Assuming I can uninstall it...
August 11, 2013 8:45 PM Subscribe
Is there an alternative to Samsung Kies for Galaxy 3 users?
Samsung Kies is a bad, no-good, horrible program and I'd really like to find an alternative to make my computer talk to my Galaxy 3. Ideally it would provide total sync/backup services but I'd be happy with reliable media sharing.
I don't really want to get into it but suffice to say I am no longer interested in trying to make Kies or Kies Air work. At all. I have a 5 year old PC, running Windows XP and no plans to upgrade the computer any time soon. I also have no plans to buy an iphone or a Mac. (Or anything made by Samsung ever again).
I use PowerAmp, which I am not particularly attached to, to play music on the phone and nothing to play music on the computer, it's just stored there. I do have iTunes installed on the computer because in the past I used iSync but I no longer buy music from iTunes so I'm trying to replace that whole system. I have also tried using Windows Media Player to transfer media files but it's pretty eh in terms of features and the interface is bad to terrible.
I'm really hoping for a third party app that provides seamless backup and syncing of my phone to my computer with a restore function. I am willing to pay cash money for an app that does that! But I'll settle for some way to get music, audiobooks, podcasts and photos on and off the phone without having to move weirdly named individual files or spend all weekend doing it.
Samsung Kies is a bad, no-good, horrible program and I'd really like to find an alternative to make my computer talk to my Galaxy 3. Ideally it would provide total sync/backup services but I'd be happy with reliable media sharing.
I don't really want to get into it but suffice to say I am no longer interested in trying to make Kies or Kies Air work. At all. I have a 5 year old PC, running Windows XP and no plans to upgrade the computer any time soon. I also have no plans to buy an iphone or a Mac. (Or anything made by Samsung ever again).
I use PowerAmp, which I am not particularly attached to, to play music on the phone and nothing to play music on the computer, it's just stored there. I do have iTunes installed on the computer because in the past I used iSync but I no longer buy music from iTunes so I'm trying to replace that whole system. I have also tried using Windows Media Player to transfer media files but it's pretty eh in terms of features and the interface is bad to terrible.
I'm really hoping for a third party app that provides seamless backup and syncing of my phone to my computer with a restore function. I am willing to pay cash money for an app that does that! But I'll settle for some way to get music, audiobooks, podcasts and photos on and off the phone without having to move weirdly named individual files or spend all weekend doing it.
WinAMP seems to manage this sort of thing but I haven't tried it with Samsung devices. It should detect the device and ask you if it's a device you'd like to use with WinAMP. That'll take care of your media transfer. (Calling it sync isn't right here, but I've never managed to wrap my head around the sync paradigm that portable devices use.) You can make play lists (m3U) with WinAMP. It also has an Android app, but you don't need the app to use WinAMP on the PC.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:03 PM on August 11, 2013
posted by Sunburnt at 9:03 PM on August 11, 2013
I suspect my needs are more modest than yours vis media, but I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and a Samsung Galaxy S3, and all I ever use is for getting files back and forth between them and my PC is ES File Explorer. It seems to handle my Windows File Shares just fine over Wireless. I did just install Samsung Kies recently when I began development on an Android App, but I am on Windows 7 so maybe that's why it went OK for me.
posted by forthright at 9:43 PM on August 11, 2013
posted by forthright at 9:43 PM on August 11, 2013
Oh, and just in case my media solutions are of any interest to you (???), I use Media Monkey on my Windows 7 PC and Jet Audio Plus on my Galaxy Tab 2, and Jet Audio Basic on my Galaxy S3 phone.
posted by forthright at 10:09 PM on August 11, 2013
posted by forthright at 10:09 PM on August 11, 2013
I use SyncMe to automatically sync folders and Solid Explorer to transfer files manually (both using SMB over wireless).
posted by selfnoise at 6:06 AM on August 12, 2013
posted by selfnoise at 6:06 AM on August 12, 2013
Along these lines, any suggestions on syncing Outlook (contacts and calendar)?
posted by sixpack at 8:57 AM on August 12, 2013
posted by sixpack at 8:57 AM on August 12, 2013
Response by poster: Double Twist looks like it'll work for the media anyway. I guess I will have to give up backing up the rest of the phone, which is a pain. Thanks all!
Sixpack the IT staff at work made my phone sync Outlook without all the ridiculous permissions it wanted as default. As I recall it took a while to figure out and involved forcing the phone to set up a simpler, different kind of connection than it wanted to by default.
posted by fshgrl at 12:02 PM on August 12, 2013
Sixpack the IT staff at work made my phone sync Outlook without all the ridiculous permissions it wanted as default. As I recall it took a while to figure out and involved forcing the phone to set up a simpler, different kind of connection than it wanted to by default.
posted by fshgrl at 12:02 PM on August 12, 2013
fshgrl, an idea, are you using DropBox? If you are, set it up for Camera Upload, and it will sync the photos between your phone and computer seamlessly.
posted by deezil at 4:21 PM on August 12, 2013
posted by deezil at 4:21 PM on August 12, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by deezil at 9:02 PM on August 11, 2013 [1 favorite]