Connecting a USB-A stick or drive to the infotainment screen

[Jean Mercier]

When you connect a device to the USB-A port in the central cubby box, you get:

• a short message saying "USB connected"
• It disappears at once and the screen says "No USB connected"

This is quite contra intuitive, I thought the device wasn't recognized, but don't despair:

• Click on the menu "USB" in the upper left corner
• Then click on the next screen on "USB-A"

Done.
The system will then recognize music files with at least the following formatting:

• mp3
• m4p
• wav

[EDITED 16/02/2024 ]It will not recognize:

• flac (since software update 1946)

(thanks to my "Hungarian" son who found the solution)

 

[Eric]

When you connect a device to the USB-A port in the central cubby box, you get:

• a short message saying "USB connected"
• It disappears at once and the screen says "No USB connected"

View attachment 7812982
This is quite contra intuitive, I thought the device wasn't recognized, but don't despair:

• Click on the menu "USB" in the upper left corner
• Then click on the next screen on "USB-A"

Done.
The system will then recognize music files with at least the following formatting:

• mp3
• m4p
• wav

It will not recognize:

• flac

(thanks to my "Hungarian" son who found the solution)

Well done that man.

 

[Eric]

When you connect a device to the USB-A port in the central cubby box, you get:

• a short message saying "USB connected"
• It disappears at once and the screen says "No USB connected"

View attachment 7812982
This is quite contra intuitive, I thought the device wasn't recognized, but don't despair:

• Click on the menu "USB" in the upper left corner
• Then click on the next screen on "USB-A"

Done.
The system will then recognize music files with at least the following formatting:

• mp3
• m4p
• wav

It will not recognize:

• flac

(thanks to my "Hungarian" son who found the solution)

That will please wifey she has 1000 songs in m4p format on her flash drive.

 

[Bruce]

I wish that head units would start recognizing FLAC. Not because I can hear a difference in a loud car with an OEM sound system, but so I didn't have to maintain 2 music libraries.

 

[bakepl]

When you connect a device to the USB-A port in the central cubby box, you get:

• a short message saying "USB connected"
• It disappears at once and the screen says "No USB connected"

View attachment 7812982
This is quite contra intuitive, I thought the device wasn't recognized, but don't despair:

• Click on the menu "USB" in the upper left corner
• Then click on the next screen on "USB-A"

Done.
The system will then recognize music files with at least the following formatting:

• mp3
• m4p
• wav

It will not recognize:

• flac

(thanks to my "Hungarian" son who found the solution)

It's all in the manual.. correct?

 

[MACS]

Please let me add my two cents

I tried USB-A with mp3 files:
exFAT= not working
NTFS= working well, organized folders useless, keep files well-tagged.
FAT32= working well, organized folders useless, keep files well-tagged.
ext4 not tested.

In a next step we should find out how the files are organised for playback. Seems like the filename is not the sorting criteria.

 

[Bobby Mac]

Thank you Jean It was driving me crazy trying to get my music on USB to play, and then…. “I’ll check the blog”. Sure enough Jean had the answer. This forum is fantastic for providing that info not readily available or clearly detailed.

 

[Carefant]

When you connect a device to the USB-A port in the central cubby box, you get:

• a short message saying "USB connected"
• It disappears at once and the screen says "No USB connected"

View attachment 7812982
This is quite contra intuitive, I thought the device wasn't recognized, but don't despair:

• Click on the menu "USB" in the upper left corner
• Then click on the next screen on "USB-A"

Done.
The system will then recognize music files with at least the following formatting:

• mp3
• m4p
• wav

It will not recognize:

• flac

(thanks to my "Hungarian" son who found the solution)

Thanks Jean. Having bragged in an earlier post about how well my USB music was working, I now realise I have no way of searching for anything. I can either play the entire 11,000 tracks in artist alphabetical order, or enable ‘shuffle’ and get what the randomiser gives me. I just added a new album and I can’t search for it . Am I missing something obvious?

 

[DenisM]

Thanks Jean. Having bragged in an earlier post about how well my USB music was working, I now realise I have no way of searching for anything. I can either play the entire 11,000 tracks in artist alphabetical order, or enable ‘shuffle’ and get what the randomiser gives me. I just added a new album and I can’t search for it . Am I missing something obvious?

The owner's manual indicates that tapping the "Audio" tab on the screen, brings up the option to "Browse folder" and sort by artist, album and genre. Frankly I have found it less than satisfactory, which is why I now rely on the "music" app on my (Samsung S10) android phone and the material stored on its micro SD card and connected to the main display via Android auto.

 

[Jean Mercier]

The owner's manual indicates that tapping the "Audio" tab on the screen, brings up the option to "Browse folder" and sort by artist, album and genre. Frankly I have found it less than satisfactory, which is why I now rely on the "music" app on my (Samsung S10) android phone and the material stored on its micro SD card and connected to the main display via Android auto.

