I'm getting there....

I finally have the drive (1TB hard drive in a caddy connected to the USB port in the centre arm rest) reporting all the MP3 files i have loaded, 45'000ish, can't remember the exact number.

To get to this point i've mainly used 3 applications:

• Bulk Rename utility - used to remove non-standard characters from folder and filenames.
• AVS Audio Converter - used to change FLAC files to MP3.
• TagScanner - this has been used to remove unwanted metadata from the files, there can be a hell of a lot of it!!

I found i had to remove every file apart from MP3's and M3U (playlist) files, including FLAC files. I removed the FLAC file because i wanted to play with the metadata held in ID3 tag fields, FLAC uses a tag system called Vorbis, didn't have an editor for that tag type.

I used the rename utility to remove all non-standard characters , * , ' " # etc etc.

I used TagScanner to resize the track art, remove unwanted ID3 data, year, genre, comments etc. I only left the song title and artist to keep the metadata to a minimum.

 

Sometime this week i will add some more files to try and hit the elusive 50'000 MP3's!!!!!

 

Hi Miles

great info buddy and answered some of my questions.

my only question to you is this. Did you have issues getting the car to recognise the 1TB drive?

What format is the hard drive eg. NTFS? ,   Does the usb socket provide enough power on its own for the hard drive?  The reason I ask is because if any one else has problems I think these might be 2 areas where problems may occur.

it's been formatted to exFat and NTFS. its a portable SSD so wouldn't expect it to exceed the 500mA USB limit.

I've used a mechanical hard drive (2.5"), SSD and USB memory stick, all have been fine. The USB port will not provide enough power for a 3.5" mechanical hard drive, all formatted to NTFS or ExFAT.

Sometimes a file will play, register in the database and look fine, but will cause the database to stop adding tracks.

The main thing is waiting for all the tracks to update in the database, can take an hour or so to index all fields and then appear in the search results.

I've decided to return the device and try a 2.5 SSD HD in a case. 🤞 that will work.

The one thing I do find annoying is that sync will skip (not play) some tracks on a compilation so have to go back to play the skipped tracks. Playlists behave the same.

I've tried to remove some special characters with mp3tag with some success but find the only solution is to convert the files to WAV.

Any suggestions?

12 hours ago, Willy said:

The one thing I do find annoying is that sync will skip (not play) some tracks on a compilation so have to go back to play the skipped tracks. Playlists behave the same.

I've tried to remove some special characters with mp3tag with some success but find the only solution is to convert the files to WAV.

Any suggestions?

Try using Tag Scanner to check the data fields. https://www.xdlab.ru/en/

Make sure you check the advanced tab for extra data that sync can't display.  Also check to see if the track is VBR (variable bit rate), i've heard some issues can be caused by this.

By converting to WAV you will be eliminating tag data, so it could be tag related.

Second 1TB hard drive didn't work either. Sync messages says device isn't recognised so looks like 1TB drives won't work with my sync.

Crucial BX500 1TB / 540 MB/s SATA, 2.5 Inch and USB C caddy.

May have to start converting all my FLAC files to MP3 

6 hours ago, Willy said:

Second 1TB hard drive didn't work either. Sync messages says device isn't recognised so looks like 1TB drives won't work with my sync.

Crucial BX500 1TB / 540 MB/s SATA, 2.5 Inch and USB C caddy.

May have to start converting all my FLAC files to MP3 

What are you using for the format file system? Mine are all NTFS.

 

I've not used a USB C caddy, all mine are USB Micro B -

My drives are all SSD's and either 1TB or 2TB, all seen by SYNC3.

What version of SYNC3 are you running?

This thread just blows my mind LOL 50,000 MP3 files, on average at 3 minutes each, that's 2500 solid hours of continuous music. At a solid 8 hours/day, that will be 312 days before a repeat.... WHY??? 🤣

3 hours ago, VFR800 said:

What are you using for the format file system? Mine are all NTFS.

 

I've not used a USB C caddy, all mine are USB Micro B -

My drives are all SSD's and either 1TB or 2TB, all seen by SYNC3.

What version of SYNC3 are you running?

V3.4 Build 21194

Error message is device not supported. ive tried exFat, Fat32, NTFS. Two different caddies.

what drives are you using?

2 hours ago, StephenFord said:

This thread just blows my mind LOL 50,000 MP3 files, on average at 3 minutes each, that's 2500 solid hours of continuous music. At a solid 8 hours/day, that will be 312 days before a repeat.... WHY??? 🤣

Most cars average around 30mph with mixed driving.  That means it's around 75,000 miles worth of music!  

2 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Most cars average around 30mph with mixed driving.  That means it's around 75,000 miles worth of music!  

At my mileage, that's about 10 years! I'm so glad I listen to the radio...

On 12/22/2021 at 9:43 AM, StephenFord said:

This thread just blows my mind LOL 50,000 MP3 files, on average at 3 minutes each, that's 2500 solid hours of continuous music. At a solid 8 hours/day, that will be 312 days before a repeat.... WHY??? 🤣

I total understand and agree with you there Stephen. I did at one point fill a 1TB ssd with flac files, but probably never listen to 99% of them. Now a 120GB flash drive is more than plenty for what I actually want to hear in the car.

On 12/22/2021 at 9:59 AM, Willy said:

V3.4 Build 21194

Error message is device not supported. ive tried exFat, Fat32, NTFS. Two different caddies.

what drives are you using?

One is a Seagate, the other is a Samsung.

On 12/22/2021 at 9:43 AM, StephenFord said:

This thread just blows my mind LOL 50,000 MP3 files, on average at 3 minutes each, that's 2500 solid hours of continuous music. At a solid 8 hours/day, that will be 312 days before a repeat.... WHY??? 🤣

I get your logic, but, I wanted to find out what the limits and restrictions were after coming from a BMW world of in-car entertainment.

I've probably learnt more about the structure and information contained within media files than i have about the limitations of in-car media support.