Free Android smartphone apps to restore your music library

If you own an Android smartphone, you probably got a notification in the past couple of weeks telling you that a system update was available? If you’re anything like me, then you probably thought ‘yes please, that will do nicely’ and proceeded to download the updated operating system pronto.

Now, I love having my HTC Desire HD sport the new Android 2.3 operating system. It has added some great extra features like ‘Quick Features’ on my drop down menu so that I can easily connect to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth etc, the weather graphics now have crazy little sound effects and my apps menu is now split into three categories. All in all, having Android 2.3 on my phone is creating a lot of enjoyment, but, in the process of installing the update, it did distort one thing; my beloved music collection.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am absolutely addicted to apps like Amazon MP3. I am on it all the time, downloading whilst on the move and probably spending far too much money, but I don’t mind because in return, I get my track and the correct artwork, hence a perfectly organised music collection to be proud of. Imagine my dismay to find that after the updated operating system had been installed, over eight hundred tracks had been moved to the ‘unknown artist’ folder and all artwork was missing as my microSD card wasn’t being read correctly! Devastated!

If you have ever had that ‘heart beating in your head’ kind of feeling, then you know what I’m talking about. Luckily, common sense prevailed and I immediately thought that the answer might lay in apps from the Android Marketplace. Turns out, I was completely correct and rectifying this horrendous situation was done easily and at the cost of zero pence.

So, if after updating your Android smartphone, you found yourself with the same problem, just download these apps and you’ll have your music library restored to its former perfection in no time.

ID3 Fixer:
With this great little app, I was able to turn all the titles of the tracks that had been moved into the ‘unknown artists’ folder into a format that was readable. All I had to do was assign a charset (character decoding system) from the drop down menu at the top, preview it to check that I had chosen the correct one and then just click on the music I wanted decoding. Five minutes later, my music was back where it was meant to be and a smile started appearing on my face again.

Cover Art Grabber:
Free and really simple, this app did exactly what the name suggests; grabbed all the missing artwork for my music and made it all organised again. It works by downloading high resolution cover artwork from online data bases and with its auto background fetching mode, you don’t have to wait. If you find that there is some cover art that it is unable to find, you don’t have to worry as you can click ‘search’ when it brings up incorrect artwork and look at alternative album covers to fill the image that is missing from your collection.

So, I now have a brand new updated operating system and my amazing music library has been restored to its former glory. Thank you Android.

Check out and get your hands on an Android smartphone or tablet.