Galaxy S II: The Missing Manual

Transferring Music, Videos, and Pictures from a PC Using Windows Media Player

There’s another way to transfer media files from your PC to your Galaxy S II than using Windows Explorer—Windows Media Player. Not only is Windows Media Player more automated, it also lets you preview and play the files before syncing them over.

Note

You can’t transfer and sync files to your Galaxy S II using Windows Media Player on the Mac. To move files between your Galaxy S II and Mac, you’ll have to use Finder.

After you’ve connected your Galaxy S II to your computer, you can transfer music, video, and pictures to it using Windows Media Player. (Note that this will only work if you connect your Galaxy S II to your PC using MTP mode. It won’t work in USB mass storage mode.)

Note

If you have DRM-protected music or media on your PC, when you transfer that music to your Galaxy S II, the Galaxy S II won’t be able to play it. DRM stands for digital rights management, and it limits the distribution of music files that have been paid for, making it difficult for them to be played on devices other than the one the music was purchased on.

1. After you connect, run Windows Media Player. Windows Media Player starts. On the left-hand side of the screen, in the library and navigation area, you’ll see a new listing for your Galaxy S II. The icon will be one of a phone, but it may have an odd title, such as SGH-I777, a name that uses for the Galaxy S II.

2. Click the Sync button at the top of Windows Media Player and then select ...