yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Chef_Tony:
neither methods work for me unfortunately on my galaxy s2 with chameleon rom (stock based).

i used the smanager approach for remounting the folder, which worked nicely before on aosp with a modified script for the paths /mnt/extSdCard/MusicCache and /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/ and i edited it for the new mount path for stock based roms, i.e. /sdcard/external_sd/MusicCache, but with the media scanner running after booting and "preparing sd card", the timing never seems to work out and after every reboot, i would have to kill google play music and run the script manually again. unfortunately, by then, the MusicCache folder was empty again and all the music had to be cached again.

now, i tried the 2nd method with rom toolbox and root explorer and ran into another issue:

my music cache, even on the latest version of the play music app, is still in /sdcard/Android/com.google.android.music/ and since my internal sd card is formatted fat32, it cannot create symlinks there.

so, still no cigar. symlinks don't work and remounting does not work either. anybody got any good ideas for that?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] rferrett:
My problem is I just cannot find where the app is storing the music and the cache. It isn't for me at:-

sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music

And I dont have a data/data folder at all. It is taking up space on my internal storage but I cannot find it. Is making me want to throw my phone at the wall. I am coming to bloody hate Google and Android over the storage issue. What is wrong with them and their stupid obsession with cloud storage. Mosts phones to date still have less than 16gig on board.

GRRRRRRRRRRR
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] 122ninjas:
Dude chill the flip down. Download DiskUsage and look for something that says music
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] rferrett:
Really should take a chill pill shouldn't I!

You know how sometimes though you just get fixated on something and it drives you insane? It doesn't help that I have a massive shoulder chip about the whole storage thing...

Deep breaths and count to 100!

:p

---------- Post added at 05:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:13 PM ----------

Aha cheers mate that app did the trick. Looks like the music is being stored data/data as people suggested just really hard to find. Now need to work out how to get directory bind to work. That seems more doable than the frustration trying to find the blooming directory.

Why do Google make this so blooming difficult. How hard would it be for the Music app to have an option to decide where you store the cahce?

---------- Post added at 06:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:44 PM ----------

Blimey this is hard. Found the directory but directory bind doesn't think it exists. As far as it is concerned /data/data does not exist. But I can find it in ES File explorer.

Do you have to tell directory bind to see hidden folders somehow?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] rferrett:
On the Directory Bind thread on XDA they are saying it won't work with the data/data directory.

Getting really despondent now. Seems like such a massive flaw in the Music app.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] rferrett:
Yaya, used the root browser symlink trick and it worked. Amazing
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] SirSparkles:
Kind of a noob at these linux commands.

I've just read the whole thread. I'm on a GS3 also.

When running the OP script live or at boot (trying different pathways), i continually get the 'can't mount/can't find mount pathway' message (or equivalent) with so success (just like some in this thread have)

So, my question is, what is 'the symlink' trick mentioned?

I assume this is the linux command mentioned in post #39?

..the one starting with "ln -s"

(mild google lead me to believe this is a linux symbolic link function)

So, my next question is, do I use/run this command exactly like the OP process for the 'mount' command?

aka, do I just run a script at boot that uses "ln -s... x pathways" vs "mount -o bind...pathways"?

And final question, if yes to above, is there any concern for me ever cancelling the script?

Aka, do I just delete the script running at boot, to stop the mounting. I'm new at scripts/linux commands (as you can tell :) , so wondering if the symlink might do something more permanent/deeper than a mount command.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] junkedBrian:
I wanted to say thanks, I did this (Downloaded Rom Toolbox Lite) and used the Root Browser, on my Rooted Galaxy S3 running stock Rogers ICS. Took under 2 minutes, and verified it's working.

I tried to do it using root explorer but the shortcuts seems to have a bug and wasn't able to create it, downloading root browser was the trick.

thanks!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] SirSparkles:
yup, also just tried this with Root Browser.

It worked for me too.

I'm on a GS3 with JB

Thx!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] rferrett:
Is class! Boom!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] 122ninjas:
Follow the sym link directions in one of the posts.

Sent from my GS4 running CM11 Kandy Kane
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] LiL_BrOwNiE247:
When I did this my music was still stored on my phone and not my external SD card. When I checked inside the "Music" folder on my external SD all it had was the "logs" folder and nothing else.

When I tried doing this with the folder where I actually found my music (/sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/), it said that "Creating the shortcut failed. Please note that many SD cards and some other file systems do not support symbolic links."

