How To Turn CDs Into Tunes for Your Phone with a PC

1. Turn your CDs into MP3s

The first order of business is to rip your CDs into a format that your current and future phones will be able to play, which is MP3 (the most widely-supported compressed audio format around). Although iTunes is popular, herein lies the rub: when importing music, iTunes defaults to AAC, as opposed to MP3. To set iTunes to rip CDs to the MP3 format, go to Edit > Preferences and select the Advanced tab. In the Importing section, choose Import Using: MP3 Encoder, and select the Good quality setting (you can choose a higher-quality setting, but that will translate to fewer songs fitting onto your cell phone). Click the OK button, and you're ready to start importing your CDs onto your computer, by inserting a CD into your computer and clicking the Import button.

2. Get your external storage card

If your cell phone came with an external storage card, it most likely came in a separate plastic case with an adapter card (see Step 4). If not, the card might be in your cell phone. Either way you need to know where to put the storage card once you get your music onto it.

Many cases the card slot is on the side of the phone and has an engraving of a MicroSD card on it. You pull it open and you'll be able to insert your card there - these are hot-swappable (meaning you don't have to turn off the cell phone to eject the card). In this case, the MicroSD card slot is located near the battery, so you'll need to remove the battery cover and battery to get to it.

3. If needed, format the card on your cell phone

If you have a MicroSD card (or other compatible external storage card for your cell phone) from another cell phone, you may need to format the card to work with your cell phone first before you try to save any music onto it. Before you start formatting the card, first save all the pics, music, or files you may have on it onto your PC. You will lose everything on there when you format the card on your phone.

Once you're ready to format a card, stick it into the cell phone and find Settings or Tools (it's different on every phone) and then look for something along the lines of File Manager under the memory card. Under Options there should be a selection to Format the card. This process erases any existing data on the card and creates the folders and menu system that will work with your particular cell phone.

4. Insert the memory card into a reader connected to your PC

As you've probably figured out by now, a MicroSD card is pretty tiny (about the size of your pinky nail), which is why you'll need an SD adapter card if you want to use it with any reader. Once the card has been formatted on the cell phone, you'll need to remove it and stick the card into the SD adapater and then into a SD card reader. In our case, we have an SD adapter built into our computer so we just slid the adapter into there and we're ready to go.

Note: Once you put the MicroSD card into an SD card adapter you can use the SD card with any other SD compatible device (for example, a digital camera).

5. Find the phone's storage card on your computer

When you connect a storage card to a PC, you'll see a pop-up window that asks you what you want Windows to do with the newly-connected device. Choose Open Folder to View Files. (If you don't see this window, you can find your storage card by double clicking My Computer; your card will be listed as a "removable device".) Select it and you'll be able to navigate through your phone's data card folders. You’ll want the one that has Music in the title.

6. Open your PC's music folder and copy tunes onto your storage card

Drag and drop albums and songs from your computer's music folder into your MicroSD's music folder. Or, if you prefer, you can copy and paste them. Don't worry; if you try to transfer more music than your card can fit, it's not a disaster, you just get a message saying it all didn't fit. If you're particular about what music you want on there, drag one album at a time into the card's music folder, so you can be sure your favorite stuff makes it on first. You can always rotate more music into the mix later, by deleting the albums from the MicroSD card and copying over new ones.

7. Eject the storage card safely from your computer

This part's important! Don't yank the the storage card out of your reader. Eventually, you're liable to remove the card exactly when some data is being transferred. The result is not pretty: all the data on your memory card will be zapped, including music, photos, videos, and whatever else is stored on your phone's memory card. To avoid this , find the eject icon in the Windows taskbar to the lower right of the screen. Right-click it, and choose Safely Remove Hardware. In the window that pops up, select Secure Digital Storage Device (if there are more than one of these, make sure you're selecting the one that corresponds with your card). Click the Stop button and then the Close button. Insert the card back into your cell phone and start playing your music through your phone’s music application.

Note: You may have to select “Storage Card” from your cell phone’s settings to access the music. This can be found in either the Music application or Settings & Tools. It varies from phone to phone.