SD card slot

[dhh3]

Thank you. Is a CD copied to a computer considered an mp3 file?

[Journey_SeXT]

Here is how to copy a CD to MP3.......http://www.wikihow.com/Copy-CD-to-MP3

[dhh3]

Well, I finally solved the mystery of getting my SD card to display the Artwork. Initially, I followed all the iTune directions on how to get everything to work on the SD card. You can't just copy your iTunes library to the card, You first have to go through a series of steps the get the itunes library in a folder in Music. Then, you copy this folder to the card. It took forever to copy. After patiently waiting, i put the SD card into the slot. Radio displayed "No Readable Files". Damn! So, I removed the card and put it back into my computer. There were a bunch of files that were just code. Out of curiosity, I deleted them. I put the card back into the slot, an lo and behold, there was a list of all my songs in alphabetical order, by album; all 2,300 or so. No folders, just songs in alphabetical order of the albums. So, I listened to one song and had the default music note. Well, this is better than nothing. Then, 1/2 way through the song, the album artwork appeared! The radio must have been reading the files in the background while the song was playing. So I skipped to the next album: Artwork!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY.

I did not have to do any of the above mentioned steps to get the artwork to display. It displays and I am happy. I wish that I had a little more control, but I will play with it for a while and see what I can come up with.

Now, my next challenge, "should I choose to do it!", will be: how to add new music.

Edited January 25, 2015 by dhh3

[Roly]

Does anyone know how large of a SD card will it take? Or how large of a portable hard drive.

[dhh3]

The SD card I used is 32. Before the iOS8 fiasco, my iPhone 5s is a 64. Not sure if this helps.

[Ben Salvage]

Hi dhh3,

Is this still working for you? Can you get artwork on ALL your tracks?

Cheers

[Medabum]

I've tried to utilize the sd card slot to play mp3s and it works most of the time. Sure it displays album artwork but it reads "sd card read error" anytime I want to change albums or artists. If I don't touch anything for a minute or two the 8 inch u connect will eventually play what I asked.

Is there a particular format or sd card this player prefers to function seamlessly?

I can't listen to Sirius because it sounds so terrible.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Medabum

[fnbadaz06]

Any quality Class 10 SD card will work, but you can't use anything over 32GB because of the requirement of the FAT32 format.

Stick to a brand name card where possible...the Samsung EVO 32GB or SanDisk Extreme Plus 32 GB are high quality and have fast sequential read speeds around 48MB/sec and 92MB/sec.

How many files do you currently have on the card ?

I would try a re-format of the existing SD card first, then recopy the music back onto the card, to see if that helps.

[bfurth]

Any quality Class 10 SD card will work, but you can't use anything over 32GB because of the requirement of the FAT32 format.

Stick to a brand name card where possible...the Samsung EVO 32GB or SanDisk Extreme Plus 32 GB are high quality and have fast sequential read speeds around 48MB/sec and 92MB/sec.

How many files do you currently have on the card ?

I would try a re-format of the existing SD card first, then recopy the music back onto the card, to see if that helps.

That is a Windows XP/7/8 limitation, NOT a FAT32 limitation. The only restriction nearly that low under FAT32 was that individual files can be no larger than 1 byte less than 4 GB.

Windows XP and later cannot format a FAT32 drive bigger than 32 GB without additional utilities. Win98 could do 128 GB (the limitation of Windows XP and later is arbitrary, and only seeks to hinder interoperability). Here's a utility to make a bigger FAT32 partition with Windows: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/format-fat32-drives-beyond-32gb-limit/ If you have a Mac, you'll have a much larger max capacity (I think the limit is somewhere around 2 TB).