I tried this with both Root Browser and Root Explorer and it still didn't work.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Chef_Tony:
that is exactly, what happened to me, and i know why:

the /data/data/ path in the instructions is only for the galaxy s3, the galaxy s2 uses the path /sdcard/Android/ and so on, as the data partition with its 2gb would be ridiculous for offline music, the downside is, the sdcard partition is fat32 and therefor does not support symlinks.

your only option is to use directorybind, which is the same kind of mount script as in the OP, but with a graphical user interface. it can be found here on the forum.

conclusion:

galaxy s3: symlink / root explorer

galaxy s2 aosp: mount script / smanager / directorybind

galaxy s2 stock: mount script / directorybind only.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] LiL_BrOwNiE247:
So from the steps in the OP, which of them do I replace with to do the directory bind? I'm relatively new to rooting in general so I'm not sure of what I'm doing exactly. I did find the Directory Bind tool here but I don't know if I do the steps involving Script Manager in the OP since I'll be using a different tool instead.

Oh also I'm currently running stock with root.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] luckyrand:
That's great. I guess it means the music can be played by other player.

I'm curious whether it works for music bought from google play?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] irishboym4:
how did you get it to work? im using cm10 and ive tried root browser. directory bind, and smanager. none of them have worked. I had it working on my old phone which has cm9
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Chef_Tony:
basically, directorybind saves you the steps 2 through 8.

you must stop play music as indicated in step 1, then use directory bind with the current music directory (as in step 2) as TARGET and your desired sd card directory as SOURCE. if you checkmark the option to copy, it would move your existing cache over to the external sd card, but that does not matter. set everything to active and continue with step 9 (which would then delete all your cache anyways).

once you get behind the idea on how directorybind works, the rest should be pretty self-explanatory, my only issue was, that i confused source and target, while setting it up, which is why i put down the correct ones in caps.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] clouse2013:
Im having some problems with this. I got the script in the OP to work but it just duplicates the files in both places. I attempted to symlink but my SD is FAT32 so it's not supported. I attempted to format it to NTFS but when I put it in the phone, the phone wouldn't recognize it and formatted it back. Also, directory bind wont see the /data/data folder. Any suggestions? Im on a Motorola Razr HD and Jelly Bean.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Chef_Tony:
well, you should first have a look, where your music is actually located as you talk about the sd card being fat32 and then you talk about the /data/data/ folder, which are on entirely different partitions. if your music is in /data/data/, then you can use symlink, as the data partition is ext4. the target folder of the symlink can be located on a fat32 partition without a problem. maybe you tried the wrong way around.

if your music is on /sdcard/ and you want it on the external sd card and both are fat32, use directorybind, as explained in my earlier post.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] clouse2013:
I did do it backwards. Thanks.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] KATREyuk:
Spanish S3

In Samsung Galaxy S3 I finally got the process working, but I had to do some changes in paths

mount -o bind /storage/extSdCard/MusicCache/ /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.google.android.music/

With a program like Astro you can check that those paths fits for you,

in my case a low cap instead a big one gave me some problems until I found it.

I use European S3 with stock 4.1.1

Thanks for the tip!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] d4yw41k3r:
Works perfectly on my SGS2 with DarkyROM 4.0.3 - even after reboot :)

edit: I have to revise. The device is *not* binding the directory on boot. Probably because I didn't check the "boot" button. When I try to execute the script again with "boot" checked, I receive "Cannot execute - permission denied".

What can I do?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] cdobeso:
Can't get it to work. Using a script and smanager like the op says. But I'm having trouble getting it to work, not sure what it could be.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] dmexs:
Anybody having success with the new version of Google Music? (4.4.811H.526848) Trying to get this working on my Nexus 7.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] minidev:
new path

The path on my Galaxy Note 2 is different. It's now :

/data/data/com.google.android.music/files​

I used rom toolbox to create a symlink, worked great!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] bluez3023:
Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean

SGH-T999 (4.1.1)

Google Play Music (Version 4.4.811H.526848)

1. Open Settings > Application manager > All > Google Play Music

2. Select "Force stop" and "Clear data"

3. Open ROM Toolbox > Root Browser

4. Create the following folder on your SD card /mnt/extSdCard/GoogleMusic/files

5. Tap and hold the folder named "files" until menu appears, and select "Create shortcut" at the bottom of the list

6. Navigate to /data/data/com.google.android.music/

7. Select "Create" and the "files" folder should be linked

8. Open "Play Music" app and sync

9. Select "Choose on device music" and it should show the available space on your sd card

10. Profit

tl;dr the directory where music is stored has changed from /data/data/com.google.android.music/cache to /data/data/com.google.android.music/files for both music and artwork
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Ansago:
Thank you! This worked perfectly (on a Droid Razr M w/ root). Good workaround until Google catches up.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] javul:
Hi buddies! I have a galaxy s SCL and i found this thread in google and i cant make it work on my phone! I have tried both methos, the first page method and the last method posted on this forum and i always see the internal free space instead of the sd space... Any suggestion?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] cdobeso:
Make sure your phone is actually storing the music at /data/data because mine is at /sdcard/android/data
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] DeathmonkeyGTX:
You'll have to edit the script to make it work with your device. I rejiggered it for the AT&T Optimus G. Thanks for the inspiration, skittles!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Ytsejamer1:
Using Root Explorer on Samsung Galaxy S3 on Sprint (Stock)

Thank you very much. I did this almost to the letter on my Samsung S3 on Sprint using stock rom. I used root explorer to create the folders. Here were the different steps from the above list.

