USB Hard Drive for MP3

[Just-RAM-it]

I would like to cancel my SirusXM, and my truck (2017 RAM 1500 Sport) does not have a CD player. I dont have any music on my cell phone...... so my next option or something I want to try, is a small USB hard drive, with MP3's saved to it.

Will this work?
Can I build playlists and then play then from the truck?

How awesome would that be with a terabyte drive full of your favorite music, then you build a few playlists to pick your driving mood or pleasure at the time.
ie.
- Easy Listening or mix of Top 40
- Hard Rock and Metal Favorites (when you're ready to tear up the road)
- Wife Favorites (you know why)
- Set to Random, to play everything
- etc..

Has anyone tried this, or had some level of success?

 

[tourrider]

I'm feeling inadequate. I ripped my big box of cds from when cds first came out, and It only came to 56GB. i have that on a 64gb flash.

Not sure if the portable drive will work. Not all usb media use the same protocols.

You would need to be mindful of power consumption. Definitely an ssd vs spindle drive.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[MADDOG]

How big of a USB stick are you talking about? Or are you going to try and connect a HD with a USB out and see if it will play?

I use a 64GB USB stick with MP3's loaded on it. I don't load file folders, just individual tracks. It seems to work best that way.

 

[JinxCanada]

subscribed to see if this works. I have the 20gig hdd MyGig touch screen in my truck....which I love because of being able to store music directly on the hdd...but if I could use my portable hdd it would make it MUCH easier to bring the music to the truck, and add/delete from the HDD compared to the actual head unit. I'm anxious to know if this will work or not too!

I will say, I almost GUARANTEE you'll need to format that HDD to a Fat32 standard. I know to put music on a jump drive then onto the MyGig that's exactly what I had to do. NTFS doesn't read on the stock stereo.

 

[Ocelot]

subscribed to see if this works. I have the 20gig hdd MyGig touch screen in my truck....which I love because of being able to store music directly on the hdd...but if I could use my portable hdd it would make it MUCH easier to bring the music to the truck, and add/delete from the HDD compared to the actual head unit. I'm anxious to know if this will work or not too!

I will say, I almost GUARANTEE you'll need to format that HDD to a Fat32 standard. I know to put music on a jump drive then onto the MyGig that's exactly what I had to do. NTFS doesn't read on the stock stereo.

Jinx, I have a 2011 and I use a USB stick plugged into the glove box uconnect port. I've never been able to do playlists, but I can simply use the voice control to as to play any song or artist stored on the USB stick. I don't use the built in hard drive on my radio (430 RBZ) because I cant use voice control with that drive, but can with the glove box USB. Of course, you have to have the uconnect module for that to work which I added way back after I first got the truck.

Your right, it is convenient to just bring in the USB stick to add as needed. I suppose for playlists, I could put them on separate sticks and swap them as my mood suits.

 

[quietpeen]

I doubt a usb hard drive will work. USB thumb drives work though

 

[JinxCanada]

Jinx, I have a 2011 and I use a USB stick plugged into the glove box uconnect port. I've never been able to do playlists, but I can simply use the voice control to as to play any song or artist stored on the USB stick. I don't use the built in hard drive on my radio (430 RBZ) because I cant use voice control with that drive, but can with the glove box USB. Of course, you have to have the uconnect module for that to work which I added way back after I first got the truck.

Your right, it is convenient to just bring in the USB stick to add as needed. I suppose for playlists, I could put them on separate sticks and swap them as my mood suits.

when I add a new folder of music, the MyGig automatically makes a new playlist from that folder for me.

 

[JinxCanada]

I'm betting an aftermarket head unit would work for a usb hdd. that would be one good reason to upgrade my head unit.

 

[17CrewCab1500]

My aftermarket Kenwood deck wouldn't see more than XXgb.. I can't recall the GB amount.. but anything after that song.. would never show.

 

[Wahrsuul]

Most headunits don't put out enough power over the USB to run a USB hard drive. They MAY possibly put out enough to run a new SSD in an enclosure, but I haven't tried.

Also, I haven't seen a headunit that will access a USB hard drive even with external power on it. Be easier to go with a 128-256gb memory stick.

 

[BadHabit2Break]

forget the HD and just use a flash drive (memory stick). I dont think you can do playlists, but make sure your music tag is all correct and then use the voice interaction to play what genre you want.

 

[jh90731]

just found this thread. I'm having an issue with my old iPod - every now and then I hear a loud click or chirp from the ipod thru the system. If anyone knows how to fix this great otherwise I'll be looking to put all the music on a 32gb stick. I'm trying to figure out how to convert all the music files on itunes to mp3 format. I found out how to convert some but there is a message that pops up for a lot of the files that says the files are protected and cannot be converted to mp3. so, couple questions - 1) how to convert the protected mp4 files to mp3 and; 2) can I leave the music in the respective artist's folders or do the music files need to be individual files on the stick and not in any folders? TIA

 

[Ocelot]

I don't know anything about the loud click since I never use an iPod in the truck. For the MP3 files, I don't have mine in folders currently, but if I remember correctly, I did in the past and it still worked. You can try a few folders to start just to try it out and if it works fine then load them all up. As far as the protected AAC files, there may be a newer easier way, but in the past, I burned them to a CD and then ripped the CD into MP3. There are also converter programs that will do it to, but I haven't tried them so you can google those if you like.

Edited to add:
Make sure the artist, title, genre, tags are filled out on the MP3 files and then you can voice select song, artist, etc.

 

[buddy guy]

i imported a bunch of songs recently from an old ipod to itunes, then in the playist i had created with all the songs in itunes, when i right click on each of them one of the options is to open in windows. then save that file to a folder i created called music backup on my desktop so i have all my songs copied outside of itunes. once i had done all that i selected them all and copied them to a usb stick as a backup and to my galaxy s9. then i leave the usb in my truck in case i didn't bring my phone and want to list to my music. there are lots of free music converters but i wouldn't convert them to mp3. the windows (wma) and apple formats, aac and mpeg4 related formats are all less compressed and have better sound than mp3. and my ra2 head unit reads them all. i think the days are gone where stereos only read a format or 2

 

[PolarisCobra]

I leave an IPod in the center console of my 2017 BigHorn. Works great, can browse by albums, artist, whatever. I bet you can buy a used IPod for cheap on EBay, and put whatever you have on that.

 

[buddy guy]

https://www.maniactools.com/soft/m4a-to-mp3-converter/

there's a link to a converter that converts pretty much anything to mp3 if you really want to.