looking for a good media players that downloads & caches while connected wireless - AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III

Hey everyone - I'm tied to the crappy 2GB data limit with AT&T. While at the gym I like to be distracted and watch movies, and listen to music while walking/running around. However, especially with video, I am always capping out my data limit way early.
I'm looking for good apps that can download video and/or audio and cache while connected wireless, so I can go my merry way and not use cell data. I ran across Slacker Radio for audio - does anyone have opinions about that one, or recommendations on others?
I'm not too hopeful on finding a video player that does this, but I'm ever hopeful. Right now I've just been bittorrent-ing them to my home computer, transferring them to my S3, and that gets around using cell data.
With the AT&T 2GB limit, I can stream only about 2-3 movies before that data is gone - ouch!
Thanks for any thoughts/opinions/whatnot!

Uh, wow, my answer may have just been given! Just ran across this. Guess I may be moving back to T-Mobile, after about an 8 year hiatus.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57497706-94/t-mobile-cuts-the-strings-on-new-data-plan-goes-fully-unlimited/

Related

zune streaming problems, arrive only?

Tied posting it in arrive and focus sections, but got no replies.
Hey everybody, I am having some issues here, not sure if it is a problem with wp7 in general, or specific to arrive. I have Zune pass and absolutely love it, ability to stream music via Zune on the background kind of makes up for no Pandora or background play with other streaming apps such as slacker or last fm. My problem is with how choppy Zune streaming is right now for me. If I'm on evdo streaming basically stops when I get a text and it would say opening for about 10 seconds before usually skipping the song altogether... Now, I get that data connection is idle when text comes in due to no simultaneous voice and data being available on cdma but I've never had that big of an issue with streaming apps and Android. Over WiFi, same thing but not as bad, which really puzzles me as there should not be a problem while on WiFi?
Is this issue specific to arrive or all windows phone 7 phones have that problem? It seems as if I'm browsing the web, Zune rarely streams at all. Would going to att and getting Samsung focus fix this?
Zune streaming works fine on my Samsung Focus both over Wifi and 3G, though I havnt streamed it over 3G that much due to my limited data plan from ATT but whenever I did it worked gr8.
afive720 said:
Is this issue specific to arrive or all windows phone 7 phones have that problem? It seems as if I'm browsing the web, Zune rarely streams at all. Would going to att and getting Samsung focus fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, when I browse the web with Zune streaming, it goes pretty smooth. The web page rendering may slow, as I at least think it would, when there's say large images that need to be downloaded and rendered, but so far it seems like there aren't that many hiccups. Absent that I'd say it's Sprint.
ScottSUmmers said:
Hmm, when I browse the web with Zune streaming, it goes pretty smooth. The web page rendering may slow, as I at least think it would, when there's say large images that need to be downloaded and rendered, but so far it seems like there aren't that many hiccups. Absent that I'd say it's Sprint.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I thought so too, hmm, now I am even more tempted to get WP7 on ATT. Althought, can't beat the plan I am on now , would be paying $90 more a month at the very least.

[Q] Google Music - Got my invite! Any tips/tricks?

