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Itunes on USB drive


BamaRider

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I did a search on this subject "Itunes on USB" and did not get the info I had hoped.

 

I have my new RT connected, but none of it came easy. I've been on computers since the original apple in 1984 and never seen anything like this. Nothing connected for me on the first try, and with convoluted instructions added to the frustration. My last obstacle is Itunes on the flashdrive.

 

-bought a NEW flash drive 64 gb to hold 8gb of data

 

-successfully downloaded Itunes to flash drive. Verified via my desktop ( I can click on it and see the files)

 

-went out to the garage and plugged drive into the Rt hand pocket USB port. No dice. The unit does not see a single Itune file,

 

-I went back into the audio menu to see I was prompted to do something else, thinking the info has to load or something. But found nothing.

 

There were some files on the new drive ( trying to sell me stuff) that lexar makes a few bucks on by placing them on there for the vendors I suspect. I deleted them thinking that might be the problem (it wasn't)

 

Did I miss a step? Do I need to format this drive? Or is it already? I'm running windows 10.

 

My music is from ripped CDs and apple downloads. Does apple have some kind of code to prevent a guy from playing Itunes from a flashdrive? ( I hear they can be funny that way)

 

Any feedback would be welcome.

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Yup. MP3 only.

 

Go on line and search one of the Apple iTunes users groups as someone will have documented step by step instruction on how the export your m4a (mp4) apple files to mp3. iTunes wants to export to the same location that your m4a files are stored. I'm not sure if you can specify an alternate directory, but after it chugs through and converts your library to mp3 you can sort on that extension and move the mp3 extension files to your thumb drive. if you have lots of music it is best to kick it off before you go to work or to bed as it takes a while. Make sure you turn off auto sleep on idle settings and simply turn off you monitor if you want to save some electrons.

 

 

Oh one other thing. if you just dump it to the thumb drive and then sort by artist or song it can get tedious on the whizzy wheel to get to a Artist/song you may want. On the thumb drive I created a alphabetical directory structure A-Z with a couple letters broken into a logical break like T and Th (the) I then sorted the mp3s into Artist, or Band and put them into the correct alphabetical directories. This will save a bunch of time as the menu system of the bike will see the directories and you can select a letter then then only need scroll through tens of Artists/ Bands rather than hundreds or thousands.

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szurszewski

Music from Apple no longer has any DRM protection on it, and the stuff you ripped from CDs should not anyway - but, as said by 92Merc, Apple encodes files as AAC - you can export them as many other formats, but you have to tell iTunes to do that. ...and this is where I was going to tell you how to do that, but the path that I have used before has been removed - or at least hidden - and I can't right away figure out how!

 

I'm sure there is a way, hopefully directly from iTunes, but I don't see it right now - do you have a go-to friendly Apple expert? If so, ask them - I'll keep fiddling too and see if I can figure it out.

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Afternoons BamaRider

 

You are getting good info in the above posts.

 

The only thing that I will add is that I have found that picking one song then converting that and/or only working with one song can save a lot of hassle.

 

Once you get the one song figured out then you know what works & how to do it-- you can then reproduce all your songs in that format & structure.

 

 

 

 

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Hi Guy, I have lots of songs from my iTunes library on a flash drive for mobile playing. Some players will play both MP4 & MP3 formats. If the RT only recognizes MP3s' download the free program RealPlayer and included in the suite is a Real Converter that will do the job in many formats and bit rates. RealPlayer

 

Now to find your iTunes songs to copy to your flash drive without even fooling around with having iTunes on the drive. The path is (This PC/music/iTunes/iTunes Media/music) then just copy desired tracks(they will be MP4s') and past to your flash drive. This works great in my car. :clap:

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...On the thumb drive I created a alphabetical directory structure A-Z with a couple letters broken into a logical break like T and Th (the) I then sorted the mp3s into Artist, or Band and put them into the correct alphabetical directories. This will save a bunch of time as the menu system of the bike will see the directories and you can select a letter then then only need scroll through tens of Artists/ Bands rather than hundreds or thousands.

 

Good setup!

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One more detail... you said in the original post that you put "iTunes on USB".

 

I do not know what you mean but I am certain that what you want to do is put your tunes (which are on iTunes) on the drive. The tunes should be in mp3 format... if not, there are easy ways to convert them to mp3... then load them.

