.mp3 and some forms of .wma are all that work on a USB stick. Here is a good post on how to create playlists for your music. Playlist will make your life easier with alot of music on a thumb drive.



https://www.hellcat.org/threads/how-to-create-playlists-for-uconnect.17868/

 

I wont be the most help as I don't stay up to speed on all the latest greatest software options either but a few things I can offer.

It doesn't matter too much on the folders / naming as the Uconnect will use the Meta data to allow you to browse by Artist, Album, Genre etc..

Or as stated above, you can also create playlists if one of those preset sorting methods doesn't work.

I still typically store them on the drive in folders by Artist first and then a folder for each album under that top artist. This is more for me than the Uconnect system though, just makes it easy to keep track as I modify or add items from the PC.

As far as meta data creation, most of your conversion programs will auto tag them correctly (and add cover images)...

I use ITunes since I have a lot of digital data from the Apple world as well. But I am sure there are better options if you are just converting a large CD collection.

I do recommend a light weight tag editor software called "AudioShell". Its not something you would use for mass tagging but it adds the ability to right click on any audio file and do a quick, simple edit of the Meta data / ID3 tag if needed.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the info so far.

All in all I am not sure if I am right on this, but while the playlists might help I think mostly what they do is point to the location of a song but not much else. Which where too that has to be relative to the USB stick.

So in other words unless you want to change it all by hand after, I think what you would have to do is first put all your songs on to the USB and in what ever configuration you decide, then say create a second playlists (if you already had one for these for their location you your PC) in say iTunes or Windows media player where that playlist is reading the songs from the USB as if you did that from where ever they are now on your PC, the list is going to point their location on your PC and not to the USB stick.

Then too I am not sure you still might have to change all that as if its not created completely say just for the path of the USB, then you may have to change each path in the .m3u file so that it does point to it correctly.

This also too then really locks that into just that file path, so for example if for what ever reason you want to change the file structure or rename the folders on the USB (for say even renaming a upper folder), then you will have to redo all the songs in the playlist file so it points to the songs location correctly again.

So again perhaps I'm wrong about that not being a great way to do things, but even if it was that does not really mean anything to the native metadata that would be embedded in the file as much like Daniel454 pointed out, that is the info that is going to show up on the display screen.

 

Generally speaking you are correct, assuming you want to manually edit your playlists. If you read down through that thread linked before you will find some recommendations for software to handle them for you.

The OP in that thread used iTunes and then edited the file and if you went that way then yes, any changes to the directory or sub folders would require a manual change.

Although as that OP pointed out, that might be as easy as a Find / Replace function, especially if it was something like a top folder name.

But again, some of the other software mentioned seemed to make these changes easier(?), albeit you would still have to point that software to the new locations.

The more I think about it, the more I would just find the manual edit with a text editor easier but others may disagree.

Anyway, many options. Personally I just use the pre-set criteria in the Uconnect. Although I would sometimes prefer more of a mix, not enough that it has been worth the effort.

 

Personally I just use the pre-set criteria in the Uconnect.

I guess for one part of things that pre-set criteria is what I was wondering about as if I knew that it could help.

Currently without the vehicle I can't test things so all I can do is read some manuals I have found and while I found one on the 8.4 uConnect, it alone did not describe much.

Perhaps this info is someplace but I have just missed it or not found it yet.

Anyway, one thing I have read and from several place is that upon putting in a USB stick for the first time, it can take a long time before all the songs and their full info can be seen. But then once it has read all that, things are much quicker.

So perhaps I am wrong on this, but from that I might conclude that the uConnect system is somewhere making its own playlist and storing that in the system or on the USB sticks possibly.

But if that were so, then I might suspect it might be doing that at least in part possibly from reading the metadata that is embedded in each one of the songs files.

So it could be possible if the files does not have what it needs, it could have issues doing that...and or issues arranging things correctly like the tracks being played in the right order.

Guess a couple of my points are, while it might as well be able to read a .m3u file if its there, there's a good chance all the work of one is really not needed as it will just make its own.

Then two, if so it could be quite relative to be sure you have the right metadata that might be what the system is looking for to best make its own list.

An interesting point I think there is for a lot of players you can have on your PC is that they often can fill in a lot of data and write it to a song all per what they are looking for as they will go onto the internet to places that info is greatly listed, and they take what the programs wants and or perhaps just what "it" needs to fill in the blanks.

But I would suspect the uConnect system would not do this kind of a thing for a number of reasons, so basically I might think you have the correct metadata embedding in the media "and" in the structure it wants to read, or in the least it will just be a thing that is missing from the display, or in the worse it might even be unable to be found and or mixed up into some unknown group.

 

In my experience .MP3 is the most flexible format. It will have the most options and tools to work with for free or very low cost, work with the most devices and be the most compatible. I'm don't have many apple products, nor use iTunes, if you do, that might make a big difference for formats.

I'm not an audiophile, for most people .MP3 has plenty of options for encoding and bit rate to have high quality sounding files with the very little loss. But, the farther you deviate from the standard/typical encoding options the more incompatibility you encounter.