[dhh3]

From what I understand, my SD card is now functioning as if an iPod or iPhone was connected via the USB port in the console. I can search a song, an artist, or an album. I can use the alpha/numeric soft keys to type a name and search. I can create my own playlists by selecting artists, albums, or songs. The only Art that does not display is Art that came from Apple. Originally, as I was loading my CD's onto my PC, occasionally I would not get the Art. There is a way in iTunes to grab an Album Cover from the same artist and rename it and use it on the CD without art. And, some songs/albums in my iTunes Library I downloaded directly from iTunes (purchased). All of this Art will show on my iPod and my iPhone. When I copied my entire iTunes Library into a folder in Music on my PC, all the Art still displayed. Once I copied this folder onto the SD card, all the Art taken from iTunes will not display. The Art file is property owned by Apple and will only display on Apple products. So, all of my album artwork displays from the SD card, except the Art that i downloaded for a CD or an album/song which I purchased from iTunes.

Since uconnect only supports Apple up to iOS7.1, I searched high and low and finally and iPod Touch on ebay with 7.1. Great, I thought! I copied my iTunes Library to it, and it did not work. It only gave me a list of songs that I had no control over. One song, one at a time, down the list. So much for using an iPod.

When I had my iTunes Library on my 5s, I could get the music to do what it was supposed to do, and all the art displayed. Without thinking, I downloaded iOS8, and the music went to hell. So much for that.

The SD Card is working as it should. I purchased a iPhone 6, 32. No music on my phone. Patiently waiting for Uconnect to update their end, so I can see if I can get my iPod to work.

Edited June 19, 2015 by dhh3

[bfurth]

Windows Media Player was the only thing that fixed mine (4.3S) to allow it to use everything (pretty sure album artwork does not display on the 4.3). Playlists created in WMP were immediately recognized by my radio, but playlists created by iTunes were not.

[dhh3]

I create my Playlists right on the radio. No separate folders. I had never created playlists on my PC and saved them to a folder. So, there were no playlists to copy to the SD card.

Edited June 19, 2015 by dhh3

[fnbadaz06]

That is a Windows XP/7/8 limitation, NOT a FAT32 limitation. The only restriction nearly that low under FAT32 was that individual files can be no larger than 1 byte less than 4 GB.

Windows XP and later cannot format a FAT32 drive bigger than 32 GB without additional utilities. Win98 could do 128 GB (the limitation of Windows XP and later is arbitrary, and only seeks to hinder interoperability). Here's a utility to make a bigger FAT32 partition with Windows: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/format-fat32-drives-beyond-32gb-limit/ If you have a Mac, you'll have a much larger max capacity (I think the limit is somewhere around 2 TB).

From what I've experieinced so far, the 8.4 none nav unit can not read cards larger than 32 GB. None of the 64GB cards I have were recognized. I believe I read somewhere on a board that the 8.4 unit requires FAT...not exFAT.

[bfurth]

The referenced utility is not formatting it in exFAT - a completely different file system. I used to have hard drives as big as 80 GB formatted for FAT32 back in the day under Win98. The 32 GB partition limit of FAT32 is a Microsoft limitation, and nothing else.

The maximum addressable size of an 8.4s Uconnect radio is a completely different story.

[canadapostrock]

From what I understand, my SD card is now functioning as if an iPod or iPhone was connected via the USB port in the console. I can search a song, an artist, or an album. I can use the alpha/numeric soft keys to type a name and search. I can create my own playlists by selecting artists, albums, or songs. The only Art that does not display is Art that came from Apple. Originally, as I was loading my CD's onto my PC, occasionally I would not get the Art. There is a way in iTunes to grab an Album Cover from the same artist and rename it and use it on the CD without art. And, some songs/albums in my iTunes Library I downloaded directly from iTunes (purchased). All of this Art will show on my iPod and my iPhone. When I copied my entire iTunes Library into a folder in Music on my PC, all the Art still displayed. Once I copied this folder onto the SD card, all the Art taken from iTunes will not display. The Art file is property owned by Apple and will only display on Apple products. So, all of my album artwork displays from the SD card, except the Art that i downloaded for a CD or an album/song which I purchased from iTunes.

