USB and MP3 issues in 2010 Clubman S
 

Everything is working great with this car except the USB and AUX ports. I don't have an IPod but a Sansa Clip 8G and I can't get it to work at all. I've tried plugging into the USB port, the AUX port, both ports, etc. The USB port always shows as EMPTY, even when I plugged in a little USB lamp to see if it would work - it wouldn't. Is there something wrong with the USB port? The Y connector for the IPod doesn't work on a Sansa. I have run out of things to try; I just never get the player recognized or get any sound through the speakers.

The Y cable is not intended to be used for anything other than an actual iPod. The Sansa is not an iPod. If it can be used as a USB thumb drive, you might get it to work with a USB cable. The MINI does not support very large USB drives, and even 8GB might be too much. If nothing else, you should be able to use just an AUX cable and at least play through the head unit.

No clue what you are talking about with a USB light, but if you have an old USB thumb drive with a couple of .MP3 files on it, that would be the thing to test with.

USB issues
 

Thanks for the reply. The USB light is just a little gadget with a tiny light bulb on one end; it plugs into a laptop's USB port for a little extra light. But the bulb didn't turn on when I plugged it into the Clubman's USB port.

I actually have 2 8GB Sansa Clips. One is pretty full, but the other just has a few songs on it. Neither one of them worked, even through the AUX port with a cable plugged into the headphone opening. I do have a 1G and a 2GB Sansa that I can also try tomorrow. They all pretty much work like a thumb drive; I like them for holding audiobooks and podcasts, as they are really small in size and have pretty good sound.

I'll let you know if any of them work tomorrow, either through the USB or AUX ports.

The MINI may not provide enough current for the USB lamp- it's a low power port only, part of the reason for people's complaints that the iPhone 3GS won't charge.

The MINI can read from larger thumb drives, but they must be formatted as FAT32- at 8GB, the Sansa's might be formatted differently, it's common for larger drive sizes.

It'll read MP3's WMA's and WAV files, but they can't be DRM encoded- the iPhone gets around this by using the Y-cable, but it's iPod/iPhone specific.

Lots more discussion on compatibility in this thread

My Sansa plays fine in my 08

It may seem obvious, but do you have the car unit switched to AUX as well?
Make sure volume on your player and car unit are up to volume as well. I have used five or six different players w/no problems

Lots of info here so far but I'm gonna guess that it's one of two problems... The USB device or the Head Unit.

Try a small (4GB or less) thumbdrive that's formatted FAT32 without any directories and sayyyy, 20 songs on it. The critical elements here are a small name brand thumb drive and FAT32 formatting and no directories - the MINI head unit can be a little picky.

When you plug it into the USB port and turn on the radio, see if the light on the USB drive (if it has one) comes on. If so, the head unit is indexing the files. If it's working, don't be surprised if the light continues to show access for up to 30 minutes after you turn off the car and it will start to access again as soon as you unlock the doors or open a door.

I'm not sitting in the car so I don't know the wording for the "knobology" but hit the button to the left of the control knob (I think it has a music note on it). It should give you an option to listen to the RADIO, CD, USB, or AUX. Turn the knob to select USB and push the knob in. Select how you'd like to sort your music, select the music and music should flow freely.

Now, if that doesn't work... Hmmm, I think I'd give my SA a call and ask for their help!

Try a small (4GB or less) thumbdrive that's formatted FAT32 without any directories and sayyyy, 20 songs on it. The critical elements here are a small name brand thumb drive and FAT32 formatting and no directories - the MINI head unit can be a little picky.

When you plug it into the USB port and turn on the radio, see if the light on the USB drive (if it has one) comes on. If so, the head unit is indexing the files. If it's working, don't be surprised if the light continues to show access for up to 30 minutes after you turn off the car and it will start to access again as soon as you unlock the doors or open a door.

I'm not sitting in the car so I don't know the wording for the "knobology" but hit the button to the left of the control knob (I think it has a music note on it). It should give you an option to listen to the RADIO, CD, USB, or AUX. Turn the knob to select USB and push the knob in. Select how you'd like to sort your music, select the music and music should flow freely.

Now, if that doesn't work... Hmmm, I think I'd give my SA a call and ask for their help![/quote]

All of these are good suggestions butthe head unit is nothe unit that actually handles the USB it is the ULF module for the Bluetooth that does all the work. If it is not programed properly that could also cause your problem.

The button you want to push is the AUIDO button jsut to the left of the Control Knob to select the radio, cd, aux etc.

UPDATE - I am making some kind of progress here, as I finally was able to have both the 8GB and 2GB Sansa Clip players play through the AUX port.

Still no luck with the USB port. I loaded a few songs onto a largely empty Sandisk Cruzer 4GB memory stick but the USB port didn't recognize it. ALso tried a 2GB stick from another maker but that didn't work either.

