[black stig]

A very handy thread. Plugged in my 64GB USB yesterday which had worked fine in my Mercedes, and the BMW could only see the first album.

Plan on working through this thread over the next few days.

[massarico1]

Hi! No more pictures it is possible to put them again?
cheers

[mynamesnotbob]

Originally Posted by massarico1

Hi! No more pictures it is possible to put them again?
cheers

Done

[aparixion]

Format your flashdrive to Mac Os (Journaled) then transfer your music files to it. It makes sense why the ipod touch works seamlessly with your car because the format of the ipod touch is probably Mac Os Journaled or Mac Os Journal Extended. Hope this helps.

[Z_Victor1]

OK...yes, Holy Thread Resurrection, I know.

BUT this is such good thread and the great effort put in by the OP is worthy of keeping it up and out there.

Assuming lots of you have tried this, has anyone noticed a ceiling or a limit on the maximum number of tracks that the (any) i-Drive can read.

I ask, because I have transferred >30,000 tracks onto 1TB HDD and whilst those it CAN read, it reads fine, it does NOT seem to be able to read them all.....

Share your thoughts....

[G82Dude]

Originally Posted by Z_Victor1

OK...yes, Holy Thread Resurrection, I know.

BUT this is such good thread and the great effort out in by the OP is worthy of keeping it up and out there.

Assuming lots of you have tried this, has anyone noticed a ceiling or a limit on the maximum number of tracks that the (any) i-Drive can read.

I ask, because I have transferred >30,000 tracks onto 1TB HDD and whilst those it CAN read, it reads fine, it does NOT seem to be able to read them all.....

Share your thoughts....

I seem to remember reading it's 40,000 something - although can't remember where! Current iDrive is probably more now...

[BMW_340]

Originally Posted by gelat

So, I just upgraded from a 2014 BMW 328Xi to a 2016 328i, and now, my WD 1TB passport hardrive stops reading songs at 15996

I literally just unplugged it from my 2014, which read 33,000 songs, with all MP3 tag info and all album art, and now the newer model car doesn't work?

Originally Posted by Z_Victor1

OK...yes, Holy Thread Resurrection, I know.

BUT this is such good thread and the great effort put in by the OP is worthy of keeping it up and out there.

Assuming lots of you have tried this, has anyone noticed a ceiling or a limit on the maximum number of tracks that the (any) i-Drive can read.

I ask, because I have transferred >30,000 tracks onto 1TB HDD and whilst those it CAN read, it reads fine, it does NOT seem to be able to read them all.....

Share your thoughts....

My car is a 2016 340i with Pro Nav. I’m still experiencing indexing issues even after performing the steps recommended by NotBob (thank you NotBob for the excellent work). I have a 500Gb drive with ~300Gb of music, mostly in MP3 and FLAC.
I called the BMW Genius and their response was not an acceptable one to me. Here are the recommendations they provided.

1. When using an external drive, limit it to 60Gb
(non-starter as I want my entire library on one device)

2. Place all music files in the root folder
(non-starter for me as I want to organize by <alphabet/artist/album>

3. They did not have any further information nor did they say if they plan to publish a firmware update that could improve this situation

I'm a RTFM person. I reviewed the BMW "Navigation, Entertainment, Communications Owner’s Manual” and I found the following (copyright BMW USA) on page 57 regarding the connection of external USB devices. While it doesn’t say the word “indexing”, I think that is exactly what it is referring to with this statement.

File systems
Popular file systems for USB devices are supported. FAT32 and exFAT are the recommended formats.

Depending on the configuration of the audio files, e.g., bit rates greater than 256 kbit/s or the number of different compression technologies, the files may not play back correctly in each case.

After connecting for the first time
Information on all music tracks, e.g., artist, genre or track, as well as playback lists, are transmitted into the vehicle. This may take some time, depending on the USB device and the number of tracks. During transmission, the tracks can be called up via the file directory.

Number of Tracks
Information from up to four USB devices or for approx. 40,000 tracks can be stored in the vehicle. If a fifth device is connected or if more than 40,000 tracks are stored, information on existing tracks will be deleted.

[cesaroctavio_80]

Hi guys im having some problems to view playlist in I drive of my F30 i have navi basic media ( ,6AC,6AE,6AK,6AM,6AP,6CP,6NH,6WA).
I tried some different configurations with no success:

• Export playlist from iTunes to m3u8 / m3U format
• Saving Playlist in root of USB / inside a playlist folder

This is how the list is the file:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:187,Sin Pijama Ft. Natti Natasha - Becky G
\Music\Becky G\Sin Pijama\01 Sin Pijama Ft. Natti Natasha.mp3
#EXTINF:212,One Kiss Ft. Dua Lipa - Calvin Harris
\Music\Calvin Harris\One Kiss\01 One Kiss Ft. Dua Lipa.mp3
#EXTINF:228,Never Be The Same - Camila Cabello
\Music\Camila Cabello\Camila\01 Never Be The Same.mp3
#EXTINF:422,Te Bote Ft. Nicky Jam Bad Bunny Ozuna - Casper
\Music\Casper\Te Bote\01 Te Bote Ft. Nicky Jam Bad Bunny Ozuna.mp3
#EXTINF:231,Attention - Charlie Puth
\Music\Charlie Puth\Voicenotes\02 Attention.mp3

all the music is in a folder placed in the root of the USB called “Music”

Current Setup: USB 3.0 64 GB FAT32 about 8,000 songs.
m3u playlists exported from iTunes and paths corrected ( / -> \) , music copied from the iTunes music media folder using same artist/album structure

What am i doing wrong?
have a nice day

[d0ctorj3kyll]

Hi all

Awesome guide and info, thanks to all who posted and helped out! Got this working for a USB stick, all shows up and searchable with album art, etc.

I'm trying to use my Android phone (Samsung Note 9) instead of a dedicated USB stick so I have one less thing to update and have in the car. However, even though the music works fine on a USB stick, when I try to connect my phone to the car with the same music on it all I get is "unknown artist" "unknown album". Strangely the album art still works.

Any thoughts for how I can fix this?

Thanks!

[Berseker]

sorry to bump this thread but I have a question that maybe can find an answer between you guys. I know that this subsection is for BMW F30 but I find more "active" this forum about the "media infotainment" subject.

I have a relatively new BMW F20 120i with the following "media" optionals:

S698A Area-Code 2 for DVD
S6ACA BMW Intelligent Emergency Call
S6AEA BMW Teleservices
S6AKA BMW Connected Drive Services
S6APA BMW Remote Services
S6NHA Hands-free with USB interface

I have an Idrive6 ENAVEVO Unit with no Nav,

head_unit ENAVEVO
I-Level(current) F020-19-03-546
I-Level(factory) F020-19-03-546
ASD No Data
Telematic ECU ATM
Phone module N/A
KAFAS SYSTEM N/A

I have both USB Music reading from the Armrest port, & Bluetooth Streaming of music (from Smarthpone Memory or from some Apps like Spotify or Amazon Music).

my problem is the following. I would be grateful if someone can help me. thank you in advance!