Moving from iPhone to Android is Painful

[Dwalls90]

Just one question. Do you really need access to all 11,000+ songs immediately?

I uploaded my whole collection (around 32GB worth) over 3g tethering and had no issues with upload speeds, even though I'm in the UK. I just listened to what was available when it came available on my phone.

I can imagine iTunes match is handy (especially if your collection is of a low bitrate) but with Google Music I am able to download my whole collection of I lose it in the original format I uploaded it (even my FLAC rips). Not only does it act as a streaming service, I consider it a backup alongside my backup I have on a second HDD.

Edit: I will say I had some uploads that failed but by the time it had finished it uploaded the failed tracks. Must have done it between restarts.

I selected 100 songs as a test drive and gave it a few days. They still failed

 

[pear21]

Here is what I, as a NEW Android user going from iPhone4 (2 years) have discovered.

Firstly, if you like iTunes and have music there and want to keep your media there, there is iSync Wifi that syncs all of your music to and from iTunes quite painlessly. This includes video but not the protected movies that you may have purchased.

The media player itself depends on the device, and there are also choices of that for music. As far as other sources of music, I haven't gotten there yet as I am switching out but still have my iMac as my main computer.

Thanks for the help, so do you like your switch to android?

 

[SurferMan]

Google Music servers were slow initially, but seem to be faster now, I don't have 11k songs but I have a few thousand and let it run in the background, think it was less than a day. But I think it depends on your area what time (if servers are getting more loaded etc) as I've had a few people I know uploaded larger libraries than myself way faster, and some slower. Once done it's fast and seamless from that point on as you go/add. Only had a few failed uploads but like the other poster said they uploaded fine after.

 

[oBMTo]

.

- About 10-20% or so of my songs that attempt to upload, Fail! I've tried from Windows 7, XP, 10.7 and 10.8. The music files are legally purchased

Are you talking about music purchased through the iTunes store? Then you must know you were ripped off and purchased DRM-laden music. If don't know a simple thing like that, then clearly Android is way too advance for you.

 

[jeffe]

Are you talking about music purchased through the iTunes store? Then you must know you were ripped off and purchased DRM-laden music. If don't know a simple thing like that, then clearly Android is way too advance for you.

This is why I actually stopped buying from Itunes. I've only seen 4 songs fail uploading on my computer and I worked around it by copying those songs into a new folder and they uploaded fine.

OP: Amazon now has a match service like Itunes....could always try that and see if you have the same results.

 

[Vegastouch]

My two MAJOR issues with Google Music:

- It takes WAY too long to upload songs, their servers must not be fast enough because I get fast upload and download speeds yet I'm lucky to see 1Mb/s. Given I have 11K+ songs it will take forever for this to upload. This is where matching through iTunes is a HUGE bonus.

- About 10-20% or so of my songs that attempt to upload, Fail! I've tried from Windows 7, XP, 10.7 and 10.8. The music files are legally purchased and upload fine through iTunes Match, as well as playback fine without issues. Google has some serious problems in regards to this, as it's way too finicky with uploading music files:

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/apps/PzakOieZSUI

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I'll try it out at some point. I'm just really frustrated with the lack of native cloud music services that just work properly and quickly. I would rather rely on one party for my cloud services (Apple OR Google), rather than Google, Apple, Amazon, Dropbox, ect.

That is the one drawback to Google music. But once it is uploaded, it works great. Once Google music starts to get your music on its system, yes it is slow but it never stops unless you turn off your computer and even then it continues when it is turned back on.

I dont know what iTunes matching is but iSyncr in the play store is a easy way to get your iTunes music on your phone....and you can choose what you want on it. There is a free app of iSyncr but it only loads 20 songs at a time. Get the paid version which is $2.99.
Just get a MicroSD card and load it all on that. I only have 5 Gigs of music (around 1,300 songs) and i prefer it to be on my Microcard.

