How to turn your old phone into a dedicated MP3 player

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Music streaming is now the primary way people listen to their favorite artists, but it’s not really a practical choice when it comes to offline listening. Of course, platforms like Spotify and YouTube Music allow you to download songs to your device, but there are some limitations. For one, these downloaded songs are only accessible from the app you used to download them. They usually don’t appear in your Files app as an MP3 file. You also need a premium subscription to download songs in the first place. Additionally, you also need to connect to the Internet (and the download service) from time to time to ensure that your songs will continue to work.

That’s why a portable MP3 player is a good idea for anyone who wants to listen to digital music for the long term. MP3 players like the iPod typically work offline, with no Wi-Fi or music streaming service required. This means you can take your tunes with you to the most isolated island you can find, and the MP3 player will still give you uninterrupted playback.

But if you’re on a budget or just don’t want to buy a whole new gadget, the best alternative to the iPod might just be an old phone. It may no longer support modern music streaming apps, but it’s still good enough to play your favorite tunes if you can get your hands on one. In the discussion below, we will tell you how to turn your old mobile into an MP3 player to listen to music offline anytime, anywhere.

The first step to converting your old phone into a dedicated MP3 player is to load it with songs. If you already have MP3 files on your mobile, you can skip this step. Otherwise, you can access digital stores like Amazon Music to purchase your favorite songs and albums as MP3 files. It’s quite simple and quick to do:

1. On your mobile browser, go to Amazon’s Digital Music section.
2. Log in or create an Amazon account if you haven’t already.
3. Find your song or album at the top.
4. Click on the result.
5. In the Amazon Music page that opens, tap the three horizontal dots next to the song.
6. Choose Buy MP3 Song or Buy MP3 Album.
7. Tap Buy MP3 Song/Album – Pay Now.
8. Proceed to purchase.

Once finished, you will be prompted to download the song. If you don’t see any Download button, you can also go to music.amazon.com, click the three dots next to the song and download it to your device. (You can also do this step on your current phone and then transfer the files to the old phone.)

You can purchase as many songs as you want. In terms of storage, you generally won’t have any problems even with older phones, since an MP3 file only consumes minimal space. In fact, with just 32GB of storage, you can already store up to 8,000 MP3 files. If you really need more songs, older phone models usually support expandable storage via a microSD card. You can set this microSD card as the default storage for your Android phone. iPhones, on the other hand, don’t come with a microSD card slot, so you have to work with the built-in capacity.

Now that you have your songs, it’s time to play them using an offline media player app. There are dozens of options, especially now that offline music is back in fashion. But the tried-and-true VLC is generally a solid choice. It is available on Android and iOS and works on operating system versions as old as Android 4.2 and iOS 9. If you are not sure which operating system version your phone is running on, you can check via the Settings app. On Android, look for the About Phone section (or similar). On iPhone, go to General and open About.

If your old phone still supports VLC, download it from the Play Store or App Store. After installation, setup is quite simple on Android. All you have to do is launch the app and then grant it access to your files. All your songs will be automatically imported into the app. On iPhone, however, you’ll need to go through the extra step of moving your MP3 files to the VLC folder in On My iPhone in the Files app. Only then will the songs be accessible on VLC.

From there, launch VLC (or your chosen app) again and check the Audio section. You can immediately select a song to play or browse the Artists, Albums, Songs/Tracks and Genres tabs at the top to find the title you want. Just like other music platforms, VLC allows you to create playlists, add songs to queue, and mark songs as favorites. Perhaps the best part of the app is that it doesn’t show any ads and works completely offline. Note that many phones, even older ones, come with pre-installed media players that you may also be able to use.