In a previous post I proclaimed Salling Software’s Media Sync the best way to get music to your Nokia from a Mac. Turns out that verdict may have been a bit premature…
Even though sending music to my E71 via Media Sync is but a one or two-click affair, there is an extra step required before I can actually play any of it from my handset. It looks to me like the Eseries Music Player has to load the transferred tracks into either RAM or a scratch file of some kind. And that “repairing corrupted library” message isn’t exactly encouraging, despite Media Sync going only one way — i.e. Mac to Nokia.
Thankfully for Mac users, there’s another way to get Music onto a Nokia device:
Say hello to Nokia’s Multimedia Transfer utility for Macs! Like Salling’s Media Sync, this app is accessed through a drop-down window on your Mac’s title bar.
And unlike Media Sync Nokia’s utility puts a dedicated folder for your device in the iTunes sidebar — this can be a bit confusing at first as you can only drag playlists (and not individual tracks) into your device folder, as I discovered through trial and error.
The good thing about this is that those same playlists get sent to your Nokia for easier navigation of whatever music you’ve transferred over, as you can see in the screen grab above.
In place of Media Sync’s vague and alarming “corrupted library” message, Nokia’s app is a bit more clear about what didn’t make it over to your handset and why. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: DRM sucks.
Sadly, you still have to manually refresh your music library — at least with the Eseries Music Player — before you can enjoy any tunes on your Nokia.
I won’t pretend for a second that this solution (or Media Sync for that matter) is anywhere near as elegant as using an Apple iPod or iPhone to take your music with you, but to paraphrase a famous saying about cameras, the best music player in the world is always the one that’s in your pocket…
Andrew Currie 
4 responses to “Make S60 a Passable iPod Stand-in with Nokia’s Multimedia Transfer Tool”
AC:
Can you reduce the bitrate for songs you transfer to the phone, or is it the same as the bitrate of the music file on your Mac?
Ed
Hey Ed,
No, there’s no conversion here, Nokia’s app just transfers your non-DRM music over to your Nokia…
AC:
I guess that means the one cool feature that finally made it into iTunes 8, the ability to transfer start/stop points into your iPod, probably don’t work on the Nokia. I use my first-gen Shuffle for the gym and edit out long fade-ins and fade-outs as they reduce the intensity I need for cardio….
I guess the solution would be to create an edited track in an audio editor app, then use that file in iTunes instead of the original file.
Ed
PS: You realize your entries are convincing me to go Nokia next time, right?
AC:
Sadly, I think the Pope won’t be going with a Nokia any time soon:
http://tinyurl.com/a93262
Merry Christmas!
Ed