I agree that it is less than satisfactory.
Luckily for me, when in Belgium, I listen to the radio.
When travelling, I plug in several USB sticks with music "according to my mood": Rock, Brazilian, Belgian, New Age, Pink Floyd and similar, ...
I tried to connect a hard disk drive: I succeeded, but it took so much time to go through the directories, that I abandoned the idea.

 

[Carefant]

The owner's manual indicates that tapping the "Audio" tab on the screen, brings up the option to "Browse folder" and sort by artist, album and genre. Frankly I have found it less than satisfactory, which is why I now rely on the "music" app on my (Samsung S10) android phone and the material stored on its micro SD card and connected to the main display via Android auto.

Hi DenisM. Thanks for this. I’d been trying to navigate music on USB A by spinning the big silver dial, which is clearly only useful for skipping a few tracks in either direction. I’ve now tried the “browse folder” function, which is bit buried to be used whilst driving, but which does at least allow an alphabetical search for artist or album. However, it takes a little while to catalogue the drive, prior to which I only see folders beginning with “A” and, bizarrely “V”. If I’m patient , artists starting with all the other letters of the alphabet eventually appear. So I agree, it’s clunky. What I do like is the ability to select a genre, so like Jean I can play a selection to suit my mood, although I’m not sure what mood would have me searching for Belgian music…

 

[Tazzieman]

Whilst saddled with android auto that cuts out after 15-30 seconds and kills spotify , maps and everything else , I'm "forced" to select a cd of choice and use my portable cd usb powered/linked discman

 

[Rok_Dr]

I did some testing the other night working out what USB stick formats and Audio file formats are supported. The following are my findings. Software version is 1946.

Memory Key Formats	Readable
Fat32	Yes
NTFS	Yes
exFat	No
HFS	Not tested

Audio File Formats	Readable	Comments
.MP3	Yes	Artwork supported
.Flac	Yes	Artwork supported
.Wav	Yes
.Ogg	Yes
.Aac	No
.Wma	No
.M4a	No

Cheers

Steve

 

[Eric]

I did some testing the other night working out what USB stick formats and Audio file formats are supported. The following are my findings. Software version is 1946.

Memory Key Formats	Readable
Fat32	Yes
NTFS	Yes
exFat	No
HFS	Not tested

Audio File Formats	Readable	Comments
.MP3	Yes	Artwork supported
.Flac	Yes	Artwork supported
.Wav	Yes
.Ogg	Yes
.Aac	No
.Wma	No
.M4a	No

Cheers

Steve

 

[Eric]

I did some testing the other night working out what USB stick formats and Audio file formats are supported. The following are my findings. Software version is 1946.

Memory Key Formats	Readable
Fat32	Yes
NTFS	Yes
exFat	No
HFS	Not tested

Audio File Formats	Readable	Comments
.MP3	Yes	Artwork supported
.Flac	Yes	Artwork supported
.Wav	Yes
.Ogg	Yes
.Aac	No
.Wma	No
.M4a	No

Cheers

Steve

Yes that's the conclusion I came to on audio files. Shame as all mine are aac format

 

[[ Adam ]]

Oh, it now supports flac? I may fill a thumb drive after all

 

[ebp3]

Please let me add my two cents

I tried USB-A with mp3 files:
exFAT= not working
NTFS= working well, organized folders useless, keep files well-tagged.
FAT32= working well, organized folders useless, keep files well-tagged.
ext4 not tested.

In a next step we should find out how the files are organised for playback. Seems like the filename is not the sorting criteria.

Have you ever been able to learn how sorting works and if there is a way for the system to read folders in alphabetical order/ numerical order?

I searched for as many other relevant posts as I could find on the forum and could not get a clear idea of what to expect and/ir how to organize my drive

Thanks!

 

[lewma]

From the all knowing never wrong google:

FAT32 does not have a default sorting order; files are listed in the order they were copied to the drive. To get a specific order, you must either rename files with a numerical prefix or use a tool like fatsort (on Linux) or DriveSort (on Windows with Wine) to physically reorder the files on the disk

 

[ebp3]

Okay thanks for this reply that makes sense and I’ll lean into trying out fatsort!

 

[Blackwolf]

I cannot get.any sensible sorting order, there is something randomising the order. Over the years I've become very adept at producing FAT32 USB sticks that play in a predictable order for use in my Defender by ensuring that the files are written in the correct sequence on the drive. They play back in a completely unpredictable and - more curiously - inconsistent order in the Grenadier. Reboot the ICE and the playback sequence changes - sometimes. I think it is just something the programmers forgot to implement.

In the end I concluded that it was an insolvable problem in the absence of a software upgrade and switched to using a wireless dongle and Android Auto. Although I'd prefer not to have to use my phone this works well for me as a solution (and has the advantage that if I put the phone in a RAM mount I actually have a clock with a display large enough to read).