Google Play Music (Version 4.4.811H.526848)

1. Open Settings > Application manager > All > Google Play Music

2. Select "Force stop" and "Clear data"

3. Open Root Explorer

4. Create the following folder path on your SD card (/mnt/extSdCard) :/GoogleMusic/files

5. Tap and hold the folder named "files" until menu appears, and select "Link to this folder" at the bottom of the list

6. Navigate to /data/data/com.google.android.music/

7. Hit the "Create Link" button at the bottom and the "files" folder should be linked to the location sitting on your external sdcard.

8. Open "Play Music" app and sync

9. Select "Choose on device music" and it should show the available space on your sd card

10. Verify files and folders after initial sync has completed. You should see the artwork and mp3 files if you're temporarily caching files in there.

I did the above because I didn't want all my cached music to hang around on the internal storage. I've got a 32gb class 10 card coming and that should give enough headroom for my use! :) Without the Google music option to temporarily cache music, the playback is pretty inconsistent here in the NH area. Caching it tends to allow the player to...well...play!

Thanks to the OP of the instructions. I just wanted to throw my experience with Root explorer in there for anyone if they need it.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] omadhaun:
Working on HTC Evo 4G LTE

I was having this issue with my HTC Evo 4G LTE on CM10 and found the solution that worked for my device.

I changed the script to say: mount -o bind /external_sd/MusicCache/ /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.Android.music/

The issue I was having was the naming convention for the internal & external storage. Depending on the file explorer I used, the name for the external SD card varied from "ext_sd", "external_sd", "sdcard1". The name for the internal storage also varied between "sdcard" & "sdcard0".

Also, some of the threads I found that were discussing this problem had the "/mnt/" in front of the "ext_sd". When I tried that, it didn't work for me.

YMMV, but I thought I would share the solution that worked for me, in case other people were looking for ideas on what to change to get it to work on their device/ROM.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] slinkydonkey:
Thanks worked a treat on my S3!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] stivy73:
Works perfectly also on my gnexus, and nandroid/titanium backup are MUCH smaller now :D:D:D

Inviato dal mio Galaxy Nexus con Tapatalk 2
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] cdobeso:
What should smanager say if it's been successful? I still can't get it to work...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] ss2pheonix:
i tried this but directory bind constantly force closes and clears settings making me loose all of my music.

But the smanager method just periodically clears the cache

htc evo lte
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] skim32:
Seems to work, but am running into a bug. If I minimize the app, meaning navigate away from the app and do other things while listening to music and I go back into google music, then the artwork disappears and the music progress bar is frozen. Is everyone else seeing this too?

*EDIT*

Power cycling seemed to make the issue go away.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] deter:
Thanks! I've been wanting to do this for a while.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] thegameksk:
Thank you so much for this! Ive been looking for something like this since I got my s 3 last week. I was about to dump play music since the 10 gigs on the s3 werent enough for my music. Now if only I could get my google playlists to stop repeating/doubling id be set. Thanks again!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] John822:
Thank you so much!!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] ebroker:
Humm - not working for me... ROM Toolbox Root Browser won't let me create a shortcut on the extSdCard or even the 'internal' sdcard0 for that matter? Am I missing something obvious? I'm on a rooted Sprint S3 on a custom (RandomKing) rom.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] stivy73:
Try root explorer

Inviato dal mio Nexus 4 con Tapatalk 2
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] ankur88:
sort of unrelated to this topic.

wanted to know is it safe to add pirated/ripped music to google play music?

i dont care if google deletes it, but dont want to get sued by some label.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] skim32:
Pretty sure your post violates xda policies asking for help with pirated music. So can't really answer that. But if you legally own the cd and ripped it to mp3, you can upload it Google Music no problem.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] RandomJSF:
Thanks to the OP for the walkthrough on how to do this. The directions needed a little tweaking for my specific phone/setup, but it was definitely a good place to start.

With a minor change, I was able to get this working on a Verizon Galaxy Note 2, bootloader unlocked and on a custom ROM (CleanROM), where I had already been running a script that swaps my external and internal SD cards. I am aware that this is a forum for AT&T SGS2, but in the interest of assisting anyone else who, like myself, ended up here from a Google search...

