I know there's been various threads about Androids not connecting to MINIs, but I figured I'd ask for some opinions and ways that people have set up their MINIs for music if they don't have iPhones.

Right now, my Android phone will connect to my MINI through bluetooth. When I play a song through the default Google Music App, the song shows up on the screen and thinks that it is playing, but no sound is playing in my car. If I connect my phone through the USB, I can play music through my car's controls, but they are very lacking. Basically, I can only sort by the folder structure and the artist, album, etc sorting features are grayed out. And to my knowledge, there's no Aux connector in the 2019 MINIs (I have a MCS).

So I'm thinking that maybe my best options are:
1) Set up my phone's folder structure to be organized in a manner that makes sense if I'm trying to use the controls on the car.
2) Copy all my music to a USB drive, again with the proper folder structure, and just leave it forever plugged into my car.
3) Get a USB to Aux adapter to "create" an Aux for my MINI. Comically, I'd then have to get a USB-C to Aux adapter for my phone too. But then I'd be able to control it all from my phone.

Some questions that could help:
1) Are there any Apps that the MINI can read and play music through?
2) Is there any good way to make the MINI recognize the meta data on my music files?
3) And generally, what methods have others used to integrate their music with their MINIs?

Thanks for any help!

 

As an update, I decided to just put my music on a 32 GB USB that my wife had just sitting around. It works very well and I'm happy with it. The MINI can read all the metadata from the songs (artist, album, etc) and sort/search properly. I'm guessing if I plug my phone in via the USB and give it some time to read, the MINI would have eventually read the data off my phone. But this way, I don't need to take my phone from my pocket and physically plug in a USB cable.

But the next time I'm at the dealership, I'll ask them if there's any way to play music on my phone. I'm not sure if I'd actually do it since the USB is so small and convenient, but it's good to investigate all the "feature" of my car.

 

Thanks for the update. Option 2 would have been my choice as well. Had an SD card reader in my last car and rarely bothered connecting my phone. Better quality too without Bluetooth compression going on.

Lack of Android Auto shouldn't be an issue in a well equipped 2019 car... but here we are. Glad you found a solution you're happy with.

 

I ended doing the same thing. MINI`s lack of support for Android users is a total **** off.

 

I have a 2016 Clubman S with the Nav XL/HK audio. Bluetooth and Google Play Music works fine for me, no issues.

Make sure you check your bluetooth settings on your phone and make sure it is actually sending the audio through. Might only be connected for phone calls or something.