gravi

What is the best way to copy music to an SD card? Just go to the Itunes folder in Windows Explorer on my PC and copy the entire folder structure? This should bring over everything including cover art?

If there is another thread that already discusses this then please point me that way. Thx.

snagitseven

There is a limit on songs per directory (https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2840907) so you want to be sure that you don't exceed the max per folder. Also, if you just copy the whole iTunes music folder it's been reported there will be some hidden files that will cause problems.

What I do is use a 32GB SDHC card (formatted to FAT32) and I copy over each artist's folder from the iTunes music library folder (NOT iTunes itself) to the card. It all works fine and includes cover art.

Be aware that any Protected AAC iTunes songs purchased through iTunes before Apple went to DRM free a few years ago, will not play from the card. The only workaround is to subscribe to iTunes Match to receive copies of those songs that have the DRM encryption removed.

cagambler

Maybe you can offer a suggestion for my SD problem. I'm two hours from a dealer, so I can't just pop in and have their service department blame the SD card. Here's what I wrote them:

I took delivery of an S6 last month. I want to play music using the SD slot. I checked to see which formats the MMI accepts. Apple MPEG-4 with an extension of .m4a is listed as appropriate. I converted music files to this format and downloaded them to a new San Disk 32GB SDHC card.

When I try to play the music, the MMI recognizes the names of the folders and the names of the songs within folders but will not play them. It gives a message that the files are damaged.

The files are not damaged. I put the card in a USB adapter and plugged it into my Mac and the songs play perfectly.


They say it is probably the SD card. Not likely given that it plays fine on my Mac.

Thanks.

dht34

Perhaps the way the SDHC card was formatted on your Mac? FAT32? NTFS?

cagambler

From the SanDisk support pages:

NOTE: All SanDisk memory cards and flash drives come pre-formatted and do not need to be formatted out of the box. They are formatted with the following standards:
- FAT for 2GB or lower capacity
- FAT32 for 4GB to 32GB capacities

So that's another piece of information I didn't know previously--the 32GB SDHC card is formatted in FAT32.

snagitseven

Have you tried copying the artist folders in their native formats (AAC or MP3) without converting to another format from your iTunes music folder? That's what I do and it works fine. (AAC protected files will not play).
You might also try reformatting the card (to Fat32) just in case there was some errant file on the card the MMI doesn't like from the Audi card reader.

cagambler

The music is all from CDs. I've imported it into iTunes using Apple Lossless, which Audi doesn't support. To put it on the SD card, I converted it to AAC/MPEG-4 with the .m4a extension.

This is all related to trying to play music at as high a quality level as possible. My substitute idea until I can get the SD card to work was to use the car's wi-fi hotspot and the MOG music streaming service. If the MOG is streaming over wi-fi, it comes in at 320mbps and then I could use the Bluetooth connection to play it through the MMI. The flaw in that concept was that the T-Mobile wi-fi isn't fast enough to keep MOG from constantly buffering the songs it is streaming.

Other disappointing solutions would be to download MOG music ahead of time on my faster home wi-fi; or to show my age by just playing my CDs in the car.

Grapeking

Snagit - thanks for the directions, this is very helpful for a non-techie person like me. Question: do you copy each artist folder, one at a time, or can one select multiple artists folders at once and still achieve the desired end result?

snagitseven

As long as you're copying from the iTunes music folder (not iTunes itself), you can select multiple artist folders at once. However, avoid selecting any "Protected AAC" albums/songs as they won't play from the card and will just waste space.

Grapeking

Perfect, thanks for the help!