 

[Wrathwitch]

Thanks for the help, so do you like your switch to android?

Hmm good question...

I can't say that Android gives me the same warm and fuzzy feeling about my device than my iPhone. There are things that I like MUCH more than what I had on iOS.

Such as: Much nicer screen. I don't care that it is not retina, the screen on the GS3 is beautiful. Because of its size, reading is better, hell even the phone buttons are bigger and better. The ability to easily find and implement free ringtones, notifications and wallpaper. I love the pull down notification and the notification list and light. I am also now addicted to the back button! (I keep trying to use it on my mom's iP4).

I like that the device uses the same technology as my GPS for navigation. I also like that I can use a keyboard app that allows me for the first time ever to be able to type in portrait mode.

The apps are not as polished as iOS and I find that to be true, but for me the phone is not entirely about apps. Most of the ones I want/need are there and are sufficient enough to keep me with the device. Yes, I really do miss my plants vs zombies game but not enough to side load a crappy version for it that doesn't look like it fits right for my phone model.

I think that if Android could tighten their grip on app piracy etc and offer the developers the same incentive that Apple does for making money for development, Apple would truly have something to fear.

So right off the top of the bat, that is what I like about Android over iOS. Only time will tell if I stick with Android permanently or go back to Apple when they offer their phone screen size in a manner that makes sense.

 

[pear21]

Hmm good question...

I can't say that Android gives me the same warm and fuzzy feeling about my device than my iPhone. There are things that I like MUCH more than what I had on iOS.

Such as: Much nicer screen. I don't care that it is not retina, the screen on the GS3 is beautiful. Because of its size, reading is better, hell even the phone buttons are bigger and better. The ability to easily find and implement free ringtones, notifications and wallpaper. I love the pull down notification and the notification list and light. I am also now addicted to the back button! (I keep trying to use it on my mom's iP4).

I like that the device uses the same technology as my GPS for navigation. I also like that I can use a keyboard app that allows me for the first time ever to be able to type in portrait mode.

The apps are not as polished as iOS and I find that to be true, but for me the phone is not entirely about apps. Most of the ones I want/need are there and are sufficient enough to keep me with the device. Yes, I really do miss my plants vs zombies game but not enough to side load a crappy version for it that doesn't look like it fits right for my phone model.

I think that if Android could tighten their grip on app piracy etc and offer the developers the same incentive that Apple does for making money for development, Apple would truly have something to fear.

So right off the top of the bat, that is what I like about Android over iOS. Only time will tell if I stick with Android permanently or go back to Apple when they offer their phone screen size in a manner that makes sense.

Thanks! I definitely want a bigger screen for reading and browsing and I like the notification menu better and how they allow for more customization. But yeah I hear the apps aren't as good and aren't as polished. So if I get a s3 I'll have to see if it's too much of an issue for me and if I go back to iPhone. I just wish the 5 would have a better screen than these rumors.

 

[Dwalls90]

Are you talking about music purchased through the iTunes store? Then you must know you were ripped off and purchased DRM-laden music. If don't know a simple thing like that, then clearly Android is way too advance for you.

Where have you been? "DRM-laden music" from iTunes was eliminated in January 2009. Most iTunes tracks are fine, and most music obtained from Soundcloud are fine. It's not discriminating based on where the files came from, Google Music Cloud syncing just sucks.

This is why I actually stopped buying from Itunes. I've only seen 4 songs fail uploading on my computer and I worked around it by copying those songs into a new folder and they uploaded fine.

OP: Amazon now has a match service like Itunes....could always try that and see if you have the same results.

I'm sick of trying and dealing with the issues. This is my point, with iTunes Match, you literally enable the service and within an hour (even with my 10K+ song library) it was all there ready to go. Even if I give Google Music a week, it still can't upload 10% of my library. That's a problem that I don't want to deal with.

That is the one drawback to Google music. But once it is uploaded, it works great. Once Google music starts to get your music on its system, yes it is slow but it never stops unless you turn off your computer and even then it continues when it is turned back on.