After about a month, I finally got it. Uploading my library now, probably going to max out my storage .
Anyone have any hints, tips or tricks on things that can be done with Google Music?
my learning
If you use an AT&T Microcell the Ping delay will go through the roof while uploading and will impact your ability to make calls.
On my 3G iPhone it appears that a song is playing fine but you can't hear. You need hit the pause button on the player and then play button so you can hear a song. Frankly Google Music doesn't work very well on my iPhone.
If you found any tip sites I'd like to know them.
I got an invite 8 days ago & just barely started uploading my music yesterday night. I've got the app for my Epic running SRF 1.1.1 & it doesn't seem to work. Maybe it might have something to do with the phone's modem? I'm not sure, but I'm only seeing the music on my SD. I checked my settings in the app & it is connected to my account, but it won't display the uploaded music at all. Damn it!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Enfiladedrivein said:
I got an invite 8 days ago & just barely started uploading my music yesterday night. I've got the app for my Epic running SRF 1.1.1 & it doesn't seem to work. Maybe it might have something to do with the phone's modem? I'm not sure, but I'm only seeing the music on my SD. I checked my settings in the app & it is connected to my account, but it won't display the uploaded music at all. Damn it!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue with the app. I had it installed before I received my invite. Simply uninstalled and reinstalled google music on my phone. Issue resolved...for me at least.
Enfiladedrivein said:
I got an invite 8 days ago & just barely started uploading my music yesterday night. I've got the app for my Epic running SRF 1.1.1 & it doesn't seem to work. Maybe it might have something to do with the phone's modem? I'm not sure, but I'm only seeing the music on my SD. I checked my settings in the app & it is connected to my account, but it won't display the uploaded music at all. Damn it!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually because your phone is rooted.
I heard you can clear the apps data and it works , might not but give it a try
Sent from my SPH-D700
works okay for me on stock rooted ec05.. It fine with a few songs, but once I got to around 10,000 songs both the web interface and the android app became a lot slower and less responsive.
Also, the uploader will rape your home bandwidth if you let it.. My 20/2 ends up slower than dialup with that thing running. There are throttle controls, but they didn't seem to help, the problem only went away for me when I turned it off completely. Also it prevents the screensaver from activating.. wtf? The phone player could use more features, as could the web player. Web interface failed the girlfriend test. After using it for a few minutes she declared it "unfriendly" and went back to using grooveshark.
On the one hand, it's cool having my entire mp3 library available when I'm away from home, but on the other hand grooveshark is still better for me to find new music.
On my rooted Droid X (Apex 2.0 Beta), i've had zero issues.
A few tips: Rather than trying to upload your collection during the day, do it while you sleep. It doesn't modify the bitrate, so if you're uploading a 320kbs file that is 6MB in size ... well, you get the idea.
Be prepared for some organization on the site itself. Unless you're quite particular about your ID3 tags, you will have to rename some songs, locate/update/upload new or clearer quality album art (Google Images works fine for this), and combine groups of songs from the same album into one album listing(generally is the result of some of the songs having no 'Album Artist' and some having it... tip, just highlight all, put the Artist in both groups, Ctrl+F5, win.)
Last thoughts... the widget is really bad right now, but the UI isn't awful. While you can presently filter in 2 ways 1) All music or 2) Only music on your phone,... there isn't a way to only filter online stuff. But, when you have no data connection (3G or WiFi), it will gray the online music out.
But really, take this all with the Beta grain of salt. GMail was in beta at one point, and took awhile to become the slick e-mail machine it is now. I have no doubt Google Music will only get better.
do you know, if i update an id-tag on my computer is the same mp3 going to be updated also on Google Music?
If the file size or name of the music file doesn't change then I don't think a Tag will trigger the re-upload. It may be worth a try though.
Anyone know of a good "free" MP3 tagger, that will go through and ID and correct the tags of my MP3s before I upload them?
I think pretty much all of my MP3s have had their tags removed
DCRocks said:
Anyone know of a good "free" MP3 tagger, that will go through and ID and correct the tags of my MP3s before I upload them?
I think pretty much all of my MP3s have had their tags removed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-mp3-tag-editor.htm
Several free ones, with reviews for each one.
I've had Google music for a while now (just started using it recently) and I have to say, for it being beta, it's pretty good. Although, I do have some beef with a few things.
Widget sucks: There's the song name, forward, and pause/play button. That's it. I don't like it and I find myself just playing music through the app itself.
Data is wonky: I've noticed that sometimes that GM will load random songs incorrectly and sound like crap. The only way I've found to fix this is going to settings/apps/music and clearing the data and cache. It has to reload the songs but if you start listening to music on wifi or a good 3g connection, songs will load correctly.
Web Interface, YUCK!: Nit picking here but I hate the look of the web interface. Works great though.
App needs equalizer and lockscreen playlist: I'm drawing this complaint after using Power Amp. If GM could model their app after Power Amp, it'd be perfect
Even though it's all complaining, I still recommend this app to music users (on sprint only). After songs are cached on your phone, it hardly draws any data, but I still wouldn't use it on AT&T and Verizon...but that's just because of their stupid cap. It has loads of potential, and I can't wait to see it

