Re: USB Drive for Music

2014 RT. I have been using Bluetooth, radio, gps, IPhone, since new. I know how to make all that work. I heard someplace you could just use a USB drive, connect it to the USB cable in the upper right hand box, and listen to all your music. I formatted a new 1Gb USB drive in accordance with direction FAT 32 in owners manual on page 38.....No worky. Bike says not USB connected. The USB works fine in my car, but not on bike I tried 2 other USB's and got the same thing. I have just a few songs in one folder as the manual says. The one thing I might not being getting right is what it refers to as Mass Storage Format. I don't know what that is and after searching the interweb.......I still don't.

Do any of you have USB device, not IPOD or anything else, playing music with the new bikes? If so educate me please on format or whatelse I'm missing....I'm no youngster so keep it simple for old fart please.

Per the instruction PDF for 2010 BMW RT's

"Directories cannot contain sub-directories. Playback of the tracks

in these directories will occur as described above in alphabetical order. The USB stick can have only one partition and must be either

FAT 16 or FAT 32 formatted."

I can't say that will help you...but that is from the manual.

I'll try my bike, I'm not doing anything else.

James L

I put all the music I wanted to play on my 2015 RT into one playlist, converted it to Fat32 (from iTunes via an app called Wondershare) and plugged it into the USB on the bike. I got the message "loading", which stayed on for about 2 hours of riding, then the music started. I'm not sure, technically, why it takes so long to "load" the first time, but once it has, it starts playing every time I ride now.

Ok, so I formatted my Lexar 32 gig, USB. I put on only four songs, plugged it into the bike, and turn on the key. I selected the usb source, and it worked.

I should note all the songs were 256k bit or less MP3's as specified in the manual.

I can't say if any of that information helps, but it does work on a 2011 RT

James L

Thanks...were they pulled down from ITunes or something else. I am copying old CD's from my pc to the USB drive which is formatted as FAT 32.

Did you convert the songs from your cd's into MP3's?

You can do that with Windows Media Player or some other apps.

Bernie...yes thanks...Put them on hard drive, windows media player save as mp3....download to usb... weird.

Bernie...yes thanks...Put them on hard drive, windows media player save as mp3....download to usb... weird.

 

Make sure the encoding is 256kbits per second or less. 312k or above won't work.

James L

Bernie...yes thanks...Put them on hard drive, windows media player save as mp3....download to usb... weird.

 

I know, I had to do the same thing when loading my music CD's on to my Garmin Zumo 550/590 SD-Cards.

You ask if anyone has accomplished the USB source for Audio...

I did and I use it every ride.

I copied my music directly from iTunes- all in mp3 format, no manipulations such as any other conversion , no directories or sub-directories etc... just a plain list of the mp3's.

One note. when you put the USB in and the first time you power up the system... the bike will take a minute to catalog the files... whatever that means... just let it do its thing. IIRC there is a message on the dash saying it is cataloging- or some such phrase. Once cataloged the system plays immediately after power-on and the computer does its routine... just a few seconds.

Another tip is that there is an option in the audio section where you can set it to play random rather than just directly down the list.

Good luck

Morning David

Pretty well covered above--

If you are using a memory stick (USB drive) make sure that it is totally empty. (some come with pre installed media transfer programs or other helpful programs installed)

If that extra program ends up in it's own partition then it can screw the whole deal up.

Start with a totally blank memory stick, then format to fat 32, then try just a couple of MP3's (not in any sub directories)

If a couple of MP3's work ok then add more (again not in sub directories)

2014 RT. I have been using Bluetooth, radio, gps, IPhone, since new. I know how to make all that work. I heard someplace you could just use a USB drive, connect it to the USB cable in the upper right hand box, and listen to all your music. I formatted a new 1Gb USB drive in accordance with direction FAT 32 in owners manual on page 38.....No worky. Bike says not USB connected. The USB works fine in my car, but not on bike I tried 2 other USB's and got the same thing. I have just a few songs in one folder as the manual says. The one thing I might not being getting right is what it refers to as Mass Storage Format. I don't know what that is and after searching the interweb.......I still don't.

 

Do any of you have USB device, not IPOD or anything else, playing music with the new bikes? If so educate me please on format or whatelse I'm missing....I'm no youngster so keep it simple for old fart please.

I do it all the time. 32 Gb with MP3s in multiple folders. I ripped my CD to MP3s and keep them in folders as individual albums. FAT32 formatting is correct. As hopz said, you should wait a little, when you first connect the drive to the USB port, in order for the system to read your music data.

Thanks all...will start over this weekend...don't have much time during the week. I'll report back if I get smarter as seems everybody has exact same answer....very unusual

You ask if anyone has accomplished the USB source for Audio...

 

I did and I use it every ride.

 

I copied my music directly from iTunes- all in mp3 format, no manipulations such as any other conversion , no directories or sub-directories etc... just a plain list of the mp3's.

 

One note. when you put the USB in and the first time you power up the system... the bike will take a minute to catalog the files... whatever that means... just let it do its thing. IIRC there is a message on the dash saying it is cataloging- or some such phrase. Once cataloged the system plays immediately after power-on and the computer does its routine... just a few seconds.

 

Another tip is that there is an option in the audio section where you can set it to play random rather than just directly down the list.

 

Good luck

You can also just hold the Mode button down until "random" shows up on the display.