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Windows Phone App To The Rescue. WP8 Music Sync Back On Track

WP8 Media Sync Not Impossible, Just Annoying 2

With the introduction of Windows Phone 8, Microsoft tossed Zune Software into the “legacy” can. If you’re like me and you’ve been actually using Zune for sometime, this was a huge hit! It would seem Windows Phone 7 users and new adopters alike were left out in the cold. Sure, the cloud music sync stuff is cool, but we still need the ability to mange our music from a PC.

Adam Lein over at pocketnow did a great write up on how to reclaim the ability to manage media from the desktop, and using Windows Media no less. Ouch, it was like a blast from the past! After using Zune Software for so many years, I was almost hesitant to load up media player. There was also one caveat with Adam’s method. DRM music from Xbox Music did not sync over the rights, so I was stuck with playlists containing “local” music.

WP8 Media Sync Not Impossible, Just Annoying

And then a stroke of luck called “Windows Phone App.” This app is available in both metro and traditional desktop flavor and saves the day like a champ! Windows Phone App has the ability to read Zune Software playlist (media player as well,) and sync them to your Windows Phone 8 device! NICE! Well, not so nice, because it now becomes and extra step, but a much welcomed step. Here is the kicker, DRM music and rights all get sync’d to the device with no worries! So, for those of you who were having these issues, I highly recommend giving Windows Phone App a try.

Also worth mentioning, “local” music or none Xbox Music songs do not replicate across cloud playlists. Although you’ll see the songs in the playlist, they will be grayed out. An easy way around this is to copy the songs to that PC or Tablet you’re trying to use, a tad bit annoying, cumbersome even, but not impossible.

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