[jrmMD]

Hola!!

Any clues out there about using a USB thumb drive in either of the ports to play music? My car will work fine for awhile playing from this source, then for no discernable reason (after I've parked and restarted) not really recognize the music files on the drive, it will pick a few out, but the majority are unavailable..

BMW Genius is clueless

I've got a list of 12,000+ songs on the drive, maybe I hit the limit, but why does it work at all initially??

I've tried a second drive, same list of folders/files copied from the first, same result...

Same thing happens with my 2019 X5, so I think it's something about how I'm setting up the folders/files...I just copied the folders from my iTunes folder on my PC, and created separate playlists (.m3u)..

Any help??

[MystroX5]

What format are the music in? MP3,AAC,WAV, etc…

[Wild Blue]

Yeah I started talking about this on pages 4 and 21 of my PCD and road trip journal. I started by plugging a hard drive into the USB-C port in my arm rest.





I wasn't getting the files to read when copying the music folders from my iTunes folder onto the drive, but they worked when I copied the song files directly to the drive, no embedded folders.

You may be running into a same problem I had. I play about 30,000 songs of my library in my car, and the owner's manual says each drive has a limit of 16,000 songs. So I broke up the songs onto 2 hard drives, connected via USB hub to the same USB port in the arm rest, and all songs are accessible.





The B&W audio REALLY comes alive with lossless audio tracks. Amazing detail and clarity, more than I've heard in any car audio.

You may find this previous post of Mystro to be useful as well:
https://g07.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1763537

My latest issue seems to be, after the 03/2021 firmare OTA update, I started getting an issue with audio control of the USB songs. Saying "Hey, BMW, play Van Halen", or whatever, about 80% of the time, she responds with "I am setting up voice control for the music search." It gets a little frustrating, as well as clunky to search for music manually.

How do you create a .m3u playlist? I don't know how to do this. (or copy iTunes playlist structures)

[jrmMD]

To create an .m3u playlist, I downloaded a freeware app after googling it, then inserted the USB stick with the music files and used the app to create playlists and saved to root directory of the USB stick...a bit tedious, but works...when I get back home I can tell you which app I have......I also downloaded an app to extract iTunes playlists to a spreadsheet file, which made it a whole bunch easier to find and 're-create' my iTunes playlists into the .m3u format...I also use two USB drives in my X5 due to the 30K+ titles, but in my X7, I have an old iPhone without a SIM card that I use as a music source, allows my to use the native iTunes playlists...iPhone 6 works, and is inexpensive as a used device that stays connected and hidden in my armrest compartment

The files are a mix of .mp3 and .acc, all from iTunes, either purchased, or ripped from the original CD

[Wild Blue]

Originally Posted by jrmMD

To create an .m3u playlist, I downloaded a freeware app after googling it, then inserted the USB stick with the music files and used the app to create playlists and saved to root directory of the USB stick...a bit tedious, but works...when I get back home I can tell you which app I have......I also downloaded an app to extract iTunes playlists to a spreadsheet file, which made it a whole bunch easier to find and 're-create' my iTunes playlists into the .m3u format...I also use two USB drives in my X5 due to the 30K+ titles, but in my X7, I have an old iPhone without a SIM card that I use as a music source, allows my to use the native iTunes playlists...iPhone 6 works, and is inexpensive as a used device that stays connected and hidden in my armrest compartment

The files are a mix of .mp3 and .acc, all from iTunes, either purchased, or ripped from the original CD

Cool, yeah, I'd love to hear whatever info and pointers you can share. The ability to do playlists is one big thing I've been missing on the X7 system. Manual/individual song call-ups gets clunky. Thanks in advance!

[jrmMD]

I use PlayList Creator, from OddGravity, to create the playlists, and now that I think about it, I used an online tool to create a basic spreadsheet from my Spotify playlists. This was necessary as I said, I had lost all my iTunes playlists after some glitch, but I had previously used Spotify to copy them from my iTunes library to Spotify, so I used that as a sort of back up.

For me, the hard part was finding where in the car to locate playlists, as I am sure you are aware, they are listed under the SEARCH function on any media source.

Again, if you've got an active iTunes library, buying a used iPhone on eBay with 64GB or more will provide a nice way to make your iTunes library (or portions, selected via iTunes) available in the BMW. You don't have to use Apple CarPlay, just connect it and access it like any other media source connected to the USB port. I'm not an Apple guy, but iTunes is still useful. Spotify is great, but hard to manipulate while driving....

[Wild Blue]

Cool, thanks. I've thought about the separate iPhone idea, but wasn't sure if there'd be a compromise in audio quality from streaming audio files (especially lossless) direct from a drive.

[jrmMD]

Good point on the lossless files...I'm just now contemplating having to re-rip all my CDs to a lossless (nearly) version, since I originally did them all several years ago when space was at a premium (for an iPod, basically)...Does not make me happy, but the end result, I suppose, may well be worth it...the more recent files are Apple purchases mostly and better quality...very recent music is via Spotify, but again, harder to manipulate while driving, but getting better, BMW has improved the app available in iDrive...