USB Music : Limitations ?

[JIS]

Hello all,
I have created a USB (64GB) USB disk in which I have multiple folder in which there are sub folders and then the folders containing the albums (MP3s). I have found that only four of the seven folders will display and hence able to be selected. I tried reducing the number of folders to four by again creating additional sub folders. Imagine my surprise when now only two of the four folders are being displayed !
So, I am thinking that there must be some limitation that I am not aware of.
If anyone who has cracked this, could share, I would appreciate it !!
Thanks !
John

 

[Martinonline]

From the thread 'USB Music':

Does anyone know what is the maximum size USB you can use on the MG4 SE long range? I have a 128gb usb stick and i've put around 2500 songs on it. My MG recognises the songs when it first plugged and scanned but then only 1000 appear on the list and the other 1500 aren't playable for some reason? Anyone else had this problem? The songs are definitely in a readable format as only songs which start with the letters A-F appear, anything after F just vanishes.

Yes I had the same problem and had to cut down to a 64gb USB stick and then slowly added albums so as to not exceed 1000 files (songs). That seemed to work for me ?. Although it still plays tracks at random unless I specify an album folder each startup... another startup item for the list of LKA (off), OPD (on) etc....

 

[JIS]

From the thread 'USB Music':

Many thanks for the reply. Well my USB is already 64GB (far too big actually) and I have less than 1000 songs. So I'm totally perplexed !

 

[dsr]

I don’t seem to have a problem with sub-sub folders.
But I have a lot of tracks. There is, annoyingly, a limit on the number of tracks per USB. I’m not sure what it is, but something like 3K? I think that means a large capacity USB is unnecessary - and doesn’t get you more tracks. I have 128Gb, but that is overkill. I have to use 4 memory sticks and swap them (not on the move!) as required. Looking back, my 2014 ICE would take all my tracks on a 128Gb stick.

 

[JonnyG]

Many thanks for the reply. Well my USB is already 64GB (far too big actually) and I have less than 1000 songs. So I'm totally perplexed !

I started with a newly formatted (FAT32) 64gb USB C stick plugged into the USB C slot. To get all my albums and songs to show I had to start with just a few sub-folders on the USB stick. Each sub folder was the album title and so most had around 8-20 mp3's in them. I tried it out in the car and it took a few seconds to read all the tracks. It then seemed to work fine for me and shows all the sub folders. I'm on R40 (Sept 2023 car built July 2023 - with no software updates). Since then I've added quite a few more sub folders and they all seem to show up OK once they have all been read when first sticking the USB stick in.

 

[Martinonline]

Perhaps there is a limit on the number of folders but I cannot recall anyone mentioning it. Will have to experiment with my Trophy R33.

 

[JonnyG]

I read previously around 1000 tracks limit, so I counted the number of files on my laptop/ PC. It does read each track when you first plug in the USB C stick so makes sense I suppose.

 

[Martinonline]

Trophy test: I have a 32Gb usb stick with 22 folders in the root folder, no sub-folders. Car read the stick correctly. I added 8 sub-folders to one folder without naming them so they were 'New folder, New folder(2), New folder(3)' etc. The car handles the extra 8 folders but would only show them if they contained a file.

Each sub-folder contained the same single music file. The single file was correctly displayed and played in the numbered folders but the first sub-folders (unnumbered) displayed 8 versions of the same file which played.

I have not looked at the file count to see if the car counts these duplicates as extra files and thus artificially increases the file count for folders with the same beginning name (?) or numbered versions.

 

[Martinonline]

I counted the MP3 files on my usb stick - 384, then plugged it into the car having previously selected usb music. The car counted up to 187 on first connection. The second time I did it it counted up to 191 and the last time to 181. All the folders and files appear to be there.

When I duplicated the contents into a new root folder the count was 384 (could be coincidence so will repeat).

The car listed the files from the Tubular Bells III folder additionally in the folder Tubular Bells folder. So folder beginning names must be compared in some way and files merged if commonality exists.

 

[JIS]

I am so confused by this. I have recreated the USB stick and reduced the folders to three only. However, upon insertion, only one of the three folders is displayed and hence available. Upon returning the USB to my iMac, I see a stranger folder created by the MG's system called LOST.DIR ! it is an empty folder. But again, only a single one of my three (originally 8) folders will display and hence play.
If anyone has actually cracked this and can provide a format that works, I would so like to know ! BTW I have formatted the USB as MS DOS (FAT). Again, if you know different, please say !!

 

[JonnyG]

I use FAT32 format on a Windows PC and all is OK.

Have you tried a different USB C stick or checked it for disk errors ?

 

[JIS]

I use FAT32 format on a Windows PC and all is OK.

Have you tried a different USB C stick or checked it for disk errors ?

Indeed but what I want to know is if ANYONE has managed to have multiple top line folders. I note that, if I open one of the (limited to 4) top line folders, the child folders can number many many more.
The USB has been tested and re-checked in multiple PCs and in all respects it works perfectly.

 

[Martinonline]

@JIS, the new folder comes from connecting to an android file system.

Have you tried creating a usb stick with folders on a PC and trying that?

As I said before, my usb stick has 22 folders in the root. I am currently creating lower folders by copying the contents of the upper folders to a new lower folders.

Root(23 folders) > New folder(23) > ANewFolder(23) > BNewFolder (22)

My PC reports there are 1620 files and 128 Folders. Some of the original folders have sub-folders.

 

[JIS]

@JIS, the new folder comes from connecting to an android file system.

Have you tried creating a usb stick with folders on a PC and trying that?

As I said before, my usb stick has 22 folders in the root. I am currently creating lower folders by copying the contents of the upper folders to a new lower folders.

Root(23 folders) > New folder(23) > ANewFolder(23) > BNewFolder (22)

My PC reports there are 1620 files and 128 Folders. Some of the original folders have sub-folders.

Actually no. I do all my work on an Apple Mac. I am wondering whether the file formats are incompatible with the MG. MP3s seem to be fine but I have a few albums in .m4a format that don't seem to appear.
Anyway, yes I shall try on my wife's PC (Windows 10 !). Thanks for the suggestion

 

[JonnyG]

I think I'd try that (Windows 10 PC) and see how you get on. All mine are mp3's.

 

[Martinonline]

Good point about the .m4a files. As I mentioned in a post above the car would not list the folder until I put an .mp3 file in it. That may be your problem with the car not recognising your files as acceptable audio files.

 

[siteguru]

The Navi manual (I think) lists the supported file types.

Edit:

 

[Martinonline]

I have just loaded the car with 1536 . mp3 files in my descending folders. It only countered up to 802 files when I inserted the usb but showed the larger number when the load finished. On the initial display it correctly showed 4 versions of a file - one from each of the descending folders. I navigated to the bottom folder and the music played.

However although the car said the music was playing no sound came until I selected radio, got sound, then went back to usb.

 

[JonnyG]

............However although the car said the music was playing no sound came until I selected radio, got sound, then went back to usb.

I've had this very occasionally too .... perhaps just a bug

 

[dsr]

I have just loaded the car with 1536 . mp3 files in my descending folders. It only countered up to 802 files when I inserted the usb but showed the larger number when the load finished. On the initial display it correctly showed 4 versions of a file - one from each of the descending folders. I navigated to the bottom folder and the music played.

However although the car said the music was playing no sound came until I selected radio, got sound, then went back to usb.

The track listing count does seem a bit odd. My tracking ends at a count of about (it could be exactly) 1000 - even though I have up to almost 3000 tracks on more than one USB. But all tracks are listed in the various folders, sub-folders and sub-sub-folders and all play.