USB stick for music playback

[alpha754293]

Not sure if anybody else has already done this already, but it wouldn't let me search for 'USB' only on the forums, so anyways...

 

I just tried this out with my MyFord Touch. If want a relatively inexpensive "media player" or one that's expandable (in size), you can do so with this:

Get a USB stick and format it using a Windows machine as FAT32 (you can google the instructions for that).

 

I read on another forum elsewhere that if you create the folders such that it's

Artist 1

• Album 1
• Album 2

Artist 2

• Album 3
• Album 4

 

It works actually quite well.

 

I finally got fed up with trying to find out why I was having issues playing some songs from my iPhone 4 (iOS 4.1, thought it was a bad cable so I got a new one, and I took it back to the dealer the day after I picked up the car; they said that there was an imminent fix coming, had the APIM update applied on Fri Aug 23 and the problem still persists with my phone. Can't update the iOS on it (there are other restrictions/limitations that prevents me from doing so)). I'm still working through the album to find out if the issue still persists and it's going to take me a bit of time for me to rebuild the library that I've got on my phone on my USB stick. My phone is 32 GB (got it like three years ago) and it's got 3.6 GB free.

 

So I was looking at possibly a replacement device and iPod Touch isn't cheap either and it only goes up to 64 GB. Which left iPhone 5, which also tops out at 64 GB and that's even MORE expensive. And if I get an iPad 128 GB, it's close to $800. In comparison, I can pick up a PNY 128 GB USB stick for $60.

 

The only real major downside that I see is that you can't take that with you like you can with an actual media player. But if you do a fair bit of driving, and don't particularly like the radio (whether it's conventional radio or SiriusXM); you can keep the USB stick plugged into your car. It's cheap. If you have a lot of music, it might be a LITTLE bit annoying to search for songs on the MyFord Touch; but if the (presumably) MP3 ID3 tags are all there, that can make it a LOT less painful by going through the voice commands.

 

So there are pros and cons (as it is with anything/everything). And the other downside is if you spent a fair bit of time building the library on the USB stick, if you have another actual media player that you use, those changes aren't mirrored. (If only there was a way to import that onto actual media players....hmmmm)

 

And if you go for smaller capacities, you can get a whole bunch of them and then instead of swapping CDs, you just swap memory sticks.

[dalesky]

Not sure if anybody else has already done this already, but it wouldn't let me search for 'USB' only on the forums, so anyways...

 

I just tried this out with my MyFord Touch. If want a relatively inexpensive "media player" or one that's expandable (in size), you can do so with this:

 

Get a USB stick and format it using a Windows machine as FAT32 (you can google the instructions for that).

 

I read on another forum elsewhere that if you create the folders such that it's

 

Artist 1

• Album 1
• Album 2

Artist 2

• Album 3
• Album 4

 

It works actually quite well.

 

I finally got fed up with trying to find out why I was having issues playing some songs from my iPhone 4 (iOS 4.1, thought it was a bad cable so I got a new one, and I took it back to the dealer the day after I picked up the car; they said that there was an imminent fix coming, had the APIM update applied on Fri Aug 23 and the problem still persists with my phone. Can't update the iOS on it (there are other restrictions/limitations that prevents me from doing so)). I'm still working through the album to find out if the issue still persists and it's going to take me a bit of time for me to rebuild the library that I've got on my phone on my USB stick. My phone is 32 GB (got it like three years ago) and it's got 3.6 GB free.

 

So I was looking at possibly a replacement device and iPod Touch isn't cheap either and it only goes up to 64 GB. Which left iPhone 5, which also tops out at 64 GB and that's even MORE expensive. And if I get an iPad 128 GB, it's close to $800. In comparison, I can pick up a PNY 128 GB USB stick for $60.

 

The only real major downside that I see is that you can't take that with you like you can with an actual media player. But if you do a fair bit of driving, and don't particularly like the radio (whether it's conventional radio or SiriusXM); you can keep the USB stick plugged into your car. It's cheap. If you have a lot of music, it might be a LITTLE bit annoying to search for songs on the MyFord Touch; but if the (presumably) MP3 ID3 tags are all there, that can make it a LOT less painful by going through the voice commands.

