The administration of the popular social network VKontakte significantly angered users with the latest update dated October 1. And if you just have to get used to the change in design, then the restriction on listening to music with a locked screen is more difficult to come to terms with. Or you may not put up with it at all. Today we will look at, if not all, then most of the existing ways to circumvent this ban.
Let's start with the fact that we will not solve this problem by manipulating the client himself. Firstly, we are sure that VKontakte programmers receive their salaries for a reason. Secondly, we have selected the simplest methods available to the average user.
Joint subscription
Instead of paying 149 rubles every month to one person, you can cheat and team up with several people and pay, say, 10-20 rubles a month. However, to do this you will have to create a new VKontakte account and distribute access to all participants in such a “collective”. The method, of course, is not the most convenient (you will have to switch between the main and “music” account), but it also has a right to exist.
What to do if the player turns off when the screen is locked on the Xiaomi Redmi Note line
The Chinese manufacturer is distinguished by the fact that it lives by its own rules, in particular, by developing its MIUI operating system. However, here too there is a problem of stopping audio playback when the screen is turned off.
Where Yandex.Music saves files on Android - storage folder
A possible reason could be that the smartphone itself disables this application. To prevent this from happening, you need to install a lock on it, in which case the application will always work. Procedure:
- Hide application.
- Call up all recently used applications by pressing a special button.
- Drag the program of interest downwards and a small menu will open.
- Click on the lock icon.
- The app widget on your home screen will now appear with a small padlock on the side.
Note! Another reason is that MIUI stops all processes in standby mode. To fix this, you need to go to the battery settings and disable background activity restriction or move your application to the favorites list.
MIUI interface is very different from Android
Third Party Applications
If you cannot access background music without restrictions in other ways, you can download a third-party VK client with support for audio recordings. A nice bonus: almost all of them also offer to cache music for offline listening. iOS users lost this feature a long time ago, Android owners enjoyed this opportunity a little longer, but in the end, the only way to avoid wasting traffic is now by using third-party applications.
Let's consider a couple of popular applications that can be found in the App Store without any problems or additional complex movements: Capitan (aka VK Music) and Meloman.
Are there any other methods?
Yes, I have. There are quite a lot of instructions on the Internet that suggest first obtaining Root rights and then downloading an application that will allow you to configure the operation of the selected application so that it does not go into sleep (background) mode during operation.
But if you look at it, we already did this a step earlier.
But the best working alternative is to download your playlist to your phone and play it through any player. To do this, you need to familiarize yourself with our methods of downloading music from Vkontakte. Then download and install any application for playing music on your phone. And after that, just play music files from the phone’s internal memory.
Play music through the player, without restrictions
So our short summary is the best choice of these three options:
- Disabling sleep mode
- Subscribe to music VKontakte
- Downloading files and using a third-party player
Music VK
Let's start with VK/Captain Music. This application is essentially a browser with the ability to download music and videos. The matter is not limited to VK alone: here is the well-known Zaycev Net, and SoundCloud, and YouTube. You can use the application as an online player, you can download content and watch/listen offline. Including in the background – it would seem that this is what is needed. But it was not there.
Don’t get me wrong: the application can be used, it performs its functions, and in general, how can you criticize a free utility?! But I still adhere to the “either good or nothing” policy, so VK Music is not for me. Let's figure it out in order, where there are pros, where there are against, and where there is a matter of taste.
Applications are greeted by the interface. At first glance, everything is adequate. Below the buttons, from left to right: browser, list of tracks and downloads, playlists, settings. Underneath all this is a banner with advertising - unpleasant, but expected: developers are people too and want to eat. However, the devil is in the details. The thing is that you can’t get into the download menu. That's it in general. The button is there, but inactive. Something is downloading somewhere, the speed is displayed, but you can neither see the progress nor cancel the download. So you will also find out the file size only after downloading. With Wi-Fi there seems to be no difference, but with traffic the flaw is already more noticeable.
Downloading audio from VK is as follows. In your browser, click on VK (tab m.vk.com) and log in. After that, go to the audio recordings and save or listen online to everything you need. To download a song, you need to click on it - it will start playing and at the same time a “Download” pop-up window will appear. Most likely, already at this stage you will start to see advertising - annoying, there is too much of it, but we came to listen to music in the background, we can endure it for the sake of the result. It immediately turns out that the application is not able to get the names of some songs; you need to enter them yourself.
