I've dug around in the threads for some answers to this and so far can't find a thread with a streamlined all-in-one-place answer. If anyone can point me to one that answers my question, I'd be grateful and we can move along, nothing to see here. Otherwise, here is my question:

I ordered a 2013 Cooper S Hardtop, which should have Bluetooth, Mini Connect/NAV, etc. It apparently also has a USB port. I'm not clear as to whether it will have an auxillary port. I purchased all of the four major packages: Premium, Sport, Cold Weather, and Technology.

I'm an Android user (Galaxy Nexus) and will continue to be. Realizing that some features will not be available to me unless/until Mini ever gets around to producing an Android-compatible system, what exactly ARE my options for most simply getting music from my phone to my stereo system? The USB port? Bluetooth? An auxiliary jack? Most of the discussions I have read focus on the incompatibility of Android and Connect, but few seem to focus on the simpler question: if I don't even care about connect (or can live without whatever features it imparts), what exactly ARE my options for getting music from my phone to the car? And beyond the basics, which option (if any) would allow me to take advantage of additional features (e.g. album art, address book, etc.) of the system. As I said, at the end of the day, I don't really need those features, but if some of them work, let me know.

I've read one thread that discusses a hack through which you use an iPod Touch as an intermediary device between your Android phone and the system. I don't really want to get that complicated, if possible.

Bottom line, if someone has a moment to give me the bullet point version of my options with pros/cons of each, that would be fantastic. Thanks!

 

I put some MP3 files on a USB stick. It works great. It shows the song title and information on the radio display. You can browse the directories by album/ artist etc. You can manipulate the track with the buttons on the steering wheel.

The AUX port is below the radio, near the handbreak, next to the USB port. I haven't used AUX.

 

Your two options, as far as I know:

1. Connect your phone via 3.5mm Aux cable. You have to control everything through your phone. You could get crazy and add a mount by the radio with power for your phone so you could reach it easier and see album art. Not worth it, in my opinion.

2. Plug in a USB drive. I have a very tiny USB drive that reads microSD cards that is very inconspicuous that I leave in the car all the time. If you had a different phone, you could also use the microSD card in your phone, but that's not possible with the Galaxy Nexus (tangent: that's my phone too and I love it. I had an S2 for a couple months but hated all the bloat that came with it). You can control everything with the radio and it's very quick to load on my 2012 (I wish our 2010 loaded as quickly, but it takes a few minutes).

 

Some other thoughts, in pro/con format:

Aux port:
+ Only need one device (phone)
+ Can use pandora, XM, etc
- More difficult to control (and possibly illegal depending on where you live)
- Have to plug in phone each time you get in the car

USB:
+ Can control through built in radio controls
+ Can leave in the car all the time
- Can't do internet streaming
- Have to update 2nd device
-/+ Car is sometimes picky about play order. I had to run a script to add the track number to the beginning of each song title so they would play in the correct order. It irritated me having to change song titles, but now I appreciate knowing the track number while the song is playing. It's a con that became a pro.

 

One last post (for now). This is the USB drive that I have. I currently have a 16GB card, but I like that it's expandable up to 32GB just in case I get to that point. It's tiny! Sticks out maybe 5mm when plugged in.



10 bucks on Amazon; also comes in white if you're into that:

 

I have one of these in mine. Just 10 bucks more, even smaller, and comes with 32GB of storage.


--Matt

 

You guys are awesome. This is great information! Does the car remember where it left on on your thumb drive when you turn off/turn on the vehicle? And what about if you remove/re-insert the memory stick?

Oh, and Chrunck, I'm pretty compulsive about tagging and titling all of my mp3's. The format I use for file names is <Artist - Album - track # - title> with corresponding tags. Will it read those OK?

 

Can you not use bluetooth? Wouldn't that get you phone, mp3, spotify etc. all in one place?

 

On your first question, yes. The second, I don't know since I've never unplugged mine. I assume not though.

The filenames won't matter, since it uses the ID3 tags for cataloging.

--Matt

 

Yes, it remembers what song you were on even if you unplug it provided you give it enough time to index any new songs you've added. I usually leave it on the CD player while I go to work and it's sorted out by the time I get there. From my highly unscientific experience, it resolves the new songs faster if you don't switch inputs a lot. It was taking forever (2-3 days) the first time I added new songs, but I was constantly switching between radio and satellite radio trying to find something to listen to. It seems to do better if you leave it on a single input, so I just listen to a CD. The radio makes me crazy, anyway.

Another song name annoyance--I had to rename a bunch of artists that start with "The" to get them to sort how I like. For example, instead of "The Beatles", the Artist ID3 tag is now "Beatles, The". Otherwise they all end up in the Ts which is stupid.

 

Hi -

I'm in the same boat in that I have an Android device (Galaxy S3) and am getting a 2013 Mini Hardtop S equipped with Connected + Nav. I had similar questions as you and finally just went to my MA, sat in a Connect-equipped 2012 and was streaming Pandora through the car speakers via bluetooth in seconds. I was pleasantly surprised how functional most of Connected was with an Android.

I understand that if you use your Android as a hotspot and tether an iPod to it, it is as fully functional as if you had an iPhone connected. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that anyone!

 

@Youngdoc

Thanks for asking all this, I am the very same boat with both our Android phones.


For the 2013 models I can tell you that the Bluetooth that is installed is some hybrid setup does not follow the IEEE standards for Bluetooth. If it was following the IEEE standards all the Android phones that have up to date Bluetooth chipsets would have no problem connecting to the system.

 

Picking up the car this weekend. I plan to test every option -- Bluetooth, USB, and use of an iPod touch tethered to my GNex. I will report back my findings.

 

Well, I have experimented with nearly every audio option/combination, and I have lots to report, but one additional puzzling finding, and I'm interested in resolving this before I put together a comprehensive post. I have been using a small USB drive (like one of the ones pictured above) as one option and I ran into an interesting dilemma.

I created one USB drive will all of my music. Incidentally, I chose the Elago drive which allows you to use removable MicroSD cards. I installed a 64 GB SanDisk MicroSDXC card in it and found that the default formatting could not be read by my Mini. I then reformatted the SD card as an NTFS drive (very simple, by the way -- if you don't know how to do this, just ask) and it was readable by my Mini.

I saved pretty much my entire music collection on the drive and enjoyed the results -- album art loads on the Mini's display screen, the drive saves my spot when I turn off the car and return later, and I can fast forward (albeit a bit clunkily) during a song, etc.

I then tried something else: I formatted a second identical USB drive and switched devices. At first, the Mini struggled, because it was trying to find the place in the song it had been playing on my other drive. When it could not find that song, it gave up and refused to read the drive. When I reinserted the first drive, it went right back to the correct song. Switch again, and it was again lost and unable to read the second drive. I then switched listening modes to Radio, turned the car off, etc. and was eventually able to get it to read the second drive, but of course it won't switch easily back to reading the first drive. I'm not terribly surprised (although I was hopeful) that Mini can't apparently save my place on two different USB devices, but I am a little flustered that it has a hard time recognizing that I have switched devices altogether.

Has anyone run into this, and if so, have you found a way to quickly nudge the Mini into recognizing that you have inserted a new drive for it to read?

 

You mentioned you made a 64gb usb stick to work on the MINI, but instead of using FAT32 you used NTFS, i thought this couldnt be read my the stereo , but you made it work, have you tried this with a usb stick instead of just a memory card reader??