 

So there are pros and cons (as it is with anything/everything). And the other downside is if you spent a fair bit of time building the library on the USB stick, if you have another actual media player that you use, those changes aren't mirrored. (If only there was a way to import that onto actual media players....hmmmm)

 

And if you go for smaller capacities, you can get a whole bunch of them and then instead of swapping CDs, you just swap memory sticks.

Nice report, thanks! I have been meaning to try a key drive, and this will encourage me. When you copy songs over which software do you use? Can you just drag and drop?

[corncobs]

Nice report, thanks! I have been meaning to try a key drive, and this will encourage me. When you copy songs over which software do you use? Can you just drag and drop?

If you have an iTunes library you can simply drag and drop the music folder onto the USB stick. I did that with my SD card that I use for my music it works just fine without crazy folder and structure creating.

 

If there are tags missing there is a little program on the SyncMyRide site that fills in all missing tags for the iTunes library.

[alpha754293]

Nice report, thanks! I have been meaning to try a key drive, and this will encourage me. When you copy songs over which software do you use? Can you just drag and drop?

 

Straight drag-and-drop.

 

If you have the folder already set up in the format that you like/required, then you can just grab everything and drag-and-drop in one shot. Chances are, if you pre-sort/arrange the files around, it would be a lot easier and probably faster than doing it off the USB stick itself.

 

Also, I read on another forum elsewhere (I forget which one) that if you create the Winamp playlists (*.m3u), MyFord Touch will also recognize those playlists and they will be available for you. Which is another really nice thing. (The catch, however, in the reading the same source though is that the filenames all have to be absolute path, which I think, if I remember correctly, Winamp already generates that, but lemme double check on that for you when I get home tonight (or when I go for lunch)). Presumably that could mean that you can download a very old version of Winamp (which has the benefit of being ultra lightweight compared to the programs nowadays) if it's sole purpose is to just generate m3u files for you.

[alpha754293]

If you have an iTunes library you can simply drag and drop the music folder onto the USB stick. I did that with my SD card that I use for my music it works just fine without crazy folder and structure creating.

 

If there are tags missing there is a little program on the SyncMyRide site that fills in all missing tags for the iTunes library.

 

I did not know that so I haven't tried it. But I'm also trying to keep it format neutral/free.

 

That was the other giant PITA about Apple products (like my iPhone) that once you've linked it to a computer with iTunes, you can't take it to any other computer to add/delete stuff from it without having to wipe the entire device first. That, I think, was a really BIG boneheaded move on Apple's part. (Which is part of the reason why I also can't update my iOS).

 

It depends on how your music is stored/structured on your computer. My main server at home is 30 TB (27 TB usable). While it isn't all for music (not in the slighest haha), but data management at that level becomes a bit of a pain/hassle, so you try to find ways to do that efficiently. The TEXT file that contains a listing for every single file that's on the array is 168 MB. And that's a index of all of the files on the system. (Last time I checked, I was closing in on 1.5 million files).

 

If you have a small library or you get your music primarily through your source (like iTunes) then it works. But if you make your own or you get it from a variety of sources, you could import it into iTunes and then bring it over, but ultimately, the physical storage (on your computer) needs to be managed somehow anyways.

 

And I've started going back and cleaning up my entire library cuz it takes Windows took long to index my drive now. And I have too many duplicates that I know I can get rid of a whole bunch/ton of them.

 

That way, a) it doesn't matter whether I'm Mac, Windows, or Linux. b) If the organizational structure works for my server, it's going to work for my USB drive. c) I can add/delete/remove to it anytime, from any place, using any computer. (Not sure you can say the same about iTunes. It's got some really finicky/quirky behaviours when you try and do something like that. Not very portable. Which is ironic considering they also came out with the iPod and the iPhones.)

[alpha754293]

And considering that you can also get PNY 32 GB sticks now for like < $20...you can pretty much fill your center console with music. (16 GB for $10)...