[Q] Google Music Beta using a lot of data

Hey all, I'm going to be switching to Verizon in the next couple months, I am getting tired of sprint's 3g "dial-up" speeds. The problem obviously is verizon's data plans. I normally use about 3gb of data, and I am trying to get it down to under 2gb so I can get that plan with verizon. I have been using 3g Watchdog Pro for the last few days to monitor my data usage.
I use Google Music Beta a few times a day, but I see it's using WAY more data than it should. I cleared out the data usage from 3g watchdog pro, and then opened Music Beta, and streamed 2 songs that were each about 3 minutes long. After streaming those two files, 3g watchdog shows Music Beta used 80MB of data. I don't know how that is possible since those songs are each about 4mb big.
Anyone else who uses Music Beta and 3g Watchdog notice this?
Use an SDcard with music that you actually want. remove google music. enjoy 2gb of data.
Indirect said:
Use an SDcard with music that you actually want. remove google music. enjoy 2gb of data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but that doesn't really help me. I have 100gb of music, there is no 100gb card.
Verizon Data Plan
Or wait until tomorrow, and get 4GB data plan for the 2GB data plan price - [can't post URL - google "Verizon Data" and see articles about "Verizon Offering Double Data Package On LTE Phones Beginning November 8th"]
But there is also no 100gb data plan. Lol
Sent by breaking the sound barrier
And it's interesting how Verizon calculates their data as well.
I have an aircard through them which is still under an unlimited cap (don't ask), but they do send me automated messages when the card gets up over 5GB/mo..
During the data period, I think they also count some internal packet overhead. In checking the logs for my use on both the card and the server I connect to, they bill out a little more than 1k for every k you actually send and receive. YMMV
sitlet said:
Thanks, but that doesn't really help me. I have 100gb of music, there is no 100gb card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'Technically' you could get a 128gb SDHXC...but that's 100$+ and not for micro.
Though I haven't noticed it. Have you tried downloading via wifi only, and try caching the music?
Google Music downloads stuff even when not using the application
I have noticed that Google Music is constantly downloading things at random times. Sometimes LOTS of things. I had it somehow download 250MB in the middle of the night when I wasn't using my phone a few times, and the application was not running ( at least not as far as my task manager knew ). What is it doing? I have gone through all of the applications' settings, and I don't see anything that stands out as an option. I ran through my 2GB data plan in 5 days. This is my first experience using Google Music, but let me tell you, I am very close to removing it, and going back to sync'ing music to the SD card.
Any sort of streaming service (Pandora, Crackle, Netflix, Hulu Plus, et cetera) is not really ideal for plans with bandwidth caps. I'm sorry, dude, but you are going to be paying through the nose unless regardless unless you only stream over wifi. I know it sucks, but there's nothing you can do about it.
If you stay with Sprint, though, you can do this, which may solve your speed issues. However, you will not be able to get unlimited Any Mobile calling (if you have the 450 minutes plan). I would do that first and see if it works. If it doesn't, then consider switching to Verizon.
I hope this helps.
I totally understand the part about streaming services not being ideal for mobile service plans that are capped, but I guess I only expect for the streaming application ( in this case Google Music which is more like on demand than "streaming" - like Pandora ) to consume data while I am actively using it.
In the example I'm trying to make, it appears that the application is using large amounts of data when I'm not using it. That's the question I was hoping to have answered here.
Check your background processes and see what's running.
google is meant to cache... and it downloads the files in a pretty big block... so after it's done downloading for the moment... you can skip... five or more songs... and it will pick back up... so unlike pandora... google actually caches.. and instead of only streaming one song at a time.. so it uses even more data then pandora does because of that...
the only thing i can really say to help has pretty much been mentioned... have it set to only stream/download over wifi... download a sizable playlist... and go from there
So no one has any other solution to getting Google Music to stop downloading so much data?
I have been grandfathered under the unlimited plan (as long as that lasts) and I too was surprised when I saw how Google Music used 1.3 GB for me when I at most played 20-25 songs the whole weekend.
my slacker.com account - which I used much more during the holidays only used 35mb. That is over 37x the data usage!
Pay for spotify 10$ a month all u can listen too, sink playlists to phone over WiFi whenever u want, u can stream too if u want
Sent from my PC36100 using Xparent Green Tapatalk

