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Usb Memory Stick Mp3 Problems


Tony_M
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Sorry, I think I'm being a bit thick here, but all I did was alter my itunes music folder from AAC to MP3 format, and then transferred these onto the stick. Am I meant to be doing something to format the stick first? oops! :lol:

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Sorry, I think I'm being a bit thick here, but all I did was alter my itunes music folder from AAC to MP3 format, and then transferred these onto the stick. Am I meant to be doing something to format the stick first? oops! :lol:

Were they bought from iTunes? I wonder if there is a DRM issue going on there?

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Try the stick with only regular MP3 files on there if you can. I don't toy with AAC enough to know its quirks, but the conversion tool within iTunes should be more than acceptable. Sucks that so many people are having issues.

Failing the DRM issue, check the format and allocation size as mentioned in one of my prior posts on this page.

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I have ford1, ford2, ford,3. . . to ford 6 with music directly in them after that. Very simple folder structure- all mp3s non converted, didnt use itunes have no DRM material. Less than 1000 items per folder

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Actually the last post raises an interesting point for me to mention - file names - if they are too long, some MP3 playback devices can have a bit of a fit about it ...

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Well got in car today and its working fine, on the drive home, worked fine also. See, it can play all the music on it. Just occasionally it deciedes not to work. for No reason what so ever, its never stopped playing and had an error come up because of bumps etc, but only if I get in the car say in the morning, or if the engines been off

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  • 3 weeks later...

I took delivery of my Focus in January. The usb has never worked. I have tried using various usb sticks, but the audio system doesn't even recognise that anything's been inserted. I was pretty disappointed. Haven't had time to take the car back to the dealer, and don't really want them fiddling with my car anyway. The 3.5mm aux input does however work, which is strange considering the usb and aux use the same connection and cable to connect to the head unit.

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If you paid for something you should want it working. Since my past post the USB hasnt stoped working once- ive added plenty of songs and taken them off, ive changed folders and what not. All works perfectly fine.

(Touch wood!)

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  • 2 months later...

Hi there

Sorry to bring up a fairly old thread, but I'm having a similar problem with my new 2010 Fiesta and it's driving me mad. I'm using a small SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB USB stick formatted as FAT32, containing only folders of non-DRM 192Kbps MP3s. Most of the time, this works fine, but occasionally the entire system will "lock up" and be stuck in the middle of a track. Nothing I can do (removing stick, re-inserting, turning unit off/on, turning ignition on/off, switching inputs) will actually help. Even inserting another device and reinserting the original USB stick doesn't cure the problem. Whatever I do, it still shows the same stuck track and it can't be played/skipped/USB stick navigated.

The only way to cure the problem is to rename the "suspect" track using a computer and re-insert the stick. Then it realises the track it's stuck on doesn't exist anymore and continues as normal. So this would suggest a dodgy MP3 file, right? - except then I can play that track successfully all the way through no problem at all. This seems to affect different tracks, ocassionally, seemingly at random.

The other day the system kept saying "Invalid file format" or similar and wouldn't play the stick at all. This has only happened once.

So, I've seen a few people with problems mention the SanDisk - is that because it's a problem or because it's so popular?

Do I need a software update or a new stick?

Thanks for your help!

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Hi there

Sorry to bring up a fairly old thread, but I'm having a similar problem with my new 2010 Fiesta and it's driving me mad. I'm using a small SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB USB stick formatted as FAT32, containing only folders of non-DRM 192Kbps MP3s. Most of the time, this works fine, but occasionally the entire system will "lock up" and be stuck in the middle of a track. Nothing I can do (removing stick, re-inserting, turning unit off/on, turning ignition on/off, switching inputs) will actually help. Even inserting another device and reinserting the original USB stick doesn't cure the problem. Whatever I do, it still shows the same stuck track and it can't be played/skipped/USB stick navigated.

The only way to cure the problem is to rename the "suspect" track using a computer and re-insert the stick. Then it realises the track it's stuck on doesn't exist anymore and continues as normal. So this would suggest a dodgy MP3 file, right? - except then I can play that track successfully all the way through no problem at all. This seems to affect different tracks, ocassionally, seemingly at random.

The other day the system kept saying "Invalid file format" or similar and wouldn't play the stick at all. This has only happened once.

So, I've seen a few people with problems mention the SanDisk - is that because it's a problem or because it's so popular?

Do I need a software update or a new stick?

Thanks for your help!