 

(The only time I use the radio is when I am driving into Toronto - to listen to the traffic reports.) I don't think that I've EVER actually USED my SiriusXM 6-month free subscription. At all. Ever.

 

And you also gotta figure that since I drive between 30,000 and 40,000 miles/year; I spent a fair bit of time in my car, so for like $10-20, I can make my OWN "SiriusXM" hahaha....(I could seriously have a memory stick labelled "POTUS") lol...

[Barsoom]

I have a Sandisk Cruzer Glide 128Gb stick that I got on sale for about $60. I ripped all of my CDs in lossless format on this stick.

[alpha754293]

Yeah, I just bought a PNY 128 GB for $60.

 

And I tried the iTunes thing - didn't work for me.

[acdii]

I just have all my songs on a HD, actually have it copied to several in case one fails. All I have to do is go to my Music folder, Ctrl+a, Ctrl+c, select the USB drive and Ctrl+v. and wait while everything is copied. Take to my car and plug it in. The key is to make sure you have all the albums tagged correctly to begin with, and they work just fine. I do have a few albums that were not tagged correctly so they come up as artist unknown, and that was due to the software I used to rip the CD's with. I also found that some albums ripped dont sound as good as others do, seems like all the Itunes purchased ones sound fine, most CD's do too, but some are too low volume wise.

[dalesky]

 

I did not know that so I haven't tried it. But I'm also trying to keep it format neutral/free.

 

That was the other giant PITA about Apple products (like my iPhone) that once you've linked it to a computer with iTunes, you can't take it to any other computer to add/delete stuff from it without having to wipe the entire device first. That, I think, was a really BIG boneheaded move on Apple's part. (Which is part of the reason why I also can't update my iOS).

 

It depends on how your music is stored/structured on your computer. My main server at home is 30 TB (27 TB usable). While it isn't all for music (not in the slighest haha), but data management at that level becomes a bit of a pain/hassle, so you try to find ways to do that efficiently. The TEXT file that contains a listing for every single file that's on the array is 168 MB. And that's a index of all of the files on the system. (Last time I checked, I was closing in on 1.5 million files).

 

If you have a small library or you get your music primarily through your source (like iTunes) then it works. But if you make your own or you get it from a variety of sources, you could import it into iTunes and then bring it over, but ultimately, the physical storage (on your computer) needs to be managed somehow anyways.

 

And I've started going back and cleaning up my entire library cuz it takes Windows took long to index my drive now. And I have too many duplicates that I know I can get rid of a whole bunch/ton of them.

 

That way, a) it doesn't matter whether I'm Mac, Windows, or Linux. b) If the organizational structure works for my server, it's going to work for my USB drive. c) I can add/delete/remove to it anytime, from any place, using any computer. (Not sure you can say the same about iTunes. It's got some really finicky/quirky behaviours when you try and do something like that. Not very portable. Which is ironic considering they also came out with the iPod and the iPhones.)

Yikes! 30 TB at home? That's a bunch. I have a number of different portable drives, including one that just plugs into my HP desktop tower, that I leave in. Also have some reclaimed laptop HDs that I put in USB carriers and those are quick and easy to run. Must be nice to have everything in one server.

[jnissen]

I tossed a 500GB mini drive into the center console with all the itunes files just dragged and dropped and it is working great. Album cover art and all. I did have to format the drive for FAT32 using a utility I found on the net. Only took a few minutes to fast format and the longest delay was transferring the songs into the new media. I paid something like $45 for the 500GB drive so a lot more space and lower cost than the huge USB sticks.

[dalesky]

That is good to know! Thanks

[alpha754293]

I just have all my songs on a HD, actually have it copied to several in case one fails. All I have to do is go to my Music folder, Ctrl+a, Ctrl+c, select the USB drive and Ctrl+v. and wait while everything is copied. Take to my car and plug it in. The key is to make sure you have all the albums tagged correctly to begin with, and they work just fine. I do have a few albums that were not tagged correctly so they come up as artist unknown, and that was due to the software I used to rip the CD's with. I also found that some albums ripped dont sound as good as others do, seems like all the Itunes purchased ones sound fine, most CD's do too, but some are too low volume wise.

