Navigation & Audio 16gb Flash Drive
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2nd Gear
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 61
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From: Arlington, VA
16gb Flash Drive
Has anyone had any luck getting a 16gb flash drive to work with the bluetooth/ipod option? I am on my second drive and I cannot find one that will work. I reported this to my dealer at service time and he gave me a MINI bulletin that stated "not all flash drives will work." However the bulletin said nothing about any size limits on the flash drives used. When I called my dealer and told him the second drive did not work, his comment back was that he would not use anything larger than 8gb.
I read here that someone has had success with a Patriot 16gb drive, so, I bought one of those, and it did not work. I have a PNY 8gb drive that has worked since day 1 without any reformatting, so, I just bought the 16gb version of the same drive, and it did not work either. With both drives, it will attempt to load the drive (drive light comes on), then, after about 30 seconds, it will say that the drive is empty. Both PNY drives contain the same songs.
Needless to say, I am quite frustrated. It is not that I want to fill up the 16gb drive, but, that I would like to get a couple more gigs of music to go along with the 7.5gb I already have on the 8gb drive. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, any success stories I can take to the dealer would also be appreciated.
I read here that someone has had success with a Patriot 16gb drive, so, I bought one of those, and it did not work. I have a PNY 8gb drive that has worked since day 1 without any reformatting, so, I just bought the 16gb version of the same drive, and it did not work either. With both drives, it will attempt to load the drive (drive light comes on), then, after about 30 seconds, it will say that the drive is empty. Both PNY drives contain the same songs.
Needless to say, I am quite frustrated. It is not that I want to fill up the 16gb drive, but, that I would like to get a couple more gigs of music to go along with the 7.5gb I already have on the 8gb drive. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, any success stories I can take to the dealer would also be appreciated.
6th Gear
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,304
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From: Stanwood, WA
Have you seen this thread?
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-usb-keys.html
I'd guess that it needs to be reformatted as FAT32.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-usb-keys.html
I'd guess that it needs to be reformatted as FAT32.
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2nd Gear
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 61
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From: Arlington, VA
Have you seen this thread?
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-usb-keys.html
I'd guess that it needs to be reformatted as FAT32.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-usb-keys.html
I'd guess that it needs to be reformatted as FAT32.
I have read that post; I did not have to reformat the 8gb drive...but, I will go ahead and reformat the 16gb drive using a third party SW and see what happens...
3rd Gear
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 279
Likes: 10
From: Santa Fe, NM
I've been trying to use a 16gb drive...not much luck...for about 3 days, each time I get in the car and turn it on (and sometimes when it's off), the light on the flash drive keeps blinking as though it's being accessed.
I can play some of the songs, but the data (artist or whatever) is incomplete...sometime I just see the title.
I can play some of the songs, but the data (artist or whatever) is incomplete...sometime I just see the title.
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2nd Gear
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 61
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From: Arlington, VA
I don't get it; some people can get a 16gb to work and others cannot. Could it be something specific to the year or configuration of the car? I have a 2008 Clubman, manufactured in June 2008, with the ipod/bluetooth integration. Since some of us can get a specific drive to work (Patriot and PNY) and others cannot get these same drives to work, it seems to me that it has to be something with the configuration of the car. Thoughts??
I still have not had a reply from MINI yet...so frustrating...
I still have not had a reply from MINI yet...so frustrating...
3rd Gear
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 279
Likes: 10
From: Santa Fe, NM
What about your file structure? And are you using M3U playlists?
Thanks...
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6th Gear
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,304
Likes: 0
From: Stanwood, WA
Here's what Shatzy62 posted in the thread linked above:
My car doesn't read M3U playlists and just ignores them, but it was built before the USB/iPod option.
The USB/iPod connection in not necessarily only for iPods, it is designed to handle USB Storage devices for music playback, but there are limits.
The short set of limits taken from three pages of material from BMW/Mini
1. USB Device must be formated in the FAT32.
2. Save files to USB device using Windows Explorer (no mention of MAC computers)
3. Only MP3 and WMA without DRM (digital right managment)
4. You can only play DRM encoded music with an iPod^^
5. Up to 20,000 items of track information are saved in the control module. if this number is exceeded, track information for the first USB device that was connected is overwritten.***
6. Only latin letter are shown on the CID Other lettering i.e. greek can not be recognized.
7. Only the track information is saved in the control module. not the MP3 file
^^ DRM Music can be played from other MP3 device such as a Zune or SonyMP3 walkman by using the headphone out jack and connecting it to the AUX In jack of the vehicle. but all control of the MP3 player is only form the MP3 player and not the radio controls.Only iPods and USB devices can be controlled from the Radio controls.
