Playing MP3 files via USB

[Blackwolf]

Has anyone found a way to make MP3 files from a USB stick play in anything like a predictable and repeatable order?

The ICE in my Grenadier is beginning to drive me nuts! I like to listen to music from a USB stick, and over the years have become fairly adept at making in-car systems play tracks in the correct order. Most Android-based systems seem to play in the order that the file appears on the device, so I copy the files I want to the stick in the correct order. I also always make sure that the tag metadata is coherent and logical, so album title, track number, track title and file name are sensible.

On every vehicle I have owned in the past this has worked perfectly - but not the Grenadier! No matter what I do, I cannot get the ICE to play tracks in the right order! It will both display and play the track in substantially the right order, but instead of tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 then 5 it will do something daft like 1, 2, 5, 3, 4. It is random but repeatable, so for example two identically programmed sticks seem to behave in an identical way, but the playback sequence cannot be predicted. It really has me baffled and it is beginning to bug me that in a £90k vehicle this happens!

Has anyone managed to get to the bottom of this?

I really don't want the hassle of plugging my phone in every time I drive (although for the record Android Auto playing music from a suitable Android app seems to be predictable and correct).

 

[Dreadfully Distinct]

I listen to my music all the time via USB stick, but I don’t listen to the tracks in any specific order. I prefer random selection, but even this isn’t perfect. It seems to have a mind of its own. The metadata, in my case the artwork tied to the song, is never correct. When I shut the vehicle off and come back later, the system will almost always start from the first track alphabetically in my list instead of where it left off before shutdown. If I play music randomly from one artist only, the system will revert back to random play of the entire thumb drive when I start the Grenny on my next excursion.

Non of this is a complete bummer for me. It’s tolerable. I have always liked random play of my favorites and it seems to do that well, only under it’s terms.

 

[Blackwolf]

Interesting, at least I am not the only one!

It is unacceptable to me since I tend to listen to classical music and it matters! There is a "random" button if I want the play order randomised, but there doesn't seem to be a non-random option. Frustrating.

Is there any sensible way to feedback suggestions for software updates to IA? I am sure that this could be solved in seconds if we had the means to update the ICE software.

 

[Eric]

Interesting, at least I am not the only one!

It is unacceptable to me since I tend to listen to classical music and it matters! There is a "random" button if I want the play order randomised, but there doesn't seem to be a non-random option. Frustrating.

Is there any sensible way to feedback suggestions for software updates to IA? I am sure that this could be solved in seconds if we had the means to update the ICE software.

I thought you just selected the random button again to turn random off. I'm sure it did for me, I'll check next time I use the USB

 

[Krabby]

I believe the proper firing order is 1-3-5-6-2-4 so there is most certainly amiss with your ICE.

Oh you meant your ICE! Where’s @Jean Mercier when you need him? Effing acronyms.

Just out of curiosity, try making a playlist where you manually name the songs using a 01SongA, 02SongB, etc. I wonder if the system would recognize the numbers and maintain the proper order. More an exercise of understanding than a practical solution for a large number of songs mind you.

What about the way the files are sorted in the folder on your computer? Could that play into things? Might be worth messing around with too.

Lastly, IIRC there is a wireless dongle available for AA that solves the having to plug your phone in PITA. Lazy as it will seem to some, I’m very glad my Apple CarPlay is wireless.

 

[ecohen2]

I haven't been able to play any MP3s off a stick yet... However, I have done it successfully on other cars, some care about the track number in the file name, others care about it in the meta data and the third one cares about the time/date stamp... Super annoying..

 

[Jean Mercier]

... there is a wireless dongle available for AA that solves the having to plug your phone in PITA. Lazy as it will seem to some, I’m very glad my Apple CarPlay is wireless.

I have the AA (Android Auto) dongle. It works usually very well, although sometimes it comes up very slowly.

And what means PITA ?

 

[Krabby]

I have the AA (Android Auto) dongle. It works usually very well, although sometimes it comes up very slowly.

And what means PITA ?

Pain in the ass!

@Jean Mercier - some day, some how, I need to buy you a beer so we can sit and chat. The best part of this forum is the people, and you sure, are good people.

 

[Blackwolf]

... Just out of curiosity, try making a playlist where you manually name the songs using a 01SongA, 02SongB, etc. I wonder if the system would recognize the numbers and maintain the proper order. More an exercise of understanding than a practical solution for a large number of songs mind you.

What about the way the files are sorted in the folder on your computer? Could that play into things? Might be worth messing around with too.

Lastly, IIRC there is a wireless dongle available for AA that solves the having to plug your phone in PITA. Lazy as it will seem to some, I’m very glad my Apple CarPlay is wireless.

Tried that (well, almost, since the Grenadier doesn't support playlists). I've produced a folders where the track title and file name are alphanumerical in the order I want, the track numbers are in the order I want, and written the files one-at-a-time to the device in the order I want them to play (and they then play perfectly in the right order on the Pioneer system in my Defender). On the Grenadier they will still usually display and play in a different and unpredictable order. It is almost as though the system knows how to wind me up!

I didn't know about the Android Auto dongle, that could well provide an answer, although the fact still remains that this would not have been a difficult thing for IA to have done right in the first place. Not everyone just uses Spotify!

Thanks for the replies so far.

 

[Jean Mercier]

Pain in the ass!

@Jean Mercier - some day, some how, I need to buy you a beer so we can sit and chat. The best part of this forum is the people, and you sure, are good people.

If one day you visit Belgium I pay you the beer because we have this as our specialty in our country. Perhaps we can meet in our "hell hole"? (That's how Trump called our Capital in 2016 )