Can you use Google music without Wi-Fi?

Google Music is a music streaming service developed by Google that allows users to stream, purchase, and download music to listen to online or offline. The key question many users have is whether Google Music can be used without an internet or Wi-Fi connection for offline listening once songs are downloaded.

What is Google Music?

Google Music, now called Google Play Music, is a music and podcast streaming service and online music locker operated by Google. The service allows users to upload up to 50,000 songs from their personal music libraries for online storage and streaming access. Users can also download curated playlists, stream radio stations, and purchase music directly through the service (Source).

Some of the key features of Google Play Music include:

Streaming access to millions of songs in the Google Music catalog
Ability to upload your personal music library for access anywhere
Download songs, albums, or playlists for offline listening

Curated playlists and radio stations based on your tastes
Purchase music to directly add to your Google Music library
Access across devices like mobile, tablet, desktop etc.

Overall, Google Play Music aims to combine the benefits of having a personal digital music locker along with on-demand and curated streaming access to an extensive catalog of music. This hybrid model provides flexibility for listeners to enjoy their own music collections as well as discover new music through Google’s streaming services and recommendations.

Downloading Music for Offline Listening

Google Play Music allows users to download songs, albums, and playlists for offline listening when no WiFi connection is available. This is useful for listening to music on flights, in the car, or anywhere without an internet connection.

To download music for offline listening on a mobile device, open the Google Play Music app and find the song, album, or playlist you want to download. Tap the download icon next to the item – it looks like a downward pointing arrow. This will begin downloading the music to your device’s storage.

You can view all music you’ve downloaded for offline listening by going to the Downloads section in the Google Play Music app. Here you can play downloaded music and manage your offline content.

There are some limits on how much music you can download based on your account type. Free users can download up to 500 songs, while YouTube Premium and Google Play Music subscribers do not have a download limit. Downloaded songs will be available offline for up to 30 days before needing to be renewed (source).

So with Google Play Music, you can listen to your favorite songs and playlists offline by downloading them to your mobile device when connected to WiFi. Just remember to renew downloads periodically to keep your offline music library up to date.

Limits on Downloads

Google limits the amount of music you can download for offline listening. According to this Google support thread, there is a limit of 3,000 songs you can download. If you try to download more, it may fail and get stuck in a pending state. This is likely to prevent excessive storage usage on devices.

The 3,000 song download limit applies to both free and paid Google Music subscribers, according to users on Quora. So even if you pay for a subscription, you are still limited to 3,000 offline song downloads. The download limit is per registered device. So you could download 3,000 songs on your phone, and another 3,000 on your tablet, for example.

In addition, there are also limits on how many playlists and albums you can download for offline listening according to this StackExchange thread. Playlists are limited to a maximum of 500 tracks. Album downloads are limited to 100 albums.

Using Downloaded Music Offline

Once you have downloaded music onto your device from Google Play Music, you can access it offline without an internet connection. The downloaded songs and playlists will be available in the “Downloads” section of the Google Play Music app.

There are some limitations to using downloaded music offline in Google Play Music:

Downloaded songs can only be played within the Google Play Music app itself. You cannot access downloaded music files directly from your device’s local storage.

Downloading is limited to up to 500 songs per device. Playlists are limited to 100 songs.
Downloaded content is only available on the specific device it was downloaded to. It cannot be transferred to another device.
If you delete a downloaded song/playlist from the Downloads section, you will have to re-download it again later if you want access offline.

Podcast episodes can be downloaded, but not full podcast series.

So in summary, while Google Play Music allows you to listen to music offline by downloading to your device, there are restrictions on the amount you can download and portability to other devices. But it does provide basic offline listening capabilities.

Caching Songs

Google Music has a feature that automatically caches recently played songs on your device for offline access ^[1]. This allows you to continue listening to music you’ve played recently, even when you lose your WiFi or data connection.

The app will save a certain number of your most recent songs in a cache on your device’s storage. That way if you lose your connection, you can still access those cached songs and keep listening without interruption ^[2]. This makes it easy to keep listening to music seamlessly as you move between areas with good connectivity and weak or no signal.

The number of songs cached may depend on the storage space available on your device. Google Music aims to provide several hours worth of recently played songs in the cache. So even if you lose your connection temporarily, you likely won’t miss a beat in your listening experience thanks to the cached songs.

Downloading Playlists & Albums

One of the most convenient ways to download music for offline listening on Google Music is by downloading entire playlists or albums. This allows you to quickly cache large amounts of songs without having to manually select each track.

To download a full playlist for offline use, open the playlist in the Google Music app or website and click on the download icon next to the playlist name. This will begin downloading all of the songs in that playlist. Depending on the number of tracks, it may take some time to fully download everything.

Downloading an entire album works similarly – find the album page and click on the download icon to begin caching all of the tracks locally. One limitation is that you can only download up to 1000 songs per device this way according to Google’s published limits.

According to users on Reddit, while convenient, downloading full albums and playlists doesn’t always work perfectly. Some users report missing tracks or other issues with certain playlists not fully transferring over. But overall it provides a fast way to get a lot of music downloaded for offline listening (source).

Video Limitations

Despite being able to download music for offline listening, there are some limitations around downloading videos from YouTube Music for offline viewing.

According to Google’s support page, YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium members can use offline features on up to 10 devices at a time (1). This means you can only have videos downloaded for offline viewing on up to 10 mobile devices linked to your account.

If you try to download an offline video on an 11th device, you’ll get an error saying you have exceeded the device limit. One user reported this issue on Google’s forums when trying to save a video for offline viewing (2).

There also appears to be no specified limit to the number of videos you can download for offline viewing, as long as you stay under the 10 device limit. However, others have noted there may be restrictions based on availability and storage space (3).

So while music downloads are unlimited, offline video viewing is constrained to 10 mobile devices. If you frequently switch between devices, you may run into limits.

Using Alternatives like Spotify

When comparing the ability to use Google Music offline versus alternatives like Spotify, there are some key differences to consider. Spotify generally requires a premium subscription for offline listening, while Google Music allows users to download songs for offline playback at no cost without a subscription.

With Spotify’s free tier, offline listening is extremely limited. Users can only download playlists in offline mode, with a cap of 3,333 songs downloadable across 3 devices (Source 1). Downloaded Spotify playlists also expire after 30 days.

In contrast, Google Music users can download purchased songs, albums, and playlists for offline listening with no restrictions. There are no caps on the number of downloads or devices, and the downloads do not expire (Source 2). This allows Google Music users to build a permanent offline music library at no extra cost.

Additionally, while Spotify caches some songs temporarily, full offline listening requires a premium subscription. Google Music’s free users still get full offline access to any downloaded music (Source 3). Overall, Google Music provides a better free offline listening experience compared to Spotify.

Summary

To recap, Google Music allows you to download songs, playlists, and albums for offline listening when you don’t have an internet connection. You can download up to 50,000 songs from your library to your mobile device. Downloaded songs are available offline for up to 30 days before you need to reconnect to WiFi to renew the licenses. However, any song you’ve “pinned” for offline listening will not expire as long as you open the app while connected to the internet at least once every 30 days.

Downloaded playlists and albums do not count against the 50,000 song limit, so you can download as many of those as you want for offline access. Video content like music videos are not available to download, so you’ll need an internet connection to stream those.

If you want to store more than 50,000 songs for offline listening, or download videos, alternatives like Spotify are worth considering. But overall, Google Music provides a robust capability for accessing your personal music library offline once you’ve downloaded it.