Can Samsung play music through USB?

Samsung is one of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers, offering a wide range of Android devices including the popular Galaxy and Note series. USB music playback allows you to connect a USB flash drive or hard drive to your Samsung device and play audio files stored on the drive.

This convenient feature lets you expand your music library capacity beyond the built-in storage. It also provides a way to play music formats that may not be natively supported by your Samsung device. Many Samsung phones and tablets support the ability to play audio files directly from USB storage.

In this article, we’ll look at Samsung device compatibility for USB music playback, how to enable it, supported formats, USB storage options, transferring music, and playback features. We’ll also troubleshoot any issues and compare to streaming music from the cloud.

Samsung Device Compatibility

Many Samsung devices allow you to play music files from a connected USB drive or flash drive. This includes a wide range of Samsung phones, tablets, and smart TVs. Some of the main Samsung devices that support USB music playback include:

Phones:

Galaxy S series (S8 and newer)

Galaxy Note series (Note 8 and newer)
Galaxy A series (A50 and newer)
Galaxy M series

Tablets:

Galaxy Tab S series
Galaxy Tab A series

Galaxy Tab Active series

TVs:

QLED TVs (2017 models and newer)

The Frame
The Serif
Crystal UHD TVs

Many mid-range to high-end Samsung devices from the last 3-5 years generally support audio playback from USB drives. Refer to your device’s user manual or the Samsung website for specific USB compatibility details (https://www.samsung.com/ph/support/tv-audio-video/how-to-play-media-content-saved-on-a-usb-device/).

Enabling USB Music Playback

To play music from a USB device on your Samsung phone or tablet, you first need to enable USB audio routing. The steps to do this may vary slightly depending on your specific Samsung device.

On most recent Samsung Galaxy models running Android 9 or newer:

Open the Settings app.
Tap on Sounds and vibration.
Tap on Advanced sound settings.

Toggle on the setting for USB audio routing or Media audio output.

On older Galaxy models or devices running Android 8 or lower:

Plug your USB device into your phone.

Pull down the notification shade.
You should see a “USB for” notification. Tap on it.
Select Audio output in the next menu.

Once enabled, audio from the USB device will automatically play through your phone whenever you have it plugged in. You can control playback using your phone’s volume keys or media controls.

For more detailed instructions for specific Samsung devices, refer to Samsung’s support article (https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00048972/).

Supported Audio Formats

Samsung TVs support playback of a wide variety of audio formats from USB devices. According to Samsung’s support page https://www.samsung.com/hk_en/support/tv-audio-video/samsung-tv-how-do-i-play-media-files-in-usb-devices/, the following audio formats are compatible when playing media files via USB:

MP3 – MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3
AAC/MP4/M4A – Advanced Audio Coding
WMA – Windows Media Audio

WAV – Waveform Audio Format
OGG – Ogg Vorbis
FLAC – Free Lossless Audio Codec

ALAC – Apple Lossless Audio Codec
AIFF – Audio Interchange File Format
Monkey’s Audio

WMA 10 Pro
DTS Audio Format

So most common audio file types like MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV should play without issue over USB. Lossless formats like FLAC and ALAC are also supported. Overall, Samsung TVs allow you to play a wide selection of audio content stored on a USB device.

USB Storage Devices

Most modern Samsung devices, including Galaxy smartphones and tablets, support USB On-The-Go which allows you to connect external USB drives and access files directly through the Files app. There are several types of USB drives that work for playing music:

USB flash drives: These small, portable drives connect directly to the USB-C or microUSB port. Look for high-performance options with fast read/write speeds for smooth music playback. The Samsung BAR Plus and Samsung FIT Plus flash drives are great choices.

External SSD drives: External solid-state drives with USB-C or USB 3.0 offer very fast data transfer speeds. Top options like the Transcend ESD310C and Samsung T7 deliver excellent performance.

Portable hard disk drives: HDDs have high capacities for storing large music libraries. Look for compact 2.5-inch drives with USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 1. The Samsung T5 Portable SSD is a highly recommended HDD.

For seamless music playback, look for drives with at least USB 3.0/3.1 and capacities of 16GB or higher. The fastest data transfer speeds will provide smooth performance.

