Hey Guys,
I love Slacker Radio, and the wireless caching is cool, but I rather cache through the computer for free.
Is there still a way to do this?
Hey Guys,
I love Slacker Radio, and the wireless caching is cool, but I rather cache through the computer for free.
Is there still a way to do this?
Answer
How do I cache my stations onto my BlackBerry device?
For 3.x and above of the Slacker Application for BlackBerry phones:
While a station is playing on your BlackBerry Phone, click on the menu button and choose "Cache Playing Station".
You can then refresh the cached stations by using USB, OTA (Over the Air using Cellular Network) or WiFi.
The directions to use USB are the same as 2.0.91 and below directions found below.
To refresh via Wifi/OTA, press the menu button and choose "Refresh Cached Stations". This will take you to the Refresh Cached Stations screen. You can see the time of the last refresh, the status, and if you would like to start a new refresh you can do that by clicking on "Refresh Now". While refreshing, you can not listen to the music due to the amount of data that is needed to download. You will get a status bar showing the progress of the refresh.
Wifi is recommended due to the faster data rate. If you are connected to Wifi we will use Wifi over OTA.
For 2.0.91 and below of the Slacker Application for BlackBerry:
While a station is playing on your BlackBerry phone, click on the menu button and then choose “Cache Playing Station”
The next time you connect your BlackBerry to your PC, make sure it’s set to run in Mass Storage Mode. If so, you should have an autorun box pop up that asks what you would like to do, choose Sync with Slacker Sync program.
If you do not see the box pop up, that means you have disabled your Autorun. In this case, navigate to your Removable Drive (My Computer, Then whatever drive letter is the removable drive for your BB), and you will find a program called “Slacker.Synclauncher.exe” Run this file to start the syncing process.
If you do not find the Slacker.Synclauncher.exe file, then this means that your phone is not in Mass Storage Mode. Some phones are set to not use Mass Storage Mode when connected via USB to the Computer. Please check your Options on your phone to validate that Mass Storage Mode is set to On, and Auto Enable Mass Storage Mode when Connected is set to Yes or Prompt.
**At this time, Caching stations to your BlackBerry Phone is only supported while using a Windows XP or Windows Vista PC.
I guess I was "trying" out wireless caching, and now when I try to follow this:
I get an error:While a station is playing on your BlackBerry phone, click on the menu button and then choose “Cache Playing Station”I'll try to uninstall and reinstall and let you know if I can get USB caching to work"Station Caching Trial Expired: Your trial has expired for station caching. Please upgrade to Slacker Radio Plus to continue playing cached radio."
Update: After uninstall, battery pull, reinstall, caching is now working properly. Thanks for the help!
So you are able to cache stations via USB and listen to them using version 3.xx?
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
Yes... USB caching is still a free alternative to the wireless caching even in v3.0.x
If it is telling you that your free trial has expired and asks you to upgrade, you must uninstall and reinstall the app
Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab
Just downloading and installing 3.0 starts you on the 14 day trail for caching. You just won't see anything about it until the 14 days are up. Then it will tell you that you can't cache because you are out of your trial period. If I remember correctly, I don't think it will even let you play a station that you already have cached (cached it before trial expired) once the 14 days are up. I think I got the notification that I couldn't use cached stations because my trial period was up not when I tried caching, but when I tried to listed to a cached station.
Rather than restarting your trial period every two weeks by uninstalling and reinstalling and recaching, you could install the newest "pre 3.0" version. It's 2.0.91 and will allow free caching via USB (no wifi option). There's a bug with it using a .607 OS, though. Sticking with the .517 OS (or a hybrid that uses it).
Here's a thread that discusses the caching and .607 bug (that's where I pasted the first part of my response above from): http://forums.crackberry.com/f35/slacker-607-a-449207/
Post #14 on that thread has the OTA link to version 2.0.91 of Slacker if you need it!
If anyone finds a way to cache for free on 3.x without uninstalling or how to get 2.0.91 to work on a .607 OS build, please let me know!
Thanks pezboy, needed the link for the old version.
Also FYI everybody, as if the Caching wasn't bad enough, with the latest version of Slacker you can't see what song is coming on next with the free version.
Pretty soon you'l have to have a paid subscription if you want the volume above 0.
Did you guys that can't cache try the Slacker Radio Plus instead of the basic version? I'm using Ver. 3.0.470 and my 9000 is on 5.0.0.681 and Slacker is working just like it always has. I'm pretty sure its been 2 weeks since I installed.
When I look at the Settings page or when I close the app, it asks me if I want a free trial of Slacker Radio PLUS and IIRC, that's the one that only has a two-week trial.
I didn't try the plus. When closing it would ask if I wanted to try it also. Just quit cacheing and letting me play cached stations after 2 weeks. That's the way it's supposed to work according to the Slacker website. If you are getting longer than 2 weeks, that's awesome!!
Way too many ads on the free version now. I hardly use the app anymore. The paid version is okay, I've gotten it for a couple months but it's hard to stay hooked when the free one is so unusable.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com