[casperM4]

How am I supposed to store FLAC tracks with only 20gb?

[mose121]

I've abandoned the music collection feature altogether. It's too clumsy to use especially with multiple imports, file folder structure, etc.. My 15 year old 60GB ipod works 1000 times better and still displays album art and does everything you can do with the music collection only better.

[LEX111]

Originally Posted by sparker92

Hello everyone,
I just thought I would share my experience with the Music Collection feature and how I made it work for me. First off, let me start with how I know that using an iPod or iPhone or streaming service is more up to date than using the car’s hard drive to play and store music. In fact some of you may even claim it is a waste of time and energy to even utilize this feature. In a quest to use every feature I paid for in my vehicle, I have started using this awesome option and I have focused many hours of building my music collection carefully. So here is what I have found out from using it in detail.

Note: The vehicle I am using this feature on is a 2014 335i xDrive Sedan running iDrive 4.2 (NBT). You results may vary based on model year and iDrive version. The music collection on vehicles featuring iDrive 4.2 (NBT) is exactly 20.0GB (20480MB). If you have more than 20GB of music, then storing the music in the vehicle may not be the right thing for you. Also, only vehicles equipped with Navigation Professional (option 609) will have the ability to store media.

To Import Music

To start out, I cleared out any music that may have been previously stored on the hard drive of the vehicle. If you need to do this, it can be done by going to Multimedia > Music Collection > Manage Music Collection.
I picked an artist to start my testing. In this case, I used Blackmill. I found all of the .mp3 files by Blackmill on my iMac and transferred them over to a USB drive (formatted in FAT32).
Once placed on the USB drive, I created folders (as albums) and sorted the .mp3 files into the correct albums. For my album titles, I also placed a year on them as pictured below.

Next, I modified each .mp3 file using Tag (a program available on the Mac App store for $4.99). If you are running a Windows machine, I would recommend using MusicBrainz Picard or a similar program to edit your tags.

After adding all of the correct information about the song, I added high-resolution album artwork using the tagging program. I didn’t have any luck with album artwork showing on the iDrive display if the image is bigger than 1000x1000 pixels. I also had no luck getting PNG images to display. However, JPG is accepted and displayed nicely. A good source to get album artwork from is fanart.tv. It offers high resolution artwork in a JPG format with a 1000x1000 size. Feel free to just use Google Images too, as Fanart does not have all artists.
As I have a small case of OCD, I hate when music is titled with a number in front of it (example: 01. Miracle.mp3). So once I re-tagged everything, I removed the number in front of the title. This step isn’t necessary, but when scrolling through your music collection on the instrument cluster with your steering wheel, these numbers are displayed, as the instrument cluster is reading the file name, not the title of the song.



Once editing and renaming is done, you can eject the USB drive and plug it into the center console (or the glove box if you aren’t running NBT). With the iDrive go to Multimedia > External Devices > USB Device. Your music should display with album artwork and titles. Clicking the import button will copy those files to the vehicle’s hard drive. In some models, clicking “Option” button on the iDrive controller may be necessary to find the import feature.





Once imported, go to the Music Collection (if the iDrive didn’t already take you there once the importing finished). If you click on the “Music search” (second icon down the list on the left) you should be able to find “Browse directory” at the top. When you click Browse directory, it will take you into the file system of the Music Collection. Here you will find your latest import labeled as the USB drives name with two digits after the name. You can rename this folder as the artist name by clicking “Option” on the iDrive and selecting “Rename album”. Once renamed, you should have the following file structure: Browse directory > Artist > Album(s) > File name(s)/Titles











If tagged correctly, when searching for music with “Music search” you should be able to correctly find the genre, artist, composer, album, and/or title without having duplicates or misspelled items.

To Import Additional Media

Importing podcasts and audiobooks can also be accomplished in the Music Collection. Lets start with importing an Audiobook.
Take USB stick formatted in FAT32, plug it into your PC or Mac and erase the drive completely. Now drag either an iTunes Audiobook file (.m4b) file to the drive.

One completely copied over to the USB stick, eject it and plug it into the vehicle’s USB port. On vehicles not running NBT, the glove box USB will be necessary to use for importing.
To import the files on the drive to the vehicle, go to Multimedia > External Devices > USB Device and click the save icon on the menu.





Once imported, the audiobook should be available under “Additional media” in the Music Collection. Please note that if you are importing more than one audiobook, they will all be grouped in a folder with the name of the USB stick. If you would like to rename this folder, you must do so in the Browse Directory menu (like done in Step 8 of the previous section)









To Import a Podcast, use the same technique to import an audiobook. Just be sure the podcast is in an MP3 format and tagged as a podcast media type (usually can be done through iTunes).

