XBimmers X1   XBimmers X1
  XBimmers X1

Go Back   XBimmers | BMW X1 Forum > BMW X1 Forums > General BMW X1 (E84) Forum

Post Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
      04-01-2013, 05:37 PM   #1
Mtpisgah
Private First Class
14
Rep
148
Posts

Drives: 2010 WRX & 2013 X1
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Greenville, SC

iTrader: (0)

USB thumb drive and playing music

I had my phone plugged into the USB drive and aux input to play music. Then I decided to put some music on just a thumb drive and try it. It works! I am going to get one of the tiny (in physical size) 32gb thumb drives and plug it in. It will be nicer than having the silly cords coming out of the dash.

Sorry if someone has already figured this out and posted but I didn't see anything.
Appreciate 0
      04-01-2013, 07:26 PM   #2
CIWS
Moon Parasite
CIWS's Avatar
United_States
654
Rep
1,336
Posts

Drives: F98 X4M Competition
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Texas

iTrader: (0)

My 09 X6 played flash drives in the USB, MP3s anyway. Not sure of other formats. (X1 does too) I've only got about 5 gig used of a 16gig thumb drive populated.
__________________

2020 X4M Comp. (currently stock) - Was 2015 335 MSport -MPPK -Borla ATAK -Dinan Sport+ - E.R. Charge pipe / 2013 X1 35i Sport - Dinan tune / 2009 X6 50i Dinan badged
Appreciate 0
      04-02-2013, 10:20 AM   #3
miataken
New Member
0
Rep
28
Posts

Drives: 2012 X1, White, Xenon, Leather
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Canada

iTrader: (0)

I use SanDisk Cruzer Fit, works very well.
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer...bxgy_pc_text_y

I suggest putting all music in 1 flat directory format, or apparently it doesn't know how to cycle through different folders.
Appreciate 0
      04-02-2013, 10:35 AM   #4
edx1
Second Lieutenant
16
Rep
206
Posts

Drives: X1 xDrive35i
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Wasatch front

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by miataken View Post
I suggest putting all music in 1 flat directory format, or apparently it doesn't know how to cycle through different folders.
I'm still awaiting my ED but while reading the BMW professional radio manual, it does say it supports folder playback and lets you play songs in just a single (and below), making it easy to listen to just one artist or collection of music if it's organized by folders. The only quirk I have seen is regarding playlists and that is if you make .m3u playlist, you can't use the full path of files above the current directory (ie if the playlist is in /Artist1/playlist.m3u you can't play a file in /Arist2/song.mp3).

+1 to the cruzer fits for the X1, doesn't stick out and hides nicely.
Appreciate 0
      04-02-2013, 11:39 AM   #5
txchas
New Member
1
Rep
22
Posts

Drives: 2013 X1 Sdrive28i
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: United States

iTrader: (0)

Don't forget the 20G hard drive in the car. You can transfer music from the flash drive to it and have it there permanently.
Appreciate 0
      04-02-2013, 11:50 AM   #6
nospam
Captain
17
Rep
675
Posts

Drives: 2015 Alpina B6; 430i; X5 40e
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Orange County, CA

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by miataken View Post
I use SanDisk Cruzer Fit, works very well.
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer...bxgy_pc_text_y

I suggest putting all music in 1 flat directory format, or apparently it doesn't know how to cycle through different folders.
I have music in folders and it works just fine.
Appreciate 0
      04-02-2013, 11:54 AM   #7
Grovsnus
Flight Lieutenant ≛
No_Country
18
Rep
918
Posts

Drives: Le Mans blue X1 35i
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: CT

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by nospam View Post
I have music in folders and it works just fine.
That doesn't work for me. Could be there are restrictions on how the directories can be named, or the total length of the path+filename?
Appreciate 0
      04-02-2013, 08:33 PM   #8
Mtpisgah
Private First Class
14
Rep
148
Posts

Drives: 2010 WRX & 2013 X1
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Greenville, SC

iTrader: (0)

I just ordered a drive similar to the cruizer but 32gb (probably made in the same factory with a different name on it).

I am not having a problem with folded but I have not tried playlists. I usually listen by genre or totally random.

What 20gb hard drive? I just have the regular professional radio with Sirius think. No fancy Idrive stuff here.
Appreciate 0
      04-02-2013, 09:21 PM   #9
Grovsnus
Flight Lieutenant ≛
No_Country
18
Rep
918
Posts

Drives: Le Mans blue X1 35i
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: CT

iTrader: (0)

The HD is part of the iDrive system, yes.
If you have it, you can use around 15 GB of it for storing MP3s and unprotected AACs, or low-quality CD rips done by the system itself.

Personally, I find it more convenient to stream from my phone - the iDrive Bluetooth Audio starts the phone streaming automatically without having to fish the phone from my pocket.
Appreciate 0
      04-03-2013, 01:59 AM   #10
miataken
New Member
0
Rep
28
Posts

Drives: 2012 X1, White, Xenon, Leather
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Canada

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mtpisgah View Post
I just ordered a drive similar to the cruizer but 32gb (probably made in the same factory with a different name on it).