 

Yeah, if you download music via iTunes, then it might work. I dunno. iTunes didn't recognize the USB stick so I couldn't drag-and-drop it from iTunes to the stick.

 

Yikes! 30 TB at home? That's a bunch. I have a number of different portable drives, including one that just plugs into my HP desktop tower, that I leave in. Also have some reclaimed laptop HDs that I put in USB carriers and those are quick and easy to run. Must be nice to have everything in one server.

 

I used to be heavily involved in computer aided engineering (CAE) like running crash safety simulations and simulating the internal combustion engine burn processes; so it was big data. (A "simple" free-free modal analysis of an automotive body-in-white would generate a 10 GB scratch file). So, I used to "rain" data like there was no tomorrow. Now, with where I'm at at Ford, I don't do that anymore. But it's still really nice to have a really massive "hard drive" and it makes is to that I can feed/run everything or as much as I can off the central server.

 

Yeah, it's easier/better when it comes to indexing the entire music collection for example, because I can just generate a text file for the entire music folder, and that way if I am looking for a song, I can just go through the text file as opposed to actually searching through the disk array. Wayyyy faster.

 

I tossed a 500GB mini drive into the center console with all the itunes files just dragged and dropped and it is working great. Album cover art and all. I did have to format the drive for FAT32 using a utility I found on the net. Only took a few minutes to fast format and the longest delay was transferring the songs into the new media. I paid something like $45 for the 500GB drive so a lot more space and lower cost than the huge USB sticks.

 

I tried plugging in my old Creative Labs Jukebox Xen NX (60 GB) in and it doesn't recognize the device. And I prefer not to have mechanically rotating disks in my car (pot holes in Michigan).

 

How much of the 500 GB do you actually use though? Or do you use all/most of it because you're using a lossless format (which probably in the car stereo system, it's VERY hard to tell the difference between the two (I am guessing) because of the inherent acoustic environment (when you're driving). It'd be different if you were sitting at home, or if you were in an anechoic chamber.

 

That is good to know! Thanks

 

It's nice to know that you can do that with the MyFord Touch system. I like learning and discovering new capabilities with my car that really, the marketing people here at Ford should highlight/emphasize more and more often.

[MaineFusion]

I copied my MP3 music library to an SD card and stuck that in FFH's SD card slot since I don't have voice activated navigation. By default, Windows Media Player rips CDs in the Artist/Album folder structure described above. Works really slick without having a long USB stick sticking up in the center console box.

[dalesky]

I just have all my songs on a HD, actually have it copied to several in case one fails. All I have to do is go to my Music folder, Ctrl+a, Ctrl+c, select the USB drive and Ctrl+v. and wait while everything is copied. Take to my car and plug it in. The key is to make sure you have all the albums tagged correctly to begin with, and they work just fine. I do have a few albums that were not tagged correctly so they come up as artist unknown, and that was due to the software I used to rip the CD's with. I also found that some albums ripped dont sound as good as others do, seems like all the Itunes purchased ones sound fine, most CD's do too, but some are too low volume wise.

I have been known to "rescue" old laptops from the pile at the recycle center, bring them home, pull the HD out, reformat it, and insert it into a drive carrier for use via USB cable. I plan on trying out one of them as a music drive.

Anyone know if there is an accessible hard drive in the car itself?

[MaineFusion]

I have been known to "rescue" old laptops from the pile at the recycle center, bring them home, pull the HD out, reformat it, and insert it into a drive carrier for use via USB cable. I plan on trying out one of them as a music drive.

Anyone know if there is an accessible hard drive in the car itself?

I don't think there is any storage device built into the FFH that we can use to store music. With two USB ports, however, it isn't really needed. I have found 512GB USB thumb drives on Amazon which would hold an insane amount of high quality MP3s.

