USB stick full of tunes... will it work?

[Hankrebel]

Ive been using a 32Gb SD card on my 2015 Lonestar with no issues.
The USB and SD cards come pre-formatted to FAT32 instead of NTFS. This makes it easier to quick remove the drive without having to "eject" the disc like the external HDs on computers.
You can format the drives either way by inserting it into a computer, right clicking the drive and selecting format.
The FAT32 file system does have a 4gb file limit and that is why some of you have seen or been told to divide you music into 4Gb folders. You can format the 64Gb and up drives/cards to FAT32, but its going to take hours to complete versus seconds with 32Gb and less.
Here is a great article on the subject and some howtos:
https://www.howtogeek.com/316977/how-to-format-usb-drives-larger-than-32gb-with-fat32-on-windows/


One thing to keep in mind is the radio has to "index" all of the files and folders before all of them will become available to play. Its basically building a list of all the files to present as a menu on the radio.
The larger the drives, files and folders, the longer is going to take to be available for use on the radio.

 

[Pull Ya]

Let me preference my questions with this----I have read through most of the posts on this thread and to be quite frank--I have no idea of what you guys are talking about---but I still have a couple of questions--please be gentle and please don't laugh out loud-----like many of you, I have a USB port in my 16 Sports. A nephew of mine(teenager of course) put I tunes on my computer then transferred some songs from my CD's onto I tunes in a "library playlist" for me then he put them onto a "stick" which I can play in the USB port in the truck. I have two problems; most of the songs are at different volumes and I have to adjust the volume almost every time a new song plays---can this be fixed? The second problem is every now and then when playing in the truck the thing "locks up" and the only way to get it to play again is to stop the truck, turn off the truck and then restart the truck. Is this a truck problem or a "stick" problem? If it is a stick problem is it a simple task to copy the music onto another "stick" and how do I go about doing that?
Jay

 

[PowrRam]

I have two problems; most of the songs are at different volumes and I have to adjust the volume almost every time a new song plays---can this be fixed?

Yes. But you would have to run each song that was too loud or too quiet through a sound editing software program and set the sound levels to the desired setting. Then re-save them to your USB stick. I use the free downloadable program Audacity to do this. It only takes a couple of seconds to adjust the sound levels for each song. The hard part is figuring out and remembering which songs need adjusting, then opening, fixing, and saving the files. It gets to be repetitious.

The second problem is every now and then when playing in the truck the thing "locks up" and the only way to get it to play again is to stop the truck, turn off the truck and then restart the truck. Is this a truck problem or a "stick" problem?

Sounds like a stick problem to me. Does it "lock up" during the same song(s), or does it lock up on random songs? When it happens can you change your audio source to say, FM radio and listen to that without stopping the truck?

If it is a stick problem is it a simple task to copy the music onto another "stick" and how do I go about doing that?
Jay

Sounds like you are set up to fix a couple of problems. You could fix the audio level problem and the locking up problem at the same time. Basically, you would take the songs off your old USB stick, run them through the Audacity sound editor program, adjusting the levels, and then save them on a new USB stick.

Obtain another USB stick. I would copy all the songs on the old USB stick to a new folder on your computer. Download the Audacity program to your computer. Using Audacity, open a song from the folder on your computer that needs sound levels adjusted. Make the adjustments. Export (save) the adjusted song to your new USB stick. Repeat for the other songs. Songs that don't need adjusting could be copied-and-pasted directly from your PC to your new USB stick without running them through Audacity.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it's not really. Once you get a handle on how much of a sound level adjustment is needed for each song it's easy, just takes time. 100 songs might take you 25-30 minutes.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Pull Ya]

Thanks for taking the time to answer---I've got over 900 songs so I guess I should plan a little time----LOL Can the Audacity program just be set at a certain level and run all the songs through it at that level without doing each song individually? Just trying to find a short cut I guess---
Thanks again
Jay

 

[Shaggy]

You want to put it in mp3 format, using 320 Kbps bit rate. You want mp3 so you can use the voice command on the UConnect to play songs, i.e. "play song Stairway to Heaven" or "play album Led Zeppelin 4" and not be fiddling with the touchscreen or audio controls (assumes you have steering wheel audio controls). You want to use the higher bit rate of 320 Kbps for the highest quality sound since 320 Kbps uses the least compression in mp3 format.

I've found that ripping CD's using Windows Media Player to 320 Kbps results in sound files with insufficient sound levels. If I rip CD's to mp3 and don't adjust the sound levels I end up playing the songs at a volume setting of 25 or higher just to hear the music (8.4 UConnect system) I use the freeware Audacity Sound Editor to boost the sound levels (and sometimes the bass levels, Mwa-ha-ha-ha!!) Audacity is an awesome program. I use the free Mp3Tag to edit the song/album information, maybe adding the album art. Actually, I'm quite **** about creating mp3 files for use in my truck. I might do a write up someday so others can suffer with my obsession.

Looking forward to seeing that write up!

 

[PowrRam]

Looking forward to seeing that write up!