I am not having a problem with folded but I have not tried playlists. I usually listen by genre or totally random.

What 20gb hard drive? I just have the regular professional radio with Sirius think. No fancy Idrive stuff here.
I also only have prof. radio and no iDrive, which has no internal HD.

m3u playlist works fine (no folder system). If using folders, I have no issue playing songs in any of the folders, however, it will only cycle within the folder and not jump to the next folder automatically when last song in the folder is played (can't go to previous folder manually either), which might explain the playlist not able to jump to another folder problem posted by edx1.

CD with mp3 in folders has no problem going to the next folder when last song is played on the current folder.
Appreciate 0
      04-03-2013, 02:35 AM   #11
lozw
New Member
0
Rep
5
Posts

Drives: X1 M Sport, 118 coupe Sport
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: UK

iTrader: (0)

I have all my music on a small 32gb USB drive too.

I simply copied the content of my iTunes folder to the drive, and it worked.
So I have all the folders, and I can sort through the drive by album or artist.
I can randomly play the whole drive, a single album or artist.

There doesn't seem to be any restriction on file or folder naming I can see as it appears it quite happily deals with folders and files like this example I just plucked at random using windows explorer

..\Aretha Franklin & George Michael\Ladies And Gentlemen [Disc 2] [UK]\2-13 I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)

However, getting it to play everything or a random selection of everything, rather than a single album is a pain as you have to start in the right place, otherwise it only plays or randomizes the album, not the whole drive. I must sit and discover that the rule is rather than getting there by accident

Randomization seems to be not particularly random (and I know some of the reasons that happens in computing). I find if I set off on a journey that despite having 32gb of music to randomize and thousands of tracks that in the course of an hour I will get 4 or 5 tracks from the same artist, and that 2 or 3 artists will be come up like this. The next day, the same behavior, but a different set of artists... It actually seems to be programmed to behave like that. Random, but not totally random.
Appreciate 0
      04-03-2013, 07:06 AM   #12
Grovsnus
Flight Lieutenant ≛
No_Country
18
Rep
918
Posts

Drives: Le Mans blue X1 35i
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: CT

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by lozw View Post
There doesn't seem to be any restriction on file or folder naming I can see as it appears it quite happily deals with folders and files like this example I just plucked at random using windows explorer

..\Aretha Franklin & George Michael\Ladies And Gentlemen [Disc 2] [UK]\2-13 I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)
Tried non-ASCII?

Blue Öyster Cult/Cultösaurus Erectus/Blue Öyster Cult - Cultösaurus Erectus - 01 - Black Blade.mp3
Camille Saint-Saëns/Camille Saint-Saëns - 'Danse Macabre' & 'Organ Symphony' - 09 - Symphony No. 3 Avec Orgue in C minor, Op. 78 - Maestoso - Più Allegro.mp3
Edvard Hagerup Grieg/Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 - 2 - Åses død.mp3

I can't seem to get it to even see these files, or anything in the same directory as one of them.
Appreciate 0
      04-03-2013, 10:03 AM   #13
edx1
Second Lieutenant
16
Rep
206
Posts

Drives: X1 xDrive35i
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Wasatch front

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by miataken View Post
If using folders, I have no issue playing songs in any of the folders, however, it will only cycle within the folder and not jump to the next folder automatically when last song in the folder is played (can't go to previous folder manually either), which might explain the playlist not able to jump to another folder problem posted by edx1.

CD with mp3 in folders has no problem going to the next folder when last song is played on the current folder.
Just to clarify, if you start playing at the root / folder of a usb disk will it go to different folders and sub folders and continue onto the next? ie:

/Arist1/Album1/song1.mp3
/Arist1/Album2/song2.mp3
/Arist2/Album1/song3.mp3
/Arist3/Album1/song4.mp3
/Arist3/Album2/song5.mp3

So basically if you put in a usb drive and push play. will it play song1.mp3 through song5.mp3 or do you manually have to navigate down to Arist1, then navigate down to Album1 to play song1.mp3 and then navigate back up to Album2 to then play song2.mp3, or will it play songs 1-5 sequentially as long as you don't navigate down into a sub folder? This is what I thought I read in the manual but maybe I assumed too much.
Appreciate 0
      04-04-2013, 01:46 AM   #14
miataken
New Member
0
Rep
28
Posts

Drives: 2012 X1, White, Xenon, Leather
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Canada

iTrader: (0)

edx1:
Simply put, if you select a folder and play, it will only cycle within the same folder. It will not jump to the next one when finished playing the last song.

If playing song is in the root directory, it will only cycle through the songs in the root directory and will not go to the next level.

