I know absolutely nothing about flash drives, Itunes, etc., and my Google results make me more confused because they lead me to technojargon that I really don't get. Anyway, I was pissed that my 2015 MINI didn't have a CD player but a few people told me that I can load my CDs into a flash drive. So I bought one and then ripped a few CDS onto my computer using Windows Media Player. I synced it with the flash drive then put it in the car's USB port. The first CD shows up but that's it. It shows the artist name on top then plays that one CD over and over without allowing me to find the other CDs. I somehow got it to shuffle and songs from the other artists played so I know they are three but I didn't have any control over what played.

Is there a way of making this work like a CD changer: Select The CD then play it or is everything in random play purgatory? Do I have to buy a flash drive for each CD?

It is frustrating as hell and I feel like taking a hammer to it but hope somebody can explain how to do this in plain English first. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I don't know if 2015 set up is different, but mine works perfectly. I have loads of albums in MP3 format in a simple directory structure by folders of album names. Double check your format and structure also how is your usb stick formatted?

 

That is Klingon language to me. I don't know what a directory structure is. How can I tell how my USB stick is formatted? Sorry, I'm old and every bit of this is new to me. I have never even opened Media Player until a few days ago. Can you tell me how to format it and make a directory?

 

from Mini 2015 Manual - Popular file systems for USB devices are sup‐
ported. FAT32 and exFAT are the recom‐
mended formats

When USB is in your computer, highlight drive, right click get properties. It should tell you how it is formatted. You should then look at the folders on the stick and just see folders with album names, or you could just have all your songs without any folders. If it isn't formatted FAT32 or exfat, just right click again and select format.

In Media Player select the Options tab (not sure what version you have, I rarely use Media Player) and set the RIP setting to MP3 if it isn't already at MP3.

Beyond that I have no idea if newer Mini's do things a bit different. Certainly worth the effort, blows CD's away as you can have thousands of songs on that little stick!

BTW - your salesperson or any Mini employee should walk you through this.

 

http://youtu.be/F5-StVUFne4

 

Wow, thanks for all the help! I have learned an incredible amount in a few hours! My drive is formatted FAT32. The files were Windows Media format so I deleted them, along with the WinP directory. After watching the Youtube video I am ripping a few CDs but this time in MP3 format. I am going to put them into a directory on the Flash drive then take a drive over to where the MINI is parked to try it out! I will post the results!

By the way, I may be the first person to ever put Hank Williams Senior and Carl Perkins on a flash drive! Told you I was old - LOL.

 

How old are you? Didn't that video shakiness cause nausea? I know I couldn't do more than a few seconds of it. Fortunately I know most of this stuff and by most standards I'm pretty old as well.

 

I'm just joking about being old although my girlfriend says I'm 48 going on 80. I'm very resistant to change. My other car is a 1950 Ford F1 and brake lights were a high tec option. No turn signals, horn, or seat belts!

 

Stick your flash drive in the USB port, go to media, Your flash drive should be accesible, push, scroll to browse directory, and a list should come up with albums or playlist, click on the one you want and then all the songs should come up. To choose another album/playlist hit the back button and it should bring you back to the album/playlist selection. I have a base model Mini with a base radio and that's how my radio works.

 

Thanks for all the help. I got it figured out. Accessing the directory and selecting is a little cumbersome but it works anyway. I wish it could be done with the steering wheel controls.

 

Thats Windows Media Player that screws that up. I had to go through and un-fudge my music since Media player was grouping my catalog 3 different times. It had my I-tunes folder in the song list then it had another "music" folder all in list so when I drug it over to my flash drive it would be too much since it was now getting 3 of each song. For android users if you get a big enough SD card and actually place your music in the music folder and not Google Play music you can control through HU and steering wheel