Save Google Play Music to External SD(SOLVED FINALLY)

junkedBrian · Nov 1, 2012

awantoch said:
I found the absolute best and easiest way is by using symlinks. This can be accomplished with ROM Toolbox [Root Browser], without the need of scripting/commands/etc.

0. Open ROM Toolbox > Root Browser
1. Make a folder in your desired location (sdcard) called "Music" or something to that sort.
2. Tap and hold, select the option "Create Shortcut" at the bottom
3. Navigate to /data/data/com.google.android.music/
4. Paste (to create the shortcut)
5. Delete the "cache" folder in this directory
6. Rename the shortcut to "cache"
7. Enjoy!

I wanted to say thanks, I did this (Downloaded Rom Toolbox Lite) and used the Root Browser, on my Rooted Galaxy S3 running stock Rogers ICS. Took under 2 minutes, and verified it's working.

I tried to do it using root explorer but the shortcuts seems to have a bug and wasn't able to create it, downloading root browser was the trick.

thanks!

SirSparkles · Nov 1, 2012

junkedBrian said:
I wanted to say thanks, I did this (Downloaded Rom Toolbox Lite) and used the Root Browser, on my Rooted Galaxy S3 running stock Rogers ICS. Took under 2 minutes, and verified it's working.

I tried to do it using root explorer but the shortcuts seems to have a bug and wasn't able to create it, downloading root browser was the trick.

thanks!

yup, also just tried this with Root Browser.
It worked for me too.
I'm on a GS3 with JB

Thx!

rferrett · Nov 1, 2012

Is class! Boom!

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.

122ninjas · Nov 1, 2012

Follow the sym link directions in one of the posts.

Sent from my GS4 running CM11 Kandy Kane

LiL_BrOwNiE247 · Nov 4, 2012

awantoch said:
I found the absolute best and easiest way is by using symlinks. This can be accomplished with ROM Toolbox [Root Browser], without the need of scripting/commands/etc.

0. Open ROM Toolbox > Root Browser
1. Make a folder in your desired location (sdcard) called "Music" or something to that sort.
2. Tap and hold, select the option "Create Shortcut" at the bottom
3. Navigate to /data/data/com.google.android.music/
4. Paste (to create the shortcut)
5. Delete the "cache" folder in this directory
6. Rename the shortcut to "cache"
7. Enjoy!

When I did this my music was still stored on my phone and not my external SD card. When I checked inside the "Music" folder on my external SD all it had was the "logs" folder and nothing else.
When I tried doing this with the folder where I actually found my music (/sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/), it said that "Creating the shortcut failed. Please note that many SD cards and some other file systems do not support symbolic links."
I tried this with both Root Browser and Root Explorer and it still didn't work.

Chef_Tony · Nov 4, 2012

that is exactly, what happened to me, and i know why:
the /data/data/ path in the instructions is only for the galaxy s3, the galaxy s2 uses the path /sdcard/Android/ and so on, as the data partition with its 2gb would be ridiculous for offline music, the downside is, the sdcard partition is fat32 and therefor does not support symlinks.
your only option is to use directorybind, which is the same kind of mount script as in the OP, but with a graphical user interface. it can be found here on the forum.

conclusion:
galaxy s3: symlink / root explorer
galaxy s2 aosp: mount script / smanager / directorybind
galaxy s2 stock: mount script / directorybind only.

LiL_BrOwNiE247 · Nov 5, 2012

skittles said:
SAVE YOUR GOOGLE PLAY MUSIC OFFLINE MUSIC TO EXTERNAL SDCARD
So I've been researching this issue for a long long time and have tried so many different approaches. I've finally found one that works! You can now save your google play music to your external sd instead of the internal sdcard.

This is based on the post found here. Please go and thank the original author. This will probably work on any phone.

So what this basically does is mount the google play music cache to a directory on your external SD on boot.

Requirements:
1. Root
2. external SD(obviously)

Steps

Using whatever task manager you have or just go into settings->apps->running, close google play music.

Open your file manager and browse to /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache and delete all of the files found in music dir and artwork dir in this directory. This is very important step. If you do not delete your cache then your files will take up space but will no longer be available after this process.

Browse to the root diretory of your external sdcard and create a directory called "MusicCache".

Browse to the root of your internal sdcard and create a text file called "MusicScript.txt".

Using your favourite text editor open the the file and past the following: "mount -o bind /emmc/MusicCache/ /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.Android.music/" and the save the file. Please note that if your using stock room, then /emmc/ might be /external-sd/. Please make sure to check the directory name for your external sd and replace /emmc/ with whatever your external sd directory is named.