I dont know what iTunes matching is but iSyncr in the play store is a easy way to get your iTunes music on your phone....and you can choose what you want on it. There is a free app of iSyncr but it only loads 20 songs at a time. Get the paid version which is $2.99.
Just get a MicroSD card and load it all on that. I only have 5 Gigs of music (around 1,300 songs) and i prefer it to be on my Microcard.

I'm not paying for a third party app when Google's service needs to just work. I'm not downgrading from a working cloud service back to manual file transfers. That is not an improvement, thus I find that Android is inferior to iOS in this sense. Someone can come prove me wrong when Google Music works flawlessly or at least can compete with iTunes Match, but for now it's broken. I consider this a tipping point in if I should switch back to iOS, yes my music matters to me that much!

 

[Vegastouch]

want to deal with.



I'm not paying for a third party app when Google's service needs to just work. I'm not downgrading from a working cloud service back to manual file transfers. That is not an improvement, thus I find that Android is inferior to iOS in this sense. Someone can come prove me wrong when Google Music works flawlessly or at least can compete with iTunes Match, but for now it's broken. I consider this a tipping point in if I should switch back to iOS, yes my music matters to me that much!

3 bucks. You dont want to spend 3 bucks? Im sure you have wasted more than that on dumb apps, but...its your money.

I cant speak for Google music for your 11 gigs of music. Not sure how your trying it but you should be using your PC or Mac to do it, not your phone. And im sure you were doing that way . I just dont know why you are having trouble with it because you shouldnt be. Loading music to my phones have not been an issue at all.

Did you start HERE?

 

[SurferMan]

I'm sick of trying and dealing with the issues. This is my point, with iTunes Match, you literally enable the service and within an hour (even with my 10K+ song library) it was all there ready to go. Even if I give Google Music a week, it still can't upload 10% of my library. That's a problem that I don't want to deal with.

I'm not paying for a third party app when Google's service needs to just work. I'm not downgrading from a working cloud service back to manual file transfers. That is not an improvement, thus I find that Android is inferior to iOS in this sense. Someone can come prove me wrong when Google Music works flawlessly or at least can compete with iTunes Match, but for now it's broken. I consider this a tipping point in if I should switch back to iOS, yes my music matters to me that much!

I uploaded a couple thousand no problem to Google, don't know why your having issues. I just let it run in the background and when I came back later that day it was finished already. Don't know why it's so slow for you or the other issues, works fine for me and others I know. Even got my GF using it with her crazy song library.

The problem with iTunes is obviously Apple made it Apple/iOS/Mac (I'd say Mac since iTunes on Windows sucks) etc specific. So if your using another OS device and want to stick with iTunes then obviously you have to check into the programs that sync with it like iSyncr and others.... that way you can use your different OS phone and keep using iTunes like you normally would if you wanted to.

 

[Mac.World]

Where have you been? "DRM-laden music" from iTunes was eliminated in January 2009. Most iTunes tracks are fine, and most music obtained from Soundcloud are fine. It's not discriminating based on where the files came from, Google Music Cloud syncing just sucks.

I'm sick of trying and dealing with the issues. This is my point, with iTunes Match, you literally enable the service and within an hour (even with my 10K+ song library) it was all there ready to go. Even if I give Google Music a week, it still can't upload 10% of my library. That's a problem that I don't want to deal with.

I'm not paying for a third party app when Google's service needs to just work. I'm not downgrading from a working cloud service back to manual file transfers. That is not an improvement, thus I find that Android is inferior to iOS in this sense. Someone can come prove me wrong when Google Music works flawlessly or at least can compete with iTunes Match, but for now it's broken. I consider this a tipping point in if I should switch back to iOS, yes my music matters to me that much!

sounds like you just need to go back to iOS. Hey, you gave Android a shot and it doesn't fulfill your needs. Nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't spend any money to make things try and work for you either, sinse You already have itunes and match set up. You will just have to deal with the hardware, whichever iphone that may be. However, from the sounds of it, it is the software support that is more important to you anyway. Cheers mate.

