I think there's something wrong with my USB , I can play an 8GB flash drive all day long no problem if I go to 32GB it will play the first song for a bit then starts cutting out, heaven forbid I should use a 64GB, doesn't matter if I start at the first song it wants to play or if I skip through, in a previous post, it was suggested it takes a little while for the drive to index , larger the drive the longer it takes, I ran the the thing for 20 mins and it still is wonky, any thoughts?

 

I have a love/hate relationship with the USB port. Sometimes any added music gets indexed and loads in 5 minutes and sometimes it takes a full day's worth of trips or more. I've tried various things to try to speed it up, but I can't say definitively that any of them had a positive effect. I've tried:

- Class 2 vs Class 10 microSD card (I use a 16GB microSD inside a USB adapter). No noticeable difference.

- Songs in folders (Artist->Album) or all stored at top level. No noticeable difference.

- Keeping the stereo on one input vs switching between radio, CD, satellite, etc. Staying on one input seems to help the USB drive index quicker, but it's probably just perception.

- Turning the stereo back on after arriving at my destination. It will run for 20 minutes before it shuts off again. I just turn the volume all the way down. It seems to help, but I don't know.

One time it wouldn't load after 3 days, so I pulled it while the car was running and plugged it back in. It started working in about 5 minutes.

One time I turned off the car right at the end of a song and the stereo got stuck on the current album and wouldn't let me change. I had to delete some hidden file that the car creates to get it to reset.

Sometimes I've had to delete the recently added songs and re-add them on the computer to get it to work.

Long story short--there's no rhyme or reason to it. Chances are there is nothing wrong with your drive. Mine does the exact same thing before it finishes indexing--plays the first song for a few seconds, then starts stuttering, and none of the Artist/Album/Playlist options show up on the display.

Once it gets past that initial indexing, it works great, but getting to that point is unpredictable.

 

Well that blows , the 8gb drive works fine but man it sure limits the amount of songs I can cruise around with, I wonder if USB 2.0, 3.0 drives are having anything to do with it, I only wonder cuz the 8GB drive is pretty old, I didn't want to have to buy another ipod btw that works fine. So if I just leave the drive in the USB is anyting going on or is it only active when the car is on?Yes I can use my phone , iPod but I like the simplicity of popping a drive into the USB

 

Supposedly that port is powered after the car turns off, but I don't know if it indexes or not. My drive has a little blue light that flashes after I turn the car off.

I don't know if USB 3.0 would matter, though it's only going to read at 2.0 speeds since that's what the port is.

I wish I had some helpful advice, but it's such a crapshoot. There's no user feedback as to what's going on, if anything.

 

No worries, I was concerned that something was wrong with the car/port but at least 2 of us are having this problem, I guess just chalk it up to MINI weirdness

 

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I also have a lot of experience with my wife's 2010 Clubman. Hers tends to index much quicker than my CM, but is slow to initialize when first starting the car and takes forever to scroll to the bottom of the artist list. I love that in the CM the music is ready as soon as you start the car.

I've never experimented with plugging the drive in while stopped, driving, etc. That's an interesting thought.

As for the cutting out, it will play about 10 seconds of a song, and then sounds like a skipping CD. It's never completely stopped playing for me. I don't know if my wife's Clubman does the same or not. I think hers just doesn't play any music until the drive initializes and by then any new songs have already been indexed.

 

Plug it in and it seems to index. It will play a couple of songs and then just stop. If I fast forward a couple of songs ahead it will play a few of those and then stop again. I am really disappointed in the performance of the USB port. I had a 2012 Hardtop S and it had the same USB port weirdness too. I am using a 64GB drive. But I have had the same results with a 16GB drive too. I may go buy an 8GB and try that instead.

 

I can tell you my 8GB work fine, anything else is non functional for me 16, 32, 64GB, plays at most 2 minutes then starts cutting out then just dies. For everything I love about this car this is a HUGE letdown and BMW should be ashamed of themselves for putting crap like this in any vehicle, the sad part is they're not ashamed.

 

I am going to give it a try. Thanks Elmj.

 

So that's why the 'welcome package' from our new purchase (a Coupe, last Dec) had an 8 gb flash drive in the shape of a MINI.

Took off the MINI promo material, put songs on it, and it works pretty good. Seems like one song gets stuck, might take that one off, but otherwise it plays just fine.

 

UPDATE: Well it's get's worse what I thought was an 8GB drive turns out it's a 1GB drive and for the icing on the cake, it seems to be stuck on a loop of about 20 songs, fantastic!!