I've got a 16gb USB memory stick that I'm using in my 09 MC. When I first started using the stick, it worked fine - it took a few minutes to load, and then everything worked properly for months. I recently swapped out some of the files on the drive, and now, I no longer get the list, artist, or genre options when the stick is plugged in; the only option i get is DIR. Everything was working before, and I know it can take a while to index, but it's been a week now, including several hour plus trips where I used the USB stick the entire time, so I don't think the other options are going to show up. Is there a way to force the stereo to re-index? Or something else I can try? I tried just re-naming the drive, but that didn't make a difference.

 

The memory stick's file directory may have gotten corrupted. In the worst case, reformat the memory stick and copy all the files and folders back.

If you use Windows (I don't know procedures for Mac or Linux), you could try the following first. Open Computer/My Computer and right click on the memory stick's drive letter. Select Properties, then the Tools tab, and Error Checking. If it finds any errors, let it fix them, then try the memory stick again in your car. Remember aways to eject the memory stick (right click on the drive letter and choose Eject) before pulling it from the computer's USB slot -- not doing so can potentially damage the file directory. Right clicking on the drive letter is also where you can find the command to reformat.

 

I tried reformatting the drive and re-loading the music, but no luck. I drove around for about 3 hours today playing music from the USB, but only the DIR option shows up.

 

Standard Windows Formatting usually does not work. You will need to find an aftermarket formatting program to format the drive to FAT not FAT-32.

you can use this or something like it to format the USB Drive.

http://hp-usb-disk-storage-format-to....informer.com/

 

I'm using a Mac (probably should have mentioned that), and the drive was formatted to FAT (not FAT 32).

 

Using a MAC brings in many other issues and i can not help you with those.

Do you have a neighbor or friend that has a PC that you could try this on. IF so try it and let us know the results.

 

When you made changes did you add any files that may have had weird ID tags? I've seen that cause problems on mine (using a 16GB Patriot drive).

 

I have a pc, so I can use that if need be, but since it worked fine before using the Mac, I'd prefer to keep it that way.

What counts as "weird" ID Tags? Special characters and stuff?

 

Exactly, it also helps the read times if you delete out anything you don't need, like comments or album art, from the files on the USB drive.

There was a thread on here a few months back that talked about optimizing the USB drives for use in the MINI. Most of it was trial and error as the MINI's radio is still a bit of a mystery, luckily logic does still prevail (mostly).

 

Unfortunately both the MAC and WINDOWS formatting for FAT do not really meet the standard for DOS FAT formatting. Thus this is where a secondary program needs to be used.

I did a lot of research on this matter when i first got my clubman in April 08. After formatting a USB drive in WIN98 USB edition, WIN2K, WINXP, WINXP SP2, WINXP SP3, Vista, and OS10 (mac) none of them would formta the USB Stick to make it work prperly with the car. As soon as i used a secondary program to format the USB stick it worked perfeclty. the stick is also reccgnized by all computers it is pluged into where as when formated by WINDOWS it is not recognized correctly on a MAC and when formatted in a MAC it did not want to work in a PC properly.

This is from my experience. I have heard that the newer 09's are not as sensitive to the formating but I have not had direct experience nor have I tested it myself.

 

Update: It seems that I just wasn't patient enough. I went for a drive this weekend and played music from a single directory for about two hours, and all of the other options finally showed up (the first time it took less than 30 min.). I set the stereo to play random songs from a playlist containing all of my music (which is what I really wanted all along). Since then, I've taken several 15-30 min trips, and it's back to only showing the DIR option, but it is still playing random songs from my playlist. I assume if i keep driving long enough the options will all come back again, I just wish it would happen a little faster. It seems 14gb of music is somewhat overwhelming.

 

artmem,

Yes 14gb is slightly over whelming for the MINI.

This post in another thread will help you understand why.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...63-post67.html

There is also a lot of other good info in the rest of that thread.

But to make a long story short. The MINI re indexes the music every time you start the car. With 14 GB of music it will just take a very long time, and in reality probably not index it all at any time. It will have to dump some to bring in more as it goes along.

 

That's good to know. I think I only had about 10-12gb on the stick the first time, and the wait for it to index was tolerable. I'll just have to be careful about how much I add.

 

One thing you can do is take as much information out of the MP3 tags as possible to reduce the data points indexed. This will allow for more songs to be indexed but then only by title and artist if those are the only two tags left in the file.

 

My USB drive just stopped working today. It's been playing fine for a year now and all of a sudden it just stopped. I haven't added anything to it recently but it looks like the car isn't picking it up now.

 

is the drive itself dead? or just can't play in the MINI?

 

The drive lights up, flashes, and the display read "loading" when I unplug and plug it back in. After that it just doesn't play. I haven't plugged it into my computer yet to see if I can still read the drive but that's my next step.

 

Looks like my problem is with the flash drive itself, thankfully. It's easier to replace a flash drive than take the MINI in for service.

My computer won't read the flash drive at all. It won't even recognize it so I can format it.