Audio Gurus - USB Help

[Dusty Driftwood]

Hi guys,
Been a while since I've been on here. Life has not really had much extra time for T4R lately... Anyway I installed a new HU with an adapter for a flash drive earlier this year. While I like this options, there are couple issues I'm having

1) There are 3 specific albums that I have copied to the flash drive that don't show up in my directory when I try to play them through the HU. When I plug the drive back into the computer to check for the tracks, they're there, and I can play them off the drive, but they never show up through the HU. I thought this could have been some sort of anti-piracy thing, but I have 4 other albums from one of the artists on the drive and they play just fine... Also, I can burn the tracks to a CD and play them through the HU, but I'd rather play them through the USB so I have track info, etc.

2) Some of the album artwork is missing from the drive. If anyone has a solution to getting that to show up that would be great.

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[sigepbiker]

1)Burning them to a disk: That would remove all the "extra data" and wipe the tracks "clean". Then burn that disk back to mp3, ACC, etc. and put those tracks back on to the drive. Headache, yes, but possibly quicker than re-downloading them.

2)No idea. I have the stock radio. Although, I will suggest you post the model of HU you have.

 

[MONTYMTB]

I have an Alpine HU with a built in USB port, and I've noticed that it sometimes acts a little funky if I have too many sub folders under the original folder for each artist. As long as I create one folder for each artist - or separate folders for each album if you prefer it that way - and put all the tracks from them in that folder it plays fine.

 

[frank_socal]

What MONTYMTB said, Some HU's have limits on folder nesting, number tracks and/or folders that can be played. I would also double check the file format.

 

[e46inperrycounty]

Some hu's are very picky about format and having multiple formats on a flash drive will send them into a tantrum. You may have the best luck burning them all to an MP3 format disk and then copying the disk to the drive to ensure all files are in the same format. Just try to make sure that the encoding is set to the highest bitrate possible so you don't lose too much audio data.

 

[Dusty Driftwood]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the help. I've answered a couple of the questions below in the hopes of providing more clarity

1)Burning them to a disk: That would remove all the "extra data" and wipe the tracks "clean". Then burn that disk back to mp3, ACC, etc. and put those tracks back on to the drive. Headache, yes, but possibly quicker than re-downloading them.

2)No idea. I have the stock radio. Although, I will suggest you post the model of HU you have.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give that a try this weekend...
Head Unit: Kenwood Excelon DDX491HD

I have an Alpine HU with a built in USB port, and I've noticed that it sometimes acts a little funky if I have too many sub folders under the original folder for each artist. As long as I create one folder for each artist - or separate folders for each album if you prefer it that way - and put all the tracks from them in that folder it plays fine.

I though that could have been an issue, but I've since added additional folders and it continues to work as before. The only 3 folders that (I've noticed) are missing are the 3 originally mentioned.

What MONTYMTB said, Some HU's have limits on folder nesting, number tracks and/or folders that can be played. I would also double check the file format.

The folders are all on 1 level. For my favorite bands, each album has its own folder. For the lesser bands, all tracks are dumped into one "artist" folder on teh main level.

Some hu's are very picky about format and having multiple formats on a flash drive will send them into a tantrum. You may have the best luck burning them all to an MP3 format disk and then copying the disk to the drive to ensure all files are in the same format. Just try to make sure that the encoding is set to the highest bitrate possible so you don't lose too much audio data.

I've looked through the files appear to be the same format m4a... But, thanks for the suggestion, I'll try that this weekend as well if the other suggestion does not work.

Thanks again for the help guys,
Jeff

 

[riceandpho]

might just need to convert all files to .mp3 format.