I have an 8G flash drive on which all files are .mp3.

The same drive and same files played without problem in my former car (a Ford product) and have since played without problem in various (non-MINI) cars of friends and rental cars.

When the drive is used in my MINI, some of the tracks display: TRACK UNREADABLE.

Has anyone experienced the same problem or have any insight what is causing it or how to fix it?

(Sidenote: all the tracks that were coming back as UNREADABLE, I did copy to a CD and they play just fine in that mode...but I'd like to use the flash drive exclusively.)

Thank you...

 

I have a 16GB in mine, haven't seen that problem. On a recent long trip, I had a chance to notice some odd quirks though. It will play just about any audio file, not just mp3. When it is used the first time, the radio scans the entire drive, then stores the file information internally. It appears it tries to put files into catagories such as genre. I have no idea how it does this. The manual provides very little information, says it will store this data for 4 different drives. In any event, the only suggestion I can make is try a different drive.

 

Are you using a Mac or a Windows computer to transfer the files to your USB drive? I had the same problem (I am using a Mac), seems that when I added files using the Mac - some extra files get added on to the usb drive. I also noticed that if iTunes was used to rip the songs, duplicate files of each song were created (I forget the file extension) - it's pretty noticable which need to be deleted. I "think" the Mini system tries to play those files, thus they are "unreadable" because they are not actual .mp3 files. The only way I was able to solve the issue was to plug the usb drive into a Windows machine - then in folder options (in control panel) click on the view tab, and uncheck hide operating system files and check show hidden files folder etc. I then proceeded to delete anything on the USB drive that was not an actual music file ie: .mp3 Hope this helps you out

-Bob

 

This happens to me too. I know it's not the files, because the MINI has played them before. I'm not really sure what causes it though or how to fix it. Eventually it always starts working again for me. Perhaps it's after the car has been turned off and back on again. I don't know.

 

"I know it's not the files..." pretty brazen statement. Fact is, you're still having problems, I am not. This is why I typically do not post; just lurk. Good luck.

 

See this article: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10329972-263.html

or this one: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1499897

or this one: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1574764

Better yet, do your own Google search on ._.mp3 files

As I stated earlier --- If you are using a Mac or have plugged your USB stick (or an SD card) into a Mac to copy someone else's .mp3 files YOU HAVE duplicate files on your USB drive; your car stereo is likely recognizing the "duplicate" ._mp3 files (notice it's "filename._mp3" not just "filename.mp3") for some (or all) tracks which are unreadable files on the Mini or BMW system (I have a Mini Base R56 and a BMW 328i - I experienced this issue with both cars), eventually the Mini or BMW stereo system scans through these ._mp3 files and will find a normal readable .mp3 file and seemingly play normally. But your stereo system will lock-up if it encounters one of these ._mp3 files. Hence, your system seems to play normally for a while.

The only way "I" was able to solve the issue was to use a Windows computer, plug in the USB stick, and import the .mp3 files into a tag editor (I used a program called Mp3tag) http://www.mp3tag.de/en/. You WILL notice the duplicate ._mp3 files and know which ones to delete. This is a well known program, I am only offering it as a suggestion...use whatever you want.

There may be a solution if you only use a Mac, I saw a few...I'm just not super comfortable using a command line interface and just found it easier to use Windows to delete the files.

-Bob

 

Fo those of you who prefer pictures...I've taken a few screenshots...



View using Windows 7: Notice the files highlighted in RED...these are the "duplicate" files. Notice the file size. The "good ones" are in GREEN.
** I have show system files and operating system files enabled...you may have to do this in Windows **



View using Mp3tag: I've used RED and YELLOW to highlight the offending files. Notice the filename.

 

Macs make extra directories but then again so did Windows 8.1. One problem that I encountered was that the MINI was reading the MP3s in the trash. Emptying the trash is obviously a solution but also a PITA.

One program that can help is CleanEject which is supposed to get rid the extra hidden Mac directories before dismounting the USB drive.

Every system is particular, but I found that if I batch re-encoded all of my Audio Files with XLD to MP3s using the default LAME settings it was flawless.

 

Excellent advice, even better link (to CleanEject) BravoHotel

 

I have the same problem and it's annoying. I totally agree with what Bob has said, I use macs only. I thought it might have been the file system (fat32) so tried the mac system, it didn't read the card at all.

I have found that it only does it in certain albums, not all of them and it's still transferred using my mac so that's a strange one.

If you skip the unreadable tracks, you'll eventually get to the tracks you want.

I'll give cleaneject a try, thanks Bob and bravo hotel.

Edit: I have the same problem in my mini clubman and the Alpine stereo (178bt) that I installed in my r56

 

I am getting a similar error on about 2/3 of the music on my USB drive.

After spending a bit of time last night syncing music from my windows computer using Windows Media Player I tried it in my Mini Countryman. The first song it tried to play gave me an error "Track unreadable" I skipped the track and the next one played just find (different artist and I had hit the random button). I watched it while driving and realized it would flash past a tremendous amount of songs before finding one it could play. It was only playing about 10 different artists of the 30 or 40 I had synced. I tried to access these tracks directly through the list and would get the track unreadable error.

This led me to check a couple of things. First I verified the drive was formatted in FAT 32. I then tried copying these files directly from my computer to the flash drive (using windows file manager) with he same result (track unreadable). I have tried various bit rates in sync process without any change. It seems some of my music works while others don't All of this music was ripped years ago at the same time which puzzles me even more. I could understand if it had been ripped at a different time in a different format, but they should all be the same. I have used this method before to sync with my android phone and all the music has played just fine.

Has anyone else run into this, or have any suggestions of what to try next?

Thanks,
Tim

 

Just a couple of thoughts. For one, if the bit rate is 256 or higher, the manual says it may or may not play. Second, I ran into the FAT 32 file limit in the root directory. I created a folder called Music and place all my files there as a folder does not have the same file limit as the root directory. If you create a folder for say every different album, then the random function doesn't work well. Anyhoo, once I did that, no more problems.

Lastly as mentioned in a previous post, make sure you don't have any hidden files.

 

Thanks for the response. I had already verified there were no hidden files and the files were already in a sub-directory "music" I had tried various bit rates as well with no success. After some more playing last night I think I narrowed it down to DRM restrictions. Not sure why some of the files have it and others don't, but when I converted the file to non protected it played just fine.

 

Ah, good catch. I just looked at the manual again, and it does show DRM protected files are not playable..

 

I know it's a few years after this post...but thank you for sharing your solution. I did what you suggested and it totally worked. I've been trying to fix this issue, literally for days until I found your post. Mucho appreciated, brah!