How To Play Music Files Directly from Google Drive
If you have music files on your Google Drive, you might want to play them directly without having to download them first. Music Player for Google Drive allows you to do it.
If you have some music files stored in your Google Drive, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to play them everywhere and without having to download them first. Here’s how you can do just that.
Play Music Directly from Google Drive
Log in to your Google Drive, find the music file you want to play, and right-click it. In the menu that comes up, click “Open with” and then the “Connect more apps” option.
Now, search for Music Player for Google Drive and connect it to your account in the window that comes up. Don’t forget to set it to be used by default. That way, you won’t need to go through these steps each time.
Now, right-click the MP3 file you want to play, go to Open with > Music Player for Google Drive and allow access to your account when prompted. Note that it also supports MP4, OGG, WAV, and AAC music files.
Your song will play without a problem, and from now on, it will do so directly. It’s also worth noting that a playlist will automatically be created if you select more than one track. You can always click “Add audio files from Google Drive” to add more songs to the playlist.
29 Comments
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Diablo
March 24, 2014 at 5:41 am
Hi Bogdan,
Since Google increased the storage allocation I’ve moved a lot of audiobooks and movies into my Drive folder. Just wondering though, while it seems easy enough to play an album/book on a desktop it doesn’t seem as easy to do from my (android) phone.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Ethan
October 4, 2018 at 10:59 pm
I have the same question. Works fine on the laptop but when I try to open a playlist on my iPhone, no dice. On a browser it says, “Preview not available.” On the Google Drive app it says, “Unsupported file type.”
Ann D Roid
March 1, 2019 at 12:43 am
get an Android…no really, you dont know what you are missing…
John Public
April 13, 2021 at 8:47 am
I have an Android phone, but I’m working with a windows PC .
Jerome
April 12, 2014 at 2:18 am
Thank you for the tip!
However, when I got the following message:
“An error occurred when attempting to read this song”
Pascal Couture
June 18, 2014 at 3:16 pm
Hi, I am using tho method and I can play files from my own Google Drive. However, if I share a folder containing WAV files with another user, they cannot play them. Do you know of a workaround or solution to this issue? Btw, I am not pirating music. These are recordings we have produced internally at our office that we want to be able to stream with whomever we share a folder with.
Thanks!
paige
November 8, 2014 at 2:22 pm
How do I put music from google play music into my drive?
Please help!
eddie
March 5, 2016 at 6:01 am
Does it still need signal to access them I do alot of traveling and lose signal alot and rely on the music on my phone.
Branden
April 4, 2016 at 6:02 pm
You can save music offline when using Google Drive
machiel
June 1, 2016 at 6:36 am
Nice advice, but it doesn’t work (at least not on Firefox on Linux). It says “Sorry we are unable to play this song”
Tim Welch
July 27, 2016 at 1:12 pm
I am having the same issue. Did you figure out how to get Music Player for Google Drive to work?
Murphy
October 5, 2016 at 1:01 am
Will “Google Home” allow you to play music directly from “Google Drive”?
Frank Schenk
November 20, 2016 at 1:36 am
There’s no way but using the Google App or maybe something “compatible”… that’s no good politics, to force people to use some stuff… and to tell them – by the way – their browser can’t play mp3-files…! Hilarious, isn’t it? I won’t store any (even of my own) music on google drive no more… they don’t want you to share it… ^^
Cat
December 18, 2016 at 10:54 pm
Our work voicemail emails them to us as .wav files. I wish I could play these in Google Drive, rather than downloading then playing via iTunes which is a slow process (and means having iTunes open, which slows down my entire computer). But it says it’s unable to play it — and ‘your browser may be unable to support this format’. I use Chrome so not sure why this is happening.
I hope someone can help?
Greg
December 25, 2018 at 1:42 pm
I get .wav voice messages too. On Android tap the attachment and choose to open with Google Music. Works every time for me.
Gord Michaels
August 11, 2017 at 4:25 am
I agree, others should be able to listen without having an account. Another annoyance is you can’t select for example 3 files to download at the same time, you have to download one after another. Pure pain in the ass. Why is there no option to not zip when downloading. You have to explain to all how to unzip the damn thing. For those not tech if you don’t tell them this just causes total frustration.
tim266666
October 9, 2017 at 7:37 am
to open MP3 file and listen in browser (any)
choose and open the file first from GoogleDrive!
Use the “TAB” key: (in step2)
||
step1: after F5 (refreshing the page) click 3 times on Play(it’s MP3 in my case)
step2: then use “Tab key” by pressing it 2 times until the cursor is on “Play Anyway”
step3: now hit Enter key.
Enjoy
Jan Henderon
December 8, 2018 at 4:12 pm
I found this very helpful. Thank you. What it doesn’t include is how to play the playlist once you have it. I assumed I could double click on the name of the playlist, which brought it up but only played one song at a time. You have to right click on the playlist name and select Open With, then Music Player for Google Drive. Then it works great.
Joe78man
August 15, 2019 at 10:52 am
Seriously? I have to manually browse and pick by hand, one by one, the file I want in my playlist? I cannot select one folder, or several folders and have Google to add all audio files into the list? really? I cannot simply select all my audio files, select suffle and forget? if so, it is so well hidden or non-obvious I see no option to achieve this simple task
elke de boer
April 10, 2020 at 6:43 am
its not working anymore. the media player doesnt support flash or plug in for mp3 files anymore. i did work with it for live and playback. found out after hours of research google simply switched that function of.
if anyone knows how to play mp3 files now via chromebook please let me know
but i think i cant recommend chromebook anymore from now on
J
April 13, 2020 at 4:14 pm
Use this instead as the Music player for Google Drive does not work anymore:
“Cloud FLAC, MP3, AAC Player”
Joe
May 25, 2020 at 2:18 am
After “Music Player for Google Drive” stopped working, I found a similar application but more convenient “Music from Drive”. I am fully satisfied with the work of this application!
Nathan
August 11, 2020 at 11:00 am
Not a good program. Confusing to use, and the size limitation of the playable files is ridiculous. Looking elsewhere.
Judi Moore
October 19, 2020 at 10:24 am
My choir leader puts her teaching music files on Google Drive. Using the fix you give it may be possible to play one’s own music from Google Drive – but it is certainly not happening with someone else’s (shared with me) files.
Just F Y I
John Public
April 13, 2021 at 8:50 am
The Google Drive addon by the same name has not been updated since 2015 & seems to no longer be working.
Alex W
August 4, 2021 at 11:02 pm
I have tried all of the music program options to play mp3s and all other music files on my drive from the chrome browser on my laptop. I have installed and uninstalled all of them.
The drive on my iphone can play the files.
again, On my laptop I cannot play music files using my chrome browser, or any other browser, when I log into drive. What is up with this?
I think I need to stop using google as my life revolves around music production.
8-4-2021
Alex w
August 5, 2021 at 8:45 am
I discovered that if I copy the link for the audio file and paste it somewhere, like into a google sheet, when I click the link in the sheet a new browser window opens up with audio player and it plays fine. So that’s good. I can continue making a database using sheets.
But it’s frustrating that I can’t play a file directly in drive.
Red
October 11, 2021 at 7:12 pm
Spent the entire afternoon installing and uninstalling apps to be able to play MY stored music on Google Drive. There was a time not long ago I could pay entire CD/Album from the G drive. Now I can only play one track and everything stops…does not proceed to the next track. youtube substitute/new method is useless!
Nope Brigade
September 21, 2023 at 3:39 pm
Music Player for Google Drive app
Has access to all files on your drive and can edit, modify and delete them.
Yeah, NO. Uninstalled.