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hi there

i have had the occasional problem with my usb stick , saturday i plugged it in worked fine but on the return journey plugged it in and line in active was displayed, after much fidding about and half hour later it finally worked, this is probably the sixth time this has happened in three months, incidently is there any reason why you should not leave the usb stick plugged in permantly?

any advice much appreciated, thanks.

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I use a san disk 2gb formatted in fat, have occasional problems along the lines that when you plug the USB in it disconnects my bluetooth and the USB stick refuses to play.

To over come the problem i've worked out.....

1, Turn the radio system off using the on/off knob

2, Disconnect the USB and re-insert and keep doing this until the radio display says initialising USB and disconnecting USB, it may take several attempts, once you get this message your radio is regonising the USB stick and should now play.

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Hi there

Sorry to bring up a fairly old thread, but I'm having a similar problem with my new 2010 Fiesta and it's driving me mad. I'm using a small SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB USB stick formatted as FAT32, containing only folders of non-DRM 192Kbps MP3s. Most of the time, this works fine, but occasionally the entire system will "lock up" and be stuck in the middle of a track. Nothing I can do (removing stick, re-inserting, turning unit off/on, turning ignition on/off, switching inputs) will actually help. Even inserting another device and reinserting the original USB stick doesn't cure the problem. Whatever I do, it still shows the same stuck track and it can't be played/skipped/USB stick navigated.

The only way to cure the problem is to rename the "suspect" track using a computer and re-insert the stick. Then it realises the track it's stuck on doesn't exist anymore and continues as normal. So this would suggest a dodgy MP3 file, right? - except then I can play that track successfully all the way through no problem at all. This seems to affect different tracks, ocassionally, seemingly at random.

The other day the system kept saying "Invalid file format" or similar and wouldn't play the stick at all. This has only happened once.

So, I've seen a few people with problems mention the SanDisk - is that because it's a problem or because it's so popular?

Do I need a software update or a new stick?

Thanks for your help!

I had a similar problem. bluetooth for phone, line in and usb wouldn't work. The technician installed updated software and line in and bluetooth phone are now working again. The original usb won't work but I haven't yet tried a different usb drive, or tried the original in the pc.

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  • 7 months later...

I have a 2010 Fiesta Titanium, but I guess my question applies to other vehicles with the same or a similar Ford audio system.

I have been trying to get to grips with the MP3 flash drive reading facility since I took possession of the car a month ago.

- first of all, the system would only acknowledge files that were present on my flash drive the very first time I installed it, and would not recognise files that had been added subsequently. I tried with a different drive, taking care to re-format it before loading any files. This seemed to cure the first problem at least.

- I then found that certain files just froze for 20 seconds or so at ‘0’ before triggering a display ‘cannot play file format’ or similar (although the files on the drive are all either MP3s or WMA, both formats which are supported by the system according to Ford’s literature).

- I occasionally get the ‘USB drive not recognised’ message, due, I suppose, to bumps in the road

- Certain files will fail, but then when re-tried will play.

- On the plus side, Ford audio appears to be able to handle the folder system I have created on the drive, which in places has 3 or 4 levels (e.g. Artists A-E / George Benson / Greatest Hits / Track1.mp3…etc.)

For the record, the memory stick I am using at the moment is a FAT formatted PNY 8gb flash drive. It contains around 4gb of data at the moment.

As I don’t have an unliimited quantity of time to devote to this I would be interested to learn if other Ford owners have experienced similar problems and how they have solved them. I would be particularly interested in the thoughts of other contributors to this thread who have been confronting these problems for longer than I have.

Do some drives work better than others?

Are the problems primarily related to the physical contact between the stick and the USB socket?

Has anyone ever done lengthy tests when the car was stationary? Or tested various brands of flash drive...

Thanks,

Marc

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incidently is there any reason why you should not leave the usb stick plugged in permantly?

I guess the obvious one that it could be a temptation for some to break into the car and steal the drive.

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- I then found that certain files just froze for 20 seconds or so at ‘0’ before triggering a display ‘cannot play file format’ or similar (although the files on the drive are all either MP3s or WMA, both formats which are supported by the system according to Ford’s literature).

- On the plus side, Ford audio appears to be able to handle the folder system I have created on the drive, which in places has 3 or 4 levels (e.g. Artists A-E / George Benson / Greatest Hits / Track1.mp3…etc.)

