[BarryJI]

I've been playing music through a Y-cable (Aux/USB) connected to my old-school iPod Classic. It's a far from perfect approach to playing music in the car (mainly because it does not work with iDrive) but my iPhone 5, which I can connect via the cradle mount in the center console, cannot contain anything but a fraction of my music (although I use it to stream from Spotify). To replace it with one that can hold my entire music collection will cost me almost $400.

I believe the car's hard drive is only 20 MB and I have 40 GB of music on my iPod so that's out. I think I will try to use a large, dedicated thumb drive and plug that into the USB port in the center console but I want to make sure I do everything correctly to ensure that the data shows up properly on the iDrive screen. To that end, can anyone help me with the following? It will eliminate a lot of trial-and-error, so I'd be grateful:

- Should I simply copy over all files from their root directory on my PC? These include both MP3 files and iTunes' M4P format.

- If I do the above, what kind of metadata or file structure should I expect iDrive to display? Will I be able to scroll through music using the iDrive controller? Will I be able to search by album, artist, etc., or is there a cruder form of search/display?

- Should the files be organised in tree structures by Artist/Album/Song as they are in Windows and accessible through that structure?

- Am I correct in assuming that I do not need to convert these files to any other format and that there will be no iTunes-style metadata displayed like album art, but there will at least be Artist/Album/Song?

Guidance much appreciated, many thanks in anticipation.

[neilr_]

Before I possibly introduce new questions, let me make two suggestions that I believe to be accurate:

1. M4P is Apple's protected audio format for music purchased from the iTunes Music Store. They will not play from a USB flash drive in the car. Instead, see if you can download those tracks again from the Store. Apple moved away from protected music a while ago, so new copies of the files *should* be unprotected M4A files. I know from experience that M4A files will play (but mine originated from CDs).

2. Since you've got 40GB of music and will likely get a 64GB USB flash drive, format it as ExFAT (look for it in a dropdown in Windows's format drive dialog). ExFAT is far more space efficient than FAT32 (the default filesystem for USB flash drives). I don't know if the car can read NTFS, but I wouldn't expect it.

[murderwasthebass]

You're not able to just use a straight USB cable connection for your iPod? The Y-cable is technically not to be used anymore for the newer BMW's.

[BMWZ4]

I can vouch for the exFAT format. Works great on my 64g stick. And definitely don't bother with NTFS as that is not recognized.

[BarryJI]

Thanks, guys.

I have a mixture of M4A and M4P files on my PC. What a nuisance to have to comb through them all.

As for connecting my iPod Classic, do you really think it doesn't need the AUX input? I'm sure that's the case with the newer generation of iPods/iPhones but not the 30-pin models with the internal HD. I would be happy to be proven wrong.

[neilr_]

Now, for the possible confusion.

All of my music is managed by iTunes. That means there is a folder structure that looks something like this:
iTunes
>> Music
>>>> Artist1
>>>>>> Album1
>>>>>> Album2
>>>> Artist2
>>>>>> Album1

Etc.

I copied all of the Artist folders to the root of my USB flash drive and, for the most part, everything works as I would expect. The car scans the drive and lets me search by artist or album. The artwork and the proper track info is displayed on the screen, and the world is good. Mostly.

A quick note about music/file formats: you need to be concerned about the codec and the container. The codec is the specific algorithm used to compress the music. Examples are: MP3, AAC, FLAC, Apple Lossless (ALAC), and many others. The container is the type of file that stores the compressed music. This can have the same name as the codec, but that's not a rule. MP3 is both a codec and a container and you end up with ".mp3" files. AAC and ALAC are both stored in ".m4a" files.

Most of the music that I have personally ripped was compressed as ALAC and stored in M4A files. I've since switched to 256Kbps AAC in M4A files because my 228i cannot play ALAC. I have some MP3 music that I got from other places (that's how Amazon matches your purchased CDs, for example). My current set of music is stored on a small (8GB) USB flash drive formatted as ExFAT. Most of it plays as expected in my car: albums that had associated art displays that art, tracks play in the same order as you'd find them on the album, artist/album/track info is displayed correctly.

However… I have two MP3 albums that do not play properly. When I search for the album or artist and choose Play, they don't play in album order - they play in alphabetical order, despite the filenames being prefixed with the track number and the ID3 tags being correct (I checked every file on my drive). Oddly, if I don't search for the album, but browse the filesystem instead, they play in album order. Neither BMW nor this forum were able to help me resolve this, so I just live with it.

I played a little bit with file formats and found that my car cannot play ALAC files, but it does play AAC and MP3 files just fine. So, I converted all of my ALAC files to AAC and reset my default ripping options.

I choose my music by album, not artist, and that might be why the album repeats when it gets to the end instead of moving on to the next album (BMW could pick the next alphabetical album by the same artist or the next alphabetical album from the entire list of album, but it does neither). I don't choose my music by artist because when I do so and look at the song list, they're in alphabetical order, not any sort of order corresponding to the albums. I haven't tried playing this selection because of the problem mentioned above (which did not go away when I reformatted the drive or changed to another drive) - I don't want all of my music to annoy me.

