PS4 Pro Tip: Using Your iPod With The PS4′s USB Music Player

Not everyone has a USB drive available, or enough space on whatever device they DO have, to make use of the PS4's new USB Music Player that arrived with the 2.0 "Masamune" firmware update.

Fortunately, there is a way to put your trusty (and usually spacious) iPod to use instead!

[ghettosmurf]

Between this and the fact I can also use my iPod to store saved screenshots and videos from the PS4, it has become an essential hardware accessory for me.

[LackTrue4K]

That's sweet news/info ghettosmurf, any body here @ N4G has connected a Sony brand phone? (Forgot there name) any benefits with them both being Sony products?

[mikeslemonade]

My USB ports don't even work anymore.

[gatormatt80]

Sounds like a personal problem.

[spacedelete]

anyone know how you can use your smartphone as a music player for PS4? i don't have a USB stick.

[MRMagoo123]

Buy one they are like $5 in Australia for an 8gig stick I am sure they are just as cheap if not cheaper everywhere else.

[esemce]

Have you tries making a folder in the root of the phones storage and naming it MUSIC ?

It's the same as using an ipod as its just a USB mass storage device unless it has to be format with a certain files system, I it just has to be fat/fat32.

[uth11]

You could also do thie with any phone that works as a USB mass storage device (most do, but sometimes you have to enable that option in settings)

[G20WLY]

"the system automatically suppresses the natural soundtrack of the game regardless of your in-game audio settings"

A very nice touch! :O

[spence52490]

It didn't do that with 2K15. I had to turn the in game music off entirely because it was blasting while the usb player was.

[ghettosmurf]

Ah, that's a shame. I wonder what hook they used to subdue the other games that 2k15 is lacking...

[SoapShoes]

Weird it does on DriveClub and TLOU.

[ThatOneGuyThere]

it sounds like 2K didnt use the SDK properly. *shrugs*

[Ninjatogo]

Could be that the developers used different audio channels for the in-game music than the regular ones used by most games. I tested it with Driveclub earlier and it seemed to work.

[Yokan]

It doesnt do that with all games, was playing The Last of Us MP and had to lower the music, it seems that it only turns off music in some games.

[moodymofo]

i dont understand why i cant use my vita . ive allways thought it was a lite wierd that the vita is a ps4 companion but i cant data transfer from it now ipads and phones can be used for the music player but not the vita?

[soljah]

yes yes yes +1 why in the h%ll can't we play music off our vita's

[Larry L]

Hhave either of you actually hooked your Vita up to a PC, created a folder on the memory card called "MUSIC" and tried? I don't see why that wouldn't work, though I havn't tried to know. Vita could very well use a more complicated file system than say PSP did. I've never looked at my Vita's memory on a PC to know. I bet a PSP would work though, or any USB stick formated by a PS3, because both of those file systems have a "MUSIC" folder right in the main root.

And since PS3 can easily transfer music to Vita, I'm really shocked Vita can't be used as a USB music source for PS4, just how it is, without even having to create a MUSIC folder.

[ChronoJoe]

@Larry It shouldn't work, the Vita isn't a FAT32 mass storage device. It's memory is only managable via proprietary software, sadly.

It would be nice if it worked with Vita.

[esemce]

It's probably Sony just using precautions incase of piracy, and it sucks.

[Harkins1721]

I dont get what he means by

"Fortunately, there is a method for using your trusty old iPod to fulfill those auditory desires. First, plug your iPod into any compatible PC/Mac/Linux device and navigate to the root (base) directory of your device. Create a folder titled ‘MUSIC’ (that’s case-sensitive), dump all your favorite jams in there, and then connect the iPod to your PS4."

[Larry L]

What don't you get? It's pretty clear. Open up your iPod, create a folder in the main directory called MUSIC in all capital letters, put mp3s in that foler, unplug iPod from PC and plug into PS4.

[ghettosmurf]

For Windows it's pretty straight-forward. Plug your iPod into the PC and Windows should either open an Explorer window in the device automatically, or perhaps ask you what you'd like to do. Select 'Open to view files' or some similar option.

Once you've got the device open and the file structure is visible, you need to create a brand new folder called MUSIC. Any applicable music files (m4a, mp3, 3gp) you put into this folder will be recognized by your PS4 the next time you connect the iPod.

