F30POST
F30POST
2012-2015 BMW 3-Series and 4-Series Forum
BMW Garage BMW Meets Register Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read
BMW 3-Series and 4-Series Forum (F30 / F32) | F30POST > 2012-2019 BMW 3 and 4-Series Forums > Regional Forums > UK > USB Drive - Setup with Album art and Playlists
Extreme Powerhouse
Post Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
      04-14-2015, 02:36 AM   #67
Sussex_G20
First Lieutenant
Sussex_G20's Avatar
United Kingdom
145
Rep
379
Posts

Drives: G20 330i M Sport
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: South Coast - Eastbourne

iTrader: (0)

As posted earlier in this thread I use an iPod Touch and everything just works. Had similar problems with USB drives and sticks, tried my iPhone and everything worked so invested in a Touch, it reflects iTunes, playlists, artwork and just works.
Appreciate 0
      04-14-2015, 02:14 PM   #68
Spoonhead
Captain
Spoonhead's Avatar
United Kingdom
360
Rep
910
Posts

Drives: X3M Competition
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: not close enough to Old Trafford

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sussex_F32 View Post
As posted earlier in this thread I use an iPod Touch and everything just works. Had similar problems with USB drives and sticks, tried my iPhone and everything worked so invested in a Touch, it reflects iTunes, playlists, artwork and just works.
I think you're right. I only had an old classic with 30GB space, and failed to buy a larger capacity version before they stopped selling them.

I will need a 64GB touch but that's quite an expense. But then today, no problems at all.
__________________
Current Black Sapphire X3M Comp LCI
Gone: X3 M40i BM3 / 330d M Sport PPK / 320 Efficient Dynamics / 123d MSport (Superchipped).
Appreciate 0
      04-20-2015, 12:06 PM   #69
Z_Victor1
First Lieutenant
Z_Victor1's Avatar
United Kingdom
62
Rep
326
Posts

Drives: 2022 G22 M440i 👍
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: SouthEast UK

iTrader: (0)

What can I say - this is pure genius!

Thank you, for a mere £50, I now have my entire music collection of 25,000 tracks, FLAC coded, CD quality playable in my car!



David
Appreciate 0
      05-04-2015, 03:01 PM   #70
rebirth24
Lieutenant
rebirth24's Avatar
51
Rep
482
Posts

Drives: 2015 F82
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: San Diego, CA

iTrader: (0)

Garage List
2015 BMW M4  [0.00]
Has anyone gone above 40,000 files/songs? Also how is everyone formatting their drives? NTFS/ExFat/Fat32?
Appreciate 0
      05-05-2015, 02:00 PM   #71
Geo's comps
First Lieutenant
United Kingdom
56
Rep
333
Posts

Drives: F32 420d Msport + coupe
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: London

iTrader: (0)

I brought a new cd from hmv the other day, I was quite disappointed when the album art didn't come up on pro nav, I thought if you have connectdrive it will link up online and have the album art.
Appreciate 0
      05-05-2015, 05:17 PM   #72
KevinLevin
General Motors
KevinLevin's Avatar
237
Rep
513
Posts

Drives: 430d M Sport + EBII
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: No more than 10 feet from my car....

iTrader: (0)

Did you add the movies in?

Thanks for taking the time to create this thread

I've spent all evening sorting the tags out on my iTunes library. The album art was not there on 50% of my albums and this took ages to add in. It's showing on iTunes however which is strange.

I want to use a hard drive as my iPod for the car is a 160gb classic. This means I only get low resolution images which is annoying me! And it does occasionally crash. With it being the highest capacity iPod only a hard drive can replace it.

Hope fully when the 180gb of music has copied overnight I'll be back with a good news story (and an iPod classic going on eBay!)
__________________
430d M Sport Plus, 19" M double spoke bi-colour wheels, stop start cruise, pro navigation, sport auto, dynamic suspension, folding/dimming mirrors, rear camera, power seats.

