You do not have to
use the Windows Phone software to copy music, pictures, and videos to
your phone. You can also use File Explorer (known as Windows Explorer
in Windows 7 and earlier versions) to drag and drop content directly to
your phone. The exact steps that you use vary depending on the
operating system you are running on your computer. The procedures in
this section are based on Windows 8, although these steps are similar
for previous Windows versions.
The following sections show how you can add
music to your phone and then remove it, but the procedures are
identical for working with videos and pictures. The only difference is
which folders you select to copy files from and where you place them on
the phone. For example, to add a photo from your PC to your phone,
instead of copying to your Windows Phone’s Music folder, you copy it to
the phone’s Pictures folder.
Adding Media to Your Phone
The easiest way to add media to your phone is
to simply drag and drop items from your collection. To do so, you must
connect your phone to your computer or tablet using a USB cable.
However, the Windows Phone software is not required. After you’ve
connected your phone, follow these steps:
1. Open a File Explorer window on your Windows desktop and click Computer in the Navigation pane.
Opening File Explorer
You can open File Explorer in any version of Windows by holding down the Windows key on your keyboard and pressing E.
2. Double-click
Windows Phone. (If Windows Phone doesn’t appear here, check to make
sure it’s properly connected to your computer.)
3. Double-click the Phone folder and then the folder for the type of media you want to add (in this case, Music).
4. Open a second File Explorer window (WinKey+E) and select the media library containing the files you want to copy.
5. Right-click the content you want to copy. This can be individual files or a folder that contains multiple pieces of media.
6. Chose the Copy command from the shortcut menu.
7. Switch back to the
other open copy of File Explorer. Right-click inside File Explorer and
choose the Paste command from the shortcut menu. The content you copied
is then accessible from your Windows Phone.
Missing Media
If you copy the wrong kind of media to a
folder—for example, music files to a video folder—Windows Phone 8 will
either ignore the file or generate an error when you try to play it.
