LG ENV2 Phone: Adding & Playing MP3s Using Linux (or Windows or Mac-OS)

Summary

This page is a short how-to for adding MP3 music to the LG ENV2 phone, without using the Verizon store. There is one micro SD card adaptor needed, and a somewhat hidden menu choice to format the card. Otherwise, this is very easy. The sound quality of the phone's speakers is not very good. Its built-in speakers sound like an old AM transistor radio. Still, it has let me work by my favorite "pops and clicks" when I had no other music player available.

Note: I have "Using Linux" in the title because that is the software I used. There is NOTHING about this how-to that is Operating System dependent. You can follow this using Windows or Mac OS as well. The names of the ripping software and file manager will change, that's all.

Extra Hardware Needed

• Micro SD card. The phone can handle up to an 8GB Micro SD Card. You can use smaller, but why?
• A USB adapter for a Micro SD card. The tiny Micro SD card fits directly in the phone where it says "MicroSD", but most computers will only have standard USB adaptors. A sample unit that lets you connect the MicroSD card to your computer is shown below.
  
• The blue plastic thing comes with the Adapter piece. The Micro SD card is sold separately but there is only 1 way that it all fits together.

Preparing MP3 Files on Your Computer

• Get your CDs into MP3 format. The phone only plays MP3s. I have had success with both "ripperx" and "ripoff" packages. Under Windows, I think the program Winamp will work. Of course, if you purchased MP3s directly, you would skip this step.
• Optional: Adjust the Genre tag for playlists. Group your MP3s into folders you would like to play together and give them the same "Genre" tag. The phone can play by Genre, but often if you buy MP3s, there are just too many different Genres for the same kind of music. You can use Easytag to change the Genre tag of all the files in a directory at once. (The windows version is the one ending in ".exe").
  • Open Easytag and browse to a folder containing music you want to tag with the same genre.
  • Highlight all the files and type in the Genre value for one of them.
  • Right-click in the Genre field and choose the command similar to "Apply to all".

Format the Micro-SD card

This is the major "trick" you need to know to get things started. There is little or no documentation that comes with the phone to tell you how to do this. I assume you are supposed to be buying songs from the Verizon Store like the directions say....

• Open the phone press "OK" for the menu.
• Settings & Tools [or #9].
• Memory [#9].
• Card Memory [#3].
• Options [Right button near screen].
• Format [#1].
• Confirm it will format in MSDOS format.

Transfer the Music Files

• Take the Micro SD card out of the phone (press it in to have it spring out a little).
• Put the Micro SD card in the Micro SD card adapter, like in the picture above, and plug it in a USB port in your computer.
• The default under Ubuntu Linux is for the Nautilus file browser to open and show the contents of the "USB Mass Storage Device". Under any operating system, the instructions are the same.
• Select the SONGS (not folders) for each genre you made and use "Edit...Copy" types of commands. Browse to the "my_music" folder on the Micro-SD card and use "Edit...Paste" type of commands.
• Repeat for all the individual music files you want (up to 8GB).
• Choose the "Eject" type of command for the USB drive when you are done and remove it.
• Put the Micro SD card back in the phone while it is OFF.

Play the Music

• Turn it on the phone and go to MENU...
• Media Center [5]
• Music & Tones [1]
• My Music [4]
• Note: I have a shortcut under the "Fn" keys, but I don't remember if I put it there.
• WAIT. The first time you do this it will take a VERY long time to "Add music to database". I mean up to 15 mins depending on the amount of memory you have used. The next time it will still take a while to read the database, but not nearly as long.
• Play a genre like a playlist. Select [1] Genres and *highlight* the genre you want to play. Press the right button near to screen to PLAY. It always starts alphabetically, so choose "Options" with the top-right button again and then "Shuffle"[2]. Kind of convoluted, but it works.