder will be uploaded to your Dropbox account.
  3. Copy all of the music you want to add to your iPhone into the Dropbox folder. You can open the Dropbox folder by clicking the Dropbox icon in your System Tray or menu bar, and then clicking the Folder button. Dropbox supports music in .mp3, .aiff, .m4a, and .wav formats.[1]
  4. Wait for the music to upload. This may take a while if you are adding a lot of music files, and the speed is dependent on your internet connection. You can monitor the progress in the Dropbox menu in your System Tray or menu bar.
  5. Download the Dropbox app on your iPhone. The app is free and can be downloaded from the App Store. Sign in with your Dropbox account once you have it installed.
  6. Tap the song that you want to play. Dropbox will stream any of the songs that you have stored on your Dropbox account as long as you have a network connection. The songs will continue playing even if you switch apps.
  7. Mark songs as Favorites to make them available offline. Normally Dropbox streams the songs that you select over the internet, but you can mark songs as Favorites to make them always available, even when you don't have an internet connection.
    • Swipe the song that you want to keep on the device from left to right.
    • Tap the ☆ to store the song on your iPhone.

Using Google Play Music

  1. Sign up for a Google account. If you have a Gmail or YouTube account, you already have a Google account. All Google accounts allow you to upload up to 50,000 songs to your Google Play Music account for free. You can then stream these songs from anywhere using the Google Play Music app on your iPhone.
    • You can sign into Google Play Music at music.google.com.
    • Signing up for a Google Play Music All Access subscription gives you the same storage abilities as a free account as well as unlimited access to the entire Google Play Music streaming library.
  2. Download and install the Google Music Manager program for your computer. This is the easiest way to upload a large collection of music to Google Music. You can download the Music Manager from here.[2]
  3. Sign into the Google Play Music Manager. After the manager has finished installing, you will be prompted to log in with your Google account. Once you're logged in, select "Upload songs to Google Play".
  4. Select where you want to scan for files. You're given an initial list of locations that the music manager can look for your music files. You can add more locations later. If you were using iTunes to play your music, Google Play Music will transfer your playlists and song ratings.
    • If your music is stored elsewhere, select "Other folders" and then click Add folder to browse for folders on your computer that contains your music files.
    • Your remaining songs will be displayed at the bottom of the window.
  5. Decide if you want Google Music to automatically upload songs. The music manager can monitor your music folders and automatically upload any new songs that are added. This will ensure that your mobile collection is always up-to-date.
  6. Wait for your music to upload. You can right-click on the music manager icon in your System Tray or menu bar and click the "# songs uploaded" option to monitor the progress of your uploads. It may take quite a while to upload large collections of music.
  7. Download the Google Play Music app on your iPhone. You can get it from the App Store for free. Sign in with your Google account once it is installed. It may take a few moments for your library to load for the first time.
  8. Listen to your music using the Google Play Music app. Once your library has loaded, you can browse through your artist and album lists and start playing music. You can also create playlists, just like with the iPhone's Music app.
  9. Download music to your iPhone for offline listening. Google Play Music normally streams your music files to you over the internet, but you can store any of your songs on your iPhone to listen to without an internet connection.
    • Tap the ⋮ next to the song, album, or playlist that you want to save to your iPhone.
    • Select "Download". The song(s) will begin downloading to your device.
    • Tap the ☰ button and toggle the "Downloaded Only" option to just see the songs that are currently stored on your iPhone.

