Hard drive with all of my music

[chucki3]

I put a lot of music on my iPhone and selected Apple Car Play on the i3. It automatically plays via Bluetooth when I start the car.
But I want all 85 gigabytes of my music to be available in the i3.
-What solid-state hard drive (SSHD) do I get? It would plug into the USB port in the car for power in and signal out.
-I believe this SSHD can be storage only, as Apple Car Play is the operating system / software that processes all those bits. Is that correct?
I went to a local BMW dealer and their 'digital' consultant was worthless. Now it's time for the group brain right here!

I live in Los Angeles.

Thank you.

 

[chucki3]

Is there Nobody who has a lot of digital music that they listen to instead of radio?
This should be a simple answer but I have not found it at any auto or audio store.
Grateful Dead at Cornell on 5/8/77 is great, but I want ALL of my Dead shows in my car!

 

[robthebold]

Is there Nobody who has a lot of digital music that they listen to instead of radio?
This should be a simple answer but I have not found it at any auto or audio store.
Grateful Dead at Cornell on 5/8/77 is great, but I want ALL of my Dead shows in my car!

I like to listen to my own music in the car, but I've never used any Apple app stuff which is what I thought you were asking about. I've got the HK sound system and I just copy the files to the on-board HDD off any old USB drive whenever I think of something else to add.

 

[Bat66]

I had the BMW Music Adapter for iPod/iPhone for a while but I only had the 160Gb iPod model (note this has the 30-pin connector to iPod although I think it still works via another adapter from the 30-pin connector to lighting). Since then I got a micro SD card (512gb), and put this in a USB adapter plugged into the socket under the armrest. Currently, the micro SD card has about 240 Gb of music on it under Artist/Album subdirectories.

Both of these work well as a device listed in the multimedia menu on the car, allowing selection via folder, artist, genre etc.

One word of warning here... There appears to be 2 slightly different versions of the BMW Music Adapter for iPod/iPhone since I originally purchased one for my bike (K1600 GT) which didn't work, so I got the other version which does work on the bike, and then found the first one worked in the i3 (never tried the one that is working on the bike in the car so it maybe both versions work in the car).

 

[Whereitis]

I had the BMW Music Adapter for iPod/iPhone for a while but I only had the 160Gb iPod model (note this has the 30-pin connector to iPod although I think it still works via another adapter from the 30-pin connector to lighting). Since then I got a micro SD card (512gb), and put this in a USB adapter plugged into the socket under the armrest. Currently, the micro SD card has about 240 Gb of music on it under Artist/Album subdirectories.

Both of these work well as a device listed in the multimedia menu on the car, allowing selection via folder, artist, genre etc.

One word of warning here... There appears to be 2 slightly different versions of the BMW Music Adapter for iPod/iPhone since I originally purchased one for my bike (K1600 GT) which didn't work, so I got the other version which does work on the bike, and then found the first one worked in the i3 (never tried the one that is working on the bike in the car so it maybe both versions work in the car).

In my '14 i3, I plugged a flash drive with 6gb of MP3 files on it into the USB port under the armrest. This port will charge my phone (slowly) but the stereo will not play music from the drive. I had to plug an MP3 player loaded with the same files into the aux jack just above the USB port (using the USB port to keep the MP3 player charged) to play my music library through the stereo. Do you think a flash drive would work with a software mod?

 

[drcarrera]

Sorry for the slight thread hijack but is there a way to stop all the tracks being listed in alphabetical order rather than track order? I've tried with the internal hard drive and external USB but the result is the same - each album's tracks are played in AB order, not sequentially. The same media will play in the correct order on every other device I own (cars, audio players, PCs ...). It's very annoying.

 

[Whereitis]

Sorry for the slight thread hijack but is there a way to stop all the tracks being listed in alphabetical order rather than track order? I've tried with the internal hard drive and external USB but the result is the same - each album's tracks are played in AB order, not sequentially. The same media will play in the correct order on every other device I own (cars, audio players, PCs ...). It's very annoying.

Can't answer this. The MP3 player I use has a "shuffle play" feature that plays my music in random order so I'm less likely to get bored.

 

[ksnax]

Sorry for the slight thread hijack but is there a way to stop all the tracks being listed in alphabetical order rather than track order? I've tried with the internal hard drive and external USB but the result is the same - each album's tracks are played in AB order, not sequentially. The same media will play in the correct order on every other device I own (cars, audio players, PCs ...). It's very annoying.

I have not tried this with the i3, but a trick I used years ago for this sort of thing was to use sequential numbering of tracks as the first character.

 

[Dutchi3]

I use a 32GB usb thumb drive to play CD/DAT ripped MP3 files I created myself. Because I mainly listen to whole albums, not single random songs, every album has it's own folder on the drive. If you stick to certain naming conventions and folder formats and put the cover art at the right places, the system will play albums with the songs in the right order and showing the cover art in the display, very cool. But as ksnax said, I did number the songs sequentially at ripping time. I also used album databases on the web to (re)name the songs, to add album/artist/style etc information and to add cover art. You should also create M3U8 playlist files, the ripping software can do that.

 

[Bat66]

In my '14 i3, I plugged a flash drive with 6gb of MP3 files on it into the USB port under the armrest. This port will charge my phone (slowly) but the stereo will not play music from the drive. I had to plug an MP3 player loaded with the same files into the aux jack just above the USB port (using the USB port to keep the MP3 player charged) to play my music library through the stereo. Do you think a flash drive would work with a software mod?

