[CrimDoc]

Hey folks,

Does anyone know what the iDrive Hard Drive (or is it solid state memory?) capacity is in a 2019 F33 (430i X-Dive)? I see 20GB in threads about older BMWs ... but haven't run across a spec for the latest vehicles.

Also ... once you load an album into your music collection (i.e. put it in the hard drive) I can't see any way of deleting it. Can you do that without coding?

Thanks in advance ...

[enjoythemusic]

Personally... avoid the internal HD / ripping feature like the plague. Takes forever, is proprietary-ish file type, low quality lossy compression, a PIA to get your files back out of it, etc. Just rip your CDs in FLAC using the free Exact Audio Copy program. Them simply use a thumbdrive or SSD. Am using a Samsung 1TB SSD in the 435i

[tympj]

Currently in my '14 328i, I import songs all the time into my 20G Hard drive. I currently have 1400+ mp3 songs which reside in the hard drive and takes less than 10 minutes to import. From manage music under options, I have 71% free disk space 14677MB of 20480MB available. The maximum number of songs allowed to be imported varies based on the format you select ie mp3 vs FLAC. The space required for FLAC files is 3-4 times what's needed for mp3. I know people think that FLAC quality files are better than mp3 but based on my own comparison I can't tell the difference with my ears. So I only use mp3 HD quality songs.

To answer your question, you can easily delete all your songs without coding under options, manage music. It has the menu selection delete all music. Unfortunately with my version of idrive, I cannot select only certain songs to delete. It's all or nothing. It doesn't matter if the music is from CD or imported. This is the one of the design flaws of the system. The other flaw is you cannot add new mp3 files to existing mp3 songs in the same playlist. Every import creates a new import so it allows you to create playlists easily. You can segregate each of your playlists, ie oldies, pop, classical, jazz by genre on separate thumb drives or import each one at a time on the same thumb drive. Each import can be renamed by genre. In my case, I have all my music on one thumb drive and import all at once. When I add my Christmas music for example, I have that on a separate thumb drive and import that so it's a separate playlist from my other music. For me, this is an easy process because I do it so often but it maybe a little confusing to others because there is no documentation for this process. I believe when you import CD's it puts them into separate playlists by album but you must rename to know which one is which. I don't import CD's because I don't have any that I like every song and I have many but I prefer using Itunes to manage my songs from my laptop. I have a folder with all the songs for easy copy to a thumb drive for import.

The reason I go thru this process is because the hard drive is so fast when retrieving songs to play compared to having my iphone hooked up thru USB port in armrest. With the iphone which I have the same songs on, it takes a while for the iphone to be recognized by the idrive and is slower for my purposes especially with 1400+ songs. This way my iphone is available for other purposes. Another reason, the idrive starts playing the last song immediately where it left off when I shut off the car last. Also, now I don't need Sirus XM radio, Pandora, Spotify or any other service for my music. Bottom line, the HDD in my car is the best technology advance in my lifetime coming from the 60's. If I can help you further, let me know by email to tympj@comcast.net.

[CrimDoc]

Another question / issue ...

With some CDs, my car doesn't seem able to determine the album title or artist (or song titles).

When that happens, even though it tries to load them into the memory, they don't appear in the albums, artists or songs you can select.

Anyone else experience this, or know how to fix it?

[twodoor]

You can delete music folders individually, from what I remember when you hover over a folder name and move the idrive joystick to the right (options) there is an option to only delete that folder.
I don't think deleting songs individually is possible.

[tympj]

You're right CrimDoc. I actually went thru the process of importing one of my CD's with 10 songs to the HDD. With Idrive, it is called Store CD. The store process took 10-15 minutes for only 10 songs on the CD. Now I know why I don't use this process.

Once process is done, it shows track 1-10. Then you have to rename album under options because it doesn't identify the album by name. Have learned how to do this part fine but it's a flaw that it can't recognize album name correctly. It also doesn't identify the song names either only track 1-10 and when it plays a song only shows which track is playing. I cannot see any way to fix this flaw as well under my version of idrive. So enjoythemusic's suggestion to use Exact Audio copy program to convert to FLAC is the way to go if you want to use CD's.

Since HDD import is my first choice, this demonstrates and confirms the advantage of importing mp3 or FLAC files instead of CD's. I can import my 1400+ songs in less than 10 minutes and see all the song names and artists and album art if available.

[twodoor]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

Personally... avoid the internal HD / ripping feature like the plague. Takes forever, is proprietary-ish file type, low quality lossy compression, (...)

I tend to agree about the music collection compression, since I bought some WAV and AIFF tracks from beatport and I think they sound slightly better when played off the USB stick rather than played from the music collection after the import...

but is there any technical evidence that proves this? What format/compression is actually used by BMW's music collection?

[IAmATeaf]

I stopped using the onboard but did give it a try for a few months, now just have all my music on a usb pen drive, when I need to add/remove songs just plug the drive into my laptop, add/remove as I need and then update any existing playlists, job done.

[5mall5nail5]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

Personally... avoid the internal HD / ripping feature like the plague. Takes forever, is proprietary-ish file type, low quality lossy compression, a PIA to get your files back out of it, etc. Just rip your CDs in FLAC using the free Exact Audio Copy program. Them simply use a thumbdrive or SSD. Am using a Samsung 1TB SSD in the 435i

Which 1TB SSD/enclosure are you using? Does it need a power source?

[IAmATeaf]

Most 2.5” hard drives don’t require power, I have a 2tb drive which my car picks up but I use just a standard flash drive.

[tympj]

Good decision patricialob. How many songs on your flashdrive? I currently have 1800+ plus songs on my USB flashdrive and constantly update my mp3 library on my laptop using itunes. Then import my songs into the HDD which takes 12 minutes or so. Only uses 1/4 of capacity of the HDD so plenty of room still available. For my purposes compared to any other options, this is my preferred method of playing my songs in my '14 328i. The HDD is fast even though the user interface is not ideal it still beats every other method since I don't need to have my iphone or the flashdrive plugged in leaving the USB open for charging when necessary. Start the car, music starts playing last song immediately no delays or fumbling around. Don't even need carplay.

My question is how much better is the user inerface for importing to HDD when using Idrive version 6?

[gian325]

Not much better with ID6

[1brogers]

Hi All,

I have a 2018 F30 430i.

Can anyone direct me to documentation or instructions for the onboard music storage.

I bought the car used so had no say in the options and do not have a USB input

I'm interested in all of CrimDoc's issues, capacity? how to delete songs and or albums etc.

[P_W]

Late post.....

I believe the HU in my 2017 340i can handle approximately 16,000 files. I don't know if this helps.