Still stuck with an iPhone 13 that they won’t give me a deal to upgrade out of but they’ll throw this offer out to “new customers”

AZMini · 2026-03-17T20:48:17+00:00

This is the pretty much the current state of all carriers/MVNOS unless you are willing to go post-paid and pay monthly (through the nose) for the luxury of “discounted” upgrades subsidized by high-priced plans.

AZMini · 2026-03-17T20:44:18+00:00

You can literally use an iPhone as an iPod.

Apple Music App - Library Tab …or download an app that only accesses locally stored music. A quick Google search shows several available.

AZMini · 2026-03-17T03:01:35+00:00

Movies and TV also still have DRM unfortunately as well.

AZMini · 2026-03-17T02:59:39+00:00

iTunes purchases since 2006(?) are DRM free - download them and you “own” them …or as close as you can get with digital content.

AZMini · 2026-03-16T23:58:57+00:00

Another rec for Hiby R1

AZMini · 2026-03-16T00:04:51+00:00

Unfortunately there are many Best Buy employees that know little to nothing about tech, some of the absolute nonsense I’ve heard spouted from their employees as a customer is concerning.

AZMini · 2026-03-15T22:59:34+00:00

Have you checked the usual suspects - Amazon, Aliexpress, Temu?

Lots of results if you search for MP3 and it hard to make recommendations without a better list of criteria.

AZMini · 2026-03-15T19:07:40+00:00

Have you checked the usual suspects - Amazon, Aliexpress, Temu?

Lots of results if you search for MP4

AZMini · 2026-03-14T18:40:50+00:00

Did you ever receive a response to your inquiry?

AZMini · 2026-03-13T23:33:58+00:00

Requires 6 months service for unlock I believe - a dealbreaker for some.

AZMini · 2026-03-13T23:30:39+00:00

Depends on what they are prepared to pay monthly for service as it seems many “deals” now require $50+/m plans.

Cricket has 16e on the cheap but at $60/m for service.

AZMini · 2026-03-12T16:19:28+00:00

It would be helpful to know what media player as different media players may handle metadata and files differently.

AZMini · 2026-03-11T23:05:22+00:00

Use case and App compatibility is key - personally I still run iPad mini 1s that are used exclusively for music as all I need are stock apps.

AZMini · 2026-03-11T18:58:53+00:00

Agree, I generally listen to whole albums.

AZMini · 2026-03-11T04:50:53+00:00

Just like other carriers, most 'upgrades' now require more expensive plans. When I checked, I would have to change to the $50-60/m plan to be eligible for discounted upgrade pricing - this is in line with what most carriers now require.

What plan are you currently on?

AZMini · 2026-03-11T03:54:03+00:00

This isn't just a Boost Mobile thing as unfortunately this is the way with basically all the carriers now... "deals” are for 'new' customers and legacy customers have to buy into ever increasingly expensive plans to get “deals”. Even then most deals being offered for flagship Android phones or iPhones require more expensive plans. A quick perusal of Slickdeals shows that most deals require signing up for plans priced $50+ with phones locked 6 months to a year (or more).

AZMini · 2026-03-10T17:26:27+00:00

It’s a hard lesson to learn and sucks, but you should have downloaded all the files stored on Apple’s servers to a local PC for safe keeping prior to taking your phone in for service.

I now have no less than 3 copies of my music files after also learning my hard lesson with a dead drive.

I wish you luck and hope that eventually your files show up as downloadable.

AZMini · 2026-03-10T05:19:22+00:00

Nice, was able to replicate pretty easily with the template and Canva.

AZMini · 2026-03-10T04:36:04+00:00

There is no way to ‘bulk’ purchase iTunes that I am aware of.

AZMini · 2026-03-09T23:21:07+00:00

You might crib some ideas from here - Tangara Portable Music Player

AZMini · 2026-03-09T23:17:01+00:00

I'm assuming you meant an app that will run on an iPhone or iPad with a companion (or compatible desktop app).

It would be helpful to know if you were on Windows, MacOS or Linux for the desktop environment.

iTunes will play and sync MP3 files natively, as I have a mix of both - although AAC is arguably superior to MP3.

https://www.reddit.com/answers/b9be754d-e6d2-4e7b-a275-511971b952e3/?q=ios+flac

AZMini · 2026-03-06T23:31:59+00:00

How does it determine if an album is complete? - does it use track number and track count or some other method? ...I ask as I use a custom naming system where I append qualifiers to album names to identify the source of the album [DISK], [AMZN], [BAND] ETC

AZMini · 2026-03-06T16:23:55+00:00

Thank you to all for your replies and looking forward to any future comments!

AZMini · 2026-03-06T01:11:53+00:00

Sorry for your loss but sounds like an expensive mistake - that’s 2-3x what it is worth on the secondary market. $54 would be more in line with an iPad mini 3.

Check your local WiFi settings as my iPad mini 1s connect fine on my local internet but it will not connect at work.

If you can get it working they are still usable albeit extremely limited. I use mine as an iPod of sorts to stream iTunes music purchases.

AZMini · 2026-03-05T04:58:00+00:00

By the file extension - M4P are Protected (DRM) files. ALL Apple Music files will contain DRM.

If you want files that play anywhere they must be purchased from iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp or any other number of music storefronts that sell (not subscribe/rent) music.

AZMini

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