Umm, well, mine's a '13 i3, so I would expect this to work for you. However, I have seen in the past that 'some' flash drives don't work, and I'd also check that the flash drive is FAT32 or exFAT formatted.

 

[Whereitis]

Umm, well, mine's a '13 i3, so I would expect this to work for you. However, I have seen in the past that 'some' flash drives don't work, and I'd also check that the flash drive is FAT32 or exFAT formatted.

Thanks! I'll check for that. My PC is Win11, so it may format flash drives in 64-bit by default.

 

[LWHDurham]

I put a lot of music on my iPhone and selected Apple Car Play on the i3. It automatically plays via Bluetooth when I start the car.
But I want all 85 gigabytes of my music to be available in the i3.
-What solid-state hard drive (SSHD) do I get? It would plug into the USB port in the car for power in and signal out.
-I believe this SSHD can be storage only, as Apple Car Play is the operating system / software that processes all those bits. Is that correct?
I went to a local BMW dealer and their 'digital' consultant was worthless. Now it's time for the group brain right here!

I live in Los Angeles.

Thank you.

The manual for my 2015 explicitly warns against using an HDD in the central USB slot. Not sure why. Power draw? Would an SSD be different?

Anyway, I use a tiny (physically) 128GB Sandisk flash drive, loaded with approx 300 albums in flac, mp3 and wma formats. Just plug it into the USB inlet, punch the multi-media iDrive button, and select USB. No other external player required. If there's album artwork embedded in the files, it will show up on the infotainment screen.

 

[ksnax]

The manual for my 2015 explicitly warns against using an HDD in the central USB slot. Not sure why. Power draw? Would an SSD be different?

Anyway, I use a tiny (physically) 128GB Sandisk flash drive, loaded with approx 300 albums in flac, mp3 and wma formats. Just plug it into the USB inlet, punch the multi-media iDrive button, and select USB. No other external player required. If there's album artwork embedded in the files, it will show up on the infotainment screen.

Pretty sure it's just a power supply issue. HDDs draw too much, but SSDs usually don't. If I recall correctly, the USB port is rated for 1.5Amps, so an alternate power supply would be needed for anything needing more than that.

 

[JamesInLondon]

The manual for my 2015 explicitly warns against using an HDD in the central USB slot. Not sure why. Power draw? Would an SSD be different?

Anyway, I use a tiny (physically) 128GB Sandisk flash drive, loaded with approx 300 albums in flac, mp3 and wma formats. Just plug it into the USB inlet, punch the multi-media iDrive button, and select USB. No other external player required. If there's album artwork embedded in the files, it will show up on the infotainment screen.

An SSD probably wouldn't draw much more power than a thumb drive, but would be physically larger. But why not buy a 128gb thumb drive for less than £15/$20?

 

[LWHDurham]

I have not tried this with the i3, but a trick I used years ago for this sort of thing was to use sequential numbering of tracks as the first character.

Operation might differ with iDrive version, but in my 2015, the car's native player will largely ignore the filename; adding sequential numbers won't help. The player also won't read artwork, if the jpeg is simply dumped into the album folder. It has to be embedded.

Some ripping software will correct these problems automatically, but when that doesn't work, I use a tag editor.

 

[LWHDurham]

An SSD probably wouldn't draw much more power than a thumb drive, but would be physically larger. But why not buy a 128gb thumb drive for less than £15/$20?

Here in the colonies, thumb drive = flash drive . Mine was $13 Cdn on Amazon. Works great.

 

[LWHDurham]

Is there Nobody who has a lot of digital music that they listen to instead of radio?
This should be a simple answer but I have not found it at any auto or audio store.
Grateful Dead at Cornell on 5/8/77 is great, but I want ALL of my Dead shows in my car!

Kinda off-topic but...

How can you tell a Grateful Dead fan has visited your house?


They're still there.

 

[chucki3]

I like to listen to my own music in the car, but I've never used any Apple app stuff which is what I thought you were asking about. I've got the HK sound system and I just copy the files to the on-board HDD off any old USB drive whenev

I like to listen to my own music in the car, but I've never used any Apple app stuff which is what I thought you were asking about. I've got the HK sound system and I just copy the files to the on-board HDD off any old USB drive whenever I think of something else to add.

er I think of something else to add.

Yes, I believe the i3 has 'Music Collection' in the Media / Personalize Menu folder. I doubt that 'Music Collection' is large enough for 85Gb of files. Is it?

 

[chucki3]

Kinda off-topic but...

How can you tell a Grateful Dead fan has visited your house?


They're still there.

And, according to your grammar, they multiply!

Ahh, the days of Dead shows past. Stoners walking around w/ one finger in the air, "I need a miracle." ||| Getting a grilled cheese sandwich from a young lady making them at the rear of her VW Bus ||| The sweet smell of pot wafting ||| And toward the end, weren't there people selling CD's of the show you just saw? ||| "There WAS nothing like a Grateful Dead show"

 

[mfogarty]

I use a 400GB SSD in the centre armrest for all my music/audiobooks/TV series/Films. It draws very little power.

Before anyone has a pop at me, no I don't watch videos whilst driving, I take my wife to regular hospital visits and I watch something whilst parked up waiting.