I hope others has different experience as I find it kind of dumb. I am old school and still like to put songs in folder, but then again, putting all songs in 1 flat directory is the way now, as songs are being sorted by the tag info and driven by playlist, not by folder structure any more.
Appreciate 0
      04-05-2013, 06:15 AM   #15
Mtpisgah
Private First Class
14
Rep
148
Posts

Drives: 2010 WRX & 2013 X1
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Greenville, SC

iTrader: (0)

All of my songs are in albums but I can play all songs randomly without an issue. I just select artist, all, and then random (I think). I drove 500 miles yesterday and never heard the same song twice.

I also got 28.5 mpg. About 15 miles city, the rest interstate. On Eco pro. Still less than a 1000 miles on the car.
Appreciate 0
      04-05-2013, 06:51 AM   #16
Foxrus14
1 SLY 1
United_States
43
Rep
187
Posts

Drives: 2014 328i work car...
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Charlotte, NC

iTrader: (0)

I started throwing in my old school rap CD's and downloading them to the hard drive. great mixes...
__________________
2014 328i - Mine
2012 135i M Sport - Wifey
2014 z28 Hennessey 650 package - Mine
2014 Harley Davidson Street Glide Special - Mine
2014 Harley Davidson Breakout - Wifey
Appreciate 0
      04-05-2013, 09:41 AM   #17
edx1
Second Lieutenant
16
Rep
206
Posts

Drives: X1 xDrive35i
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Wasatch front

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mtpisgah View Post
All of my songs are in albums but I can play all songs randomly without an issue.
So all your mp3's are in Album subfolders and it plays through them all? Do you have a playlist by chance or where do you press play from?
Appreciate 0
      04-05-2013, 11:55 AM   #18
nospam
Captain
17
Rep
675
Posts

Drives: 2015 Alpina B6; 430i; X5 40e
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Orange County, CA

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by edx1 View Post
So all your mp3's are in Album subfolders and it plays through them all? Do you have a playlist by chance or where do you press play from?
If you have all the categorizes set to ALL (or even a single artist or playlist), then hit the Options button under the iDrive controller and you should be able to chck the random option.

I haven't tried finding a random function on the Business Radio.
Appreciate 0
      04-06-2013, 05:29 AM   #19
lozw
New Member
0
Rep
5
Posts

Drives: X1 M Sport, 118 coupe Sport
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: UK

iTrader: (0)

I found it made no difference taking the music out of folders and putting it all in the root.

The Dir listing was then just a A-Z of song titles - so no artist or album folders, as you would expect.

But because the tags were there, I could still go into the Album and Artist views and play music by album. However, it still only cycled through an album...
Appreciate 0
      04-06-2013, 05:52 AM   #20
nospam
Captain
17
Rep
675
Posts

Drives: 2015 Alpina B6; 430i; X5 40e
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Orange County, CA

iTrader: (0)

Thinking back, I used MP3tag to make sure the tags were in the the right format (and to modify genres to my own desire). I rip my CDs with eac3to (LAME) or buy from Amazon or iTunes. It takes the iDrive several minutes to catalog a thumb drive when first inserted, but seems to cache the info so switching between thumb drives wasn't a problem.

We use iPod/iPhone almost exclusively now but I still have a thumb drive for the rare occasions I don't have my phone.
Appreciate 0
      04-06-2013, 04:05 PM   #21
Grovsnus
Flight Lieutenant ≛
No_Country
18
Rep
918
Posts

Drives: Le Mans blue X1 35i
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: CT

iTrader: (0)

I found out that it works fine with subfolders too, as long as the file names are in ISO-8859-1 or Windows-1252 format. The iDrive apparently doesn't understand Unicode (UTF-8) filenames. Not a biggie, as I know how to convert the file names - it will only affect a couple of Japanese songs I have where I have no idea what to name them in Latin

As for cataloging, well, I may have to rewrite the tags - it doesn't seem to get the album art on my newer rips, only my older ones, so my guess is it only understands ID3v1 and not ID3v2 tags.
I wish it was better documented.

Last edited by Grovsnus; 04-06-2013 at 04:13 PM..
Appreciate 0
      08-02-2013, 11:17 PM   #22
Chris Pringle
Private First Class
Chris Pringle's Avatar
Mexico
64
Rep
131
Posts

Drives: 2021 X3 M40i
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Mexico

iTrader: (0)

I spent several evenings putting my whole music collection (~3,000 songs) into a 16GB SanDisk USB flash drive (the very tiny ones.) I used iTunes to rip everything in MP3 format. It plays fine on my MacBook Air and even on my TV, but on the X1 I get a message reading "Can't play track". I put the entire collection in a flat list (no folders.) After several attempts, a friend handed a couple of his USB flash drives and his songs played just fine. What did I do wrong? I'm completely puzzled.
Appreciate 0
Post Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:17 AM.




xbimmers
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
1Addicts.com, BIMMERPOST.com, E90Post.com, F30Post.com, M3Post.com, ZPost.com, 5Post.com, 6Post.com, 7Post.com, XBimmers.com logo and trademark are properties of BIMMERPOST