Groove Music OneDrive track streaming ends March 31st

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Updated onDecember 9, 2019

updated onDecember 9, 2019

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Microsoft has announced thatWindows 10users will no longer be able to usethe Groove Music app to streammusicfrom OneDrive.

The decision will impactWindows 10Xbox One consoles, phones andPCsalong withForza Horizon 3.

Notably, users were able to play their favorite games while enjoyingmusicthrough Groove. However, it is worth mentioning that change applies only tomusicstreamingoptions.

You will be able to enjoy yourmusicfiles stored on OneDriveif it is synced to yourPC. Otherwise, by the end of April, you can continue to play themusicthrough the OneDrive app but you will lose all the data that is stored with Groove services.

The decision sparked anger among users

Furthermore, as we already know, Microsoft hasretired the Groove appsfor iOS and Android.

This time. the company moved a step furtherby removing thestreamingability from OneDrivemusicfolder to Groove. Most users are still concerned about how the change will affect the Xbox users.

They have various questions in mind so it resulted in a conversation in aRedditthread.

The decision sparked anger among the users who are used to playingmusicwhile playing their favorite games. One of the users stated:

Man this really bugs me. I use this feature all the time. There are certain games i only play whilestreamingmy ownmusic. I dont want to either use or pay for Spotify. It’s not like localstreamingworks properly like it used to on the Xbox 360, it never behaves itself properly.Seems dumb that MS is pushingstreamingwith things like Xcloud but they’re takingstreamingoptions away from people who pay money for Onedrive storage options. Not impressed.

Some of the users even went on to suggest some possible workarounds to continue using theXbox version of Groovebeyond April 2019.

You can stream fromPCto Xbox, by finding the files in File Explorer, right-clicking, Play To > Xbox. It will start up Groove on the Xbox and play the songs over your local network.Not very elegant or intuitive though, because you need to keep thePCon, and use it to select songs. Groove + OneDrive was such a simple and useful solution.

Moreover, another user suggested usingSpotify, to listen to the albums you have bought on Amazon via the Prime Music app.

Groove will continue to work

Groove users don’t need to worry as the app will continue to work normally. Users will just not be able to access the OneDrive music inside the app’s library. You will still be able to access the OneDrive music outside of the Groove app.

It seems like a permanent workaround is on the way as a user has claimed to work on it.

I’m currently playing around with an app that can do local playback, since that’s simple enough to set up. OneDrive playback seems to require a new Graph API, which I am trying to figure out. Ideally I’d like it to handle local, OneDrive, network…

Will put all the code and a download (AppX) on GitHub once it’s mostly functional, and if it works well enough, I’ll look into a Store release, so it can be used on Xbox without dev mode. Can’t offer any sort of ETA, as this is a side project I literally just started, but it’s something I’ll be using myself, so I’ll be sure to get something working.

The users have to wait and watch until a reliable alternative is rolled out to theWindows 10users.

Groove Music OneDrive track streaming ends March 31st#

The decision sparked anger among users#

Groove will continue to work#

Groove Music OneDrive track streaming ends March 31st

The decision sparked anger among users

Groove will continue to work