Previous - S5 Cabriolet - 442hp
Appreciate 1
      05-06-2015, 08:49 AM   #73
KevinLevin
General Motors
KevinLevin's Avatar
237
Rep
513
Posts

Drives: 430d M Sport + EBII
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: No more than 10 feet from my car....

iTrader: (0)

All working fantastically. It appears that album art up to 1000x1000 can be handled by the iDrive.

My only slight gripe is that it takes 10 seconds for the hard drive to power up and play. I wonder if a SSD would improve this... Anyone know?
__________________
430d M Sport Plus, 19" M double spoke bi-colour wheels, stop start cruise, pro navigation, sport auto, dynamic suspension, folding/dimming mirrors, rear camera, power seats.

Previous - S5 Cabriolet - 442hp
Appreciate 1
      06-11-2015, 04:40 AM   #74
terrypin
Private
United Kingdom
23
Rep
73
Posts

Drives: BMW 328i Luxury Auto Saloon
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: East Grinstead, UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by bjornand1 View Post
I realize I'm rambling on about my problem-solving process, but perhaps it might help somebody else with similar problems...
Please keep rambling!

I've just discovered this thread and have yet to study it fullly. But I'm having what sound like very similar problems.

In short I've been struggling for weeks to get my music and playlists onto a USB stick (central arm rest) which my F30 2012 328i Luxury Auto iDrive can play reliably.

In my case I'm using MediaMonkey's Auto-Sync feature on my XP PC. For the small tests I've had success, but for a fullish USB I get major problems. And my library is very modest, a mere 23 GB and about 7,000 tracks, mainly MP3 and WMA.

One issue that took me a long time to recognise is that iDrive takes hours to do its indexing or cacheing or whatever. For example, with say 8 playlists on the USB stick, initially I might see 5 shown. Then, after various other operations including switching away from that screen and back again, replacing USB, etc, it shows 1, then, after leaving overnight, all 8. And it's not clear when it is actually doing anything. So 'Not connected' could be temporary or apparently permanent, prompting removal and re-insertion of the stick. However, I think that 'No entries' can be trusted to mean that I'm never going to see any.

But there's a lot of other erratic behaviour, implicating a bunch of possible factors that are hard to prove or isolate, such as:

1. Flaws in the various brands of memory stick. One or two of the 6 I've been using seem to be giving more weird results than others, although maybe that's because I haven't yet tested them methodically with the same volume of data.

2. Corrupted MP3s. For example, it can't help to have files like these on the synced USB:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...tedFiles-1.jpg
I've no idea what they are. Couldn't delete them from the USB itself ('No access') so have removed from C:\Docs\My Music\ and will repeat the sync.
Perhaps the long 'indexing' delays partly due to such unexpected files?

3. Quirks and bugs in MediaMonkey (MM) itself. I'm discussing these in the appropriate MM forum.

4. Complex Auto-Sync settings in MM, so there are many permutations to test before hitting a winning combination. Some users are getting success (although not specifically with a BMW iDrive) so that's why I haven't yet given up.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Appreciate 1
      06-11-2015, 05:25 AM   #75
bjornand1
New Member
6
Rep
24
Posts

Drives: BMW 525 xD
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Trondheim

iTrader: (0)

Glad I'm not the only struggling, but trying to push ahead!

I'm not sure anyone really understands how iDrive handles USB drives, but we seem to know that:

- iDrive first indexes the tracks themselves by reading the metadata, thus allowing searching artist/album/genre/etc. (in the beginning only search folder is available). This can take a long time! For my appr. 15,000 track library, this takes about 3 hours.
- Next, playlists are read, and this too can take some time with long lists. There also seems to be a limit to how many tracks a playlist can contain, but no-one has determined exactly what that limit is (it seems up to around 1,000 is OK, could be more, but 3,000 is too much)

I've had many issues with corrupt tracks, Mac "help files" being copied to the drive (I use Playlist Export to sync from iTunes on my Mac), etc., but I have gradually weeded all these out. Now I'm working to get my appr. 50 playlists recognized.