[INFO] Music and lack of SD card

Just checked the Nexus' new page, in features, it says:
Jam on with Google Music
Upload your personal music collection to the cloud with Music Beta by Google, and stream your music to your Galaxy Nexus, computer, or other Android devices. Upload music from your computer, or add your iTunes® library, and everything stays in sync automatically. Even when you have no data connection—just select the albums, artists, and playlists you want for offline listening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason why I canceled the phone out of my list was because of the memory that seemed little for me. Why do I want a huge memory? It's because of music, I don't store movies, videos and other media. But with this new cloud feature works even with no data connection. Does that mean, I don't need an SD card? If that's true I'm definitely getting it, after all the memory was the only thing stopping me, and it was only because of music. Seeing I got my Samsung Wave with a full 16GB card full of music with absolutely nothing else.
Does that save me?
Nex_1 said:
Just checked the Nexus' new page, in features, it says:
The reason why I canceled the phone out of my list was because of the memory that seemed little for me. Why do I want a huge memory? It's because of music, I don't store movies, videos and other media. But with this new cloud feature works even with no data connection. Does that mean, I don't need an SD card? If that's true I'm definitely getting it, after all the memory was the only thing stopping me, and it was only because of music. Seeing I got my Samsung Wave with a full 16GB card full of music with absolutely nothing else.
Does that save me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I gather, It will still need an initial data connection whilst it caches the song from the server that you have uploaded it to, and to cache it, it will take some of your 16GB therefore there will still be a lack of storage for your needs :/
Ps, hope that made sense haha
Bare in mind that the cloud music service is (currently) only officially available to folks in the US.
There will be a lot of people who don't know how to get round that.
As above though, for the 'cloud' service to work without a data connection, you must fist cache what you want to listen to on the phone, and 320kpbs MP3's aren't tiny.
Without data you still need the storage for cached songs.
BTW in case it wasnt clear No sd card + Google music announcement IS the reason for no SD card. I hope the discussion can stop now.
Google Music when download are 320 Kbps resolution, that means a 10 min song will be close to 32 MB each, now do your match and see how little songs you can put in the cache in the 13 GB of space left in the 16 GB version of the GN
so, to enjoy Google Music you'll need at least the 32GB version of GN
the next best thing is to use a USB key on the go, and keep it always plugged into the GN whenever you go around listening to music off your USB stick
The benefit here is that you can change what you store on the fly. So really you'll never need that much space taken up.
Sent from my HTC Mecha using Tapatalk
that's assuming you got WiFi connection nearby, or an owner of an Unlimited 3G/4G plan
Rusty! said:
Bare in mind that the cloud music service is (currently) only officially available to folks in the US.
There will be a lot of people who don't know how to get round that.
As above though, for the 'cloud' service to work without a data connection, you must fist cache what you want to listen to on the phone, and 320kpbs MP3's aren't tiny.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know a way of getting round it :| ... is there one?
Also do you or anyone else reading this know - if I uploaded my own MP3s does it upscale them to better quality?
Thanks
jameslfc5 said:
I don't know a way of getting round it :| ... is there one?
Also do you or anyone else reading this know - if I uploaded my own MP3s does it upscale them to better quality?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, it stays at whatever resolution you uploaded it as, it will not be bumped to 320kbps
and you need a USA SIM card for them to allow you to stream for the free songs, if they detect a NON USA SIM card it will just give you the message that currently it's only for the USA
proxying the server, only works on the PC
and you can proxy the phone too via WiFi with an USA carrier SIM card to fool it
AllGamer said:
Google Music when download are 320 Kbps resolution, that means a 10 min song will be close to 32 MB each, now do your match and see how little songs you can put in the cache in the 13 GB of space left in the 16 GB version of the GN
so, to enjoy Google Music you'll need at least the 32GB version of GN
the next best thing is to use a USB key on the go, and keep it always plugged into the GN whenever you go around listening to music off your USB stick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's for songs you purchased from the Android store. For songs that you uploaded to it, I'm pretty sure the cached version will just be a copy of the version you uploaded, same bitrate and all.
you upload from the PC, not from your phone
the phone only caches whatever is on Google Music
so yes, you only get what you uploaded + whatever you purchased from Google Music
the thing is most audiophiles like me will keep/sync 320kbps music in storage, as anything less than 192kbps sounds really bad in the car deck
but if you want to save space, you can definitely go with 128kbps, but that's only okay with headphones from the phone
And we see the 1% eliminating choice and slowly tightening the noose, forcing us to pay them to listen to our music from both their music store and bandwidth costs....you KNOW this was part of the negotiations with the labels to get the music service up and running.
AllGamer said:
you upload from the PC, not from your phone
the phone only caches whatever is on Google Music
so yes, you only get what you uploaded + whatever you purchased from Google Music
