Connecting a USB-A stick or drive to the infotainment screen

Jean Mercier · May 21, 2023

When you connect a device to the USB-A port in the central cubby box, you get:

a short message saying "USB connected"
It disappears at once and the screen says "No USB connected"

This is quite contra intuitive, I thought the device wasn't recognized, but don't despair:

Click on the menu "USB" in the upper left corner
Then click on the next screen on "USB-A"

Done.
The system will then recognize music files with at least the following formatting:

mp3
m4p
wav

[EDITED 16/02/2024 ]It will ~~not~~ recognize:

flac (since software update 1946)

(thanks to my "Hungarian" son who found the solution)

Eric · May 21, 2023

Jean Mercier said:
When you connect a device to the USB-A port in the central cubby box, you get:

a short message saying "USB connected"

It disappears at once and the screen says "No USB connected"

View attachment 7812982
This is quite contra intuitive, I thought the device wasn't recognized, but don't despair:

Click on the menu "USB" in the upper left corner

Then click on the next screen on "USB-A"

Done.
The system will then recognize music files with at least the following formatting:

mp3

m4p

wav

It will not recognize:

flac

(thanks to my "Hungarian" son who found the solution)

Well done that man.

Eric · May 21, 2023

Jean Mercier said:
When you connect a device to the USB-A port in the central cubby box, you get:

a short message saying "USB connected"

It disappears at once and the screen says "No USB connected"

View attachment 7812982
This is quite contra intuitive, I thought the device wasn't recognized, but don't despair:

Click on the menu "USB" in the upper left corner

Then click on the next screen on "USB-A"

Done.
The system will then recognize music files with at least the following formatting:

mp3

m4p

wav

It will not recognize:

flac

(thanks to my "Hungarian" son who found the solution)

That will please wifey she has 1000 songs in m4p format on her flash drive.

Bruce · May 21, 2023

I wish that head units would start recognizing FLAC. Not because I can hear a difference in a loud car with an OEM sound system, but so I didn't have to maintain 2 music libraries.

bakepl · May 21, 2023

Jean Mercier said:
When you connect a device to the USB-A port in the central cubby box, you get:

a short message saying "USB connected"

It disappears at once and the screen says "No USB connected"

View attachment 7812982
This is quite contra intuitive, I thought the device wasn't recognized, but don't despair:

Click on the menu "USB" in the upper left corner

Then click on the next screen on "USB-A"

Done.
The system will then recognize music files with at least the following formatting:

mp3

m4p

wav

It will not recognize:

flac

(thanks to my "Hungarian" son who found the solution)

It's all in the manual.. correct?

MACS · May 22, 2023

Please let me add my two cents

I tried USB-A with mp3 files:
exFAT= not working
NTFS= working well, organized folders useless, keep files well-tagged.
FAT32= working well, organized folders useless, keep files well-tagged.
ext4 not tested.

In a next step we should find out how the files are organised for playback. Seems like the filename is not the sorting criteria.

Bobby Mac · Aug 27, 2023

Thank you Jean

It was driving me crazy trying to get my music on USB to play, and then….

“I’ll check the blog”. Sure enough Jean had the answer. This forum is fantastic for providing that info not readily available or clearly detailed.

Carefant · Oct 11, 2023

Jean Mercier said:
When you connect a device to the USB-A port in the central cubby box, you get:

a short message saying "USB connected"

It disappears at once and the screen says "No USB connected"

View attachment 7812982
This is quite contra intuitive, I thought the device wasn't recognized, but don't despair:

Click on the menu "USB" in the upper left corner

Then click on the next screen on "USB-A"

Done.
The system will then recognize music files with at least the following formatting:

mp3

m4p

wav

It will not recognize:

flac

(thanks to my "Hungarian" son who found the solution)

Thanks Jean. Having bragged in an earlier post about how well my USB music was working, I now realise I have no way of searching for anything. I can either play the entire 11,000 tracks in artist alphabetical order

, or enable ‘shuffle’ and get what the randomiser gives me. I just added a new album and I can’t search for it

. Am I missing something obvious?

DenisM · Oct 11, 2023

Carefant said:
Thanks Jean. Having bragged in an earlier post about how well my USB music was working, I now realise I have no way of searching for anything. I can either play the entire 11,000 tracks in artist alphabetical order, or enable ‘shuffle’ and get what the randomiser gives me. I just added a new album and I can’t search for it . Am I missing something obvious?