Go to the google play store and install script manager - Smanager. Open smanager, and on first open you should see an option to select root, check that option and click ok and make sure to grant root to the app when the su dialog appears.

In Smanager browse to the root of your sdcard and click on and hold the "MusicScript.txt" to open a options dialog. Select "open as" and then select "Script/Executable".

Then Select "Su" and "Boot" and hit save.

You might not need this stop but it might solve some issues. Go to settings app->apps->google play music-> and hit clear data.

Reboot your phone.

Open up google play music and click on Choose on device music, and you should see the total space available equal to what is available on your external SD Card

(Optional) Hamster dance.

Note: While downloading all of your music offline you may want to go to the settings app->developer options->check Keep Awake to keep the phone awake while charging so that the phone won't go to sleep. I did this so that I could finish up the download while keeping my phone charger connected. You should definitely turn this option off after your done.

**I assume no responsibility if this damages your device in any way**

So from the steps in the OP, which of them do I replace with to do the directory bind? I'm relatively new to rooting in general so I'm not sure of what I'm doing exactly. I did find the Directory Bind tool here but I don't know if I do the steps involving Script Manager in the OP since I'll be using a different tool instead.

Oh also I'm currently running stock with root.

luckyrand · Nov 6, 2012

skittles said:
SAVE YOUR GOOGLE PLAY MUSIC OFFLINE MUSIC TO EXTERNAL SDCARD
So I've been researching this issue for a long long time and have tried so many different approaches. I've finally found one that works! You can now save your google play music to your external sd instead of the internal sdcard.

This is based on the post found here. Please go and thank the original author. This will probably work on any phone.

So what this basically does is mount the google play music cache to a directory on your external SD on boot.

Requirements:
1. Root
2. external SD(obviously)

Steps

Using whatever task manager you have or just go into settings->apps->running, close google play music.

Open your file manager and browse to /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache and delete all of the files found in music dir and artwork dir in this directory. This is very important step. If you do not delete your cache then your files will take up space but will no longer be available after this process.

Browse to the root diretory of your external sdcard and create a directory called "MusicCache".

Browse to the root of your internal sdcard and create a text file called "MusicScript.txt".

Using your favourite text editor open the the file and past the following: "mount -o bind /emmc/MusicCache/ /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.Android.music/" and the save the file. Please note that if your using stock room, then /emmc/ might be /external-sd/. Please make sure to check the directory name for your external sd and replace /emmc/ with whatever your external sd directory is named.

Go to the google play store and install script manager - Smanager. Open smanager, and on first open you should see an option to select root, check that option and click ok and make sure to grant root to the app when the su dialog appears.

In Smanager browse to the root of your sdcard and click on and hold the "MusicScript.txt" to open a options dialog. Select "open as" and then select "Script/Executable".

Then Select "Su" and "Boot" and hit save.

You might not need this stop but it might solve some issues. Go to settings app->apps->google play music-> and hit clear data.

Reboot your phone.

Open up google play music and click on Choose on device music, and you should see the total space available equal to what is available on your external SD Card

(Optional) Hamster dance.

Note: While downloading all of your music offline you may want to go to the settings app->developer options->check Keep Awake to keep the phone awake while charging so that the phone won't go to sleep. I did this so that I could finish up the download while keeping my phone charger connected. You should definitely turn this option off after your done.

**I assume no responsibility if this damages your device in any way**

That's great. I guess it means the music can be played by other player.

I'm curious whether it works for music bought from google play?

irishboym4 · Nov 7, 2012

SirSparkles said:
yup, also just tried this with Root Browser.
It worked for me too.
I'm on a GS3 with JB

Thx!

how did you get it to work? im using cm10 and ive tried root browser. directory bind, and smanager. none of them have worked. I had it working on my old phone which has cm9

Chef_Tony · Nov 7, 2012

LiL_BrOwNiE247 said:
So from the steps in the OP, which of them do I replace with to do the directory bind? I'm relatively new to rooting in general so I'm not sure of what I'm doing exactly. I did find the Directory Bind tool here but I don't know if I do the steps involving Script Manager in the OP since I'll be using a different tool instead.

Oh also I'm currently running stock with root.

basically, directorybind saves you the steps 2 through 8.
you must stop play music as indicated in step 1, then use directory bind with the current music directory (as in step 2) as TARGET and your desired sd card directory as SOURCE. if you checkmark the option to copy, it would move your existing cache over to the external sd card, but that does not matter. set everything to active and continue with step 9 (which would then delete all your cache anyways).

once you get behind the idea on how directorybind works, the rest should be pretty self-explanatory, my only issue was, that i confused source and target, while setting it up, which is why i put down the correct ones in caps.

clouse2013 · Nov 9, 2012

Im having some problems with this. I got the script in the OP to work but it just duplicates the files in both places. I attempted to symlink but my SD is FAT32 so it's not supported. I attempted to format it to NTFS but when I put it in the phone, the phone wouldn't recognize it and formatted it back. Also, directory bind wont see the /data/data folder. Any suggestions? Im on a Motorola Razr HD and Jelly Bean.