[BarryJI]

Very helpful response, thank you. I think most of my music in iTunes is in AAC or MP3 formats so I may be in luck. I guess it won't take too long to put some music on a thumb drive and find out.

The problem with the iPod Classic wired into the car's speakers via the Y cable is that the non-OEM Y cables are junk and fall apart after being handled gently for six months.

[neilr_]

Originally Posted by BarryJI

The problem with the iPod Classic wired into the car's speakers via the Y cable is that the non-OEM Y cables are junk and fall apart after being handled gently for six months.

I'm not familiar with this Y-cable. Which ports on the iPod and the car does it connect to?

I originally used an old iPod touch (connected with the in-box 30-pin USB cable) with my FR-S and that worked quite well. I got tired of having to stash my iPod when I parked, so I switched to the USB flash drive. The same drive that does weird things in my BMW worked flawlessly in my Scion - it's actually a bit disappointing.

[BarryJI]

neilr_: It's a cable with a 30-pin plug to connect to the old-school iPod Classic and it has both USB and AUX inputs at the other end, designed to fit the adjacent USB and AUX sockets in the center console. Importantly, it also has to have some kind of inline converter due to BMW's encoding of audio inputs; that's why it's advertised for BMW/Mini specifically:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o00_s00

I am sure that, with the AUX input pulled but the USB left in, no signal goes from the iPod Classic to the speakers.

The remaining, discontinued OEM versions run for $100.

[murderwasthebass]

Originally Posted by BarryJI

neilr_: It's a cable with a 30-pin plug to connect to the old-school iPod Classic and it has both USB and AUX inputs at the other end, designed to fit the adjacent USB and AUX sockets in the center console. Importantly, it also has to have some kind of inline converter due to BMW's encoding of audio inputs; that's why it's advertised for BMW/Mini specifically:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o00_s00

I am sure that, with the AUX input pulled but the USB left in, no signal goes from the iPod Classic to the speakers.

The remaining, discontinued OEM versions run for $100.

Don't try using just USB from your Y-cable. Use a 30-pin to USB APPLE white cable (not third party) and see if that works. Make sure the cable is in good condition. Not frayed or any internal damage. If this doesn't work, then how do you feel about just using an aux cable and controlling the music from your iPod or just playing on shuffle?

[BarryJI]

Originally Posted by murderwasthebass

Don't try using just USB from your Y-cable. Use a 30-pin to USB APPLE white cable (not third party) and see if that works. Make sure the cable is in good condition. Not frayed or any internal damage. If this doesn't work, then how do you feel about just using an aux cable and controlling the music from your iPod or just playing on shuffle?

I will try this today.

I have been using the combined AUX/USB cable to listen to music from the iPod Classic; I can select music from the iPod itself and use the steering wheel controls for volume. The problem is that the cables are badly made; the 30-pin plugs come apart with frequent use and I have to plug/unplug it often as the iPod will continue to draw from the battery even after the car is switched off and, given what these things are fetching on eBay, placed out of sight when parked.

[mikkemille]

Originally Posted by BarryJI

It's a far from perfect approach to playing music in the car (mainly because it does not work with iDrive)

Originally Posted by BarryJI

I am sure that, with the AUX input pulled but the USB left in, no signal goes from the iPod Classic to the speakers.

I use a 5th gen ipod classic, works perfectly with idrive. You don't need the y-cable, just a 30-pin to USB cable. Use your apple-supplied cable or a shorter one like this.

[BarryJI]

It worked! iDrive recognised the USB-only connection to my iPod Classic! Thank you all so much for your help. Now I feel a little foolish; I do not know how I got the idea in my head that the Classic could only work via an AUX/USB combo but boy was I wrong. Thanks again!

[murderwasthebass]

Originally Posted by BarryJI

It worked! iDrive recognised the USB-only connection to my iPod Classic! Thank you all so much for your help. Now I feel a little foolish; I do not know how I got the idea in my head that the Classic could only work via an AUX/USB combo but boy was I wrong. Thanks again!

Great to hear! Happy listening!

[BarryJI]

One last thing: if I leave the iPod Classic plugged in when the car is parked with the engine OFF, will it still be drawing charge from the battery?

[murderwasthebass]

Originally Posted by BarryJI

One last thing: if I leave the iPod Classic plugged in when the car is parked with the engine OFF, will it still be drawing charge from the battery?

No. It may for a few minutes but eventually the car will go to sleep.

[BarryJI]

Originally Posted by murderwasthebass

No. It may for a few minutes but eventually the car will go to sleep.

Yes, I can make the car go to sleep by hitting the on/off switch twice and the iPod then goes dark if it was showing a "charging" symbol before. However, I believe there are OBD II scanners that do not seem to have a sleep mode and which pull from the battery of a switched-off car for as long as they remain plugged in, so I thought I had better ask. Thanks!