What experience do you guys have playing audio files from USB? I've heard FLAC works in the new MINIs, which is good, so I'm looking to set up an audio drive to stay in my MINI full time. Any restrictions on size or type? I'd like to stick in a 1TB external HDD (usb 2.0, no external power needed) but I'm unsure if there are any considerations on ability to read from a large volume.

 

FLAC will only work on the XL headunit, so keep that in mind.

External HDs can be hit or miss on if they work or not. How much music do you have that you're looking to hook up a 1 TB drive?! I've heard of people using as big as a 128GB flash drive.

Flash drives work best and they need to be FAT32 formatted, but I've heard of some people getting exFAT to work too. NTFS or HFS formatting will not work.

When you first plug the drive in, it will take the headunit several minutes to process everything, depending on how much music there is. It can process while you're driving though.

 

I'll have the XL headunit. I didn't know FLAC only worked on the XL, that's interesting that there is more codec support there...

FLAC is huge - the files are 20-40 MB each, so an album can easily be 400-800 MB. I'm sitting on 1.8 TB of music files, but only a fraction of that is actually stuff I would regularly listen to. Still, I like to have it available if I can.

Any good resources on HDD compatibility? I found one thread on the forums that discussed getting drives to work but nobody was listing any models.

 

Does anyone know if wma files work on the hard drive / usb drive?

 

WMA yes, WMA Lossless no.

 

Apple lossless won't work unless it's on an iPod. Those albums are about 1GB each, bigger than FLAC almost the size of a ripped DVD.

 

My Apple Lossless files are about half the size of uncompressed audio.

 

I got a 1tb drive plugged in with about 700gb filled of FLAC. I converted over from my older iPod classic 160gb with the files in ALAC format.

I too have the XL screen. I've had no major issues. Once in a very rare while I will not see my drive. Just pull the connection and reconnect it.

 

Streaming does not work through USB, correct? I use the SiriusXM app and so far the only way to listen to music through the car's speakers is with an AUX cable.

 

Awesome! What drive are you using? Is it ntfs or fat32 formatted?

Does it work immediately after powering on or do you have to wait for a file scan or something?

How many songs is it storing? I heard something about the head unit being limited to the amount of metadata it can store before having trouble with external drives.

 

Really? Hmm...it should play any audio coming from the phone... I haven't used the Sirius app, but Spotify, Google Music, iTunes, Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora...

 

I tried it when I first got the car. I'll have to try it again. It would be nice if I could use one cable to charge and play music.

 

I don't recall the drive model specifically. It was a pull from my older Mac Mini during a SSD conversion. Likely a Hitachi or Seagate. I placed it in an external enclosure from Samsung as I like the size of the case and blends in well so thieves don't see it easily if I leave it plugged in the car.

The case is USB3; model STBX2000401. If I end up expanding past the 1tb drive capacity, I'll likely grab another of this model and keep the 2TB drive in it. Currently it's about $85 on Amazon so it's not a bad option for the capacity.

I always format my drives/flash drives to FAT/FAT32 for compatibility between my Mac and PCs.

I was able to get to my music quite quickly upon the first connection. Took about 10-15 seconds for it to show up as an option to select and then to proceed into it and begin to play music from it. I checked the drive and found no indexes so my assumption right now is that Mini places an index on their internal hard drive. Since I was able to get to my music right away, I also assume the indexing is done in the background. I do not store any music on the smaller 20gb internal drive.

There hasn't been any issues with file limits that I have seen yet. I have about 18,500 files on the drive. They are sorted in Artist/Album/Track format. All songs properly tagged and covert art embedded.

 

Nope. No audio coming through USB. I tried SiriusXM and Pandora.

 

Drive model doesn't matter; formatting does. I highly recommend an SSD for mobile hard drives. The temperature changes and shock will wear out a standard hard drive, plus they're slower to index/access.

On a related note, if you're storing your music library on a Mac, I wrote a fun Bash/Apple script to automatically sync the drive with your iTunes library when connected. Check it out: https://vertner.net/blog/scripting-y...sync-on-a-mac/

 

Thank you for the details. I've heard reports that the mini is very picky with external hdds vs USB drives if the hdd actually reports as a disk instead of a mass storage device. If it worked with a housing, though, maybe support has gotten better.

Are you using the USB port in the glove box?

From what I understand, the car's library is stored on the internal hdd (which is deep inside the dash and virtually impossible to service, to my disappointment) so there were some old reports of hitting some limit of metadata that could be stored. You're a few thousand songs above me in collection size and working fine so I don't anticipate any concerns.

Thanks again!

 

Very strange...

- Do you get any audio at all when USB is selected?
- Does the iPhone say it's charging when you plug it into the MINI's USB port?
- Are you using an Apple Lightning cable or a 3rd party cable?
- Is the volume turned up on the iPhone?

 

- When the device is plugged in it says No Audio Files Found, or something along those lines
- Android, not iPhone. Yes. It's charging
- Standard Android cable. There's only one kind
- Volume is up on MotoX

 

Ah gotcha - didn't realize you had an Android phone.

I'm not as familiar with Android phones and the base radio, but I know on F56s with MINI Connected, there are two USB modes: Mass storage, which lets you play whatever music is mounted as sdcard and Audioplayer which uses your phone as the audio player and just streams audio to the MINI.

 

Is there a way to switch between Mass storage and Audioplayer or is it automatic? I'm just wondering if I'm just missing a setting on the car. It would make me very happy if I could replace the Aux cable and phone charger with a USB cable. It would look a lot cleaner. I love my new car, but this is the only minor gripe I have. I really wish the basic BT could handle audio streaming. I'm considering digging up the aftermarket BT module I used in my Accord.

 

I just tried playing an audio file. No difference. No audio is coming through the USB connection.

 

I'm sorry, I don't have an Android phone, so I'm not as familiar with it.

Any Android users want to chime in?

 

"check that the USB Audio Output feature is enabled in your Android OS settings."

 

apparently that is no longer an option.

http://www.cnet.com/news/car-techs-guide-to-using-your-android-phone-in-the-car/

 

Here's a weird thing. I stick in a USB stick with 30 Albums on. Some are Flac some MP3's...mixed.
When I import the tunes to the hard drive the album art that shows up when playing from the usb stick does not show up. Anyone know why that is? Is there a menu somewhere I'm missing?