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Yes my main Itunes folder is located on C drive, have been for years. From there I copied the folderto the flash drive, the music is there just won't play on anything. LOL

 

Not got to it yet, but my plan is to DL one of the conversion programs and convert the copy to MP3. I'd prefer not to mess with the folder on my C drive, so I'm looking for a program to make MP3 without doing anything to my current folder. So that begs the next question- can a 3rd party program convert the folder on my flash drive to MP3? Or for some reason does that need to take place in the original folder on C drive?

Edited by BamaRider
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Third party conversion software may allow you to assign a different destination folder than where your iTunes music files are stored. Software bundled with your computer to burn CD's and DVDs may actually allow this if you open the application to access the files instead of the using the right mouse click options when navigating your computer hard drive files. You might have to spring for an upgrade to the full featured package. If you want to go with a full featured piece of software Nero is great, if a bit complex for this task, but don't buy Nero without a low teaser price for a new user purchase.

 

That said, it really isn't too hard to use iTunes itself to covert your files and after it completes the process of creating copies of your music files in the mp3 format you just have to sort the directory by file extension and manually move than to a new location. I suppose you could leave the copied files in the iTunes directory and un-check the mp3 files so iTunes doesn't play these copies. The advantage in this case is if you add more music it won't create mp3s that already exist when you update your thumb drive. I personally hate having m4a (ACC) and my mp3s jumbled together and keep these files in separate directories

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Paul advised-

 

"after it completes the process of creating copies of your music files in Mp3 format you just have to sort the directory by file extension and manually them to a new location"

 

When you have a minute can you explain this? Or give a graphic ? For example go: setttings>do this> then go here>do that> I do best when I have a map to go by LOL.

 

I can't be the only guy that has had to do this, so I'm gonna see what I can find on Youtube.

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Ok I worked on this all morning (raining here) and found this method. I have a 1500 song Itune library, and this method works if you want to be selective.

 

Open Itunes

 

-go to edit> preferences> general>import settings>MP3 encorder> click ok.

 

That done, go to your music library select song you wish to convert then do this-

 

file> convert> mp3. Wait for Itunes to do his thing, you will get the audio cue when hes done. The new Mp3 version will appear below your ACC version. Right click the Mp3.

 

-right click song>show in window explorer>drag song to jump drive.

 

Close that window. Now right click on the MP3 version in your library and click delete from library. It will ask do you wanna put in recycle bin, click yes. And now that version is gone. Which is good for me, cause I only want Mp3 on my JUMP DRIVE, NOT on my desktop or Iphone, but that's just me.

 

I'm not gonna keep the Mp3 version in my library, cause I don't want the clutter, and I don't want it messing up my Iphone on sync.

 

Each song takes about one minute or less.

 

I'd like to convert the entire library at once, with my playlists etc but I can't see how to do that without duplicating the entire library and havin it live on my C drive. and then having to find a way to remove all the Mp3. Perhaps I'm not understanding something?

 

 

 

 

 

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I believe the iTunes music directory functions just like the a Windows file explorer window. You can do it in mass, selecting 1 Acc file scroll to bottom hold the shift key and select the last acc file. All acc files should be highlighted and then you kick off the conversion to MP3 step. After it is done go to the volume that shows file type had click on it to have it sort by type. Depending on how you sorted Acc file will be first or follow MP3. Just like the conversion step you first file scroll down to last hold shift key and s left last file. Then cut and paste to thumb drive

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok here is where I'm at on this. Jump drive has music, works well. Sena is connected, and I know the audio menus as I close in on 2000 miles on my new ride.

 

I went back into the manual to learn more about jump flash options, mostly what I could do to organize my tunes. I know I'm doing this the long way, but it's what I know and I fear messing up my 1500 tunes on my Itunes, so I have a way to do that without getting into it right now.

 

I'm creating folders on my Jump flash, converting songs to MP3, and then drag them to USB in the folder needed. I have 4 folders and everyone of the 1500 can find a home in one of them. I like what I like LOL.

 

The bike audio has no problem seeing the 4 folders, so all is good.

 

My question is this, I'm sure the audio will random play through all the songs in any one folder, is it possible to random play the entire library to include the songs in the 4 folders? If a song is pulled from the library into a folder is that it? Is there a work around on the PC end?

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Ok here is where I'm at on this. Jump drive has music, works well. Sena is connected, and I know the audio menus as I close in on 2000 miles on my new ride.

 

I went back into the manual to learn more about jump flash options, mostly what I could do to organize my tunes. I know I'm doing this the long way, but it's what I know and I fear messing up my 1500 tunes on my Itunes, so I have a way to do that without getting into it right now.

