Saturday, September 1, 2018

Installing PowerAmp on an Older Android Device That Can't Access Google Play

I use my old HTC Droid Incredible for a media player.  I would TOTALLY still use it for my main phone if it weren't for the fact that it maxes out at 3G and Verizon has stopped allowing older devices to be activated.  I love, love, love it's small size, and I also love the optical joy stick.  PLEASE, oh world's makers of phones, bring small phones and the optical joy stick back!!!

Anyway... I have ripped my hundreds and hundreds of CD's to FLAC.  That means I need a player that will handle FLAC files.  The native Android player on Gingerbread does not support FLAC (or much of anything else).  After a bunch of research, I've landed on PowerAmp as my app of choice.

Now comes the problem.  Google Play no longer supports Android Gingerbread, and my Droid Incredible is running Android 2.3.4.  I just want to play FLAC files with my beloved Droid.

I e-mailed PowerAmp, and they weren't much help.  In fact, here is there reply:
"Google quit supporting Android 2.3 so you may have to find and download older Play version"
Yeah.  Thanks loads for all the help.

So I can't download PowerAmp via Google Play (what is called "Market" on my phone).  I also can't side load the PowerAmp APK to my Droid because Android 2.3.4 doesn't have a file browser, thus if  I drop the APK onto the phone via USB from my computer, there is no way to get to it from inside the phone.  Even if you put it in the "Downloads" folder (to which Android 2.3.4 does allow access), the APK file won't show up because it wasn't put there by Android's Downloads Manager!  Furthermore, I can't download the app from the PowerAmp website, because the only way to access the internet from the phone is via the baked-in "Internet" app on Android 2.3.4.  That app does not support secure web connections (and thus really shouldn't be used to access today's internet, except my hand is currently being forced).

After searching for a work around, a long and convoluted process that I won't bore you with, I figured out a way to get things done.

I used my back up app (MyBackup Pro) on my everyday phone (a Moto Droid Z Force) to create an APK for both PowerAmp and the PowerAmp Unlocker that were on that phone.

I then uploaded those APK's to a non-secure web site --any old website to which you have FTP access and can upload files.  I would advise renaming the APK's so they are easy to type in and then place them as close to the root as you can so you don't have to do a lot of typing. (i.e. YourDomain.com/poweramp.apk and YourDomain.com/unlock.apk)

Thus I was able to download the two APK's via the "Internet" app on my Android 2.3.4 device.  Since they were downloaded in a way Android approved of, I was able to access the APK files via the Downloads app.

When I clicked both APK's, I verified that I wanted to install the apps, and BANG!  I'm running PowerAmp on my Gingerbread device.

Rock and roll (literally).

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