*** i believe that the track information allotment of 20,000 items is a combination of title, artist, track #, genre etc. so that would mean that if each track had 5 peices of information attached to it then there would only be information stored on 4000 songs. I.E. 4000 times the 5 pieces of track information = 20,000 pieces of track information. The reason i say this is that i have had only about 500 songs on a device and it displayed the track info immediately but when i had about 7000 songs on the USB device it had to rescan the device each time it was installed.
The short set of limits taken from three pages of material from BMW/Mini
1. USB Device must be formated in the FAT32.
2. Save files to USB device using Windows Explorer (no mention of MAC computers)
3. Only MP3 and WMA without DRM (digital right managment)
4. You can only play DRM encoded music with an iPod^^
5. Up to 20,000 items of track information are saved in the control module. if this number is exceeded, track information for the first USB device that was connected is overwritten.***
6. Only latin letter are shown on the CID Other lettering i.e. greek can not be recognized.
7. Only the track information is saved in the control module. not the MP3 file
^^ DRM Music can be played from other MP3 device such as a Zune or SonyMP3 walkman by using the headphone out jack and connecting it to the AUX In jack of the vehicle. but all control of the MP3 player is only form the MP3 player and not the radio controls.Only iPods and USB devices can be controlled from the Radio controls.
*** i believe that the track information allotment of 20,000 items is a combination of title, artist, track #, genre etc. so that would mean that if each track had 5 peices of information attached to it then there would only be information stored on 4000 songs. I.E. 4000 times the 5 pieces of track information = 20,000 pieces of track information. The reason i say this is that i have had only about 500 songs on a device and it displayed the track info immediately but when i had about 7000 songs on the USB device it had to rescan the device each time it was installed.
Many of the higher gb drives come with a modified FAT formatting. This is supposedly make them more compatible with the many computers out there.
I would suggest making sure that the thumb drive is a high speed drive and reformatting it to FAT 32 using an aftermarket program to due so. Windows XP and Vista do not format FAT 32 properly, they do it in a microsoft kind of way which is not universally compatible.
I would suggest making sure that the thumb drive is a high speed drive and reformatting it to FAT 32 using an aftermarket program to due so. Windows XP and Vista do not format FAT 32 properly, they do it in a microsoft kind of way which is not universally compatible.
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2nd Gear
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 61
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From: Arlington, VA
Thanks so much for all of your help and suggestions.
I used SwissKnife v3 on Win xp to reformat both the Patriot and the PNY drives. I then copied one folder of music (one album) to each drive...and...the same thing, neither drive worked. The Patriot showed the USB display, but, there were no song names or options like List, Dir, etc. The PNY drive was just not recongnized. When I went to the input selector (tuner, cd, usb, aux), neither drive would load.
When I plugged my 8gb PNY drive back in, it immediately started playing the last song I listened to on the drive.
Anyone have any other ideas??
I used SwissKnife v3 on Win xp to reformat both the Patriot and the PNY drives. I then copied one folder of music (one album) to each drive...and...the same thing, neither drive worked. The Patriot showed the USB display, but, there were no song names or options like List, Dir, etc. The PNY drive was just not recongnized. When I went to the input selector (tuner, cd, usb, aux), neither drive would load.
When I plugged my 8gb PNY drive back in, it immediately started playing the last song I listened to on the drive.
Anyone have any other ideas??
3rd Gear
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 279
Likes: 10
From: Santa Fe, NM
I've been able to get my 16gb drive to work...well...kinda...I have about 10 gig of music on there...it took maybe 20 minutes to load the index?...I assume the index is loaded when all the categories come up? Artist, Genre, etc? (They are blank...not even selectable when the index is loading, correct?)
I shut the car off, went into a store, came out, and the drive picked up right where I left off.
Then I went into another store, came out, and the drive started re-indexing itself again (blank artist, genre, etc), but this time took just a couple minutes to reload the index (if that is even what it's doing).
When I unplug the drive and plug it back in, it takes a couple minutes for the head unit to show the complete index.
