[a11y]

Hi all,

Got a nice suprise tonight in finding out my e90 was originally specced with the 6FL USB/Audio Interface, meaning I'm no longer restricted to CDs

Sooooo, I've already tested it with an 8GB micro-SD card inserted into a USB adaptor, and it plays/controls music from the iDrive fine.

I want to buy a BIG capacity USB stick to hold a good amount of music. Has anyone experienced problems, e.g. slow response, simply not working, when using a large capacity USB drive? I'm thinking 64GB or possibly more...

Thanks.

[doughboy]

i've used a 64GB kingston USB stick for a couple of years.

Gets 6000 tracks at MP3 320CBR no problems. Only prob is is takes 2 hours to fill it from a PC!

BMW say to format in FAT32 only, which I've always done, but some on here say NTFS is ok.

Windows7 won't do FAT32, so you'll need an app to do it, but maybe try NTFS anyway.

[rich1068]

I use a 32GB stick with no problems. I always format any USB drives to NTFS as a matter of course too.

The one I'm using is this one and as mentioned, the reviews are mixed but for music in the car it's fine.

[a11y]

Cheers for the advice (and link - christ that's cheap, <£22 posted for 64gb) - I'll try with a 64gb and format it accordingly. I'm running Windows 7 and pretty sure when I formatted my micro-SD card prior to sticking music files on it earlier it defaulted to FAT32... But I'll check to be sure.

There's so much on this car that I don't even know about

[doughboy]

I recently reformatted mine as it started hanging whilst playing, something had got corrupted.

Win7 only had NTFS or exFAT options, I accidentally did a 1 hour full format in exFAT, spent 2 hours loading it up and then the car said 'not supported' so I had to do it all again...

[225_AB]

As my music is in iTunes would I have to convert it to mp3 before putting it on a USB stick?

[Hope]

Originally Posted by doc_ab

As my music is in iTunes would I have to convert it to mp3 before putting it on a USB stick?

Yes you would!

You can do this in iTunes but it really messes up your library (unless you sort by date added and delete all the converted songs after you have copied them to the stick), I tried WAV and MP3 in my car and both worked but WAV doesn't support tagging.

FLAC/ALAC didn't which is a shame because most of my music is in lossless format, although with the rubbish 6 speaker setup of the car I don't think I would notice much of a difference anyway!

There used to be a software some years ago that allowed you to fool iTunes into syncing with non-Apple MP3 players and also pen drives, there might still be something like that around.

[BanziBarn]

I've got a 32 in mine which is full so am looking for a 64. My current once must be really slow because indexing takes about 5 minutes zzzzz.

I know some HHDs work but have no idea how big you can go with one of these.

[a11y]

Originally Posted by rich1068

I use a 32GB stick with no problems. I always format any USB drives to NTFS as a matter of course too.

The one I'm using is this one and as mentioned, the reviews are mixed but for music in the car it's fine.

Ordered a 64GB version of the one in your link last night - cheers for the heads-up on it

[rich1068]

Originally Posted by doughboy

Windows7 won't do FAT32, so you'll need an app to do it, but maybe try NTFS anyway.

Originally Posted by doughboy

Win7 only had NTFS or exFAT options

I get to choose FAT32 with W7 but I use NTFS anyway.

Originally Posted by doc_ab

As my music is in iTunes would I have to convert it to mp3 before putting it on a USB stick?

No. Just copy your iTunes Music folder onto the USB and it will work just fine.

Originally Posted by Hope

Yes you would!

You can do this in iTunes but it really messes up your library (unless you sort by date added and delete all the converted songs after you have copied them to the stick), I tried WAV and MP3 in my car and both worked but WAV doesn't support tagging.

FLAC/ALAC didn't which is a shame because most of my music is in lossless format, although with the rubbish 6 speaker setup of the car I don't think I would notice much of a difference anyway!

There used to be a software some years ago that allowed you to fool iTunes into syncing with non-Apple MP3 players and also pen drives, there might still be something like that around.

You really don't need to do any of that.

[Hope]

Originally Posted by rich1068

No. Just copy your iTunes Music folder onto the USB and it will work just fine.



You really don't need to do any of that.