 

[fox10078]

I really feel like mostly everyone responding to this thread fails to notice that this is my opinion of my experience. I think it's a fact that iCloud is important to me than the average Apple user. I leverage all aspects: iTunes Match, Contacts syncing, Mail, App unification, iMessage across three devices. If I switch to Android, all of a sudden I now have to manage two subsets of these cloud services, which overcomplicates things.

iCloud is an apple produced designed to sell APPLE devices. If all those god damn services that are so important to you are on other platforms then there would be NO POINT in Apple making them.

 

[joijoi]

iphone contacts fail to appear

Hi!

Is there anyone know why i cannot view my contacts on my iphone? i can see some but not all.. What will i do?

 

[Dwalls90]

I uploaded a couple thousand no problem to Google, don't know why your having issues. I just let it run in the background and when I came back later that day it was finished already. Don't know why it's so slow for you or the other issues, works fine for me and others I know. Even got my GF using it with her crazy song library.

The problem with iTunes is obviously Apple made it Apple/iOS/Mac (I'd say Mac since iTunes on Windows sucks) etc specific. So if your using another OS device and want to stick with iTunes then obviously you have to check into the programs that sync with it like iSyncr and others.... that way you can use your different OS phone and keep using iTunes like you normally would if you wanted to.

Yea not sure what the issue is, but I'm not the only one

sounds like you just need to go back to iOS. Hey, you gave Android a shot and it doesn't fulfill your needs. Nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't spend any money to make things try and work for you either, sinse You already have itunes and match set up. You will just have to deal with the hardware, whichever iphone that may be. However, from the sounds of it, it is the software support that is more important to you anyway. Cheers mate.

That's how I'm feeling.

iCloud is an apple produced designed to sell APPLE devices. If all those god damn services that are so important to you are on other platforms then there would be NO POINT in Apple making them.

Passive aggressive much? Reported.

 

[kevinof]

Open up Contacts, click on menu, contacts to display. Then either choose all contacts or select the accounts or facebook etc contacts that you want included.

Hi!

Is there anyone know why i cannot view my contacts on my iphone? i can see some but not all.. What will i do?

 

[Dwalls90]

I'm going to continue uploading my music to Google music and using Google's cloud services (those that are available that aren't shared with iCloud) so that I can make the switch to Android whenever there is a better alternative for me. But at present, 4.X isn't enough of a smooth transition or experience for me to deviate from iOS.

I'm excited for what the new iPhone and iOS 6 bring!

 

[nickchallis92]

Much nicer screen. I don't care that it is not retina, the screen on the GS3 is beautiful

What do you mean by it's not retina?

1)It is not an apple product?

2)It doesn't fulfil their magical science of 300ppi? (because it does)

 

[alent1234]

I'm going to continue uploading my music to Google music and using Google's cloud services (those that are available that aren't shared with iCloud) so that I can make the switch to Android whenever there is a better alternative for me. But at present, 4.X isn't enough of a smooth transition or experience for me to deviate from iOS.

I'm excited for what the new iPhone and iOS 6 bring!

spotify or amazon music

i dont even care about itunes that much anymore with those two around

at this point the only thing my iphone does better is connecting to my car's USB to play music

 

[Dwalls90]

What do you mean by it's not retina?

1)It is not an apple product?

2)It doesn't fulfil their magical science of 300ppi? (because it does)

It's confusing, because Retina is certainly just a term coined by Apple. I guess that Apple's devices are "retina", but the S3 is still over 300ppi which is respectable.

The iPhone 4/4S has a PPI of 326, the S3 has a PPI of 306.

spotify or amazon music

i dont even care about itunes that much anymore with those two around

at this point the only thing my iphone does better is connecting to my car's USB to play music

That's nice that YOU don't care for iTunes, but seeing as I have my library nicely organized with matching artwork, information and playlists, moving from iTunes is a pain in itself.