No matter what I plug into the USB port, after I hit the "audio" button on the console, dial to USB, and hit the button underneath, it always reads EMPTY. It feels like the connection between the USB port and whatever device I try may not be tight enough. And I've never seen a light come on at the USB port.

So I am thinking more and more that it's a faulty USB port or similar problem. By the way, my Bluetooth phone (LG 600G) gets recognized when it turn it on.

Looks like time for a trip to the dealer.

:thumbsup: +1 on the trip to the dealer. Maybe an impromptu stop to visit your sales person and see if he/she can play with it for a moment? Of course, if you have any other MINI owners nearby, you could see if they've got a USB drive that works for them so you can provide one more trouble shooting step for the process.

I'm having the exact same problem only difference is that the USB port used to work. I have a 15 gb flash key that I had plugged in. It had a small light on it and when plugged in the light would be on. It worked fine I unplugged it to plug in my iPod via the y cable (which didn't work. Only aux setting works). When inplugged the USB key back in it no longer lit up and I'm gettin nothing out of the USB port. I guess I'm gonna have to call the service dept. It's likely something to do with the port

From what I have read the Cruzer is not formatted Fat32 which would cause it not to show up. The format is the key.

FAT32 is critical as it won't recognize it without it. Also, don't put the MP3's in folders on the thumb drive. There are a couple of simple tips to help organize the music so you can sort through it easier but the one I use is to change the genre of the music to A-Z = the name of the artist i.e. Jack Johnson is in the J's and Jason Mraz is in the M's and Duffy is in the D's...

I only tested it in a loaner car a few months ago for about a week, but I never had any problems with the car reading music from subfolders. It's still a good idea for testing, but all of my music is stored on my Blackberry's SD card (4GB, FAT32 formatted) as: /music/Artist/Album/Disc X/Track XX - Track Title.mp3

I doesn't seem to like files with Japanese or Chinese characters, and having nested folders like that also makes "Random All" take too long, but otherwise it seemed okay.

Same problem
 

Did you guys ever figure out what was going on with your USB ports?

Tonight I'm seeing the same thing (in my R56). I have a 512mb RCA usb key that also plays mp3's. I've used it before via the USB port, but now it says "empty" (which is the same as what it says if nothing is plugged in), and my iPhone doesn't connect through the USB Y-cable anymore either.

From what I know about USB, it looks like the 5V and ground are working, because the my RCA usb key lights up.

There are many possibilities. But the first thing I would try is to disconnect the battery for 30 minutes and then reconnect. Of course this means you may loose all your presets but that is a small price to pay for gettting it to work again. This is the basic procedure for a "hard reset" of all the computer systems in the car.

A late update in case somebody else stumbles on this thread.

I took my car into the dealership for a free "pit stop" and they looked at the USB issue I had also. (Since the Mini is still just a few months new, I could have gotten this taken care of earlier, but it wasn't that big of a deal for me).

The problem was that one of the pins in the USB port was broken (off), and the remedy was that they replaced the USB module (under warranty).

Audio Books
 

Has anyone had success listening to .M4B Files (the format for Audio Books)? The local library lets you download them for free, but when loaded on a USB drive they don't seem to play in my mini. I've seen posts saying that they should, but I'm not 100% sure.

Chris

The MINI from 2008 to 2010 with USB will only read MP3's, WMA's and WAV files.

I am not sure about the 2011 with connected but that system may read more types of files.

My port stopped working a few days ago, I am using a PNY Atache 32gb in fat32 with about 16gb of mp3 and wma music. When I purchased the car (2011 cooper s hardtop with the HK stereo) it was working (less than 2 weeks ago) I took the drive out to sync it and ran into some trouble on the computer. The drive was not finished writing due to an error on the computer and was removed. I was able to recover the drive and format again in fat32 with a 16k allocation size. I then synced with windows media player again and safely removed the drive. Since then the disc has not been recognized and I have formatted and reloaded it several times to no avail. It is going back to the dealer for a strut tower brace and I will get them to check it. Can you think of anything else I should try before handing it over? The disc reads in numerous other computers but I do not have another cooper to test it in.

Thanks

Sean

Use software other than WINDOWS to format the drive to FAT32.

Use something like this and see if that works.

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

Windows does a bad job of formatting FAT or FAT32.

I will keep that in mind, I was able to get the last set of formatting to work but it took almost 4 hours to transfer format transfer and error check.

Sean

I also get no sound out the radio through my AUX. I have the AUX VOL set to 6 and the volume on any device I use set to high too. I have tried just using a aux to android phone, and I use the Taotronics Bluetooth Reciever.


Separately I know these devices all work. Is there a problem with my AUX? Do you think it is not connected somehow? The USB is working as far as I can tell.


Also I get no warning chimes of any kind. Could all this be related?


Help?

Anyone?