Transferring Music Files

To get your music files onto a USB device to play on your Samsung device, follow these steps:

Connect the USB device to your computer using a USB cable or USB port.
Open File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) and locate the USB drive. It may be listed as a removable disk or with the drive name.
Open a second File Explorer or Finder window and navigate to the location where your music files are stored on your computer.

Select the music files you want to transfer and drag them over to the USB drive window.
Alternatively, you can copy and paste the files or use the Send To option to transfer music files.
Make sure to safely eject the USB drive before disconnecting it.

The above steps will allow you to quickly transfer any music files in formats like MP3, FLAC, WAV, or AAC to a USB storage device. Just plug the USB into your compatible Samsung device and you’ll be able to access and play the music files.

Playback Features

When playing music from a USB device, Samsung devices offer several useful playback features to control your listening experience. You can play, pause, skip tracks, adjust the volume, and enable repeat and shuffle options.

To control playback, use the on-screen playback controls or buttons on your phone, tablet, or TV remote. Tap the play/pause button to start and stop playback. Tap the skip track buttons to move forward or back one track at a time. You can also skip to any track by tapping it in the playlist.

To enable repeat, open the playback options and turn on the repeat setting. This will continuously replay either the current track or the entire playlist. Shuffle mode randomly reorders tracks rather than playing them sequentially. Turn on shuffle in the playback options if you want to hear a mix instead of the default playlist order.

Playlists allow you to queue up multiple tracks and albums to play in a row. To play a playlist, open one you previously created or make a new one by tapping the add button on any album or track. Samsung Music also offers preset playlists curated by mood, genre, or activity.

With these playback controls and features, you can customize your USB music listening experience on your Samsung device.

Troubleshooting Common USB Music Issues

If you are having trouble playing music files from a USB device on your Samsung phone, here are some common fixes to try:

Check that the USB storage device is properly connected. Remove and reinsert the USB cable or try a different USB port on your phone. There may be an issue with the physical connection.

Make sure your music files are in a supported audio format like MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, or OGG. Samsung devices do not support playback for all file types.

Go into your phone’s Settings > Connections > More connection settings. Toggle the setting for “Media device (MTP)” to on if it is currently off. This enables music playback over USB.

Try a different USB cable, especially if you are connecting to an external speaker or car audio system. Some USB cables are charge-only and do not support data for audio playback.

Restart your phone and the USB connected device. This can reset any software issues preventing music playback.

Check for updates on your Samsung device that may improve USB connectivity. You can manually update your phone’s firmware in the Settings if available.

As a last resort, you can back up your data and perform a factory reset on your Samsung device to eliminate any bugs causing problems with USB audio.

Comparison to Streaming

Playing music directly from a USB device offers some advantages and disadvantages compared to streaming music over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi from services like Spotify.

Some of the key pros of using USB include:

Higher quality audio playback since the music files are read directly from the USB device, rather than streamed and compressed over a wireless connection.
No reliance on an internet connection or data plan since the music files are stored locally on the USB device.

Lower power consumption compared to streaming which can drain a device’s battery faster.

However, there are also some downsides to using USB:

Limited music library size since you can only store so many songs on a USB drive, versus access to millions of songs through streaming services.

Less convenient access to music libraries and playlists since you have to manually load music onto the USB device.
No ability to take advantage of streaming features like customized playlists, radio stations, etc.

Overall, playing music via USB offers some sound quality and reliability advantages, but lacks some of the features and massive libraries available through streaming. It comes down to user preferences and situation whether USB music playback is better than wireless streaming options.

Conclusion

In summary, Samsung devices do have the capability to play music files transferred through a USB connection. All recent Galaxy smartphones and tablets should be compatible, along with using a variety of common audio formats like MP3, FLAC, WMA, and AAC. USB flash drives or external hard drives can be used to store and transfer music files to a Samsung device. Playback features may include playlists, shuffle, and repeat. Overall, transferring and listening to music via USB is a handy feature on Samsung devices for enjoying audio content offline.

As we’ve discussed, playing music from a USB storage device is a useful capability on Samsung phones and tablets. It provides an alternative to streaming for listening to audio files, with the benefit of saving mobile data. While the experience may vary across device models, USB music playback works well on Galaxy smartphones and tablets in most cases. Just be sure your audio files are in a compatible format, and you have a USB drive to transfer them. Then load up your playlist, plug in your headphones, and enjoy your music offline.