[Tr0y]

Hi All,

I currently use an iPod Classic which has most of my music on it but, as you will probably know, they don't make them anymore.

I live in fear that one day my iPod will die and I'll have to find another way to get my music in the car.

I tested out a 1TB WD My Passport HD earlier on and to my surprise it works in the car and is small enough to be stashed in the armrest.

So the bit I'm having difficulty with is finding a good way to synchronize my media library in iTunes with an external hard drive. I'm using a Mac so I guess if there is some software then it will have to be Mac compatible.

Any ideas?

Zak

[Fronzdan]

Do you mean something that would allow you to use a hard drive, but appear like an iPod to iDrive? If something existed like this, I'd be all over it as well. But I kind of doubt it because essentially it would be an iPod/Phone clone. Having used iTunes for years, syncing/managing music any other way is so foreign to me now. Before my first iPod, I was saying the same thing about moving to iTunes, lol.

If you just want to export the tracks, structure etc to the hard drive and let iDrive treat it like what it is...just a hard drive with music files, then yes, there are export tools. Let me see if I can get some links.

I use a Classic as well and I'm noticing on hot days, it acts up a bit. I was thinking of putting a SATA SSD drive in a small USB enclosure and moving to that someday. But the thought of creating playlists and building the library on it....

[andrej770]

Here is what I do for my B7, I bought an additional 128GB iPhone 6. I setup WIFI syncing via ITunes. The phone stays in the car console. It gets charged when I drive, but last a couple days if not charged. I connect to the phone via Wi-Fi in ITunes, update all the playlist and such. When I get in the car I play my playlist. If you don't have a huge library, buy a iPhone 5S or above that has 32GB and do it that way.

Now, that wasn't hard at all huh? :-)

[philmcgee]

Just so you guys know, the car will only cache the metadata for 40,000 songs. You can put more than that quantity on a 1TB external drive if they are in mp3 format, just beware that beyond 40,000 things will no longer be indexed...

[pjhusa]

Originally Posted by andrej770

Here is what I do for my B7, I bought an additional 128GB iPhone 6. I setup WIFI syncing via ITunes. The phone stays in the car console. It gets charged when I drive, but last a couple days if not charged. I connect to the phone via Wi-Fi in ITunes, update all the playlist and such. When I get in the car I play my playlist. If you don't have a huge library, buy a iPhone 5S or above that has 32GB and do it that way.

Now, that wasn't hard at all huh? :-)

Wow... an expensive method though

[Tr0y]

Originally Posted by andrej770

Here is what I do for my B7, I bought an additional 128GB iPhone 6. I setup WIFI syncing via ITunes. The phone stays in the car console. It gets charged when I drive, but last a couple days if not charged. I connect to the phone via Wi-Fi in ITunes, update all the playlist and such. When I get in the car I play my playlist. If you don't have a huge library, buy a iPhone 5S or above that has 32GB and do it that way.

Now, that wasn't hard at all huh? :-)

You know that's not a bad idea. I may even be able to get it to wifi sync from the car without taking it out.

I'll get a the new iPhone later this year so I can use my 6 for that.

[....,,,,..,,..]

I assume the same would work for an IPod Touch?

[Tr0y]

Originally Posted by Brigand

I assume the same would work for an IPod Touch?

I guess so, but they don't do a 128gb touch do they?

[....,,,,..,,..]

Originally Posted by Tr0y

I guess so, but they don't do a 128gb touch do they?

No Max is 64, however they are considerably less than a 128gb IPhone 6.

A fair bit of useable music in 64gb though (less reserved space etc).

[Tr0y]

Originally Posted by Brigand

No Max is 64, however they are considerably less than a 128gb IPhone 6.

A fair bit of useable music in 64gb though (less reserved space etc).

I'm just too lazy to cut my library size down. It's more than possible though and depending on your wifi strength you may be able to update without ever touching it.

[....,,,,..,,..]

Originally Posted by Tr0y

I'm just too lazy to cut my library size down. It's more than possible though and depending on your wifi strength you may be able to update without ever touching it.

Pretty strong wifi as have it in garage (for music in garden) so simple to use and have iTunes server on my NAS for when away.

[DTP1980]

Here is a neater 1TB solution, though nearly as expensive as an iPhone 6, albeit 8 times larger capacity:

http://www.kingston.com/en/usb/perso...siness#DTHXP30

For synchronising, I use Media Monkey: http://www.mediamonkey.com/

I know it's for Windows, but of course you could run windows separately on your Mac, though finding software like this dedicated to Mac would probably be easier. The software reads your music library, and you tell it what devices you have to sync with. Simple.

[Fronzdan]

Hmmm...MediaMonkey looks good. I may need to look into this. A 256gb SSD could be in my future.

I've used the standard music in iDrive interface very little. Is it essentially the same as the iDevice interface?

[bobbydigital]

I was an avid collector of MP3s for my own music collection, but stopped a few years ago when I was introduced to spotify. I had like 60k tracks at one time.

It's painful to hear about a 40k limit and limited HD sizes in 2015 car entertainment systems. I can't help but think within 3 years, these local ripping and storage features will be totally gone.

I know lots of people don't like the idea of paying for a subscription and not "owning" the music but I've found it crazy convenient.

Sure there are lots of tracks not on spotify but for the most part, it has 90% of what I want to listen to at any given time. The other 3 features I love are

1. social/community playlists rock. I can search for a keyword and get playlists made by other users

2. Notifications of new music by artists I "follow"

3. Offline mode to sync music locally so I can still have it when I don't have connectivity

With my iphone plugged into iDrive via use, I get album art too.

[rolltidef32]

Originally Posted by andrej770

Here is what I do for my B7, I bought an additional 128GB iPhone 6. I setup WIFI syncing via ITunes. The phone stays in the car console. It gets charged when I drive, but last a couple days if not charged. I connect to the phone via Wi-Fi in ITunes, update all the playlist and such. When I get in the car I play my playlist. If you don't have a huge library, buy a iPhone 5S or above that has 32GB and do it that way.

Now, that wasn't hard at all huh? :-)

Why in the heck would you buy another iPhone when an iPod will do the same thing?

Even if you have the money to burn, that was stupid as hell. An iPod Touch is WiFi and can wireless sync.

Wasting money is the easiest way to become poor. Look at former athletes and lottery winners.

[Tr0y]

Originally Posted by rolltidef32

Why in the heck would you buy another iPhone when an iPod will do the same thing?

Even if you have the money to burn, that was stupid as hell. An iPod Touch is WiFi and can wireless sync.

Wasting money is the easiest way to become poor. Look at former athletes and lottery winners.

Thanks for the useful opinions.

For the record, we are talking about large libraries, the iPod touch has a maximum capacity of 64gb.