Honest question, what’s hard about playing an MP3 on any Apple device?
this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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It’s not. I use my Windows 10 video game machine to drag and drop MP3s onto my iPhone from my 400GB library. I use iTunes to do it (but I listen using Foobar2000 on my computer, I only use iTunes to put music on my phone and make iPhone incremental image backups.)
I wish I could drag and drop FLAC files, but I can easily convert them. I do t use my really nice cans on my phone anyway.
Look into PlexAmp for lossless streaming. It’s pretty dope.
I do have Apple Music for lossless streaming! But I do still load obscure things on my phone that don’t exist there. Which is shockingly few things, to my surprise.
I keep Apple Music too, because it does offer a lot of value for the price. The inclusion of Classical makes it a no-brainer for me.
I was shocked at how much stuff is there. A few outliers (a Team Teamwork album, Squincy Jones mixes, and Keifer Gr33n mixes) aren’t there, among some other super obscure shit. All the other stuff I love that isn’t popular, like The Blood Brothers or Xiu Xiu, all there.
Nothing
- You can import music from itunes, if you like doing it the old way.
- There are a crap ton of media player apps with ability to connect to self hosted or cloud storages. Many are single payment and others are open source. One good one is nPlayer.
- You can put mp3 on the native files app and just tap on it.
The article is just misleading ragebait turned into an excuse to show their app and things about iOS development.
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(13 replies)
I have no trouble playing my own mp3s on any apple device whatsoever. It’s all stock, no special anything. Its very easy.
You're supposed to just take the headline at face value. It helps maintain the outrage from people who never have used apple devices.
Apple technically lets you play music directly from iCloud via the Files app, but its functionality is not designed for music listening. It lacks essential features such as playlist management, metadata sorting, or playback queues. While it supports music playback, it’s very limited and overall not a good user experience.
I’m confused. Shouldn’t you be using the music app for all this stuff? That’s what I do.
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I remember back when iPods were a thing, I hated how you couldn't drag and drop files, and manage your own storage. Syncing seemed so stupid, and I couldn't believe that they were so popular. The thing they had going for them is it's idiot proof to the point where it pissed off anyone who knew what they were doing. That's been Apple's MO since roughly that era, and I can't stand their products because of it.
The thing they had going for them is it's idiot proof to the point where it pissed off anyone who knew what they were doing.
I'm solidly in that group lol. I had a 5th gen iPod Video in high school, and you bet your ass it drove me absolutely insane that I couldn't just drag and drop music onto it. The "manually manage device" setting was an absolute godsend, for sure, but I ended up installing RockBox anyway.
I still have that iPod somewhere...
I have an iPod with Rockbox installed. I hate how Rockbox still doesn't have support for inline remotes of a lot of headphones, including Apple's own wired headphones.
But that's wildly off topic, sorry 😊
Haha, I have the official Apple FM receiver attachment, and the Belkin wireless remote. Never tested them on Rockbox...
You can easily sync your personal music collection to your iOS device using the macOS “Music” app in tandem with the Finder, or using iTunes on Windows. I’ve not explored the options on Linux, but I suspect they’re out there.
I’ve got a personal collection that’s growing steadily, mostly from CDs and digital purchases. I do not use steaming services, and my iPhone is my primarily listening device.
i don’t think there’s anything like that on linux sadly
personally i just use the VLC mobile app (yes, this exists!) to play my local music collection. it’s surprisingly good, and you can even send music to it from your computer to your phone wirelessly!
My GF has an iphone, and on KDE I can just connect it via USB and it's visible in the file manager.
There's also this.
I think there was for KDE (there's almost everything for KDE).
It’s not hard at all. Import your mp3 into iTunes library and it’s there. What’s so complicated about that?
You need to use an external device to do that, making it extremely convoluted and annoying to do.
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That work on Linux?
I guess what I’m missing then is that this was a Linux circlejerk thread. My mistake I’ll shut up now.
There are some Linux users with iPhones, perhaps that's what they meant?
Maybe nobody at Apple actually does quality assurance on that feature anymore because they think nobody still uses it.
It always confounds be to come across such bold claims that are so easily debunked by…just anyone doing the thing claimed to be difficult/impossible. I have my own mp3s on my iPhone right now. Like what?
It’s annoying that its the same app as apple streaming
and requires iTunes syncing, annoying, limited encoder support and not available on Linux unless you use a third party app, not that many open source or privacy-friendly ones
My GF has an iphone, and on KDE I can just connect it via USB and it's visible in the file manager.
There's also this.
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Cool, but things like Plexamp already exist and have an official iOS app.
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Thanks for posting this, this is very helpful
I'm still using an ancient version of Winamp. I think it's some version of winamp 5.
If it keeps working I'm going to keep using it. Your mp3 player doesn't need to go online it just needs to play your mp3 files. Why would it ever need to be updated?
foobar2k has been a thing for a couple decades.
Or deadbeef on linux.
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