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How to play an APE file on Android
Lossless Monkey’s Audio music — and CUE albums
APE is the Monkey’s Audio lossless format: whole albums are often shared this way, with a .cue file next to them. Android does not play APE. The free XanderFiles app plays APE in its audio player and splits a single-file album into separate songs using the CUE sheet.
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What is this file
Monkey’s Audio compresses sound about two times with no loss of quality: decoding gives an exact copy of the disc. That is why collectors use APE for CD and vinyl rips.
Often a whole album is one big APE file, with a .cue table of contents next to it that holds the song titles and boundaries. Android’s built-in player knows neither APE nor CUE.
How to open it
- Install XanderFiles from Google Play. It is free, with no ads and no sign-up.
- Tap the .ape file wherever you have it: in Downloads, on a memory card or in your music folder.
- When Android asks which app to use, choose XanderFiles. Or the other way round: open XanderFiles, tap “Open file” and pick the file in Downloads or Google Drive.
- The audio player opens and the music starts. If you add the album folder with its .cue file to the playlist, the big file is split into songs with titles automatically.
What you can do
- Play APE losslessly — the sound matches the source bit for bit
- Single-file album + CUE: separate songs with titles and artists
- Also WavPack (WV), TTA, TAK, FLAC and ALAC
- Equalizer, volume leveling, background playback, sleep timer
- Bit-perfect output to an external USB DAC (Android 14 and newer, if the DAC and phone support the mode)
Good to know
- The app only plays files: it cannot convert APE or edit tags.
- A CUE sheet embedded inside an APE or FLAC file is not read — a separate .cue file next to the album is needed.
Questions
Will it sound worse than on a computer?
No. APE is decoded losslessly: the output has the same samples as the disc.
How do I split an APE album into songs?
Put the .cue file next to the APE and add the whole folder to the playlist — or open the .cue itself and tap “Play album”.
Is it free?
Yes. No ads, no sign-up, and it works offline.
Other formats
Free · no ads · no sign-up · offline