Yeah, it's going to be a doozy. I'll set aside a couple of days and knock it out! Seriously, I mean to do it but it's going to take a long time to get it done.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Hankrebel]

Let me preference my questions with this----I have read through most of the posts on this thread and to be quite frank--I have no idea of what you guys are talking about---but I still have a couple of questions--please be gentle and please don't laugh out loud-----like many of you, I have a USB port in my 16 Sports. A nephew of mine(teenager of course) put I tunes on my computer then transferred some songs from my CD's onto I tunes in a "library playlist" for me then he put them onto a "stick" which I can play in the USB port in the truck. I have two problems; most of the songs are at different volumes and I have to adjust the volume almost every time a new song plays---can this be fixed? The second problem is every now and then when playing in the truck the thing "locks up" and the only way to get it to play again is to stop the truck, turn off the truck and then restart the truck. Is this a truck problem or a "stick" problem? If it is a stick problem is it a simple task to copy the music onto another "stick" and how do I go about doing that?
Jay

Sounds like your USB drive is about to bite the dust. Ive had this happened to me before. The best thing to do is mount into a computer and reformat the drive to FAT32. If your unfamiliar with the settings, then just accept the defaults. This will usually work on a bad drive 1 or 2 times before it dies.
Since you're already using ITunes, try to use the Sound Check feature. It will analyze all of the songs in your library, and then adjust the levels on all of the songs. With this feature turned on, it will happen automatically when new songs are added.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht201724

After this is done, copy your songs back onto the USB drive and try it in the truck again. If the lockup occurs again, trash that USB drive and get a new one.

 

[Hankrebel]

BTW...how did you get the U.S. Marine next to your name?

 

[Pull Ya]

Go to Personal section. Right below the Avatar picture there is a space that says "Custom title" You can type it in there.
Jay

 

[tones2SS]

I have a ton of music on my thumbdrive. 2016 Ram Sport.
Works killer. Plug and play.

 

[PowrRam]

Thanks for taking the time to answer---I've got over 900 songs so I guess I should plan a little time----LOL Can the Audacity program just be set at a certain level and run all the songs through it at that level without doing each song individually? Just trying to find a short cut I guess---
Thanks again
Jay

I think there is a way to do that with Audacity, but I've never tried it. I see that Hankrebel has posted a way to do batch processing of sound levels on songs with iTunes. I'd try that first before tinkering with Audacity.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[stretch78681]

I was just wondering something...

I positively love that I can plug in my phone and the uConnect system picks it up, allowing me to play my own music w/o touching the phone to do it (doubly so since Oregon has a very nasty distracted-driving law concerning anything you do with a smartphone.)

Now - instead of plugging in the phone, what if I got a USB stick and packed it full of tunes? Would that actually work? (I never tried... I may indeed have to, but I wanted to know if anyone else has tried it.)

The USB charges the phone, or GPS, I get a tone with the SD card, that leads me to believe I will hear music soon.. Tried & Tried & Tried, truck has been in three shops. They can't get it to work. Finally, because I re-skinned the seats with Katskins they lay blame on the shop that did the work... Or that the truck wasn't original with the console gadgets. CD player was OEM and it works...

 

[MMM]

I have a 32GB stick.
Works fine.
Used to work better before they upgraded the uconnect fw/software.

 

[BWL]

Yes you can play music off of a USB memory stick. It is easy to knock it out of the port so I switched the music to a SD card.

This is why I miss the USB being in the upper glovebox. Nothing in there to knock it around. Mine has no card reader I can find so it's USB in the glovebox where it can get knocked around or nothing.

 

[Random_Walk]

This is why I miss the USB being in the upper glovebox. Nothing in there to knock it around. Mine has no card reader I can find so it's USB in the glovebox where it can get knocked around or nothing.

I never checked the glovebox for one (maybe I should)... mine is in the center fold-down cupholder/compartment thingy.

 

[BWL]

I never checked the glovebox for one (maybe I should)... mine is in the center fold-down cupholder/compartment thingy.

The older 4th Gen were in the upper glove box. Newer are in the centre console.

 

[Random_Walk]

Update and Solution:

I bought a low-profile 128GB USB stick (from the below-linked store), and stuffed it with music.

I plugged it into the USB port and started the truck - the 300+ songs all loaded and the first one started playing before I even got my hand off the ignition key.

Riding my usual commute (a rather bumpy and curvy set of roads), and nothing skipped or disconnected, like it used to do with the phone sliding around in the console (tethered on a data cable). Also, no more lag while waiting for Android on my phone to wake up, realize there was a USB port, connect, then play nice with uConnect (usually a 30-45 second process), etc.

Went and checked - mine is missing one too. On the plus side, I think we can work around this...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...Description=compact+usb+stick&N=-1&isNodeId=1

 

[PowrRam]

Update and Solution:

I bought a low-profile 128GB USB stick (from the below-linked store), and stuffed it with music.

I plugged it into the USB port and started the truck - the 300+ songs all loaded and the first one started playing before I even got my hand off the ignition key.

Riding my usual commute (a rather bumpy and curvy set of roads), and nothing skipped or disconnected, like it used to do with the phone sliding around in the console (tethered on a data cable). Also, no more lag while waiting for Android on my phone to wake up, realize there was a USB port, connect, then play nice with uConnect (usually a 30-45 second process), etc.

Awesome! It might depend on your UConnect system but there is a setting in my 8.4 where you can tell it to automatically play content from the USB port upon startup of vehicle. So even if the last time you shut off your truck you were listening to the radio, upon next startup it will play content from the USB stick.

 

[Random_Walk]

Oh, I don't mind it playing tunes right off the bat (it used to always fire up SiriusXM immediately, so no biggie.)

 

[RaftingDave]

I have a 256gb USB in the center console, works fine, although Search is a little slow and you have to go to Artist/Album to play songs in correct album sequence (if that matters to you).

I ripped a bunch of my CD's using DBPowerAmp, which has a nice EQ and multi-bitrate setting for the output.

If I download music, I try to get 320 versions...or FLAC. Even still, my stick still has a ton of open space on it.

I was a little bummed I didn't get the CD player with my truck, since I think CD's sound better. (I looked at a Laramie that had it, but the deal they were offering on the truck was insulting). As it turns out, it's just as well, since I don't really have much room for a lot of CD's in there.