Mp3 Direct to iPhone Without iTunes
In the past you could directly move files, including audio files, from your PC file system directly onto the file system of your iPhone and from there they would be available to use on the phone. This is no longer the case. The _real_ file system is not directly available to applications on the modern iPhone iOS operation system. Downloading Mp3 audio files via the phone web browser or moving them onto the phone via Libimobiledevice/ifuse does not make them available for applications aka apps to find and play.
Most music apps on the iPhone deal with iTunes or synchronization via the web. This is not a traditional nor ideal method for dealing with mp3 music out of a person's own file library. Seeking an easy way to independently move mp3 audio files onto an iPhone and have them available for playback using a capable app we have developed this method. It is one solution that seems the most simple and direct way to accomplish this goal. This process should work on Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac as long as they are connected to a WiFi network.
What is needed
- WiFi access to both a PC and the iPhone within the same network
- PC with current web browser such as Firefox or Chrome
- The app called "Decoupled" installed on the iPhone
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Also recommended is a second app called "Foobar2000" installed on the iPhone (not necessary but suggested)
This guide was created using an iPhone 6S with iOS version 15 and should apply to other versions within a reasonable span or until Apple changes everything again.
Both the Decoupled and Foobar2000 applications are available on the Apple App Store.
- Decoupled in the Apple App Store
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Foobar2000 in the Apple App Store
Process Overview
Next the process will be stated briefly, following that the process will be explained in detail.
Overview of process
- Use the Decoupled app to have the iPhone as a network server ready to have Mp3 Files copied onto it.
- Enter the IP address of the iPhone into the web browser on the PC to open the file sharing interface.
- Drag and drop Mp3 audio files from the PC file manager into the web browser iPhone file sharing interface.
- On the iPhone use Decoupled or Foobar2000 to add the newly installed Mp3 audio files into a music library for playback.
Background
Why we have selected the app called Decoupled for this task is that Decoupled has a feature allowing you to temporary make your iPhone a network file server by FTP or a web browser technology called WebDAV. This is a very easy way to copy music files from a PC onto the iPhone over a WiFi network. You won't even have to connect a USB cable to the iPhone. Decoupled allowed us full "write access" to a destination virtual directory on the iPhone file system specifically for music files. The transfer process was quick without errors. We accomplished with this method what didn't seem possible when trying to copy files using the USB cable.
However, we found that Decoupled, which is primarily an audio file player that although having the file transfer feature we needed, was not a very good audio player. It was difficult to create playlists with Decoupled and very time consuming. Each audio file has to be added to the app playlist one by one, which is not ideal. As an alternative, we found that the music player called Foobar2000 had much better playlist creation functionality and is a more capable audio file player for our Mp3 collection. However, the app Decoupled is still required to do the actual transfer of Mp3 files from the PC to the iPhone.
Adding music to the iPhone playlist is also a painful requirement. You can't just play the Mp3 music directly from the iPhone file system. Nothing about modern smart phone consumer technology is based in traditional computer practice. Everything about the underlying file system is obscured from the user, and the vast majority of young iPhone users have no real working knowledge of computer file system mechanics. This decoupling and obscuring of the smart phone file system from reality serves iTunes users and frustrates traditional computer technology people. Even though you have added Mp3 audio files onto the iPhone, they can not be directly access for playback until they are added to a music library playback list, or playlist for short. This extra step, creating a playlist, is a fundamental requirement of all iPhone music apps.
Why we have selected Foobar2000 as our music player app is not only that it is functional as a Mp3 player, it also is the option to create a music playlist from the Decoupled repository, that being the virtual directory where the Mp3 audio files reside after being moved onto the iPhone via Decoupled. Many other audio file apps can not see and import these Mp3 files in the Decoupled directory into a playlist. Foobar2000 can both see the Mp3 files in the Decoupled directory and allow you to select them all (select all) to add to a playlist. From that point it is easy to playback the audio files in many ways including random shuffle playback. There may and probably very well are other Mp3 player apps for the iPhone that can access the Decoupled audio file directory, but most can not.
Process Detail
It doesn't matter if your Mp3 files are on a network file server or on your desktop computer hard drive, just as long as they are accessible from the desktop computer. You will need to be able to see and access the Mp3 files from the desktop computer operating system file manager, such as Windows File Explorer or Nemo on Linux.
Your desktop computer must be connected to a WiFi enabled network, which does not mean that the computer necessarily needs to be WiFi. It means that the SMB/Microsoft Network the computer is connected to and has an IP address on also has a wireless access point so that wireless devices, namely your iPhone, can connect to and obtain an IP address that is within the same network as the desktop computer. The desktop computer itself may be either WiFi or wired to the network. You should be able to "ping" the iPhone IP address from the desktop computer. With all that said, it is the most common scenario people have in a home network, and it is probably all ready this way even if you are not aware of it. Odds are, you are good to go in this respect.
