Windows Phone App To The Rescue. WP8 Music Sync Back On Track
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.
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.
Related Posts
About The Author
The desktop app is much better than the “Modern” app. Now, what I would like to see is an ability to make playlists for streamed music, a la Spotify. Really need that…and some real cohesion between XBOX music and the phone.
Not impressed with the music side of WP or Windows 8. Tried this desktop app and even though I’ve managed songs on my WP7 with Zune for a while this app seems unable to recognise a lot of my music when synced to my 920. I now have Paul Taylor’s Till We Meet Again listed as Bergevin Brothers Music with unknown artist, same for my Karyn White songs. Same songs on my 900 display the correct artist and album fine. On full Windows 8 Xbox Music again doesnt recognise a lot of my music, bought Brandy’s Paint This House using Zune and get the correct album art there, Xbox Music displays the album art from a different album.
My phone has been my music player for years and up till now has functioned pretty perfectly, now it seems Windows 8 and WP8 cant handle such a simple task. Pretty pathetic all round.
I have to agree again. I am coming from the Zune 64GB, so I resigned myself to live with less music. But in addition to what has already been mentioned, here’s other problems:
Album Art – Very spotty! Especially when “syncing” it with the Desktop app.
App Performance: I can click on a playlist and it could take 5-10 seconds to start. Sometimes when switching song, it will hesitate halfway on the album art for several seconds and then settle in the center to play the song.
This is HUGE…this needs to be resolved.