 

I'm creating folders on my Jump flash, converting songs to MP3, and then drag them to USB in the folder needed. I have 4 folders and everyone of the 1500 can find a home in one of them. I like what I like LOL.

 

The bike audio has no problem seeing the 4 folders, so all is good.

 

My question is this, I'm sure the audio will random play through all the songs in any one folder, is it possible to random play the entire library to include the songs in the 4 folders? If a song is pulled from the library into a folder is that it? Is there a work around on the PC end?

The quick answer to your question is yes! From the music menu select the option to play all tunes, and then hold the mode button for a few seconds until RND shows up on the dash to indicate that you are in the random mode. OK, now here are some data about the set up, so that you will understand the whole thing better:

 

All MP3 files have a "header" section to each file that contains (or not contain) a lot of useful data, such as song name, artist, genre, category, and many other things IF the software that you use to create your MP3 add the data into that section. This header section is known as ID3. There are free software that you can download to access and enter or edit data into the ID3 section, if you are up to it. Why should you care? If the ID3 section do contain data, then the MP3 player that is part of the RT's audio system will organize those tunes for you, just like what you should expect to see on your iPod/iTune, and I believe with more features. For the wethead audio system, having the MP3 files in different folders or naming the folder has zero impact on the player, unlike the MP3 player of the camhead radio. Our system will seek out all of the MP3s in whatever folders that you have, and organize them based on the ID3 data. If the ID3 section of your MP3 is blank, then (I believe) the system just use the file name for the song title, and that is all.

 

I have literally many hundreds of MP3s attached to my RT's audio system, and I can select to listen to my music in any ways that anyone could ever want!

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Pad, you are correct about the BMW system slicing and dicing the file categories. I used iTunes to convert from its native m4a to mp3 and it must have populated the ID3 header on these files because I can sort by artist, album, genre etc. That said, I did create an alphabetical file folder structure and sorted the files by artist or band name per my own twisted logic because I have about 30 gig of music and without these folders, spinning the whizzy wheel gets tedious even with the sorting capabilities of the system.

 

Regards,

Dewy Decimal

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Charles Elms

For those of you that really want to see what's going on with MP3 files, the free program MP3TAG, lets you do just about anything you want to do. It does have a learning curve. You can Google it for download. I've been using it for years to clean up my music library. It's a good program to have in your tool box.

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Personally, I had ripped multitudes of audio CDs into Mp3 over the years, and I do have literally thousands of tunes. I organize them in folders that are named with "Artist Name - Album Name", but that is just for me. In the old days, I would buy records and promptly record it, via high quality turntable, to my 7" reel-to-reel tape for long day to day listening, and the original record is carefully stowed away, unplayed any further. So, I am used to listening to music in the order that they are on any given albums.

 

Charles - MP3TAG is exactly what I have been using for more than a decade now. Excellent program, and I hesitated to recommend it because it does have a good learning curve that one need to be comfortable with. It will allow you to add all sorts of data to the ID3 area, including album art, or any pictures that you might wish!

Edited by PadG
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Thanks for the software tip. I will check it out.

 

Pad, your comment about your vinyl to tape routine made me laugh and brings back some memories. In fact I am still clinging tightly to my reel to reel and my 60's tube amp. The wife used to nag me about getting rid of that old stuff, because I use it so infrequently. When I showed her what that tube stuff goes for these days, she changed her tune.

 

Being true to my tag line, I much prefer the access convience of the digital format and by using high resolution uncompressed and lossless formats my ears are happy too. On the bike or in a car with all the road noise and the fact your attention is on the road I will used a format like MP3 with a singnificant lossy setting. Those files however are never played on my audio/HT system though...YUK!

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  • 5 weeks later...

Well, crap! You all sound like computer experts. I'm an old fart who can barely figure out how to "rip" a CD or "download" an album. I guess I have my work cut out for me. My "30 gig" Apple iPod is full, but doesn't play because it's not "MP3." Ugh....remember when cassettes were cutting edge?

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Well, crap! You all sound like computer experts. I'm an old fart who can barely figure out how to "rip" a CD or "download" an album. I guess I have my work cut out for me. My "30 gig" Apple iPod is full, but doesn't play because it's not "MP3." Ugh....remember when cassettes were cutting edge?

 

You can use iTunes to convert your music to MP-3, and yes I remember when we used to 8Tracks and record cassettes as we would drive down the road.

It's easy.

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FYI to all... there are numerous, free, and effective "Converters to MP# on the web... and they free. Just of a Google search "mp3 converters"....

 

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