The owner's manual indicates that tapping the "Audio" tab on the screen, brings up the option to "Browse folder" and sort by artist, album and genre. Frankly I have found it less than satisfactory, which is why I now rely on the "music" app on my (Samsung S10) android phone and the material stored on its micro SD card and connected to the main display via Android auto.

Jean Mercier · Oct 11, 2023

DenisM said:
The owner's manual indicates that tapping the "Audio" tab on the screen, brings up the option to "Browse folder" and sort by artist, album and genre. Frankly I have found it less than satisfactory, which is why I now rely on the "music" app on my (Samsung S10) android phone and the material stored on its micro SD card and connected to the main display via Android auto.

I agree that it is less than satisfactory.
Luckily for me, when in Belgium, I listen to the radio.
When travelling, I plug in several USB sticks with music "according to my mood": Rock, Brazilian, Belgian, New Age, Pink Floyd and similar, ...
I tried to connect a hard disk drive: I succeeded, but it took so much time to go through the directories, that I abandoned the idea.

Carefant · Oct 14, 2023

DenisM said:
The owner's manual indicates that tapping the "Audio" tab on the screen, brings up the option to "Browse folder" and sort by artist, album and genre. Frankly I have found it less than satisfactory, which is why I now rely on the "music" app on my (Samsung S10) android phone and the material stored on its micro SD card and connected to the main display via Android auto.

Hi DenisM. Thanks for this. I’d been trying to navigate music on USB A by spinning the big silver dial, which is clearly only useful for skipping a few tracks in either direction. I’ve now tried the “browse folder” function, which is bit buried to be used whilst driving, but which does at least allow an alphabetical search for artist or album. However, it takes a little while to catalogue the drive, prior to which I only see folders beginning with “A” and, bizarrely “V”. If I’m patient

, artists starting with all the other letters of the alphabet eventually appear. So I agree, it’s clunky. What I do like is the ability to select a genre, so like Jean I can play a selection to suit my mood, although I’m not sure what mood would have me searching for Belgian music…

Tazzieman · Oct 14, 2023

Whilst saddled with android auto that cuts out after 15-30 seconds and kills spotify , maps and everything else , I'm "forced" to select a cd of choice and use my portable cd usb powered/linked discman

Rok_Dr · Dec 21, 2023

I did some testing the other night working out what USB stick formats and Audio file formats are supported. The following are my findings. Software version is 1946.

Memory Key Formats	Readable
Fat32	Yes
NTFS	Yes
exFat	No
HFS	Not tested

Audio File Formats	Readable	Comments
.MP3	Yes	Artwork supported
.Flac	Yes	Artwork supported
.Wav	Yes
.Ogg	Yes
.Aac	No
.Wma	No
.M4a	No

Cheers

Steve

Eric · Dec 21, 2023

Rok_Dr said:
I did some testing the other night working out what USB stick formats and Audio file formats are supported. The following are my findings. Software version is 1946.

Memory Key Formats Readable
Fat32 Yes
NTFS Yes
exFat No
HFS Not tested

Audio File Formats Readable Comments
.MP3 Yes Artwork supported
.Flac Yes Artwork supported
.Wav Yes
.Ogg Yes
.Aac No
.Wma No
.M4a No

Cheers

Steve

Eric · Dec 21, 2023

Rok_Dr said:
I did some testing the other night working out what USB stick formats and Audio file formats are supported. The following are my findings. Software version is 1946.

Memory Key Formats Readable
Fat32 Yes
NTFS Yes
exFat No
HFS Not tested

Audio File Formats Readable Comments
.MP3 Yes Artwork supported
.Flac Yes Artwork supported
.Wav Yes
.Ogg Yes
.Aac No
.Wma No
.M4a No

Cheers

Steve

Yes that's the conclusion I came to on audio files. Shame as all mine are aac format

[ Adam ] · Dec 21, 2023

Oh, it now supports flac? I may fill a thumb drive after all

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Connecting a USB-A stick or drive to the infotainment screen

Jean Mercier

GG#920

Eric

Eric

Bruce

Global Grenadier #51

bakepl

MACS

Bobby Mac

Carefant

DenisM

Jean Mercier

GG#920

Carefant

Tazzieman

Rok_Dr

Eric

Eric

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