the thing is most audiophiles like me will keep/sync 320kbps music in storage, as anything less than 192kbps sounds really bad in the car deck
but if you want to save space, you can definitely go with 128kbps, but that's only okay with headphones from the phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are an audiophile, you will be using FLAC for archival, and V0 for mobile playback.
Chirality said:
That's for songs you purchased from the Android store. For songs that you uploaded to it, I'm pretty sure the cached version will just be a copy of the version you uploaded, same bitrate and all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They state that tracks their match their music on the servers will "upload quicker"(Read: Won't need to be uploaded at all since Google Music will simply use the copy on the server), given that, i think it's safe to assume that all files(that don't match) are uploaded and then converted to MP3.
If not, then atleast all the content is likely transcoded to MP3.
Infact, my entire collection is FLAC and i just went to music google and the file streamed is indeed a 16MB MP3, and with a track length of 7:11 that more or less corresponds with a file averaging out at a bitrate of 310 kbps
FISKER_Q said:
They state that tracks their match their music on the servers will "upload quicker"(Read: Won't need to be uploaded at all since Google Music will simply use the copy on the server), given that, i think it's safe to assume that all files(that don't match) are uploaded and then converted to MP3.
If not, then atleast all the content is likely transcoded to MP3.
Infact, my entire collection is FLAC and i just went to music google and the file streamed is indeed a 16MB MP3, and with a track length of 7:11 that more or less corresponds with a file averaging out at a bitrate of 310 kbps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1100462&topic=1100183
FLAC, aac, and ogg files are transcoded into 320kbps CBR MP3. For all other supported formats, absolutely no transcoding or matching will be done.
Sorry don't mean to sound dumb here but with this whole syncing to the cloud the music takes up space on the phone memory through caching? I thought the idea was so it doesn't waste space on the phone with its limited storage. I don't know much about this google music so don't flame too much, inncoent question hopefully will come to the uk soon!
Sent from my X10i using xda premium
The Gingerbread Man said:
Sorry don't mean to sound dumb here but with this whole syncing to the cloud the music takes up space on the phone memory through caching? I thought the idea was so it doesn't waste space on the phone with its limited storage. I don't know much about this google music so don't flame too much, inncoent question hopefully will come to the uk soon!
Sent from my X10i using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have an active data connection, (and until it comes this side of the pond, fooled them into thinking you're a citizen of the US) then it won't take up any space, it'll stream.
If you select songs for offline listening, they'll be cached on your device, using up space - but easily removed and replaced with something else when you change what you specify as available offline.
That's my (limited Brit) understanding of it.
The Gingerbread Man said:
Sorry don't mean to sound dumb here but with this whole syncing to the cloud the music takes up space on the phone memory through caching? I thought the idea was so it doesn't waste space on the phone with its limited storage. I don't know much about this google music so don't flame too much, inncoent question hopefully will come to the uk soon!
Sent from my X10i using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes if you open Google Music, and select the option to make available offline
it will show you the amount of space left in your INTERNAL STORAGE of the phone, so if you only have 1 GB of space left, after Games / Apps, then you can only cache 1 GB of songs at 320 Kbps, using the 10 MB song file example pointed out earlier, you'll see you can roughly only cache aprox 30 songs give or take a few in 1 GB of space
... not much as you can see
Thanks guys that really helps! Good job Google put on all those extra data controls as this could really eat up data plans!
Sent from my X10i using xda premium
Nex_1 said:
Just checked the Nexus' new page, in features, it says:
The reason why I canceled the phone out of my list was because of the memory that seemed little for me. Why do I want a huge memory? It's because of music, I don't store movies, videos and other media. But with this new cloud feature works even with no data connection. Does that mean, I don't need an SD card? If that's true I'm definitely getting it, after all the memory was the only thing stopping me, and it was only because of music. Seeing I got my Samsung Wave with a full 16GB card full of music with absolutely nothing else.
Does that save me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically, the way it works is you can upload 20,000 songs. On your phone, whenever you listen to music, it streams to the device. If you listen to a particular song, album, or artist often, it downloads the tracks to your phone so you're not paying to stream them over and over again.
If you know you're going to be out of data connection, you can explicitly download ("cache") songs, albums, artists to your SDcard so that you can listen to them. When you're back in a data connection, you can choose to keep them downloaded, or clear them again to free up space.
In the settings, you can specifically set it to only stream on WiFi, or only download on WiFi, or both. You may want to do this if you're on a strict data cap. In this case you'd probably cache a couple albums on WiFi while at home before you leave the house to tide you over till you return again.
I've been using Google Music Beta for months and it works pretty damn seamlessly in my experiences.