My first strategy was to load them all onto the drive, but then I only got about half indexed. This could be because this takes so long that I never went for long enough drives, but I suspect it has something to do with issues with the playlists. Further investigation revealed that some lists that did show up only showed some/a few of the tracks they should contain, others never showed up. For those showing but not complete, I find issues with file names, paths, etc. After correcting these issues, they eventually showed up complete.

But I have still not been able to get them all to work, so for the last week or so, I've gradually adding 2-4 playlists and waiting long enough for these to be added. So far, all of them have shown up, so now at about 20. I'll keep going this way!
Appreciate 1
      06-11-2015, 09:17 AM   #76
Andrewthefirst
Major
Andrewthefirst's Avatar
United Kingdom
1219
Rep
1,319
Posts

Drives: M140i
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sussex_F32 View Post
As posted earlier in this thread I use an iPod Touch and everything just works. Had similar problems with USB drives and sticks, tried my iPhone and everything worked so invested in a Touch, it reflects iTunes, playlists, artwork and just works.
It is a good thread and fair play to bjorn etc but as Mr Sussex says the itouch just...works

I've read and retread this thread and experimented with hard drives and usbs, had many painful hours on the laptop, and endured many disappointing trips out to the car only to crawl back into the house in disappointment.

Bought and iPod touch 64gb a couple of weeks ago and as said above it just works! Listening to music now instead of getting annoyed by it
Appreciate 0
      06-11-2015, 10:41 AM   #77
terrypin
Private
United Kingdom
23
Rep
73
Posts

Drives: BMW 328i Luxury Auto Saloon
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: East Grinstead, UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrewthefirst View Post
Bought an iPod touch 64gb a couple of weeks ago and as said above it just works! Listening to music now instead of getting annoyed by it
Although I hate unsolved puzzles, must say I'm getting close to that point too.

I'm a diehard Windows user, but love the iPads I've used for last 5 years. However, never had an iPod and know nothing about them. On UK Ebay I see various 'generations'. What's yours please?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Appreciate 0
      06-11-2015, 10:50 AM   #78
terrypin
Private
United Kingdom
23
Rep
73
Posts

Drives: BMW 328i Luxury Auto Saloon
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: East Grinstead, UK

iTrader: (0)

@bjornand1:
Re your reference to short drives, does that mean that we can be sure no indexing gets done when ignition is OFF? I seemed to get some evidence that work does get done, albeit based on only one overnight test.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Last edited by terrypin; 06-11-2015 at 11:53 AM..
Appreciate 0
      06-11-2015, 11:02 AM   #79
KevinLevin
General Motors
KevinLevin's Avatar
237
Rep
513
Posts

Drives: 430d M Sport + EBII
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: No more than 10 feet from my car....

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrewthefirst
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sussex_F32 View Post
As posted earlier in this thread I use an iPod Touch and everything just works. Had similar problems with USB drives and sticks, tried my iPhone and everything worked so invested in a Touch, it reflects iTunes, playlists, artwork and just works.
It is a good thread and fair play to bjorn etc but as Mr Sussex says the itouch just...works

I've read and retread this thread and experimented with hard drives and usbs, had many painful hours on the laptop, and endured many disappointing trips out to the car only to crawl back into the house in disappointment.

Bought and iPod touch 64gb a couple of weeks ago and as said above it just works! Listening to music now instead of getting annoyed by it
Your right, but I have 130gb of music and only the classic stores that much.

I've got my hard drive working perfectly now.
__________________
430d M Sport Plus, 19" M double spoke bi-colour wheels, stop start cruise, pro navigation, sport auto, dynamic suspension, folding/dimming mirrors, rear camera, power seats.

Previous - S5 Cabriolet - 442hp
Appreciate 1
      06-11-2015, 11:58 AM   #80
terrypin
Private
United Kingdom
23
Rep
73
Posts

Drives: BMW 328i Luxury Auto Saloon
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: East Grinstead, UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinLevin View Post
...I have 130gb of music...
Wow! A crude estimate based on my own file sizes and track durations makes that about 1½ years listening at 12 hrs/day!