I don't want to upload 90Gb worth of music to yet ANOTHER site (still waiting on it to upload to Google Music). Let alone, does Amazon cloud let you locally download and store your music as conveniently as the Android music app lets you?

And yes, I like that almost all car manufacturers make it simple to play music and charge your iPhone. Where is this support with Android?

 

[alent1234]

yes, you can download onto the device with amazon music

i have a 60GB or so library in itunes. i buy zero music from itunes. sometimes i'll buy from amazon. mostly i just listen through spotify

 

[ChazUK]

Considering all the posts in this thread and your lock in to the Apple way, wouldn't it be best to give up at this point?

Android doesn't play nice with Apple services.
Google music lacks iTunes Match functionality and you're having issues uploading to Google Music. You don't want to use Amazon's iTunes Match like service.
Your car stereo won't let you plug in your Android handset and work.

Too many stumbling blocks to get around for it not to be a pain IMO.

My personal experiences going multi platform have been the complete opposite to yours but that doesn't help your poor experience out one bit sadly.

(In contrast for me)
Google services work perfectly on my windows Phone, iOS and Android devices I've used in the past and present.
Google Music has accepted my whole collection and is accessible on my iPad (gMusic app), Windows Phone 7 (Gooroovster) and natively on Android.
My car stereo has a2dp stereo Bluetooth support and works universally plus my car mount has a universal adapter for charging.

Its really hard to suggest anything but giving up at this point.

 

[Wrathwitch]

Considering all the posts in this thread and your lock in to the Apple way, wouldn't it be best to give up at this point?

Android doesn't play nice with Apple services.
Google music lacks iTunes Match functionality and you're having issues uploading to Google Music. You don't want to use Amazon's iTunes Match like service.
Your car stereo won't let you plug in your Android handset and work.

Too many stumbling blocks to get around for it not to be a pain IMO.

My personal experiences going multi platform have been the complete opposite to yours but that doesn't help your poor experience out one bit sadly.

(In contrast for me)
Google services work perfectly on my windows Phone, iOS and Android devices I've used in the past and present.
Google Music has accepted my whole collection and is accessible on my iPad (gMusic app), Windows Phone 7 (Gooroovster) and natively on Android.
My car stereo has a2dp stereo Bluetooth support and works universally plus my car mount has a universal adapter for charging.

Its really hard to suggest anything but giving up at this point.

^^^ What He said!

 

[Calidude]

The moral of the story is: Apple locks you in and Microsoft/Google do not.

But yeah, you people should know this by now.

 

[Vegastouch]

It's confusing, because Retina is certainly just a term coined by Apple. I guess that Apple's devices are "retina", but the S3 is still over 300ppi which is respectable.

The iPhone 4/4S has a PPI of 326, the S3 has a PPI of 306.



That's nice that YOU don't care for iTunes, but seeing as I have my library nicely organized with matching artwork, information and playlists, moving from iTunes is a pain in itself.

I don't want to upload 90Gb worth of music to yet ANOTHER site (still waiting on it to upload to Google Music). Let alone, does Amazon cloud let you locally download and store your music as conveniently as the Android music app lets you?

And yes, I like that almost all car manufacturers make it simple to play music and charge your iPhone. Where is this support with Android?

What do you mean? Android syncs wirelessly with all vehicles that have those smart systems in them.

For instance, i used to work for Toyota. Androids are easy to set up with those and they work wirelessly with the music and Apps. The iPhone you have to use your usb cable because it wont work wirelessly with entune. Now it may with the music but it wont with the Apps. I can just use my car charger while it is playing if i need to so theres no ground breaking going on there. It actually works better with Android on those vehicles.

Now i havent worked there since February so maybe there has been a software update on Apples end to fix it. Or maybe it will be fixed in iOS 6.