In car music from USB drive

[M_Six]

Hopefully this doesn't get moved to some obscure part of the site. I just took ownership of a 2016 GLC 300. It has a couple of USB ports in the center console storage box. Right now I have an ancient iPod with my tunes on it running to one of the USB ports. It works and shows my tunes sorted by album or artist or playlist or whatever. I can live with the current setup just fine. But...

If I were to transfer all my tunes to a mini-thumb drive like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077VXV323/

Would the system still sort by artist or playlist or album? I'm not sure with the current system how much is iPod controlled and how much is the audio system. I'm sure the audio files would work and play just fine, but I'm wondering if I'd lose the ability to choose a playlist or artist.

[chowser51]

It should read the metadata just fine on the USB stick if you copy it over.
Assuming the iPod files are mp3?

I don't use flac or wav so I don't know.

If you're running Windows, you can edit the metadata in properties if needed.
Not sure how you do it on a mac.

[eluded]

What is this USB stick you speak of?

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by eluded

What is this USB stick you speak of?

The thumb drive I linked to in my post above. I'm not a fan of the BT/iPhone setup for music. Works fine for calls, though.

[Salty Dog]

Originally Posted by M_Six

The thumb drive I linked to in my post above.

I suspect he eats Tide Pods and only uses Bluetooth. If I were you I'd try loading some music onto a thumb drive and plug it in. No harm no foul. My GLK has a similar set up. I usually just stream from my iPhone now or if I've plugged in to charge I can stream direct.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Salty Dog

I suspect he eats Tide Pods and only uses Bluetooth. If I were you I'd try loading some music onto a thumb drive and plug it in. No harm no foul. My GLK has a similar set up. I usually just stream from my iPhone now or if I've plugged in to charge I can stream direct.

With my C300 I had a BT connection to my iPhone that also has my tunes, but I wasn't able to easily choose a playlist or particular song without a lot of scrolling. Plus it would occasionally just start playing when I got in the car.

I'll give the thumb drive a shot. Like you say, no big loss if it doesn't work the way I want. The iPod does work fine. It'd just be nice to eliminate the iPod and cord.

[Red Bread]

Unless you have an S Class and the Burmester upgrade, I'd bet there's 0% chance that you could tell a lossless codec from BT. I've got 50k lossless songs, but haven't used them in years.

[M_Six]

It does have the Burmester system, but sound quality is not my main concern. I have a partial hearing loss anyway, so I'm definitely not an audiophile. I just want to be able to get to a playlist or song without a lot of scrolling or messing with my iPhone. My C300 had an SD card slot. I tried loading my tunes that way and it sort of worked. I could play them, but they were just listed alphabetically, of course, just as with any file system. I'm thinking the system needs a way to read the metadata of each file, like title, artist, album, genre, etc. My system recognizes that there is an iPod attached and (I think) uses the iPod's software to interpret the metadata. If there is just a thumb drive with a bunch of mp4 files, I don't know if the MB native system can sort the files in any way but alphabetically.

I know this is a serious first world problem and probably not worth too much thought. Like I said before, the iPod is working fine. I was just curious if anyone had tried something other than an iPod or BT connected phone.

[FuriouslyFast]

Thumb drive works fine in my Hellcat & the JVC HU I have in the Miata. Thumb drive has also worked great in a few other news cars I popped one into.

[stevenc]

Thumb drive will work. You can also use folders and playlists if you find it too hard to browse the music in the car.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by stevenc

Thumb drive will work. You can also use folders and playlists if you find it too hard to browse the music in the car.

Got it working. All my tunes are now on a tiny thumb drive that plugs into the USB port in the armrest storage area. Copying the tunes over was a snap. It took me a few tries and some research to figure out I needed to save the playlists as M3U files. Once I did, it worked fine. No more iPod and cable and no messing around with BT from the phone.