USB port in Mini SE for music?

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tinpanalley

tinpanalley

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Although it's meant to be able to read from a music player, the USB port in our Mini SE just brings up an error that it can't read from the device when we connect it. It's a phone, and we ensure it goes to file transfer on usb connections.
I've tried all kinds of file types, several USB cables, it just refuses.
Anyone know how to get this to work?

(And no, we DON'T want to use bluetooth. Bluetooth doesnt give album art on the music on our players.)
 
tinpanalley said:
Although it's meant to be able to read from a music player, the USB port in our Mini SE just brings up an error that it can't read from the device when we connect it. It's a phone, and we ensure it goes to file transfer on usb connections.
I've tried all kinds of file types, several USB cables, it just refuses.
Anyone know how to get this to work?

(And no, we DON'T want to use bluetooth. Bluetooth doesnt give album art on the music on our players.)
Click to expand...

I just started to use my USB port with a flash drive. I know that works, so I'll try my phone with a cable tomorrow and report back. I have a Samsung S10e with an SD card with a ton of mp3's.
 
Are you trying with an Android phone? File transfer has been broken on Android for at least 5 years, so I'm not surprised if it isn't working.

That said, I use a thumb drive in mine. It's more steps to load music onto, but it works whether or not I have my phone on me.
 
tinpanalley said:
Although it's meant to be able to read from a music player, the USB port in our Mini SE just brings up an error that it can't read from the device when we connect it. It's a phone, and we ensure it goes to file transfer on usb connections.
I've tried all kinds of file types, several USB cables, it just refuses.
Anyone know how to get this to work?

(And no, we DON'T want to use bluetooth. Bluetooth doesnt give album art on the music on our players.)
Click to expand...
What file system are you using for the USB music? I think mine is FAT32 but I don't feel like checking.

Nevermind you're using a phone instead of a USB stick.
 
Yeah my Sony Android phone gets picky.. usually on Android (if that's what you have) you have to select USB data/read/write mode and then sometimes a notice pops up asking for permission to access the phone.. and then somehow the mini head unit goes right to the music folder and plays music.

But like others have said.. a cheapie thumb drive works too.. course you're probably trying to charge your phone at the same time.
 
tinpanalley said:
Although it's meant to be able to read from a music player, the USB port in our Mini SE just brings up an error that it can't read from the device when we connect it. It's a phone, and we ensure it goes to file transfer on usb connections.
I've tried all kinds of file types, several USB cables, it just refuses.
Anyone know how to get this to work?

(And no, we DON'T want to use bluetooth. Bluetooth doesnt give album art on the music on our players.)
Click to expand...

The MINI Navigation/Entertainment/Communication Manual doesn't mention an Android phone as a possible source:
upload_2022-9-4_22-57-8.webp
 
Matt007b said:
Yeah my Sony Android phone gets picky.. usually on Android (if that's what you have) you have to select USB data/read/write mode and then sometimes a notice pops up asking for permission to access the phone.. and then somehow the mini head unit goes right to the music folder and plays music.

But like others have said.. a cheapie thumb drive works too.. course you're probably trying to charge your phone at the same time.
Click to expand...
No this is just an older phone that we use as a media player. And yeah, it's Android.
 
tinpanalley said:
It doesn't have to. The phone becomes a media storage device.
Click to expand...
You forget, MINI hates Android (note lack of support for wireless Android Auto). I doubt your Android phone can make itself look like a thumb drive to your MINI.
 
Last edited:
insightman said:
You forget, MINI hates Android.
Click to expand...
This has literally nothing to do with operating systems. When drawing data from a USB device the systems don't do any kind of exchange of info of what device they are. One is reading digital data and the other is offering it. USB data transfer is universal. Doesn't matter whether you have a USB flash drive made by SanDisk, a microSD card in a USB reader made by Corsair, or a phone with flash memory that is saying it's a storage device like a thumb drive. There is nothing Mini could do to prevent an Android phone presenting as a storage device from being read. If there is a problem somewhere it's in the phone's ability to be read, likely.

Anyway, I hadn't thought about a flash drive, but I guess I had wanted a display so that I could run the player on the screen and then just use the car stereo as a UI to use the car's speakers.
 
tinpanalley said:
When drawing data from a USB device the systems don't do any kind of exchange of info of what device they are. One is reading digital data and the other is offering it. USB data transfer is universal.
Click to expand...
It depends on how Android behaves. Your phone may not be doing what you think it's doing. It could be a general Android issue, or maybe something like a setting on your phone. Or you could be right and the SE is just being cantankerous. I'd suggest seeing if your phone works as a USB thumb drive with something else. If it does, then the SE is likely the issue. If it doesn't work as a thumb drive elsewhere that indicates something on the phone end.

Oh also, since this is USB, it could be the cable as well. USB is a messy "standard".
 
tinpanalley said:
Although it's meant to be able to read from a music player, the USB port in our Mini SE just brings up an error that it can't read from the device when we connect it. It's a phone, and we ensure it goes to file transfer on usb connections.
I've tried all kinds of file types, several USB cables, it just refuses.
Anyone know how to get this to work?

(And no, we DON'T want to use bluetooth. Bluetooth doesnt give album art on the music on our players.)
Click to expand...

Ok i got my mp3's to play from my phone on the MINI when i plugged the phone into USB. I have a Samsumg S10e with Android 12. The mp3's are on a 256gb sd card in the phone. I initially used a usb adapter, to plug the sd card into my windows laptop. I think i formatted the card exFAT (did it awhile ago). Then i copied the files using windows. Then inserted the sd card into my phone.

Plugged the phone into the MINI's usb. On the car, selected play media from usb. The car displayed "Unable to play. Mobile device is preventing access". Went into phone and saw the message to allow access, which i did. Then i could search, but only browse folders. Albums, Titles, Playlists, Podcasts, and Audio Books were all grayed out. I could browse folders and play songs just like on my flash drive.

When i repeated the process, turning off the car and starting from scratch, i got the same "Unable to play. Mobile device is preventing access". As soon as i started to access settings on my phone, the folder list appeared on the MINI and i was able to ply songs.

It works, but is way more of a hassle than just using a flash drive, with the same functionality (on the MINI side). By the way, if you know of a good media player for mp3's on the Android side, let me know. I have yet to find one that i like.
 
Puppethead said:
That very much sounds like an Android issue limiting access. Since you have the music on an SD card I'd recommend using a USB SD card reader and skip having Android in the middle of everything.
Click to expand...
I agree. It's just a shame because I wanted to have a display of some sort with the artwork allowing me to select music without using the screen and also far better for navigating folders.
 
Hatch said:
By the way, if you know of a good media player for mp3's on the Android side, let me know. I have yet to find one that i like.
Click to expand...
It's hard to recommend a music player without knowing how you use and organise your music but for my uses there have has never been any player that in any way beats PowerAmp. Been using it for years. One of the few apps I've happily paid for the full version of.
 
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