Was just about to purchase a 4gb mircosd hc but there is a 8gb out now. I don't know what the limit is on the factory radio.

I love the microscopic size of the microSD cards and with a micro USB reader, it's undetectable when plugged in the car.

 

I used the Sandisk 8 gb and it did not work. I returned it and purchased a PNY 8gb flash drive and it worked perfectly!!!

 

Check out Super Talent Pico_C flash card (see it here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820609296).

It's very small, basically invisible unless you bend down and look, plus it has no LED that flashes.

I've been using it for almost four weeks now.

 

Similar to aafflyer, I've been using an 8GB card for months. I'm unimpressed with the scroll speed between folders, it's pretty pokey, I'm hoping to find a different card that scroll faster. My ipod is much faster, so I'm looking for something that approaches that performance.

 

I used one of those for a bit. Didn't last more than a month or two. It got pretty hot with use in the MINI or transfering mp3's to it from my computer. It was nice that it was well concealed though.

 

I'll have to reach down tomorrow and see if it's hot.

 

I've got a .NET program I wrote that takes all the music on my computer organized by artist and then album, and then copies it to the root folder of the flash drive. This way there is no scrolling between folders to wait for. I think the Mini still builds it's own artist list -- I'll have to double check this tomorrow.

 

Isn't that how iTunes does it if you copied the music folder over?

How is the heat on the USB? I was thinking about buying the one you recommended, any issues?

 

There is no discernible heat at all playing my music from the device. The next time I write to the device, I'll check the heat then, but from memory I do not recall it being "hot".

I don't use iTunes, so I don't know what it does. All I know is my music folder is Artist/Album/song.mp3 -- and I could find no way to easily copy just the songs to the root folder of the flash so I wrote my own little tool. And my own earlier question, with the music all in one folder the mini still builds its own artist and album lists from the embedded tags.

 

So it is faster if there is just a flat list of files rather than in separate subdirectories?

 

Right now I have about 540 songs (about 3.8 GB of the 8 GB) used. I leave the USB stick plugged in, adding songs maybe once every two or three weeks. I primarily just have it play random tracks, but I can bring up the artist list or album list by simply hitting the appropriate button and it basically instantly comes up. There is no delay that I can observe when scrolling thru the list of artists or albums. Selecting an artist or album instantly brings up the list of songs by the artist / on the album.

When I start the car it maybe takes 3 to 5 seconds to start playing. When the USB is removed, and then reinserted, I can start playing in maybe 5 to 10 seconds -- but I don't think it has read all the songs as it does that more slowly almost as a background process.

With the micro device not having any LED that shows access, I can't really tell what is going on. But for me, it is a simple device that is hidden, has no flashing LED, and was only about $23 when I bought it -- i.e. a great bargain and exactly what I was looking for.