Turn an Old Android Phone into a Click-Wheel Music Player

A spare phone, your own music, no subscriptions and no notifications.

That phone in the drawer still has a good screen, a headphone or Bluetooth connection, and plenty of room for music. With ClickWheel Music Player it becomes a dedicated music player: a classic click wheel to scroll and choose, your whole library a few turns away, and nothing to pull you into email or social media.

What you need

• An Android phone running Android 11 or newer. That's most phones sold from 2020 on. To check: Settings > About phone > Software information (or Android version).
• Your music as files: MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, Opus, WAV and more. Songs bought or ripped from CDs work; songs locked inside a streaming app don't.
• Room for it: a phone with a microSD slot can hold a very large library on a card.

1. Start fresh

If the phone was someone's everyday phone, back up anything you want from it, then reset it (Settings > General management > Reset on Samsung, Settings > System > Reset elsewhere). A clean phone has more space and runs faster. Install any system updates while you're connected.

2. Install ClickWheel

Install ClickWheel Music Player and open it. A short setup asks for access to your music, which folders hold it, and whether to tidy it up. You can skip the music for now and add it next.

3. Add your music

• From a computer, over Wi-Fi: on the phone, open Import > From a Computer, then open the link it shows in your computer's browser and drag in songs or whole album folders.
• With a cable or a microSD card: copy your music folders onto the phone or card, then choose them in Settings > Library > Music Folders.
• From Google Drive: keep your music in a Drive folder and play it through Music Streaming > Google Drive (this needs the Google Drive app and an internet connection, unless you download albums to the phone).

ClickWheel can fill in missing covers, find duplicate copies and file everything into Artist and Album folders: see Settings > Library > Fix My Library.

4. Make it a music player

• Quiet it down: turn off the phone's notifications for other apps, or use ClickWheel's Settings > Playback > Silence Notifications while music plays.
• Save battery: with no SIM card, turn on airplane mode and switch Wi-Fi back on only when you add music. Night mode (the moon at the top of the screen) also helps on most screens.
• Keep it at hand: put ClickWheel on the home screen, or as the only app on it.
• Make it yours: pick a player color in Settings > Display > Theme, from silver and black to the bright colors of the small players.

5. Listen

Turn the wheel to scroll, press the center to choose, and press MENU to go back. Hold Play/Pause to ask for a song, album or playlist by voice. Turn the phone sideways to flip through your albums by their covers. Bluetooth headphones, car stereos and Android Auto all work.

For everything else, see the ClickWheel user guide.