Skip to content


How to copy music to your Android phone from your Mac

Android Mac

This tutorial will take you step by step through the process of adding audio files (MP3, OGG, WMA etc) to your Android phone.

Note: although the steps and screenshots in this tutorial are specific to the G1 phone, they will very likely apply to future Android based devices – and this tutorial will be updated if they do not.

  1. The first step to adding music to your Android phone is to plug it into your Mac using a USB cable. Once connected to your Mac, you should see a small USB icon in the upper left corner of your phone.
  2. Drag the menu bar down to reveal your notifications etc, and there will be an entry titled USB connected. Tap/click it.
  3. Now tap the Mount button.
  4. Open up a Finder window in OS X, and you should see a new drive in the DEVICES list. The name may vary depending on your mobile provider or if you’ve added your own SD card to your phone. As indicated by the screenshot below, mine is titled NO NAME. Regardless – select that new device.

    In the “root” of that drive, there should be a folder titled Music. If there isn’t – no big deal – just create the folder yourself.


  5. click to enlarge

  6. Now start dragging and dropping (copying) music into that folder. The songs, albums and playlists don’t have to have a specific folder structure. As long as they have been properly ‘tagged’ in a program like iTunes, the song names, artist names, album names and album covers will display properly.

  7. click to enlarge

  8. Once you’ve copied your audio files into the Music folder, you’ll want to disconnect your phone from your Mac. This is a straight forward two step process. First, right-click on the drive name in Finder and select Eject.
  9. Back on your G1 (or other Android phone/device) select Turn off USB storage from the alerts menu.
  10. Tap Turn Off when prompted.
  11. To play the songs you just added to your phone, select Music from your list of apps.
  12. Tap on Artists, Albums Songs or (if you added any) Playlists.
  13. And from there you can play your music, podcasts etc. That’s it!

Posted in Android, Mac.

Get Simple Help tutorials just like this one in your email inbox every day - for free! Just enter your email address below:

 

You can always opt out of this email subscription at any time.

7 Responses

Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. joseph says

    I use Medieval’s Bluetooth File Transfer app and the Bluetooth program in OSX to drag and drop my stuff wirelessly.

  2. Chris says

    I’m glad to see that the google phone can play music and will properly display the album art, but this is a big step backwards for music fans.
    Has anyone created an app for Andriod that allows playlists any syncs with iTunes or some other media player??

Continuing the Discussion

  1. How to copy music to your Android phone from your Mac – Simple Help | Wildtonemusic linked to this post on July 28, 2009

    [...] from: How to copy music to your Android phone from your Mac – Simple Help Posted in Talk About Music | July 28th, 2009 Leave a [...]

  2. Copy Music to Your Android Phone Over USB [Android] « Topsongs linked to this post on July 29, 2009

    [...] into mobile music for your Android phone. How to copy music to your Android phone from Windows (Mac version) [Simple [...]

  3. The Far Edge » Blog Archive » Copy Music to Your Android Phone Over USB [Android] linked to this post on July 29, 2009

    [...] into mobile music for your Android phone. How to copy music to your Android phone from Windows (Mac version) [Simple [...]

  4. Copy Music To Your Android Phone Over USB | Lifehacker Australia linked to this post on July 29, 2009

    [...] to copy music to your Android phone from Windows [Simple Help] How to copy music to your Android phone from your Mac [Simple [...]

  5. Verizon Droid Hands-On Review -- Garrick Van Buren .com linked to this post on November 2, 2009

    [...] Worked perfectly. The Music app automatically found them and played them. SimpleHelp.net has a nice tutorial on copying music from Mac to Android [...]



Some HTML is OK

or, reply to this post via trackback.