Obscene Data Usage form Google Music

Google Music has managed to drive my data usage up to nearly 10GB since the 15th with me having only used it to stream a handful songs (less than 30mins) and nothing else! I swapped from the stock ROM to Android Revolution HD about a week ago, and the data usage screen shows the background data for Google Music at just under 2GB since the ROM switch (2GB in approx. 7 days )!
Maybe it has something to do with my 12,000+ song library, but I doubt it. Any clues as to why it is using so much background data when the app as rarely been used?
Side Note: Thank God for unlimited data plans else this would have been costly...
(Please disregard typo in title. Form should be from.)
[SOLVED]
Reseting Google Music has stopped the extreme data usage, even with the app's settings re-enabled to what they were before reseting.
Steps taken:
- Clear data for Google Music
- Revert Google Music back to factory version
- Reinstall from the Market
- Reconfigure app settings
If you have "download over WiFi only" unchecked and have told Google Music to to "make available offline" or something has been caching, it could easily pull down gigs of music. Kinda unlikely but its possible if you've checked the right boxes.
Go check your offline only music collection in the app, see if it's cached a lot of it?
martonikaj said:
If you have "download over WiFi only" unchecked and have told Google Music to to "make available offline" or something has been caching, it could easily pull down gigs of music. Kinda unlikely but its possible if you've checked the right boxes.
Go check your offline only music collection in the app, see if it's cached a lot of it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Precisely. If you checked "make available offline", then it'll download your complete library.
I've been using Google Music for months now (well, since it came out, actually) and have used it for all of my music now (ie I'm streaming all of my music over Google Music rather than keeping it on my SD card) and have never come even close to 10GB of usage total (or more than about 2GB over a month for Gmusic) and that's with listening for about an hour or 2 each day.
'make available offline' eh?... i've had that checked off since i first started using google music on my old thunderbolt and have never had an issue like this. even now, it's still checked on my nexus and not using crazy gigga's like what he's experiencing. that's bizarre
I do have "make available offline" checked, but I have not told Google Music to make any music available offline besides the recently played cache it keeps. If I toggle Google Music to only display songs available offline, it only shows ten.
Also I used Google Music on my old HTC Incredible, and never had this issue. Maybe I'll try resetting Google Music on the device...
if you have it set to stream high quality, then it will eat up a lot of data - Google Music streams 320Kbps files at high quality.
that adds up.
oscillik said:
if you have it set to stream high quality, then it will eat up a lot of data - Google Music streams 320Kbps files at high quality.
that adds up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even then 10GB is a lot of music. Heck, maybe with FLAC you'd get 10GB a month with reasonable listening, but that's without caching anything and still it's possible but unlikely.
If u have unlimited y r u worrying . Try checking " only download music for offline availability via wifi". That might stop all the background dl. Or check restrict background data when u click music under data usage
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
I have had "only download over wifi" checked for the last 24hrs, and Google Music used a additional 0.25GB in that time period. This option should not matter has I never tell Google Music to download any songs for offline use.
The high quality streaming should not be the culprit either since I have opened the app to stream music in the last 24hrs.
The app seems to just be using 0.25GB a day without any user interaction.
As to why I am concerned even though I have an unlimited data plan, I do not like that something is going on with the phone that I cannot understand, and there is the fact the Verizon might start throttling my speeds due to the high usage.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I hadn't really used google music much at all, literally one drive around town in the car for about 15 minutes and it had used 56 MB. So after reading this I streamed one song and told it to make it available for offline listening. It was 14.35 MB to do that. I would agree, that is a lot of data for a small amount of music. Looks like the thing to do is go through and make it available off line while on wifi.
Now I am curious where the phone stores it and how much memory each song takes up. With the android file transfer MTP program on my mac I cannot find the songs I have stored for off line music. It is not in the music folder or anywhere obvious. I will dig into the phone with Astro and figure this out when I get a chance.
bmolloy said:
I hadn't really used google music much at all, literally one drive around town in the car for about 15 minutes and it had used 56 MB. So after reading this I streamed one song and told it to make it available for offline listening. It was 14.35 MB to do that. I would agree, that is a lot of data for a small amount of music. Looks like the thing to do is go through and make it available off line while on wifi.
Now I am curious where the phone stores it and how much memory each song takes up. With the android file transfer MTP program on my mac I cannot find the songs I have stored for off line music. It is not in the music folder or anywhere obvious. I will dig into the phone with Astro and figure this out when I get a chance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think they're stored as normal mp3 files. all renamed, iirc