[Harkins1721]

I do exactly that and it brings up "Internal Storage" and then I try to make a folder but it will not let me.

[FullmetalRoyale]

@Harkins

Same situation here, man.

[teedogg80]

Not working for me. Can't create the folder.

[user9597082]

"Not everyone has a twenty dollar thumb drive lying around but they damn well do have a $200 apple device!"
Nothing wrong with the feature, just think the start of this article is funny

[ghettosmurf]

Haha, touchè. My only (inadequate) defense is that the iPod was a gift!

[user9597082]

Mine came totally free with my $2000 computer!

[Muzikguy]

I find it funny too, but I have 3 of those $20 things lying around. 2Gb 4Gb and 128Gb

[hkgamer]

lol. funny comment. felt like some kid with no income wrote this article.

however, he did make a good point about usb sticks may not actually fit into slots on the ps4.

also the whole article was basically to tell people to put a MUSIC folder on the drove.

[andibandit]

My gripe is more with the 2 USB ports available...knew i shouldn't have bought a USB headset....

[fudgenasty21]

ok, i did like he said and i got the usb music app to pop up but when i hit x it says' theres no file that can be played. wtf?

[ghettosmurf]

What type of files did you put into the folder? They have to be mp3, mp4, m4a, or 3gp.

[fudgenasty21]

i think they are all mp3 and maybe sum mp4. i never even heard of m4a or 3gp

[fudgenasty21]

aw crap. i just looked and they are all mpeg or aac.

[JoshEngen]

Dude. You're doing tech support in the N4G comments? You're way too nice.

[Muzikguy]

That's too bad with your file extensions. I've stayed with mp3 this whole time to avoid situations like this. I've had wma before but quickly changed that. No AAC or Apple lossless or any other oddball extension. I'd hate to have to convert over 10,000 songs. Good luck to you

[fudgenasty21]

any idea how to convert these files to mp3 on an iMac?

[kingPoS]

I use Nero to re-ecode the odd wma playlist that my PlayStation won't play nice with.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[Bigkurz85]

LOL. Like this is what people want.

If I'm gonna go through the trouble of making a folder, and putting MP3s in it, why not use a $5 USB key?

This would only be cool if you could plug in an iPod and it just naturally sorted to your playlists. Now THAT would be useful.

[Muzikguy]

That would be cool, but have you seen how files are sorted on an iPod? It's a mess! That's one thing I don't understand with Apple. Their file sorting is terrible, even on the iPhone

[hkgamer]

ive only had a 2nd or 3rd gen iPod. the big brick that was released to outside of US for the first time.

the way they sprted out files was a mess but i guess that mad so that you couldnt easily share songs with others. however, i did like the idea that you could use it as an extenal hdd. think that feature was taken out in future generations.

[TekKing]

You can also save yourself some time by just listening to your iPod while you play games. It's not like the music is going to be played from the HDD anyway.

[Ninjamohawk]

Yeah but this way you don't need to have that on your head and you can still hear sound effects, speech, etc.

[xwilldemise]

Instructions not clear enough, got my d1ck stuck in a fan!

[hkgamer]

am i the only person that likes to listen to whatever music is playing in the game?

[Harkins1721]

Nope I def do. But if im on NG+ playthru I like to change it up a little bit.

[Keith22]

Can confirm iPad air works with same method !

[kingdom18]

Reall! Great! Only wish it would work with an iPhone, but this works as well.

[KingKevo]

What is the point of this article?! I mean everybody does know that an iPod can also act like a regular USB storage device. The title is misleading and suggests that you can somehow use the iPod to control what music is being played and so on.

You can probably even use a spaceship with your PS4 to play music, as long as you can connect it via USB and it as a drive that is formatted in FAT32.

Bad site, bad article.

[OmegaShen]

My old ex hard drive doesn't work :( over 10,000 songs, it works on my smart tv.

Suckly part is that the hard drive won't load up anything on it when hook to a PC. Yet my tv has no problem.

[SuperBlur]

Hmm i think you would need to format your hdd in FAT32, NTFS will never be recognized by the PS4 as it is a MS format

[OmegaShen]

The thing is, it isn't recognized by any windows. Mac can find stuff on it, but thats about it and PS3 some what works with it.