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Appreciate 0
      06-11-2015, 12:22 PM   #81
KevinLevin
General Motors
KevinLevin's Avatar
237
Rep
513
Posts

Drives: 430d M Sport + EBII
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: No more than 10 feet from my car....

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by terrypin
Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinLevin View Post
...I have 130gb of music...
Wow! A crude estimate based on my own file sizes and track durations makes that about 1 years listening at 12 hrs/day!

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Haha, not quite. A lot of my music has a high bitrate. I think my iTunes says 28 days with non stop listening.
__________________
430d M Sport Plus, 19" M double spoke bi-colour wheels, stop start cruise, pro navigation, sport auto, dynamic suspension, folding/dimming mirrors, rear camera, power seats.

Previous - S5 Cabriolet - 442hp
Appreciate 2
      06-11-2015, 02:36 PM   #82
Andrewthefirst
Major
Andrewthefirst's Avatar
United Kingdom
1219
Rep
1,319
Posts

Drives: M140i
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by terrypin View Post
Although I hate unsolved puzzles, must say I'm getting close to that point too.

I'm a diehard Windows user, but love the iPads I've used for last 5 years. However, never had an iPod and know nothing about them. On UK Ebay I see various 'generations'. What's yours please?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Mines the 5th gen iPod touch. That's the latest one. Apple haven't updated them for a while and they might not. 64gb is the max for the touch. Best ask other members if the classic is working ok with their car if you have anywhere near 64gb of tunes
Appreciate 1
      06-11-2015, 03:40 PM   #83
bjornand1
New Member
6
Rep
24
Posts

Drives: BMW 525 xD
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Trondheim

iTrader: (0)

First of all, an iPod Touch has a lot of things going for it! Painless syncing of tracks and playlists through iTunes, much faster load time in the car, and high-res album art (as opposed to an iPod Classic, that downsizes the images). And it doesn't freeze like the harddrive-based iPods do.

BUT, there is no iPod Touch with enough capacity for my appr. 140 GB of music, thus not an ideal solution.

As for indexing, yes, iDrive does keep working on indexing after you switch off the ignition, but it seems to be doing that for only about 10-15 minutes. So for a well loaded USB drive, you need to be in the car for quite a while...
Appreciate 3
      06-12-2015, 02:58 AM   #84
terrypin
Private
United Kingdom
23
Rep
73
Posts

Drives: BMW 328i Luxury Auto Saloon
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: East Grinstead, UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by bjornand1 View Post
First of all, an iPod Touch has a lot of things going for it! Painless syncing of tracks and playlists through iTunes, much faster load time in the car, and high-res album art (as opposed to an iPod Classic, that downsizes the images). And it doesn't freeze like the harddrive-based iPods do.

BUT, there is no iPod Touch with enough capacity for my appr. 140 GB of music, thus not an ideal solution.
Thanks. Tempting, but goes against the grain to have to add a relatively bulky iPod (v a 64 GB USB stick) with its connecting cable, at non-trivial cost. I'm gong to persevere...

Quote:
As for indexing, yes, iDrive does keep working on indexing after you switch off the ignition, but it seems to be doing that for only about 10-15 minutes. So for a well loaded USB drive, you need to be in the car for quite a while...
That very long delay's a real PITA. It could well account for most of my frustration over the last few weeks. But can I just make sure I understand you. What exactly do you see as the indication of indexing in progress? Is it just the message (anywhere) of 'Please wait...'?
Did you note my earlier comment?
"However, I think that 'No entries' can be trusted to mean that I'm never going to see any [playlist lists]."

I had been assuming that if clicking the Playlist icon gave me 'No entries', and that persisted for 5-10 minutes, it meant my 3 or 4 hour sync from the PC had failed in some respect. (Wrong playlist structure, location, corrupt files, etc.)

Is that your opinion too? Or do you think that if ignition is switched off with 'No entries' showing, iDrive continues to index? If so, even though it's apparently for only 15 minutes or so, that's a ray of hope. I could pop out to the car every 20-30 mins, switch on, wait for a minute or two, and switch off. At least everything else wouldn't then be consuming power.

