Sync Your iTunes Library to Android with Winamp

Sync Your iTunes Library to Android with Winamp

Category: Tutorials Posted by Tarik, Nov 30th 2010 11:40AM

Easily make the switch from iTunes/iPhone to Winamp/Android!

Interested in buying an Android^TM phone, but are too afraid of making the leap because you don't want to loose your iTunes library? Now with Winamp and Winamp for Android, you can ditch your old phone and still keep your iTunes library and playlists!

Step 1:
Download & install the latest Standard (free) or Pro (premium) version of the Winamp Media Player. Version 5.6 or later is required for wireless sync to Winamp for Android. Please note that wireless sync will not work with "Winamp Lite".

Step 2:
Launch Winamp and you'll be prompted to add media to your Winamp library. If you have iTunes installed on the same PC, select "Import from iTunes". This will import all of your music in your iTunes library into the Winamp Media Library.

Add Media to Winamp Media Library

Step 2a: Click on "Import from iTunes"

Step 2b: Wait for Winamp to import your files

--OR--

If you already have Winamp installed and skipped this initial step of importing your iTunes library, you can go back and do it manually by clicking on "Library" in the bottom left-hand corner of the player and select "Import iTunes Media Library".

Import iTunes Media Library into Winamp

Step 3:
Next, you'll want to import your iTunes Playlists. Again, click on "Library" in the lower left-hand corner of Winamp and select "Import iTunes Playlist". This will import all of your iTunes playlists so they're also available in Winamp.

Step 4:
The final step is to sync your Winamp Media Player on your PC with Winamp for Android on your device. You have the option to sync with over USB, or over Wi-Fi. See Wi-Fi Sync Tutorial.

Related Links:
Wi-Fi Sync Tutorial
Winamp for Android Help
How to manage Music
Winamp for Android - Product Page
Download Winamp for your PC

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1. How do OSX users do this?

Posted at 1:41PM on Nov 30th 2010 by Trevor Carpenter

2. @Trevor Winamp is only available on Windows. No Mac desktop client.

Posted at 2:41PM on Nov 30th 2010 by The Winamp Team

3. Wow, just saved myself from a RTFM attack! Was about to gripe about my iTunes playlists not importing--didn't realize it was a separate step! Makes sense, as you can do another playlist import anytime your smart lists are updated in iTunes! Thanks!

Posted at 2:58PM on Dec 1st 2010 by Jigga

4. Had no idea Winamp could do this, set it up on my Dell Streak and it is excellent! Thanks!

Posted at 8:10PM on Dec 31st 2010 by Jamie Bassnett

5. This is great but will Winamp refresh its iTunes import automatically?
Or do I need to go back and click Import from iTunes again.

I attempted clicking Import from playlists iTunes to refresh it but ended up with duplicate playlists...so wondering if someone do shed some more light on this import feature

Posted at 9:37PM on Jan 24th 2011 by George

6. my iTunes playlists not importing--didn't realize it was a separate step! Makes sense, as you can do another playlist import anytime your smart lists are updated in iTunes

Posted at 11:19PM on Feb 3rd 2011 by purehoodia

7. No, if you want to listen to the file and sync it to your iPod, you must keep the file. They library just points to the location of the file so iTunes can access it.
http://www.myspace.com/562397112

Posted at 11:38PM on Feb 16th 2011 by jilliasos

8. well, if you can see them, you should be able to play them. i don't think iTunes will allow you to copy those songs into your library, especially if it's between two separate accounts and not just another version of your library somewhere else.

Posted at 4:26AM on Mar 23rd 2011 by joshefhil

9. Is there a way to get it to import my actual Sync list from Winamp? I don't want every episode of all my podcasts to import...

Posted at 5:16PM on Apr 7th 2011 by Adam

10. It the best muise no here.

Posted at 3:08PM on May 20th 2011 by Gina777968

11. Please make the Mac version soon. Loads of people have Android phones and Macs instead of Microsoft PCs. This is an increasing trend so surely your developers can cater for Mac users

Posted at 9:15AM on May 25th 2011 by Applet

12. I want to stream video in a LAN by using Winamp media player. If ne body have ne knowlge about this matter plz contact me.
HP Service Center in Delhi

Posted at 4:32AM on May 26th 2011 by karenferguson

13. this would be extremely useful to me if it worked for mac. hopefully in the future...

Posted at 7:36PM on Jul 27th 2011 by andrew

14. andrew - totally agree with the mac bit, would be great. I've got my itunes folder shared between mac and windows at the moment to get round the problem.

Posted at 3:36PM on Aug 26th 2011 by simon foster

15. After reading a few more posts on similar issues on other phones etc, I have resolved this playlist issue:

Set the phone to a USB MASS STORAGE mode that allows the phone to enumerate as a windows drive!

In my case the Samsung Galaxy S2 has 11Gb free internal memory and an extra 32Gb micro SD card, which are now displayed in Windows as Drive F: and Drive G:

From there, use WinAmp to copy the music and playlists to the desired location (Drive G: for me) and the .mp3 files are copied to the MUSIC directory and the .M3U files are copied to the PLAYLIST directory.

Now my playlists appear so sweetly in the WinAmp Android app!

(and the following Android programs;
RealPlayer, Cloudskipper, AstroPlayer, DoubleTwist etc etc, but why bother)

Posted at 8:43AM on Sep 12th 2011 by Peter

16. transfer works fine for galaxy s. However when the phone is plugged back in playlists that were synced previously are not seen by winamp in windows. They still exist, but I can see them to keep track of what is already on the phone. The process for choosing what playlists to send to a device is also a little cumbersome. Everything has to be done with "right click> send to" or drag and drop. how about an itunes esque list of artists and playlists that we can choose with check boxes? Or at least the ability to ctrl+select multiple playlists at once for the "send to" command.

Posted at 12:00AM on Sep 28th 2011 by Matt

17. Quite some time ago, I purchased Winamp PRO. I love that it will play 5.1 surround with the ATSurround plugin (and its my preferred player), but I also use iTunes for syncing to my iPod Touch. Now I have just purchased a Galaxy S2 and Winamp Pro for Android app. Brilliant. But I have 90% of all my music in both Winamp and in iTunes (with some additional items in one or the other but not in both). Does the iTunes Import feature bring everything in from iTunes? Or only items that do NOT already exist in Winamp?
I don't want to run the import if I then have to delete a couple of hundred albums off again!!! Also is there some sort of cleanup tool available in Winamp?

Posted at 5:48PM on Nov 22nd 2011 by Jim

18. Can you transfer music on an IPod into Winamp w/o using Itunes?

Posted at 6:39PM on Jun 8th 2012 by Eric