Chef_Tony · Nov 10, 2012

well, you should first have a look, where your music is actually located as you talk about the sd card being fat32 and then you talk about the /data/data/ folder, which are on entirely different partitions. if your music is in /data/data/, then you can use symlink, as the data partition is ext4. the target folder of the symlink can be located on a fat32 partition without a problem. maybe you tried the wrong way around.
if your music is on /sdcard/ and you want it on the external sd card and both are fat32, use directorybind, as explained in my earlier post.

clouse2013 · Nov 10, 2012

Chef_Tony said:
well, you should first have a look, where your music is actually located as you talk about the sd card being fat32 and then you talk about the /data/data/ folder, which are on entirely different partitions. if your music is in /data/data/, then you can use symlink, as the data partition is ext4. the target folder of the symlink can be located on a fat32 partition without a problem. maybe you tried the wrong way around.
if your music is on /sdcard/ and you want it on the external sd card and both are fat32, use directorybind, as explained in my earlier post.

I did do it backwards. Thanks.

KATREyuk · Nov 13, 2012

Spanish S3

In Samsung Galaxy S3 I finally got the process working, but I had to do some changes in paths

Code:

mount -o bind /storage/extSdCard/MusicCache/ /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.google.android.music/

With a program like Astro you can check that those paths fits for you,
in my case a low cap instead a big one gave me some problems until I found it.
I use European S3 with stock 4.1.1

Thanks for the tip!

d4yw41k3r · Nov 13, 2012

Works perfectly on my SGS2 with DarkyROM 4.0.3 - even after reboot

edit: I have to revise. The device is *not* binding the directory on boot. Probably because I didn't check the "boot" button. When I try to execute the script again with "boot" checked, I receive "Cannot execute - permission denied".

What can I do?

cdobeso · Nov 16, 2012

Can't get it to work. Using a script and smanager like the op says. But I'm having trouble getting it to work, not sure what it could be.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

dmexs · Nov 17, 2012

cdobeso said:
Can't get it to work. Using a script and smanager like the op says. But I'm having trouble getting it to work, not sure what it could be.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

Anybody having success with the new version of Google Music? (4.4.811H.526848) Trying to get this working on my Nexus 7.

minidev · Nov 18, 2012

new path

dmexs said:
Anybody having success with the new version of Google Music? (4.4.811H.526848) Trying to get this working on my Nexus 7.

The path on my Galaxy Note 2 is different. It's now :

/data/data/com.google.android.music/files

I used rom toolbox to create a symlink, worked great!

bluez3023 · Nov 20, 2012

Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean

SGH-T999 (4.1.1)
Google Play Music (Version 4.4.811H.526848)

1. Open Settings > Application manager > All > Google Play Music
2. Select "Force stop" and "Clear data"
3. Open ROM Toolbox > Root Browser
4. Create the following folder on your SD card /mnt/extSdCard/GoogleMusic/files
5. Tap and hold the folder named "files" until menu appears, and select "Create shortcut" at the bottom of the list
6. Navigate to /data/data/com.google.android.music/
7. Select "Create" and the "files" folder should be linked
8. Open "Play Music" app and sync
9. Select "Choose on device music" and it should show the available space on your sd card
10. Profit

tl;dr the directory where music is stored has changed from /data/data/com.google.android.music/cache to /data/data/com.google.android.music/files for both music and artwork

Ansago · Nov 20, 2012

bluez3023 said:
SGH-T999 (4.1.1)
Google Play Music (Version 4.4.811H.526848)

1. Open Settings > Application manager > All > Google Play Music
2. Select "Force stop" and "Clear data"
3. Open ROM Toolbox > Root Browser
4. Create the following folder on your SD card /mnt/extSdCard/GoogleMusic/files
5. Tap and hold the folder named "files" until menu appears, and select "Create shortcut" at the bottom of the list
6. Navigate to /data/data/com.google.android.music/
7. Select "Create" and the "files" folder should be linked
8. Open "Play Music" app and sync
9. Select "Choose on device music" and it should show the available space on your sd card
10. Profit

tl;dr the directory where music is stored has changed from /data/data/com.google.android.music/cache to /data/data/com.google.android.music/files for both music and artwork

Thank you! This worked perfectly (on a Droid Razr M w/ root). Good workaround until Google catches up.

Save Google Play Music to External SD(SOLVED FINALLY)

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