Q: Airdropping a song from iMac to iPad Pro
Just to experiment, I wanted to get a song onto my iPad Pro. I tried to find a music player on it, but - except for the Music app - I could not. I believe the Music app is a subscription service, so I did not want to launch it (free trial or not) as I do not need such a service and refuse to pay to play my own songs (besides, it states that my library will be in the cloud - not here, it won't). There was an easy way a couple of older iOS versions ago because I did have about 10 songs on my old iPad, but there does not appear to be a way now.
I do not need or want all my music on my iPad - only a few songs which I may want to use when putting together a movie. I don't listen to music on the iPad.
I thought I'd try and air drop worked great except for the fact that it placed my song (no video) automatically into the imported video/project of iMovie (not Audio). That is somewhat silly. Took me a while to figure out how to delete it.
So, now the question is: do I need a third party app to simply be able to listen to a song? Since there appear to be dozens, can anyone recommend a simple app: all I need is to 1) be able to import/air drop it to that app, 2) the app present me with a list of songs and 3) I can play one or all of them - I don't need a "radio" app or anything that'll play online content.
iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 2012 i7 3.4 GHz 16 GB RAM
Posted on Apr 24, 2016 11:17 AM
No, you can do exactly as you want and just sync one song, play it, and then delete it as you wish, no iCloud involved.
Important: First open iTunes in your computer before you connect your iPad, from the upper left select iTunes, Preferences, Devices. Then put a checkmark next to "Prevent iPods, iPhones....... from syncing automatically" and click OK.
Then connect your iPad, select the iPad icon that will soon appear on the upper left, select the music tab on the left, select the one song you want to sync. You may have to have that song by itself in a separate folder in Finder and then point iTunes to that one song/folder.
Then sync that song only to your iPad. No iCloud is involved, all done by USB charging cable. The song should appear in your Music App, likely the only song there (the U2 free album may be there perhaps, just ignore it). When you first open Music it will likely nag you about Apple Music and iCloud Music Library, say NO to both. May nag you one more time, say No again. It will quit nagging you, never nags me now. Then when you want your slideshow just play that song in the background. When you are through delete it (you can delete it from within the Music App). If you want it again just resync it.
I have just the songs/albums I want on my iPad. None on iCloud, do not use Apple Music, do not use iCloud Music Library. Never an issue once set up.
BTW I also dislike iCloud Photo Library, never use it.
Posted on Apr 24, 2016 6:50 PM