Hard to believe there isn't s definitive instruction manual for this...I mean the darn thing cost $500...the least MNIN could have done is give us explicit directions, capabilities, operating characteristics, etc.
I shut the car off, went into a store, came out, and the drive picked up right where I left off.
Then I went into another store, came out, and the drive started re-indexing itself again (blank artist, genre, etc), but this time took just a couple minutes to reload the index (if that is even what it's doing).
When I unplug the drive and plug it back in, it takes a couple minutes for the head unit to show the complete index.
Hard to believe there isn't s definitive instruction manual for this...I mean the darn thing cost $500...the least MNIN could have done is give us explicit directions, capabilities, operating characteristics, etc.
3rd Gear
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 288
Likes: 2
From: México City
Yes, I have 14 or so .M3U playlists and 160 kbps VBR MP3 archives on nested folders. There are 1,900 or so files.
I've been able to get my 16gb drive to work...well...kinda...I have about 10 gig of music on there...it took maybe 20 minutes to load the index?...I assume the index is loaded when all the categories come up? Artist, Genre, etc? (They are blank...not even selectable when the index is loading, correct?)
Not really very few items come with any good instructions now a days.
3rd Gear
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 279
Likes: 10
From: Santa Fe, NM
But:
The head unit is supposed to be able to store index info from "up to 4" flash drives.
Seems like they wouldn't bother saying that if each time the car goes to sleep it would lose all that data...what would be the point of indexing up to 4 flash drives?
Also, the head unit keeps stored radio stations, bass and treble setting and all that after it goes to sleep...so why wouldn't it keep the index?
3rd Gear
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 279
Likes: 10
From: Santa Fe, NM
I had said before I had "about 10 gig of music" on my 16gb flash drive...turns out it was only 6.6 gig, and about 1350 songs...hard to believe that 1350 could turn into 20,000+ data items...but maybe it does.
I just deleted 1/2 the songs...now to test the drive again.
I just deleted 1/2 the songs...now to test the drive again.
Last edited by wsalopek; Sep 25, 2009 at 02:25 PM.
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2nd Gear
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 61
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From: Arlington, VA
Okay, but where does that leave me with two reformatted drives and less than 15 songs, where either drive would not load? There is no way I could have exceeded 20,000+ data items with those 15 songs. Was SwissKnife the wrong formatting tool to use?
I've had my iPod Classic (160GB) connected and finally got tired of trying to scroll to Van Halen and getting distracted by Aerosmith so I tried the thumb drive route. First a 4GB drive and it worked fine, then an 8GB drive and it worked fine and this morning, I plugged in my 16GB San Disk Cruizer thumb drive and voila! It worked just fine. It's only got 8GB of music on it but it connected and played just fine. Indexing only took a minute or less.
Everything I'm doing is from a Mac an that includes formatting the USB drives to be used. I'm very happy with this set up, it's very, very flexible.
Everything I'm doing is from a Mac an that includes formatting the USB drives to be used. I'm very happy with this set up, it's very, very flexible.
Where did you hear or see that. I have never read on any of the literature where it can hold index for up to 4 flash drives. And in Fact it definitely DOES NOT have that capability.
Now it can hold data for Up to 4 Cell phones and has the capability of holding Last Call, etc for up to 4 phones but that is not the same as 4 flash drives.
I.E. only one bluetooth connection is available at one time. The car can not connect to 4 Phones at the same time but can connect ot up to 4 different phones. I the event that more than one phone if recognized it picks up the first to respond via bluetooth. I.E. you and your spouse get in the car both are programed to work with the car. the first one that is recognized and responds is the one that connects to the bluetooth.
1350 * 5 = 6750 ( if only the Title, Artist, Album, Genre, Track are filled in)
1350 * 23 = 31,050 (if Title, Artist, Album, Genre, Track, Year, bit Rate, MPEG-Version, Size, Length, Bytes, VBR/CBR, Frequency, Created, Size (data), Mode, Composer, Band Orchestra, Lyricist/text writer, recording location, band artist, publisher)
Now probably not all of the tags listed above are filled out but it is possible on many of the tracks you have especially if converted by iTunes. A typical track will have from 8-12 tags filled in. 1350*8= 10,800 - 1350*12=16,200
So it is possible that you went over the data points but also remember that if you have play lists they count toward the 20,000 data points limit so each song could be counted twice.
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