Let’s just admit that Google’s transition from Google Play Music to YouTube Music hasn’t exactly been smooth for users.

Previously, there were widespread complaints of missing songs and features. And now, there’s the issue where device files are showing up slow.

There has been a slew of complaints on the official YouTube Music forums regarding this. Reports say that music on local storage either shows up very slowly (a couple of minutes or more) or doesn’t load at all.

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Yep. Mine does the same thing. The ones that I bought work just fine but the ones I have personally downloaded to my phone take forever to load. I want to be able to shuffle between all my songs and not just have to click on one set of songs or the other to be able to listen to all of them while driving or something.
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Pixel 5, same issue! It takes for the ever to load device music
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Upon a deeper look, the issue appears to be limited to Android only, across various devices and different Android versions. There is no evidence to indicate that the problem is present on iOS as well.

Furthermore, the issue has been taken up by a Product Expert. But this was a couple of months ago and there seems to be no fix in sight. The cause behind the bug also remains unknown.

Just letting you guys know that I’m pushing for this to be investigated. I have forwarded this thread as well. Thanks for your patience.
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The complaints have only increased ever since, especially after the recent deprecation of Google Play Music.

Talking about Google Play Music, plenty of users are remembering the ‘good old days’ when they didn’t have to face any such issues on the stable and trusted GPM app.

Shouldn’t have tried to fix what’s not broken…loved GPM
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However, it is important to understand here that the app is quite new, and all good things take time. There’s also plenty of positives in the YouTube Music app, starting with the fact that music is mostly available for free.

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The YouTube Music app

Moreover, the eventual phasing out of Google Play Music was inevitable, considering how hopelessly outdated its interface had begun to look, and the fact that there were virtually no updates to fix that.

Another major plus point is the seamless integration between the main YouTube app and YouTube Music. This is a huge jump in convenience.

Workaround for the YouTube Music device files slow loading issue

Pushing the TED Talk aside, there is one thing you can do to address the issue. There are several apps available for download on the Google Play Store that are meant to play music on the local storage only.

For your convenience, we have picked a couple of such music players for you.

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The Abbey music player

1. Abbey Music Player: Offers a great Material Design 2 experience that goes well with other Google apps. You can download it from here.

2. Phonograph Music Player: Another eye catching player with all the necessary features and can be downloaded from here.

Hopefully, you will enjoy using these picks while waiting for an official fix from Google.

That being said, let us know in the comments below if the above players helped with the YouTube Music device files slow loading issue for you.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Zohaib Ahmed
824 Posts

Simply love being surrounded by technology as it's a constant reminder of how far humans have advanced as a race. Every new development feels exciting, which I convey to others through writing. And after a day's work, gaming just feels therapeutic.

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