[dalesky]

I don't think there is any storage device built into the FFH that we can use to store music. With two USB ports, however, it isn't really needed. I have found 512GB USB thumb drives on Amazon which would hold an insane amount of high quality MP3s.

On the trip today to Orlando I ran a couple of books off of the memory stick. You have to select each disc that you have copied, since when one ends it does not automatically find the next one. No big deal if there are 2 people in the car, or traffic is very light and you can look away a bit. Played the books very well at least.

[corncobs]

On the trip today to Orlando I ran a couple of books off of the memory stick. You have to select each disc that you have copied, since when one ends it does not automatically find the next one. No big deal if there are 2 people in the car, or traffic is very light and you can look away a bit. Played the books very well at least.

You might be able to re-organize the folders so that all disks / books are under one place. This should fix this minor inconvience quite easily.

[dalesky]

You might be able to re-organize the folders so that all disks / books are under one place. This should fix this minor inconvience quite easily.

They are currently arranged all under the root directory, alphabetically. Each disc is in its own folder, labeled with the name of the book, and then disc 1, disc 2, etc. Don't think I can improve on that . Inside each folder the chapter names are all 01 01.wma, 02 02.wma, etc. so i have to keep the folders intact, because of the chapter names being the same in each disc folder. Stuck with it the way it is I guess. Thanks for the idea tho

[alpha754293]

On the trip today to Orlando I ran a couple of books off of the memory stick. You have to select each disc that you have copied, since when one ends it does not automatically find the next one. No big deal if there are 2 people in the car, or traffic is very light and you can look away a bit. Played the books very well at least.

 

 

You might be able to re-organize the folders so that all disks / books are under one place. This should fix this minor inconvience quite easily.

 

 

They are currently arranged all under the root directory, alphabetically. Each disc is in its own folder, labeled with the name of the book, and then disc 1, disc 2, etc. Don't think I can improve on that . Inside each folder the chapter names are all 01 01.wma, 02 02.wma, etc. so i have to keep the folders intact, because of the chapter names being the same in each disc folder. Stuck with it the way it is I guess. Thanks for the idea tho

 

I think that the easiest solutiont to this is to create a playlist in Winamp and then just saving that. That's what I did with one of the artists, so that I would be able to play all her songs (and sometimes, I don't know why yet), but sometimes, the same artist shows up twice. Could be that it's just a very TINY change in the name or something. Creating the playlist basically says "I don't care about such small differences", and it works.

[alpha754293]

I copied my MP3 music library to an SD card and stuck that in FFH's SD card slot since I don't have voice activated navigation. By default, Windows Media Player rips CDs in the Artist/Album folder structure described above. Works really slick without having a long USB stick sticking up in the center console box.

 

Yeah...for those of us that have the Nav, I tend to just leave my nav SD card in and I think that the only time I EVER pull it out is when I am doing the master/factory reset on the MyFord Touch/SYNC system (cuz it says to).

 

I have been known to "rescue" old laptops from the pile at the recycle center, bring them home, pull the HD out, reformat it, and insert it into a drive carrier for use via USB cable. I plan on trying out one of them as a music drive.

Anyone know if there is an accessible hard drive in the car itself?

 

There's no hard drive in the car.

 

I don't think there is any storage device built into the FFH that we can use to store music. With two USB ports, however, it isn't really needed. I have found 512GB USB thumb drives on Amazon which would hold an insane amount of high quality MP3s.

 

I agree. And like I said before, I prefer to NOT have mechanically rotating disks in the car. Besides, USB sticks are so cheap anyways. Yes, you can get more capacity with a mechanically rotating disk, but the reality is that even with like a 128 GB USB stick, you're more likely to run out of fuel WAYYYYYYYYY before you're going to run out of music/audiobooks.

 

You COULD be a serious audiophile and have a MASSIVE music library which you'd just hit "random/shuffle" and let it play, but I bet that if I were trying to look for a specific song on it, it would take MyFord Touch/SYNC FOREVERRRR to index the device (at which point, it might actually just be better to have multiple, smaller devices; so it'll index faster).

 

Just my $.02.