So I’m in a choir, and we have a shared dropbox. Some of the folders get filled up with .mp3 files of the music for a particular concert. I want a way to easily listen to the music in one of those folders on my iPhone. I can use the dropbox app itself to play a single one of the files at a time. But what I’d really like is to be able to import the files easily from dropbox into my music library, and just play them as playlists in the iPhone music app. Alternatively, given that the iPhone music player is pretty bloaty, I’d happily use a different music playing app entirely, if it could play music directly out of dropbox.
There is an app called “Jukebox” that I think can do exactly what you want in that it’s a standalone music player that will grab your songs from Dropbox and allow you to set them up in an offline playlist. But the drawback is you have to trust a third party with access to your Dropbox. I don’t think there’s anything nefarious behind the Jukebox app, but it’s something to consider.
Another way is to install the Dropbox app on your computer and then copy the music from the Dropbox folder to your iTunes library. From there transfer them to your iPhone.
Yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing until now, it’s just a pain in the ass, particularly as I then end up with an itunes library consisting of bunches of albums that I actually own and want, and then all these loose songs, so I’ve been going into the properties and forcing them all into the same fake album, etc, etc.
If you don’t want to listen to those songs, open the iTunes library in “Songs” view and uncheck the check box to the left of each song title. Or open the library in “Albums” view, right click the album and select “Uncheck Selection.”
Or, if you manage your music on your iPhone manually, just delete the songs from your iTunes library once they’ve been transferred to the iPhone. They don’t need to stay in the iTunes library and they are still in Dropbox if you need them again.