Start Using the Music Collection

Once you have imported music, you can start using the Music Collection features. In this example, I will be using the BMW Audiobook collection.
Now Playing: this is the top icon on the Music Collection menu. By clicking “Now playing”, the iDrive will display a list of music queue’d up to play. This menu can be additionally accessed through the steering wheel scroll wheel and displayed on the instrument cluster.
Music Search: second icon from the top, Music search, will allow you to browse your entire music collection.
Playlists: this third from the top icon will allow you to browse through your playlists. To create a playlist, see the Favorites feature further down in this section.
Additional Media: additional media allows you to specifically call up Audiobooks or Podcasts without having to browse the directory. See how to import additional media in the previous section.
Similar Titles: will bring up titles from your Music Collection that sound similar to the one playing. This feature is similar to that of Apple’s Genius Playlist.
Favorites: Favorites can be added by clicking the star icon. Your favorites can be recalled under “Playlists”. If you are specifically looking to create a playlist, you can make a list of favorites you would like placed in a playlist by clicking the star icon on the songs you want added. Once you have your favorites put in, call the favorites up by going to Playlists > Favorites. Click “Option” on the iDrive controller and “Save as playlist”. Unfortunately, the playlist is titled by the car as “Favorites from [date]” and there is no way to modify the name (at least to my knowledge and understanding).
Next / Previous: when just high-lighting one of these boxes without clicking on them, it will display the next song or previous song queue’d up to play.

Additional Notes

Most vehicles running NBT will be able to read and import not only MP3 files, but also WAV, FLAC, AIFF, M4A, M4B, WMA, and Compact Discs and MP3 formatted MP3 discs. Some files I couldn’t get to work at all were OGG and Podcasts formatted in M4A.
If you would like to make a backup of your music collection, click “Option” on the iDrive controller while in the Music Collection and select “Backup music collection”.
When selling the car, you can backup your Music Collection to a USB stick and delete what was on the vehicle. Then if you are buying a new BMW, you are able to transfer the backup to the new car (so all of your hard work can be recovered).

Please let me know if this helps any of you out there and have a great day!

hi
im new to here
i have x5 30 d 2017 and although my idrive has MUSIC COLLECTION but i can not find any option how to view the remained storage capacity and how to delete files. anybody having the same issues? can u upload a photo to show me how to delete files?

[Shellie]

Hi

Can anyone help me. I have a 320 D 2014. My previous 320D allowed me to save and download music straight to the hard drive. However on the 2014 it does not even give me the option to save and download music.

Any suggestions please.

Shellie

[tympj]

Shellie,
I assume you purchased Nav (609) on your idrive? If so, then you can definitely import to the HD.

[Mikesmith2939]

I have a 2013 F30 with Nav etc.

However being a Champ 2 system it doesn't have the hard drive, so no way of having the music collection option.

[tympj]

It looks like the UK doesn't get the HD with NAV like we do in the US. That's too bad since we get 20GB of disk space to import music.

[Aubrey2021]

This is also what I was looking for in terms of klingeltöne kostenlos on BMW. They are amazing and attractive

[tympj]

Happy New Year to all. I currently have 1800+ songs on my IDrive HDD. Being a product of the 60's and beyond for music, this feature to me is the best method of playing this many songs that has ever been developed. Coming from vinyl records, then 8track tapes to cassettes to CD's, not having to insert anything after import and having a library of this many songs at a touch of a finger is nothing short of amazing.

Since it only takes about 12-14 minutes to import this many songs, it is worth every minute it takes for this procedure and the excellent writeup of the import instructions done by the original poster will make it easier for people to take advantage of this unique BMW feature. I understand people having many options to play their music. In my situation, I only want to hear songs I enjoy not other stuff including commercials. Consequently, I would highly recommend utilizing this feature for your music if you have a large library of songs that you want quick access too every time you step into your car.

[fe7565]

There is a setting in Bimmercode in "expert mode" to enable OGG.

[bubuloi]

Thanks for this write up very detailed have to try it out.

[Christabel]

The app provides a library of thousands of movies and TV episodes, https://pokiapp.com/teatv-for-android/ which can be downloaded and watched offline. You can also choose the best connection speed for the content, as it is available in several languages. Unlike many other free movie watching apps, you can read about each show or movie's technical specs. You can also read reviews and browse through different categories, so you can find exactly what you're looking for.

[MatthewCaldwell]

i think you should try with tonos para celular mp3 method on BMW