bmolloy said:
I hadn't really used google music much at all, literally one drive around town in the car for about 15 minutes and it had used 56 MB. So after reading this I streamed one song and told it to make it available for offline listening. It was 14.35 MB to do that. I would agree, that is a lot of data for a small amount of music. Looks like the thing to do is go through and make it available off line while on wifi.
Now I am curious where the phone stores it and how much memory each song takes up. With the android file transfer MTP program on my mac I cannot find the songs I have stored for off line music. It is not in the music folder or anywhere obvious. I will dig into the phone with Astro and figure this out when I get a chance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look in /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music -- that's where music I've asked to be available offline is stored as numbered mp3 files, and it's presumably also the temporary cache for recently-played music.
Well reseting Google Music seemed to do the trick. The background data hasn't changed for two days straight now. Must have just been a bug that had the app constantly communicating to the servers.
SuzakuTheKnight said:
Well reseting Google Music seemed to do the trick. The background data hasn't changed for two days straight now. Must have just been a bug that had the app constantly communicating to the servers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Figured as much. It may have even been hanging on caching one song and trying over and over. Google Music likes to do stuff like that
this is the prime example of when the cloud services are not really delivering as advertised
reason why the 16GB version is just too small for a media / gaming phone
Hi. Im having same problem with massive data usage. Im kind of new to this- so can someone guide me through resetting Google Music? I cant seem to delete it from my phone entirely. I know you mentioned re installing from the market- but whenever I go there it just gives me the upgrade option- which I did- but still doesnt seem to change anything. Sorry! And thanks to everyone in advance for any help!
lespaul1970 said:
Hi. Im having same problem with massive data usage. Im kind of new to this- so can someone guide me through resetting Google Music? I cant seem to delete it from my phone entirely. I know you mentioned re installing from the market- but whenever I go there it just gives me the upgrade option- which I did- but still doesnt seem to change anything. Sorry! And thanks to everyone in advance for any help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings > Apps > All > Music > Clear Data & Uninstall Updates
That will reset the app to factory settings and allow you to pull the newest version from the market again. While this stops the problem, it is not a true solution to the issue as we have yet to identify what is actually causing the usage.
Before wiping, could you post your settings for the app? And any information such as library size and the number of songs you have told Music to store locally would be helpful in identifying the cause.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Thank you! I appreciate the help! What do you need for settings for the app? sorry! Im new to smart phones- so- I need to be walked through alot of this still! But- let me know any info you need and Ill be glad to get it for you. Thanks
That will reset the app to factory settings and allow you to pull the newest version from the market again. While this stops the problem, it is not a true solution to the issue as we have yet to identify what is actually causing the usage.
Before wiping, could you post your settings for the app? And any information such as library size and the number of songs you have told Music to store locally would be helpful in identifying the cause.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium[/QUOTE]
I currently have 7172 songs on Google Music. I have not stored any songs locally so far. Today started my new billing cycle- and I did nothing with my phone except play 1 song- streamed from Google Music. My data went from 0.000 GB to 0.076 GB after only playing 1 song- that lasted probably about 4 and a half minutes. Pretty crazy. Last month- I used up 2 GB of data in 10 days- and maybe streamed about 30 minutes of music during that time. A Verizon rep told me it takes about 30 hours of streaming music to use up 1 GB of data. I dont know if thats true or not. But judging by what others using it are telling me- I have something WAY wrong. So- Im going to try the info from above to reinstall and see what happens. Thank you for all of your help- and let me know if I can be of any help with additional info.
---------- Post added at 11:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 PM ----------
Ive also wondered if it may have something to do with my settings under music. I have a Razr- and everything is unchecked except "Download Via Wi-Fi- only" and "Cache music-temporarily store streamed music." Those were both already checked with the installation. Should I uncheck the "Cache music" box? Is it pulling down alot more data maybe to temporarily store streamed music? Just wondering about this too! Thanks again!
I were uploading about 2GB of music from my computer to Play Music, and when that was done my phone gave me a warning that the app Play Music had downloaded 2GB of data over 3G, now I can't use my 3G for three weeks... When I take a look at Play Music's data folder there's only about 100MB of songs, as there should be.
I had set the app to only download via WiFi, but stream via 3G. Why could this have happened? Since I only have 2GB of memory on the phone, and the used data hasn't increased, what happened really?
Thanks

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