Has anyone put music files in a USB and had the system read them? I have been successful with the ipod 4th Gen, but not directly from a flash drive. If so, what file type have you been successful with? 2008 535xi
I've tried mp3 files. Most of them are at least listed on the display. But when I ty to play a song, it will play for about 20 sec or so then stop. About 30 sec or so later the sandisk flash drive is no longer recognized and the display shows only the generic Aux USB heading. Any ideas?
When Jonathan checks the thread, you'll have the final answer. You *should* be able to play a USB key and not just 30-second snippets as if this were an iTunes preview-before-you-buy mode.
Although I usually use my iPod, I did test with a few 1 Gbyte flash drives and had no problem playing MP3 music tracks. I did not test other types of files however. I used a flash drive named BUICK (from a Buick event) and it renamed one of my Favorites buttons BUICK when it installed.
Not only that, but it's possible your flash drive is defective. Defective flash drives have a variety of symptoms, but one of them includes being recognized one second and not recognized the next, or being recognized but as soon as data is read or written, it cuts out and loses power and comes back on.
Thanks. I think az may have it. The drive starts out, then stops, then is not recognized. I kept my eye on the indicator light, and several times, but not all, it shut off. I had another flash drive that was quite full of data, but I put a CD's worth of mp3's on it. It functioned flawlessly. Whether the drive is incompatible or faulty, the solution seems to be a new flash drive. I'll give it a try. Thanks
If in doubt, I could send you my known good drive and you could test it out. Just send back when done (postage is $0.42). OR, if you really don't mind that twenty bucks, just buy a new one.
If a flash drive will work, how about Western Digital's Passport hard drives, for example? I've had an 80GB WD Passport for a while but they are available up to 320GB. If they work, then the only problem is finding a place to put it (and hoping you live long enough to listen to that much music).
BMW specifically states that the option will not support HDDs. That having been said, some do work to varying extents although many of the reports I´ve seen indicate that there are some problems associated with them incl. an inability to tolerate bumps well and too much power draw.
That's due to hard drive design. I seriously doubt any bump that you can experience in a car (moderate pothole, for example) will damage the hard drive, but if you were to drop the hard drive a good 3 feet off the ground, it would probably be defunct. The passport drives don't consume much power as they are 2.5" laptop drives, which use a lot less power than a standard 3.5" desktop hard drive. As a result, they can be powered by a single USB connection to a high-power USB port, and on PC's, require USB2.0 for acceptable performance. If you wish to use something for only music but need more storage than a traditional flash drive can provide, you can buy yourself a 16GB Solid State Drive for about $300, which is about $100 less than a 16GB iPod Touch (which also uses flash memory) and then buy an external enclosure for it (about $20). I don't know if this will work with the BMW system, but if it does, then you have yourself a (mostly) shock-proof music storage solution, as the Solid State drives don't have any moving parts and don't have a risk for mechanical damage from a severe pothole or a car accident (assuming it's not a major accident). BUT, I think a 16GB flash drive would be a lot more desireable, seeing as one costs only about $90 or less! http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=16gb flash drive