I ended up needing to use the following command instead:

mount -o bind /sdcard/MusicCache/ /data/data/com.google.android.music/files/

I used the standard /sdcard location to bind to, being as I had already swapped my external and internal SD cards, so my phone thinks that the internal memory is a 64GB SD. As for the bind from location, apparently somewhere along the way Play Music decided to start storing its offline files in the /data partition; also, I had to extend the directory structure out to /files/ as trying to bind the entire com.google.android.music directory was causing my Play Music to freeze, then sticking my phone at the Samsung logo until I went into recovery and cleared the cache.

Using the above command in the script, I can report that my Play Music is working fine, and the available space reported when in the 'Choose on device music' option is correctly listing the free space on my 64GB SD card.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] furrySatan:
Thank you! I messed with this for a couple of hours earlier today on my vzw note 2 running beans ROM with no luck. I didn't do the SD swap to begin with so using your change with /mnt/extSdCard/MusicCache instead of /sdcard worked.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] eaguirres:
First of all, thank you very much, following your steps I was finally able to use my external memory with google music (32gb) on a Motorola Razr I.

I was very happy downloading albums until I noticed everything was so slow, and I saw every album was taking about 400mb of space.

Then I went to the web version of Google Music to check those specific albums, and re-download them to see if it was something related with the new “scan and match”, but no, those albums were just 100 to 120mb zipped files.

Any of you guys are experiencing this kind of problems? Cuz I feel i'm wasting space using 1gb of space per 2 albums. WTH
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] octomobiki:
This might be a problem for the note 2 forums but I'll give my shot here:

I have a verizon note 2 and used the noted path statements a few comments up (properly utilizing /mnt/extSdCard/MusicCache)...

however...on bootup everytime the storage location reverts back to on device, rather than on storage. though at this point swapping and making the ext-sd the prime real estate with a blazing fast card seems like the best option (though, I'll be greedy and say I'd love for a 128GB option to show up since we only get the 16gb internal...another story though..)

I have checked "su" and "boot" in smanager - are you guys following any other steps or have any ideas why the script won't execute properly on reboot? (If I run the script manually it works AND links fine)

Post thought: the only thing I can think of is that... ooooooooh.......I will try to put the script onto the actual internal drive as opposed to the external, i get the feeling that because my script is on the external, and the device checks SDCARD on startup that the script execution gets missed. I'm about to work out but will try it within the hour I hope.

post post - moved script to the "internal" sd slot, script still does not run correctly on bootup. if I manually run the script it is fine.. I'm just this one step away from a glorius library on device :)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] RandomJSF:
I'm having a similar, but not quite identical, issue with my setup as well. Note that I am already running the ExtSd2InternalSd Mod (Found Here)

With the script in place and running as su and boot on startup:

Occasionally, on rebooting, Play Music seems to 'forget' the artwork and music caches, and basically sets about redownloading all my offline music. This doesn't happen every time I reboot, and when I check after it does happen, the bind does seem to be in effect; Play Music reports the correct available storage, as does Root Explorer. Play Music merrily goes about redownloading straight back to the /storage/sdcard0/MusicCache that it just emptied.

I assume it must be some sort of timing issue with when the SManager script is run. As I am already running the ExtSd2InternalSd Mod, I have now added the bind to the end of that init.d script to see if that will help alleviate the issue, ensuring that all the mounts and binds happen in sequence. So far so good, and I'll report back with my findings over the next couple of days.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] octomobiki:
What I recently just got to make this work everytime on reboot is - adding an 8 second sleep to my created patch script. My guess is some of us are getting a longer than normal microsd check up on reboot (I'm personally using a 64GB microsdxc card).
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Tommy Top Drive:
thanks for all the hard work
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] gingerneil:
And thanks from me too! Main aim isn't space, but to allow poweramp to access the cache.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] TOOOOBIE:
You got this to work!?!? I'm on the HD with custom ROM and can't ... could you tell me your method (scripts included if used) that you used to get it working?

Also, did you solve the other issue you were having?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Barreno:
I have a problem binding folders,

from command line:

$ su
# mount -o bind /storage/ExtSdCard/Music /storage/sdcard0/Music

that works flawless, but when I try to put the line above in a script:

script.sh:

mount -o bind /storage/ExtSdCard/Music /storage/sdcard0/Music

Result:
mount: No such file or directory

I don't know what I'm missing :(, any idea?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] metronews:
Just got this working on a new UK Galaxy S3 from O2

I had to use mount -o bind /mnt/extSdCard/googleMusic/ /data/data/com.google.android.music/files/

realised the /data/data/ was where the cache was saving by using 'storage analyser'

Also worth a mention (if no-one already has) 'com.google.android.music' must be all lower case, original instructions had an uppercase A