He asked if you have to convert it to MP3, and the answer is yes you do.

The car won't detect any of Apple's native iTunes formats such as AAC etc. If he already has MP3 tracks then they will be drag and drop, but when he asks if they need to be converted to MP3, I assume they are not already MP3.

[alzieboy]

have a look here have got a few thing s from them seem very good

http://www.mymemory.co.uk/USB-Flash-Drives

[rich1068]

Originally Posted by Hope

He asked if you have to convert it to MP3, and the answer is yes you do.

The car won't detect any of Apple's native iTunes formats such as AAC etc. If he already has MP3 tracks then they will be drag and drop, but when he asks if they need to be converted to MP3, I assume they are not already MP3.

I can assure you that you don't. But I wonder if we're at cross purposes here. Just plug a USB into the arm rest slot and the system in the car plays AAC just fine. But iirc if you plug into the slot in the glovebox and want to copy over to the internal HDD then I believe mp3 is required.

I had a play with the internal HDD for music when I first got the car and quickly realised it was useless.

[Hope]

Originally Posted by rich1068

I can assure you that you don't. But I wonder if we're at cross purposes here. Just plug a USB into the arm rest slot and the system in the car plays AAC just fine. But iirc if you plug into the slot in the glovebox and want to copy over to the internal HDD then I believe mp3 is required.

I had a play with the internal HDD for music when I first got the car and quickly realised it was useless.

Aah, you're probably right then.

Albeit I have no AAC tracks in my iTunes, I tried FLAC/ALAC via USB from memory and neither of those worked. But my main objective was to import the tracks eventually. I might load a memory stick with various formats and try them from the armrest USB then!

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by rich1068

I get to choose FAT32 with W7 but I use NTFS anyway.

Do you have a special version of Win7?

We've got 3 machines at home and none will do FAT32.

A quick google reveals hords of geek sites moaning about why they took FAT32 off Win7.

Read the thread starter here http://geekdrop.com/content/how-to-f...-or-in-general

[a11y]

Looks the same as mine with FAT32 availability for formatting...

[dopper99]

I just stuck and old 4GB stick in and it formats FAT32. Windows 7 Home Premium.

Maybe its the stick you are using? Have you tried a different stick?

[rich1068]

Originally Posted by doughboy

Do you have a special version of Win7?

Nope.

[doughboy]

Ahh, tried a 4gb stick, that offers FAT32.

Seems there is an arbitrary 32GB limit for FAT32 formatting in Win7 - you learn something new every day

But as rich1068 has proven that NTFS works, its prob best to go for that. I might try it to see if it improves the startup speed.


Judging by google results, theres a whole community searching for FAT32 in Win 7!!

[a11y]

Right, I'm obviously doing something wrong...

Tried my 64GB stick (formatted for NTFS via Windows 7) but didn't work: wasn't being recognized by the car.

So I bought a 32GB stick (the same Verbatim one posted by rich1086 earlier in this thread), formatted for FAT32 via Windows 7, and still no success. However, this time it appears to recognise the stick as the name appears on the iDrive screen, but the directory or any music fails to show and eventually the headunit swaps to the radio...

What am I doing wrong?

I've got about 28GB of music on the 32GB stick, organised into folders by artist, then by album within each folder. The exact same music files play fine in the car when I'd added them to my 8GB microSD card in an adaptor to try it...

[doughboy]

I have 58gb on a 64gb stick, organised just like yours.

The first time you put a new stick in can take an age to index it.

Try either stick with just one album on it and see if it picks it up.

If it is showing the stick name then it is half way there.

its not partitioned into more than 1 drive is it? that won't work

[a11y]

Thanks.

I'm in the process of filling the 16GB miscoSD card I have (which worked previously when it has only a few GB of music on it), just to see if it's a problem with my music.

I wondered if there was anything strange such as limits on the number of artists, etc. that the system can cope with? I've got a lot of compilation albums (trance stuff) with various artists and I know my old MP3 player hated that stuff (the artists names, not my music taste...).

Can I ask, when you first put a new stick into the car for the first time - how does it "work"? I'll try and take a photo of what mine displays but even after 10mins it hadn't recognised it...