[DIY] USB Audio Fixes (FR-S Stock HU)
 

wasn't sure if i should post this in the DIY section as it seemed more appropriate here since people looking for help with this will likely head straight to the audio subforum.

i recently made the switch from bluetooth to USB after i realized how much better USB is. i took @Bonburner's suggestion and bought the [ame="http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Flash-Drive-SDCZ33-032G-B35/dp/B00812F7O8/"]SanDisk 32gb Cruzer Fit from amazon[/ame] and i think that this is honestly the way to go. excellent quality flash drive, quick.

so i got started loading my music to it and after having used it for about a week, i've come across 2 very annoying issues. work was a bit slow today so i had some time to resolve them.

1. Certain MP3's not working.

this one is pretty annoying and you don't really know if you have a non-working mp3 unless you specifically browse to that song only to see your stereo skip to the next one. i'm not entirely sure what causes this issue, but the fix for this is to reencode that mp3. for this i recommend dBpoweramp Music Converter. i've linked to their page, which offers a 21 day fully working trial. i bought this program a while back because i found that it's the best at what it does.

1. download and install the trial.
2. i believe the configuration menu comes up automatically, but if not bring it up by going to "Start > Programs > dBpoweramp Music Converter > Configuration > dBpoweramp Configuration."
3. click the "Music Converter" tab and make sure "'Convert To' on Right Click Menu" is checked. hit OK.
   https://dl.dropbox.com/u/71070185/misc/usbfix/db1.JPG
4. plug in your flash drive and locate the song that is not working for you.
5. right click on the song and choose "Convert To."
   https://dl.dropbox.com/u/71070185/misc/usbfix/db2.JPG
6. these are the settings i use to fix whatever is wrong with the file, but still preserve the quality.
   https://dl.dropbox.com/u/71070185/misc/usbfix/db3.JPG
7. you'll have an "overwrite" window popup. i usually overwrite as i have all these songs on my computer, but you can choose to rename if you'd like.
   https://dl.dropbox.com/u/71070185/misc/usbfix/db4.JPG

that's it for that one. this song should now work perfectly fine on your stock stereo.

2. Songs not listed in alphabetical order.

the way i have my songs set up on my flash drive is as follows.

00 New Album
00 New Album
01 Playlist 1
01 Playlist 2
01 Playlist 3
02 Artist 1
- Artist 1 - Album 1
- Artist 1 - Album 2
02 Artist 2
- Artist 2 - Album 1

the first time i set this up and used it in my car, it worked great. i had only put a handful of albums on there, but they were all in alphabetical order and everything was fine. when i added some more music the next day, i found that all of the new folder and subsequent songs i added were at the bottom of the list instead of mixed in alphabetically with whatever was already on there. i searched a bit online and found several people saying that you have to sort your music in a folder on your computer first, then copy everything all at once to the flash drive. that seemed like a waste of time and a bit of an annoyance to me as you would have to do that every time you wanted to add a new song. so i eventually found a program called DriveSort. i'm not sure how this does what it does, but it worked like a charm. this program does come with an "at your own risk" warning, but i've used it a couple of times now and haven't had any issues.

1. download the program and throw the .exe on you computer somewhere.
2. plug in your flash drive and open the program. make sure nothing on your computer is using anything off your flash drive.
3. go to "Disk > Open" and choose your flash drive. it should be FAT32 and at the bottom of the list, but verify the size (slightly smaller than your flash drive's advertised size). hit OK.
   https://dl.dropbox.com/u/71070185/misc/usbfix/ds1.JPG
4. select all of the folders by clicking on the first folder, scrolling down and then shift + clicking on the last folder.
5. with everything selected, do "Folder > Sort" and then "Folder > Save."
   https://dl.dropbox.com/u/71070185/misc/usbfix/ds2.JPG
6. go to "Disk > Close" and "x" out the window and you should be good to go.

you'll have to repeat this every time you add new songs, but luckily it takes less than a minute. this will also work for individual folders. for this, simply follow steps 1 to 3, then open a folder by double clicking on it. select all the mp3's in the folder using the same method in step 4 (the mp3's have a different icon). and then follow through with steps 5 and 6.

so there you go, i hope this helps. please post your results and if you find any better ways of doing things.

How are you having issues ?
My car links up bluetooth without a problem , If you really are worked up about "better music" then you should buy production CD's , nothing beats it..


I-Tapatalk

I haven't found free time to figure out how to fix the title and artist reading but I'll take a look into that program soon

i think you misread something as this thread has nothing to do with bluetooth lol. i did mention that i switched from bluetooth, but it wasn't giving me issues or anything. i just like the fact that i get artist and song information with USB as well as more control over my music through the HU. saves my phone battery a bit as well.

title and artist reading?

Yup, you can shuffle the Stereo Header's text to show the File name, Artist/Song Name, or Folder/Track or something like that.
The artist and song name are under the file's Details tab.
Even though they All say what it should say some says No Name No Artist

i think that's just a matter of adding the info in the mp3 properties. you can do that in windows explorer.

Yeah I know, except they all; have that information set up, I did them individually all of them.
Some say No Name No Artist though :iono:

oh i've had that happen somewhere else before. i had to find the mp3 in itunes, right click it and convert ID3 tags to v2.2. that usually did the trick but i'm not sure how to do that outside of itunes.

After CAREFULLY reading about the head unit in the manual I found the following information:

Tracks on USB drives are played in the order that they were placed on (copied to) the drive.

It seems this is true regardless of whatever other folders, structures or tags you have built. My guess is that the program you found loads the tracks in the order that you have built, so it solves the problem. If you try to add a new song or album, this goes to the end of the line since it was the last to be added. Re-doing the entire drive with the program again probably re-installs each song in the order you intended, fixing the problem.

Modern computers are extraordinarily efficient devices. Normally they copy files (tracks) to a USB drive in the most efficient manner that they were programmed for. This may or may not have anything to do with the alphabetical or track order that you have so carefully set up. Sorting may allow Windows to copy them in the intended order. You're lucky you found this program. I use a Mac computer to load radio shows (downloaded from my subscription) to a USB drive. The only method I have found that works is to load each track individually in the order I want the STUPID stereo to play them in. It's really a pain in the neck. Thankfully I never have more than about 30 tracks at a time.

For anyone interested (and it seems there's quite a bit of interest here), I'll explain. On most flash drives, the files are stored in a format called FAT32. FAT32 has 2 portions - the data from the files itself, and an index table saying where the files are in the other section. When you write to the drive the first time, it creates the index for the files in order, since Windows will be copying them in order. When you add more files, it just appends them to the end of the index, instead of inserting them into the proper spots alphabetically. The program mentioned just sorts out the index so they're in the right order.

It's not a problem when working on computers because newer computers use a different format for the hard drives. Flash drives are still FAT32, but nearly any computer automatically sorts it before showing the files to you. They probably don't do this automatically on most head units because of the limited processing power - it takes a relatively large amount of processing power to sort things quickly. Head units are already slow enough reading from USB that they aren't going to add processing power (and increase cost) or sort it anyway (and add load time).