For the record, the memory stick I am using at the moment is a FAT formatted PNY 8gb flash drive. It contains around 4gb of data at the moment.

The documentation is a bit confusing on the supported formats. While other models support WMA, the Fiesta manual is clear that only MP3 is supported. I've tried WMA files and while they sort of work, the sound is very quiet. Stick to MP3.

Like you I have 4 levels, to choose the genre, then artist, album and track. While I'm not a huge fan of the voice control, I use it to select the top level folder depending on my mood, so I have Ford1 = soothing/ambient; Ford2 = pop; Ford3 = dance; Ford4 = rock. I use the free version of MediaMonkey with the LAME plugin to convert/manage the content.

I've not had any problems with the few different sticks I've tried, but now I leave a Kingston "mini-slim" 8Gb stick permanently plugged in.

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A possible future( or current) problem came to my mind. The USB socket has a rubber cover. If you leave that off the socket is in a perfect position to collect any dust /dirt/liquids that drop in its direction. It is a bit of a stupid place to put it and should have been somewhere else and a horizontal fitting in my opinion. Leaving the stick in may help prevent rubbish getting down into the socket but may be exposed to being knocked sideways and damaging the connection or stick.

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I am taking my '10' ZS to Ford tomorrow for them to look at my USB port. Up to couple of weeks ago no problems in 10 months but one usb stick which has worked since April 2010 stopped working, plugged into my PC and not recognised, dead USB, my other one ive used for 10months is sometimes recognised sometimes not, sometimes freezes sometjmes doesnt, often i just get LINE IN ACTIVE and no m usic.

Tried a new usb today and after 30 odd seconds it freezes or skips to next track.

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Hi, I also have suffered with USB/Bluetooth freeze-ups. Had to take my car back to the dealer for a different problem so I just asked if there was any software updates since March 2010? The engineer said there was which he installed (Jan 2011). USB/Bluetooth not missed a beat since.

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Hi, I also have suffered with USB/Bluetooth freeze-ups. Had to take my car back to the dealer for a different problem so I just asked if there was any software updates since March 2010? The engineer said there was which he installed (Jan 2011). USB/Bluetooth not missed a beat since.

The tech guy at ford today recommended a softwear update today, gotta book it in. my car was registered march 2010

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  • 2 months later...

I've had my '59 Fiesta Titanium just 4 days and finally tried out the car stereo's USB support today. On my way to work it worked fine, however on the way home it started to play up after just 2-3mins and after that it wouldn't read my MP3s at all.

Rather than use a normal flash stick, which I thought would get in the way of the handbrake lever, I was using a class-2, 8gb micro SD card from a mobile phone via a SanDisk micro SC card reader. The SD card was already formatted to FAT 32 and is now about 75% full, and I've justed scanned it on my laptop and all seems fine.

The MP3 files themselves are all about 128kbps or a simliar, low VBR quality, and in total I have 1353 files in 15 folders which are correctly tagged and have reasonable length filenames. None of the files have come from iTunes, instead all have been ripped using dBpowerAMP and then tagged using Mp3tag freeware.

At most there are x4 levels to negotiate, ie SD card/Genre/Album/track... other than taking the car back to the dealer for a software update is there anything else I should try first?

As an aside, has anyone else also noticed that MP3 CDs occasionally, randomly and frequently freeze for a split second whilst playing?

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Do you get a pop/distort sound at the start of some of your MP3s you ripped as VBR MP3 with dbPoweramp? That's an issue I've got using the same software. The MP3s play fine elsewhere.

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Do you get a pop/distort sound at the start of some of your MP3s you ripped as VBR MP3 with dbPoweramp? That's an issue I've got using the same software. The MP3s play fine elsewhere.

Can't recall hearing any such noises when playing MP3 files in the car earlier. I'll listen out as and when I get the USB feature working, which I hope will be tomorrow when I'm driving back to work - but like you say, they play without any such issue on my HD2 phone, my wife's iPhone 4, etc.

I'll try and givemy Ford dealer a call 2m about the USB issue and see what they say.

In any event I also need the radio code which they failed to provide when I picked the car up at the weekend - oh, and they provided the wrong stereo manual too (my Fiesta came with the manual which I'd previously had for my old 55-plate Focus!)

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The mk7 Fiesta doesn't need a radio code, it's somehow tied into the VIN of the car (I believe the first time it's powered on it becomes locked to the car). Regarding the manual, it should be part of the main handbook rather than a separate book like older Fords.

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