USB port in Mini SE for music?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tinpanalley
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 55
  • Views Views 8K
However, I did notice something that was a bit annoying... is there no pause button for the music when listening on a USB device? I couldn't find anything, bit weird.

To pause, just press the power button (where the volume control is). It doesn't actually power the screen off, it just pauses the music.

I love using the USB for music. I was annoyed at first because I have a lot of CDs and most are not digitized, and it's taken a lot of time to add music gradually, but now I have a lot of stuff on there and can just choose whatever I feel like listening to.
 
To pause, just press the power button (where the volume control is). It doesn't actually power the screen off, it just pauses the music.
Actually, I tried that. It doesn't. Al that does is mute the music. It doesn't pause it. Try it, you'll see.
And it appears there's nothing else that can pause a track in progress.
 
I
Actually, I tried that. It doesn't. Al that does is mute the music. It doesn't pause it. Try it, you'll see.
And it appears there's nothing else that can pause a track in progress.

Ok i had to try it.. it pauses the music for me. The volume bars come up and indicate muted volume, but the time counter also pauses and stops incrementing. Pressing the button again resumes the song where it paused.
 
I
Ok i had to try it.. it pauses the music for me. The volume bars come up and indicate muted volume, but the time counter also pauses and stops incrementing. Pressing the button again resumes the song where it paused.
I'll try again, I could have sworn the music kept on playing just muted. Will try it again.
 
I also discovered you can skip around in the track playback by tapping in the progress bar. Scrubbing (dragging) doesn't work, though.
 
Actually, I tried that. It doesn't. Al that does is mute the music. It doesn't pause it. Try it, you'll see.
And it appears there's nothing else that can pause a track in progress.
It pauses in mine (USB and Bluetooth), but you lose about 1 second in the process.
 
I found that scrubbing does work, you just have to move really slowly, tapping is more efficient.
I also found that the up and down (left and right) radio station browser buttons work as forward and rewind when holding down. About the speed CD seek buttons work.
I'll try the pause again soon.
 
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.)
I just saw this over in the British forums (where I see you have asked the same question), but haven’t tried it (I think my Android is too ancient).

https://github.com/BimmerGestalt/AAIdrive

If you decide to try this, please let us know how it works!
 
I just saw this over in the British forums (where I see you have asked the same question), but haven’t tried it (I think my Android is too ancient).

https://github.com/BimmerGestalt/AAIdrive

If you decide to try this, please let us know how it works!
I'm loving AAIdrive!
I use Podcast Addict, Podcast Player, and Musicolet on my Pixel 3a phone, using only the 2023 SE iDrive, dash and steering wheel controls.
They all have album art if it's available on the phone.
 
I just saw this over in the British forums (where I see you have asked the same question), but haven’t tried it (I think my Android is too ancient).

https://github.com/BimmerGestalt/AAIdrive

If you decide to try this, please let us know how it works!
I will definitely try this! Just unpacking from a large move but I'll get around to it and report back. I had seen a method online that involved ripping out your entertainment center and rewiring things and I just didn't want any part of it. But this seems simple enough.
 
@tinpanalley I may have sounded snippy in my very first replies in this thread; I truly didn’t mean it that way, but I’m sorry. I really hope you get this worked out!
 
Speaking of USB port for music, my USB (Sandisk Cruzer) stick randomly didn't work a few days ago. Very strange..so I ended up copying the files to a different USB stick and it worked. I tried the "bad" USB stick on a different car stereo and it seems ok.

Not sure what happen there..
 
I’m trying to use a USB with my ‘23 SE, Harmon Kardon stereo. Playing straight from the usb stick. No hard drive. MP3 and WAV files work. M4a (Apple lossless) not recognized as music files. FLAC recognized and appears to play (song duration counts down) but weirdly, no sound. I’m using a program called Switch to encode the FLAC, MP3 and WAV files from M4a files.

It’s not a huge deal but kinda strange—the stereo sounds good enough that FLAC might be the sweet spot…. Any thoughts, anybody?
 
I’m trying to use a USB with my ‘23 SE, Harmon Kardon stereo. Playing straight from the usb stick. No hard drive. MP3 and WAV files work. M4a (Apple lossless) not recognized as music files. FLAC recognized and appears to play (song duration counts down) but weirdly, no sound. I’m using a program called Switch to encode the FLAC, MP3 and WAV files from M4a files.

It’s not a huge deal but kinda strange—the stereo sounds good enough that FLAC might be the sweet spot…. Any thoughts, anybody?
I find AAC/m4a files work just fine. I thought Apple lossless would work, since it's also an m4a file, but those didn't show up at all. But honestly, I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference between AAC and ALAC or FLAC. My music sounds really good on the Harman Kardon, even better than playing CDs in my VW with Fender system. And I still have a ton of room left to put much more music on my 128GB usb stick. I just have to find the time to do it....
 
Thanks for the comments. It turns out that FLAC does work, but the encoder matters. Amvidia has one called ToFLAC that does batch conversions on a Mac easily, and, even better, the FLACs play on the MINI (and it's free). The first converter I tried, Switch, has apparently caused the same problems for Sonos users that I was having in the MINI. They have not made friends on that user list, and I got this from their help people:

" ...you may want to contact your external player's manufacturer to ask for specific specs/settings that their player accepts, then let us know about these specs and we will do our best to help you further so that you can play the files on your specific player. " Uh huh. Picture having that conversation with the folks at MINI...
 
Back
Top