Using MediaMonkey

  1. Download and install MediaMonkey. MediaMonkey is a popular music player and management program for Windows, and you can use it to sync your music to your iPhone if you tweak a few settings.
    • You'll still need to install a few iTunes services in order to sync your iPhone with MediaMonkey, but you won't need to use the iTunes program at all.
    • MediaMonkey can only sync your music files. It won't be able to sync videos and pictures. If you need to be able to sync these, you'll want to consider setting up MusicMonkey to just handle the music syncing, and leave the rest to iTunes.
  2. Download the iTunes services you'll need. If you don't want to use iTunes at all, this step will help you just install the necessary services the iPhone needs to connect to MediaMonkey. If you want to use iTunes to manage your videos, images, and backups, install iTunes like normal.[3]
    • Download the iTunes installer from apple.com/itunes/download/.
    • Rename the iTunesSetup.exe (or iTunes64Setup.exe) to iTunesSetup.zip (or iTunes64Setup.zip).
    • Double-click the .zip file to open it and find AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi (or AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi). Drag this onto your desktop.
    • Double-click the file on your desktop to install the connection service.
    • Download and install QuickTime for Windows. You can get it from apple.com/quicktime/download/.
  3. Open iTunes (if you're using it) to adjust some settings. If you plan to use iTunes to handle your pictures, videos, and backups, you'll want to disable music syncing so that nothing gets overwritten when you connect your iPhone to your computer. If you're not using iTunes at all and only installed the necessary services, you can skip this step.
    • Click the "Edit" menu and select "Preferences". If you don't see the "Edit" menu, press Alt.
    • Click the "Devices" tab and check "Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically".
    • Click the "Store" tab and uncheck "Automatically download album artwork".
    • Connect your iPhone and select it from the row of buttons at the top of the iTunes window. In the window that opens, scroll down and uncheck "Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected".
    • Click the "Music" tab in the left frame and uncheck "Sync Music" if it's checked. Repeat for the "Podcasts" tab if you want MediaMonkey to handle your podcasts.
  4. Open MediaMonkey while your iPhone is still connected. You can close iTunes if you have it, as it will no longer be necessary. You will still need the iTunes services installed, however.
  5. Select iPhone in the left menu. This will open the iPhone's Summary page.
  6. Click the "Auto-Sync" tab. This will allow you to choose if you want songs that aren't selected for syncing to be deleted from the iPhone or kept, as well as if the iPhone should sync automatically as soon as it is connected.
  7. Click the "Options" tab. You can use these options to set how your music will be imported, how album art will be handled, and other importing options.
  8. Add your music to the MediaMonkey library. You can import and manage all of your music using MediaMonkey's library tools. You can tell MediaMonkey to monitor folders to keep your library automatically updated, and you can also drag and drop files and folders into the MediaMonkey window to add them to your library.
  9. Sync file to your iPhone. Once you've added your music and configured your settings, you can start syncing your music collection to your iPhone. There are a couple of different ways that you can do this:
    • Right-click on a song or selection of songs and select "Send To" → "Your iPhone". The selected songs will be immediately synced to your iPhone.
    • Select your device and click the "Auto-Sync" tab. You can then select artists, albums, genres, and playlists that you want to keep automatically synced. Click the "Apply" button to save your changes and start the sync process.

Using Spotify Premium

  1. Sign up for Spotify Premium. A premium Spotify membership will allow you to sync your local files to your Spotify account, which you can then download to your iPhone. Get-Spotify-Premium.[4]
  2. Download and install the Spotify Player on your computer. You'll need to use this player to add your local files. Sign in with your Spotify account once you've installed it.
  3. Click the "Spotify" or "File" menu in the Player and select "Preferences". Scroll down to the "Local Files" section.
  4. Click "Add a Source" to choose the folders that you want to add to Spotify. Spotify will load all of the music tracks that are in that folder.
  5. Download and install the Spotify app on your iPhone. You can download the app for free from the App Store. Sign in with your Spotify account once the app is installed.
  6. Authorize the device in the Spotify Player on your computer. Click the "Devices" menu and select your iPhone from the list. Click "Sync this device with Spotify".
  7. Open the Spotify app on your iPhone. Make sure that you are connected to the same network as your computer.
  8. Tap the Menu button (☰) and select "Your Music". This will load a list of all the music you've added to your Spotify account.
  9. Tap the "Playlists" option and then select "Local Files". This will display all of the files that you have added to Spotify from your computer.
  10. Tap the "Available Offline" slider at the top of the screen. This will store all of the music files on your iPhone so that they can be listened to at any time, even if you don't have an internet connection.
    • It may take a while for the files to sync completely, especially if you have a lot of them. You'll see a green arrow next to each song that has been synced to your iPhone.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ https://www.dropbox.com/help/228
  2. ↑ https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1229970?hl=en
  3. ↑ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-sync-music-to-your-iphone-without-itunes/
  4. ↑ https://support.spotify.com/us/learn-more/guides/#!/article/Listen-to-local-files
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