Windows Phone 8 / 8.1

I recently purchased a Windows phone - a Nokia Lumia 521 for T-Mobile.

My Samsung Galaxy Smart didn't have enough internal memory and I kept getting memory errors. I was also looking for a new MP3 player. After some research on availability and prices I thought, "Why not get a Windows Phone?" Hence, the decision to get the Nokia Lumia 521 for T-Mobile.

I found the T-Mobile model on Amazon for about $40 less than what T-Mobile wanted for it. For the price difference, I was also able to buy a 64 GB Micro SD memory card and a case for the phone.

If you're like several of my co-workers, you're probably thinking, "Why didn't you get an iPhone?" I have an iPhone 5 that was issued to me at work because I'm on-call after hours. I'm not impressed, especially considering what you get for the cost. But, I'm not here to slam Apple, so I'll move on.

My first issue was that the Nokia Windows phones come with a micro SIM. I wasn't able to swap the SIM from my Samsung into the Nokia. I called T-Mobile Tech Support to update my account and activate the new SIM. It took all of 5 minutes. The next day, while using Wi-Fi Calling, caller ID displayed what turned out to be the IMSI instead of my phone number. I called T-Mobile Tech Support again and they resolved it.

The phone came with Windows Phone 8 installed and updated to 8.1 almost as soon as I did the initial boot up and configuration. It was pretty seamless. More so than with the laptop, as I addressed in an earlier blog. Windows Phone 8 / 8.1 is, as you may imagine, very similar to the Windows 8 / 8.1 in use on PCs and tablets, which makes sense since those are based on it.

The only real issue I had was with the "Music+Video" app, which is the native media app for Windows Phone 8 / 8.1. For some reason, no matter how I imported / synched my MP3 library (close to 10,000 MP3 files), the Music+Video app didn't see them properly. I also tried syncing using Windows Media Player and the Windows Phone "metro" app, but they both had issues syncing with the phone.

I determined at this point that I had received a defective SD card when neither the phone nor my laptop could "see" or access it any longer. I for an RMA from Amazon to send it back, and bought a replacement.

I finally found what I thought was the resolution and might still work for some people - Windows Phone app for desktop. It's a desktop app that was originally designed to sync between Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7. It's from MS and is downloadable from their web site.

Note: The Windows Phone app for desktop won't work on Windows RT.

Ultimately that didn't work, either, due compatibility issues in Win8.1 and it turned out that I had another bad SD card.

Even though it didn't work for me, it might still work for other people, so here are several screen shots of the process.

 This is a shot of the setup screen:

Here's a shot of the Settings screen:

Here's a shot of the Sync screen. As you can see, you can sync music, photos, videos, podcasts, and ringtones.

Here's a shot of the phone screen that shows what's saved to the phone in each category:

Unfortunately, since I had synced my music to the SD card, it didn't show up on this screen. Weird.

Of the three methods, it turns out that WMP is actually the most reliable for syncing my music with my phone. I  had fewer problems and the MP3 metadata (artist, album, track, etc) was more likely to carry over.

To set up a sync to the phone, open WMP, look to the menu panel on the left and find the device you want to sync to. Right click on it and then click on "Set up sync...". This will open the sync GUI. Makes sure you check the "Sync this device automatically" check box. This will allow you to add / remove play lists from the right panel

To edit the sync settings afterwards, right click the sync to show the menu, and then click on "Set up sync..." again. This will open the GUI to edit what you want to sync. Once you've made your selections, click the "Finish" button. The sync should start.

If you get a bunch or errors like in the following screenshot, you can click on "Stop sync" to end the sync session. Once the sync session ends, you can right click on the sync and then click on "Start sync". The sync should restart, clear the errors, and pick up where it left off. Although, I have to caution you that it may be an indication that your SD card is bad, or at least not capable of storing and playing MP3s on a Windows Phone.

During one such attempt to sync my MP3s, my phone kept rebooting. It happened several times, about 5 to 10 minutes apart, I figured all the apps I'd installed and removed lately had destabilized the OS, so I did a hard reset. It appeared that this may have resolved whatever issue I had and WMP started syncing my music like a boss . . . but failed overnight.

I got completely fed up and decided my final option was to sync directly to the SD card. The Micro SD came with an adapter to allow it to be used in the SD card slot on a PC, laptop, or tablet. In inserted the Micro SD into the adapter, and then inserted the adapter into the slot. I then opened WMP, set up the sync as explained above, and started syncing. BAM! It synced much faster and without any errors. And, the cool thing about doing it this way is that the MP3s retain all the metadata!

In case you're not familiar, here's a Micro SD card with the adapter. This is a pic of the make and model of the second card I bought from Amazon, which also wasn't up to par. The smaller card on the right is the memory card, while the larger card is the adapter.

I thought everything was going well, but this card crapped out, too. Based on a forum exchange on the MS Windows Support page (Problems Syncing MP3 files to Nokia Lumia 521), we determined that the problem was most likely the result of yet another bad Micro SD.

They recommended I get a SanDisk Ultra card. I returned the defective ADATA card to Amazon and ordered a SanDisk Ultra 64 GB from Amazon. I installed it, formatted it, connected the phone to my laptop, opened WMP, and started syncing several albums at a time. It took several days to complete the process, but everything synched without issue.

The final step was to run through the process outlined above to set up a sync between WMP and the phone to sync my playlists and anything I may have missed. It ran through the process showing that all the files were already on the device. It took several hours, but properly synced everything. I synced several artists / albums at a time to keep the numbers low, then set up a permanent sync relationship to sync my playlists, etc. Each time I get new MP3s and sync my phone, all the new music should be included.

I can't and won't say that any one method will be best for you, only which method worked best for me. I Googled the issue and found numerous sites discussing it. Different people had different results with different methods. It seems to matter which phone you have, which Windows version it runs, and which Windows version is on your computer. I read that Windows Phone 7 connected to a Windows 7 computer can use the Zune app to sync. But, because I have Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1, Zune isn't an option.

I also experimented with different apps on the phone to play the music. The "Music+Video" comes standard with Windows Phone 8 / 8.1. I also installed Nokia MixRadio, which allows you to also listen to radio broadcasts, use streaming services, etc. Another app I'm still trying out is Music player (aka iMusic) from Studio 8. It also ties into streaming services, and has a slightly different interface for sorting synched music files.

You can find a fair amount of information and apps on the Windows Phone web site.

On a side note, the phone is obviously Bluetooth capable. My car stereo is also Bluetooth capable (I use the speakerphone function quite regularly). While connecting my phone to the stereo, I learned that I can use the Bluetooth connection to play my MP3s without needing a physical connection between the two (like having to plug in my 32 GB thumb drive into the USB port).

As always, I'm open to questions and constructive comments. Your feedback is welcome.