Frequently Asked Questions

An Android phone with a USB-C port, a USB CD/DVD drive, and a USB-C OTG adapter if your drive uses USB-A. No computer required.

Most standard USB CD/DVD drives will work, both name-brand and generic. A small number of older drives use an incompatible protocol, and Discs will let you know if you connect one. Power draw also varies from drive to drive, and some drives need more power than a phone can reliably supply on its own; a USB-C adapter with a power passthrough port covers this. You get two free rips to confirm your setup before buying.

If your drive has a USB-A connector, you'll need a USB-C OTG adapter. Most will work, but build quality varies; the cheap adapters bundled with generic drives in particular can cause unreliable connections. Separately, we recommend a USB-C adapter with a power passthrough port so you can keep the phone charged while ripping; depending on your phone and drive, it can be the difference between intermittent and consistent rips.

Discs supports Android 8 and above. If your phone has USB-C and was made in the last several years, it should work. Contact us at support@discsmusic.com if you run into compatibility issues.

FLAC (lossless) and AAC (high-quality compressed). The default is FLAC, labeled "Perfect quality" in the app, but you can switch to AAC at any time if you prefer smaller files.

FLAC is a bit-perfect copy of the CD audio, identical to the original disc, but files are larger (roughly 300 to 500 MB per album). AAC sounds great at about a quarter of the size. If you're not sure, stick with FLAC. You can always re-rip later.

About 5 to 10 minutes for a typical album, depending on your drive. You can use your phone normally while it rips in the background.

Yes, automatically. When you insert a disc, Discs pulls album art, track names, and artist information from our metadata server. You'll need an internet connection for the lookup, but not for ripping or playback.

Yes. You can enable AccurateRip verification in advanced settings to check your rips against a database of known-good copies. A log is saved with each ripped disc.

Yes. Discs supports Android Auto, so your full library shows up on your car's display. You can browse by album or artist and control playback from the dashboard.

Yes. Discs supports Bluetooth and Google Cast, so you can stream to any Bluetooth speaker, Chromecast, Google Home, or other Cast-enabled device.

Yes. Live albums, concept records, and DJ mixes play seamlessly with no gaps between tracks.

Yes. You can create playlists in the app and import existing M3U playlists.

Yes. You can edit album titles, artist names, track numbers, disc numbers, year, genre, and album art. Tag editing works on FLAC, M4A, MP3, and WAV files. You can also edit metadata before ripping a disc.

Discs can sync music between your phone's library and a dedicated media player (DAP). Connect your player over USB or insert its micro SD card into your phone, and drag albums or artists between devices. You can sync in both directions.

Discs works with players that appear as a USB drive when connected (USB mass storage). Tested players include the Hiby R1, FiiO/Snowsky Echo, FiiO/Snowsky Echo mini, and innioasis Y1. Most players that mount as a USB drive should work. iPods and MTP devices (including other Android phones) are not currently supported.

Yes. If your media player uses a micro SD card, you can insert the card directly into your phone and Discs will treat it as removable storage. Sync works the same as with a connected player.

No. Media sync is included with the $10 CD Ripping & Media Sync purchase. If you've already bought CD ripping, you get media sync at no extra cost.

Yes. Discs runs on Chromebooks through ChromeOS's Android app support. You can rip CDs, manage your library, sync media players, and play music.

ChromeOS doesn't automatically share USB devices with Android apps. You need to enable your CD drive manually: open ChromeOS Settings, go to Apps, then Manage Google Play Preferences, then Manage USB Devices, and enable your CD drive. Discs includes a built-in help screen with these steps.

For players that use USB mass storage, go to ChromeOS Settings, then Apps, then Manage Google Play Preferences, then External Storage Preferences, and enable the player's storage. ChromeOS needs to share the storage with the Android container before Discs can see it.

Discs is free to download and use as a music player. If you'd like to rip CDs or sync music to a media player, you can purchase CD Ripping & Media Sync for $10 through Google Play. You also get two free rips to test your setup before buying.

No. CD ripping, media sync, and music playback will never require a subscription. Purchase it once and you own it for life.

Discs requires an internet connection when ripping CDs in order to retrieve CD information, including album name, track names, and album art. Playback and everything else work offline.

On your device, in a folder of your choice. Discs will never move or upload your music without your permission.

Discs uses an anonymous user ID to manage your free rip allowance. No personal information is collected. When you rip a CD, disc information is sent to our metadata server to look up track details, and to AccurateRip if you have verification enabled. We also collect anonymous crash logs to help fix bugs. Our Privacy Policy has the full breakdown.

When you connect a drive, Android will ask you to grant Discs permission to access it. We recommend selecting "always allow" so Discs launches automatically when a drive is connected. If the drive isn't detected, there are two things to check. First, verify that your adapter supports USB OTG and try a different one; quality varies. Second, some drive and phone combinations need a USB-C adapter with a power passthrough port for the drive to come up at all. If neither helps, contact support@discsmusic.com.

USB CD drives can pull more power than many phones reliably deliver over USB-C, and the actual draw varies a lot from drive to drive. Some drives even report a lower power requirement than they actually use. When the supply isn't steady, symptoms range from the drive not being detected, to mid-rip disconnects, to individual tracks needing a re-rip. The fix is a USB-C adapter with a power passthrough port (sometimes sold as a PD passthrough adapter or Y-splitter). Plug a charger or power bank into the passthrough while the drive is connected and rips become consistent, even on phones that struggle without it. Because the power threshold varies so much from one phone-and-drive combination to the next, some setups won't rip reliably without inline power at all, while others only need it with hungrier drives. If rips are inconsistent and you've ruled out the disc, a USB-C adapter with a power passthrough port is almost always what fixes it.

Metadata comes from an online database and occasionally has errors or missing entries. You can fix tags directly in the app using the tag editor, or before ripping by editing the metadata on the rip screen. If something looks off and you think the database entry is wrong, let us know at support@discsmusic.com.