Music via USB stick - which slot should be used?

[Stefan159]

Hi everyone,
Which USB slot in the car would be suitable for a music stick?
The one above, behind the mirror, doesn't seem to be the one. Otherwise, there are only USB-C slots.
Would a USB-C/USB-A combi stick be needed? And if so, where would it go? Neither music nor a stick is recognized via the USB slot behind the mirror.
It's a great car, but some things are a bit complicated. ;-)
Thanks and best regards, Stefan

 

[5teep]

The mirror usb slot is power only. Not sure which of the USB-C slots works for music, have you tried them yet? You can get a USB A to C adaptor but you're probably as cheap buying a new USB C stick.

 

[Slumppy]

Use a USB-A to USB-C adaptor and use one of the USB-C ports in the box between the front seats. Works fine for me.

 

[Stefan159]

Thank you both so much. Great. I actually had an adapter lying around. It works with both slots in the console. Now I'll probably have to work a bit on the folder structure. But that's a different topic. Thanks so much again.

 

[TheBlakey]

Thank you both so much. Great. I actually had an adapter lying around. It works with both slots in the console. Now I'll probably have to work a bit on the folder structure. But that's a different topic. Thanks so much again.

Hi Stefan, I have the same issue regarding 'folder structure' - and Voice Commands, for that matter. I have tried music from USB where the folders are named as the artist, sub-folders for each album and each track numbered therein. I have the same data in the same format on my iPhone SE and my Android phone. Regardless of which is connected, or whether cabled or wireless in the case of Apple Play or Android Auto, I cannot get to view a list of Artists, Albums, or Tracks and cannot get voice-control to search for or play the artist/album I want - yet I had this perfectly on a 2020 eNiro. From all the threads I have poured over, the MG software in the Infotainment system seems VERY basic - and not all there. Anyone agree?

 

[Ruislip Resident]

Hi Stefan, I have the same issue regarding 'folder structure' - and Voice Commands, for that matter. I have tried music from USB where the folders are named as the artist, sub-folders for each album and each track numbered therein. I have the same data in the same format on my iPhone SE and my Android phone. Regardless of which is connected, or whether cabled or wireless in the case of Apple Play or Android Auto, I cannot get to view a list of Artists, Albums, or Tracks and cannot get voice-control to search for or play the artist/album I want - yet I had this perfectly on a 2020 eNiro. From all the threads I have poured over, the MG software in the Infotainment system seems VERY basic - and not all there. Anyone agree?

Look back though the ZS EV threads. Cant remember which thread but somebody worked it out, although the solution did involve some complicated one offs.

 

[Stefan159]

hi TheBlakey,
I can't confirm that at the moment. Everything is displayed correctly as far as the folder structure and the individual songs are concerned. But I know the problem. In my experience, it could also be due to the USB stick used. Or the formatting of the stick, and so on. The crucial factor for me was the ID tags of the songs. That's a lot of fiddling around, of course, but if the information is stored properly in the MP3 file, the system can read it well and process it accordingly. I think that's the case for almost everyone who wants to listen to music with a USB stick. I like it a lot because it's my own playlist and the quality is much better than a stream from, for example, Amazon Music. The important thing is that it basically works.

 

[Gonzales Bojangles]

Has anyone found a solution to this? I've got a USB stick that works in our Toyota CHR fine, but in the MG it's hopeless. I can't see any way to order the files so I can choose an artist or album. Every car I've had for the last 15yrs or so worked fine. Is there some step I'm missing?

 

[Ian Key]

On the left-hand side of the screen tap the back arrow where it says Display by folder:All
It should then list all the albums by folder. Tap the album you want

 

[Gonzales Bojangles]

On the left-hand side of the screen tap the back arrow where it says Display by folder:All
It should then list all the albums by folder. Tap the album you want

Cool! I'll try that when I get home

 

[murrayjfelton]

I have been "dealing" with the usb music issue for the past 3 weeks, ever since picking up our brand new S5.

First up, all my music on the usb stick I was using on my 2014 Renault Koleos was in wma format which the S5 failed to recognise. That meant converting about 300 albums to mp3 using an app on my phone.

The folder structure I use is simple. Each album is a sub-folder. The folder is named by artist and album, eg. Queen Night at the Opera.

The music files are named by track number and track name, eg. 01 Death on Two Legs

To make searching by folder easier I also use primary folders to group the sub folders, eg. A to E, F to H etc.

Conversion to mp3 done I then discovered there seems to be a limitation on the number of mp3 files that the S5 can properly index. This limit is around 2600 individual mp3 files, but seems to vary somewhat with the actual folder structure. It seems that the deeper the folder structure the fewer mp3s the system can index.

If you exceed the indexing limit the system still successfully scans all the files but when it is finished it displays a message saying no media files found, and you cannot navigate through your music but it will play music.

If you stay under the limit, when the scanning is finished you see your music listed according to the folder structure and you can navigate through it and select what you want to listen to. To go up a level in the folder structure you need to scroll to the top of the currently displayed list of tracks to find the back option.

Interestingly, the system displays folder names, but for the tracks it displays the track name from the meta data (not the file name).

Annoyingly, tracks are presented and played in alphabetical order by track name not in track number order. I have encountered this problem before in my 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The only way around this problem would be to include the track number in the track name in the meta data but I'm not doing that for 2600 tracks.

The music that doesn't fit on the usb stick I put on my mobile so I can play it via Bluetooth if I want. I could put it on a second usb too.

Also annoying is that every time I start the car it rescans the usb stick which takes about 2 minutes, but surprisingly it picks up playing where it left off. Go figure.