USB flash drive playback issues

E

ExNASATerry

New Member
Hi,
I got a 32GB USB flash drive for all my music. I put on a bunch of MP3s, encoded at 128kbps, fixed bit rate, but the songs keep stuttering during playback. I had the same problem with a stereo in my Jeep, and found out they supported only up to 4 or 8GB USB sticks.

Has anyone else encountered this? I see nothing in the downloaded manual about MP3 format preferences or USB size limits.
 
ExNASATerry said:
Hi,
I got a 32GB USB flash drive for all my music. I put on a bunch of MP3s, encoded at 128kbps, fixed bit rate, but the songs keep stuttering during playback. I had the same problem with a stereo in my Jeep, and found out they supported only up to 4 or 8GB USB sticks.

Has anyone else encountered this? I see nothing in the downloaded manual about MP3 format preferences or USB size limits.
Click to expand...
I am using 16GB USB drives with no problem. If I leave the drive plugged in when I turn the car off, I may have to unplug it and plug it back in for the car to admit there is a drive there. I have some songs with 128kbps, and some I bought from Amazon that use variable bit rates.
 
I'm using a 16G USB with no problems also. I use a patriot USB3 formatted FAT32. Most of my MP3 are 256kbps and some are 320kbps.
 
Using a 16gb SanDisk, formatted FAT32. Works perfectly, and I don't even have to do the unplug thing that Danks mentioned. It picks right up where I was last listening when I turned off the vehicle.

Tried a 64gb SanDisk formatted NTFS, car refuses to recognize the drive. I'd be willing to bet the issue is the formatting, and possibly the size of the USB drive.
 
Last edited:
I have an itty bitty 128GB "thumbnail" drive that I leave plugged into the passenger side USB port. It works great and is small enough to close the cover on the port with the drive in it.

When I first set this up, I was getting lots of "File Not Playable" messages. I did some research on the 'Net and found out some of the quirks of Honda's audio system. One of the things that apparently doesn't play nice with the system is a variable bit rate file. Another is a non-audio file. I use a Mac and after looking at the drive's contents via a Windows virtual machine running on my Mac, I discovered that there were twice as many files on the drive as there were songs. These were hidden files that didn't show up until I set the File Explorer to show hidden files. Each song had another file with the same song name but was only a few KB in size.

Once I got rid of all those files, some other non-audio files that snuck in there and all the VBR files, I've not had any problems since. The only quirk is that after starting the car, it takes about 30 seconds before the playing starts (and it picks up exactly where it left off).
 
I, too, have a 128GB drive plugged in and leave it there: SanDisk 128GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive - SDCZ430-128G-G46. This is from page 292 of the manual:

Clarity Manual 292.webp
So far I've found that WMA works better and more reliably than MP3 - and since I store all my music and audiobooks in FLAC format, it's easy to transcode them. The FAT32 thing is a bugaboo, though, but there are freeware apps available that will convert larger flash drives to that format.
 
I have a 64GB thumb drive formatted to FAT32 with one of those freeware apps. It works flawlessly. The only thing I miss is being able to do playlists, which I could on my previous Mazda.
 
coutinpe said:
I have a 64GB thumb drive formatted to FAT32 with one of those freeware apps. It works flawlessly. The only thing I miss is being able to do playlists, which I could on my previous Mazda.
Click to expand...
I do "playlists" or albums by organizing by folders. So I have a Music folder with a bunch of sub folders. I have an "Irish" subfolder for my playlist of Irish music. Within that folder I have more subfolders for each artist and/or album. At the same level as the "Irish" subfolder I have another called "Night Music" which is essentially another playlist. With this setup I can use Music Search, find the folder I want, then select Random in folder. Random playlist, artist, or album.
 
Yep.. using 128GB flashdrive for all my music encoded in m4a 320 rate.

When playing music via USB or direct-connect Android Auto, the sound quality is SO MUCH better than Bluetooth since you don't go through the whole transcribing process of BT.

I can't believe I was relying on BT for Music prior getting the Clarity.
 
The only thing I find annoying on the USB playback mode is that for some reason beyond my understanding the programmers at Honda forgot to include or got rid of the play/pause button present in every other mode. If for any reason I need to interrupt the music I have to turn the audio off. On the other hand, the Bluetooth mode seems to not allow the display of artwork, which is also annoying. In other car forums people talk about iOS 13 making that work but I don't see it happening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top