Since uconnect only supports Apple up to iOS7.1, I searched high and low and finally and iPod Touch on ebay with 7.1. Great, I thought! I copied my iTunes Library to it, and it did not work. It only gave me a list of songs that I had no control over. One song, one at a time, down the list. So much for using an iPod.

When I had my iTunes Library on my 5s, I could get the music to do what it was supposed to do, and all the art displayed. Without thinking, I downloaded iOS8, and the music went to hell. So much for that.

The SD Card is working as it should. I purchased a iPhone 6, 32. No music on my phone. Patiently waiting for Uconnect to update their end, so I can see if I can get my iPod to work.

Thanks for this instruction. I'm going to give this a go and see if it works for me... i have many problems with connect and apple products...

iPod Touch Gen 2 (old!) = album track order not sequenced instead alphabetical, no album art

iPod Classic = works well, album tracks in order, no album art, can't load music with apple music downloads (apple music only works with iPods with iOS 8 or later)

Ipad Air 2 = via usb, album track order not sequenced instead alphabetical, no album art, can play apple music downloads

= via bluetooth, album's tracks in order, can play album music, no information on screen at all. initial bluetooth connection can be spotty. can't charge iPad with usb at the same time as bluetooth streaming, so long drives kill iPad battery.

your SD method, looks like i can get the same as iPod Classic, but with artwork... suck's that i'm without apple music downloads though as they are DRM protected.

Obviously the best scenario is UConnect to provide an update for IOS8, but i'm not counting on it. IOS9 will be out next month (i'm already running on my iPad Air 2).

[bramfrank]

I keep a 16 gig Gen-2 iPod I my armrest - if works perfectly. There are about 2400 songs on board and I do et artwork. When I copied the music from my server to a 32 gig microSD card and put that into a slot via an adapter it worked the same, though it seems to make the radio work harder - there are small delays and ticks in the playback, which I attribute to processor loading - so the iPod remains.

My phone is a Nokia Lumia 920 - music works well on that as well, but I prefer not draining the battery, as I get about a day out of it between charges as it is.

[GalenH]

I have an 2015 crossroads I tired to used my sd card and flashdrive card that worked on my 2014 Ram before it was totaled. When either was inserted the lower 2 Icon on right of the 8.4N worked but I couldn't get any audio out put when i goto the Map no files are loaded i also tired to use the voice commands . I also called uconnect and was told I needed a "media hub " and the dealers part dep. didn't know what i was talking about.?? I Tried at a local Dodge dealer where I purchased the Dodge they couldn't get my SD card or flash drive to work in my vehicle. but my devices work in A Jeep and A Ram My radio is R5B my old ram radio was a R5A Uconnect saiid a software update work fixthe problem of an encoder , but they didn't know when an update would be available

I couldn't copy files to a Cd without haviing to Finaliazed the Cd after putting more than one Album on the Cd

I have researched how to finialized a SD card annd flash drive but there isn't anything on internet about finializing SD or Flash Drive ??

I have several audio and dvd program for copyinng and none of then will go to a SD or Flash Drive

[bramfrank]

Well, lets start with the fact that your radio is an RB5, not an R5B.

Next, I have no idea what you mean when you say 'lower two Icon on the right of the 8.4N' - the icons are across the bottom horizontally. The right icons on mine are 'phone' and 'settings' - on many US radios the 'settings' is replaced by 'more'.

Then; There is no 'media hub', required or not, for the RB5. No wonder your dealer was confused.

To get it to work:

The maximum sized card I've ever been able to get working is 32 Gigs. If yours is bigger, spring the $10 and get a smaller one.

- Take your SD card and copy off all of the MP3 files you have to your PC.

- Reformat your card as a FAT32 drive

- Create a directory called 'music'

- Copy the MP3 files back to the card, into the 'music' directory (you can have another layer of folders in your card if you wish to organise your music, perhaps by artist or by album)

- Insert the card into the slot and select 'player' and then the card as the music source, though it should auto-select as you plug it in.

That ought to do it for you.

Welcome to the group.