--------------------

Almost inclined to fall back on the Music Collection I installed via glove box USB port a day or so after getting the car. But
- at around 12 GB that doesn't accommodate even my smallish library
- static, not synced to my PC libary, which I'm gradually cleaning up
- no playlists
- no album art

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Last edited by terrypin; 06-12-2015 at 03:03 AM..
Appreciate 0
      06-12-2015, 04:37 AM   #85
KevinLevin
General Motors
KevinLevin's Avatar
237
Rep
513
Posts

Drives: 430d M Sport + EBII
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: No more than 10 feet from my car....

iTrader: (0)

I don't have a wait for my hard drive. It took about two or three minutes to play the first track after first time plugging in. Then about 10 minutes to be able to use the search feature for track/genre/album etc.

Just a generic 256gb hard drive I had at home. Not solid state or even particularly fast.
__________________
430d M Sport Plus, 19" M double spoke bi-colour wheels, stop start cruise, pro navigation, sport auto, dynamic suspension, folding/dimming mirrors, rear camera, power seats.

Previous - S5 Cabriolet - 442hp
Appreciate 1
      06-13-2015, 05:13 AM   #86
terrypin
Private
United Kingdom
23
Rep
73
Posts

Drives: BMW 328i Luxury Auto Saloon
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: East Grinstead, UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinLevin View Post
I don't have a wait for my hard drive. It took about two or three minutes to play the first track after first time plugging in. Then about 10 minutes to be able to use the search feature for track/genre/album etc.
Proportionally, my 32 GB or 64 GB USB sticks should therefore be acceptably fast to load. I wish. Lost track of the many, many hours I've spent on this.

My major frustration in getting my playlists recognised is that it seems some of my music tracks and/or folders are not tolerated by the iDrive. Despite being perfectly acceptable on my PC. But how to find these in the 20 GB of 7,000 files?

With bjornand1 particularly in mind, here are some detailed notes. Overnight I did a sync from PC to a 32 GB USB stick. I opened it on my PC and played several tracks from every one of its playlists. I can provide details of the folder structure and playlist format if anyone is interested.

In the car this morning, after some delay, I was at first pleased to get all my 12 playlists displayed. But that was short-lived. That display was replaced by 'Invalid file' and then 'Cannot play track' and the playlist list appeared again, cycling at about 1 sec intervals. No detail was given identifying the file(s). When I was quick enough I managed to select a playlist and then a track and it played OK. Repeated that a couple of times. Went back to the Playlist icon but on clicking it now gave the familiar 'No entries'. Waited 5 mins but no change. Re-inserted USB and used 'Search Folder', which gave me an apparently full list of folders (Artists). But Playlists stayed at 'No Entries'.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Appreciate 1
      06-13-2015, 05:39 AM   #87
KevinLevin
General Motors
KevinLevin's Avatar
237
Rep
513
Posts

Drives: 430d M Sport + EBII
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: No more than 10 feet from my car....

iTrader: (0)

I don't use playlists Terry, so haven't experienced the issues your finding.
__________________
430d M Sport Plus, 19" M double spoke bi-colour wheels, stop start cruise, pro navigation, sport auto, dynamic suspension, folding/dimming mirrors, rear camera, power seats.

Previous - S5 Cabriolet - 442hp
Appreciate 2
      06-13-2015, 06:20 AM   #88
terrypin
Private
United Kingdom
23
Rep
73
Posts

Drives: BMW 328i Luxury Auto Saloon
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: East Grinstead, UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinLevin View Post
I don't use playlists Terry, so haven't experienced the issues your finding.
Do you manually choose the Next icon after playing each track?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Appreciate 0
Post Reply

Bookmarks

Tags
playlist, playlist m3u, usb

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:03 AM.




f30post
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
1Addicts.com, BIMMERPOST.com, E90Post.com, F30Post.com, M3Post.com, ZPost.com, 5Post.com, 6Post.com, 7Post.com, XBimmers.com logo and trademark are properties of BIMMERPOST