If you listen directly in the application, then each advertising page that appears means a pause in playback. If you lock your phone, there will be no advertising, but the songs will not switch. And manually too. At the same time, the interface of the player itself looks crude and unfinished: even covers are not loaded, but this is more a matter of taste. Fans of minimalism will probably appreciate it. But there is an equalizer! To complete the idea of the program, the number of songs that can be downloaded is limited. Exactly how much is not shown, but, apparently, something within a gigabyte.
In general, functionally the application copes with its responsibilities at the very least. But a large number of blatant flaws does not make the experience of communicating with him pleasant. You can download it, but only if you have absolutely no alternatives - or for the sake of experimentation.
Link to VK Music in the App Store
How to bypass the restriction on background listening to music on VKontakte?
This problem only affects users who use VKontakte from mobile devices.
If you start playing music from your page, working through a computer browser, then listening is not limited in any way.
But on the phone it's different. There is such a thing as “Background Mode”. This is how the app works when the phone screen is turned off and the device is not active. In this mode, you can listen to music for 30 minutes a day. After this, a notification will pop up and playback will become unavailable.
Restriction on background listening to VKontakte music from your phone
There are a number of ways to bypass, quite legally, this limitation. The first of them logically follows from the very essence of the problem.
Disable background mode
What does it mean to have your phone running in the background? In a nutshell, the device is on, not active, and the screen is off.
Roughly speaking, you go to VK, start playing the track, and enjoy the music. After 1-2 minutes, depending on your phone's settings, the screen goes dark and the device goes into background mode. Most often, in the phone settings, this mode is called “Sleep”.
You probably already guessed what needs to be done. Disable background (sleep) mode so that the phone is always active. As a result, we will get unlimited access to playing music from the social network. But there is a minus - the phone will discharge faster.
Let's look at the process using the example of a smartphone with the Android operating system.
Now your phone will always work with the screen on. And music from VK can be played 24 hours a day.
Method with date translation
Everything is simple here too. When you see a notification that free listening on your phone has ended today. Just go to the settings and change the date by selecting yesterday. Once the changes are applied, the restriction will be removed.
Translate the date on your phone
Meloman
This application has the same principle of operation as VK Music, but everything is implemented much better. Uploading photos and videos is also carried out through the built-in browser, but the names are correct, and the download process is displayed in the “Downloads” menu; you can cancel it at any time. You cannot select video quality, as in the previous application.
Music plays normally both when the application is open and when the phone is locked. Switching between tracks works. The only drawback is that Meloman does not support a horizontal interface, so watching videos through it is frankly inconvenient.
Advertising is only present in the form of pop-up banners approximately once every 3-5 minutes. If you listen in the background, it does not pose a problem. The covers load, and overall the player looks good. The only drawback is that the title is indicated in its entirety, and is not divided into the artist and, in fact, the title of the track.
In general, of these two applications, Meloman definitely looks much more convenient and attractive - however, if you do not plan to use it to watch videos offline.
Link to Meloman in the App Store
Meloman - Great Player
Price: Free
How to Save Music on iPhone
For owners of Apple smartphones, there is a not entirely obvious, but very convenient tool for downloading music and listening without the Internet. I'm talking about file managers.
File managers
There are many explorers in the App Store. You can choose almost any one to suit your taste. I will show the download process using FileMaster as an example. This explorer was clearly not intended for downloading music from VK. I'm not even sure that the FileMaster developers know about such a social network as VKontakte. But this doesn't stop File Explorer from doing a great job of saving audio on iPhone.
First of all, go to the App Store and install the file manager. Now launch FileMaster and go to browser mode. To do this, tap on Browser in the bottom menu. Enter vk.com in the address bar and log into your VKontakte account.
Start playing the song you want to save. It will be loaded into the cache of your smartphone. Click the save button and enter a title for the song. Now the mp3 file will remain in the iPhone memory. It can be found in the Home folder.
VK Player
Another application that can be downloaded here. We advise you not to click on the green “Start download” icon. It will not be the program that will begin to install, but the third-party browser.
Scroll down the page and click on the link provided.
Installation is simple, just click “Next” everywhere. In the end, if there are no Visual C++ 2012 libraries, the installer will install them on its own. Accept the terms and click “Install”. After starting the program, you need to log in. Don't forget to turn on VPN if access to VK is blocked.
We were unable to enter the program interface. After authorization, the application freezes and crashes. No way to resuscitate him was successful.
After reading a dozen reviews, we were convinced that many had a similar situation. Especially for those who use programs to bypass the blocking. In addition, the application stopped working adequately after changes in the policy for providing music in VK.
Anyone who managed to install the program can evaluate its functions. There is also a fairly user-friendly interface, the ability to listen to and download music. You can listen to your own songs, those of a friend, any person, a community.