I have used cheap or free software to normalize volume among all my .MP3 files, as collect files from different sources, they'll play at different volumes, one you need to turn up, just for the next to come along and blast you since its volume is much higher.

I have used cheap or free software to edit tags of .MP3 files. The screen of head units often displays the tag info from the file and you can search for songs by the tag info. Some of that data can be missing or wrong when you make the file, or purchase the file. Some head units will display album covers, I edit the file to include images of album covers I download off the internet.

The data transfer rate you need to stream music is not that demanding, you don't need to purchase an expensive high speed usb drive that is used for high speed photography. But some cheap no name, or left over USB stick from the 90's might not be up to par. Just look for a stick that advertises its good for streaming music.

Oh, and one last, I couldn't find the USB stick I wanted in the stores, I had to order what I wanted online. For a car, that likely the drive will remain inserted in the port indefinitely. I got a "button" drive, one that barely extends out of the port, just enough of a smooth head to grip to remove it. This kind of drive is just so much more practical in a car than a long USB Stick, that extends several inches from the drive to get hit and knocked around, disrupting the streaming or damaging the port or drive.

 

Yeah, was kinda thinking the .mp3 was going to be the base format as is usually the most universal case and for many of the reasons you mentioned.

Also I did plan on the button drive and also for the reasons you mentioned.

I guess in the end the smart thing to do would be to just wait until I get the car and try out a few ways until I am sure everything is getting done the best way it can.

All in all the last thing I would want to do is setup thousands of songs one way only to find out just one part of every one is just a little off, and so then have to redo them all.

One thing I might ask though is when you mentioned that you can search for certain criteria on the system, does that by any chance also work on these via the voice system?

I know one thing the sales person showed me on the test drive was the voice command of a few things that also included the XM system as he asked me what kind of music I like and so a little sarcastically I mentioned a band I like which is a bit obscure and so then he just called it out and at first I thought he was just kidding in his response too, but then later when I began hearing one of their songs and looked at the screen to see it listed I gathered I was wrong as that was all it took to get a XM dedicated station for them.

But does that system also work with the media you have on a USB stick as that would very nice.

 

Yes it takes a bit for the Uconnect to read and compile the data and yes it is using the Meta Data / ID3 tags.

My collection on USB isnt large compared to most but it was still able to gather all the info it needed for 12GB of music in less than 1 minute. In my wifes 2015, its slower but still takes less than 3 minutes.

ID3 tags are fairly standard, or at least the main fields the Uconnect uses are. While I don't have any particular recommendations since I switched to ITunes a few years back, even songs I ripped with various free software 10+ years ago do show and identify correctly for the UConnect so any new software that advertises the inclusion of this information should work just fine.

If the MP3 file does not have the needed metadata, it shows up either under a subheading of unknown or you can access it directly by one sort option "by folder" which allows direct access in whatever directory structure you use for the USB.

Again though, you don't have to use a certain directory format but the before mentioned Artist >> Album format I use to help me navigate it directly could in theory be used as a back up plan to access certain albums by navigating through the "by folder" option on the uconnect instead.

 

Again, thanks to all for all their help and hope I'm not coming off as being a pain.

I guess in the end I could just try setting up a couple of albums in what ever folder groups I want and see what happens.

The other reason I was thinking about this too was sometimes I like to make compilations for bands or even song types where they could be for reasons such as, I don't like every song on the album, or I like to take several songs from several albums and like to make my own greatest hits album and in the song order I like so to speak.

Or perhaps I might put together a bunch of songs from various artists of say a bunch of Christmas songs I like where I just will listen to that around that time of they year.

Also sometimes I might just like one odd song from say a movie sound track or something like that.

All in all these kind of things can be often tough to setup right for various system unless you know just what metadata a system is looking for to be sure to group the things together as you want them to be.

It could very well be that for these cases, just a premade playlist alone is just the ticket as then it would have a title, but then for each song just be pointed to the location of those via all the various folders there are....that way you would not have to setup a separate one with essentially duplicates of the same songs but then with different dedicated metadata all taking up space on the drive.

 

Yeah it really sounds like the playlist option is probably the best for that type of configuration and customization....

However, a couple other options if you prefer:

That AudioShell software I mentioned earlier DOES have the ability to do a mass tag change... Its not something you would want to do for setting a bunch of different data for different files en masse BUT, if you wanted to put a bunch of songs in their own folder to create a custom "album" or "artist" of your own you could do that.

For example, lets say you had 20 random songs that didnt really warrant having their own album or were various albums or artists (or singles). You could move all 20 to a folder called "2018 Rock"...

Option 1 would be you could access it as a group by browsing "by folder" as mentioned before.

OR Option 2, you could use that Audio Shell software, highlight all 20 in that folder, right click and all at the same time, you could change the "album" to "2018 Rock". Now, in the Uconnect you could browse by "album" and find "2018 Rock" as an option and hit play.

 

That does sound interesting.

Almost sounds like what is does is as you use it to put a file into a folder it will create, it then somehow re-writes the metadata to reflect that folder?


Edit: actually scratch that as I re-read your post.

Basically you are using it to edit the album name alone, and then placing the songs in a folder with that name.

All in all the folders name is not so much the key I might think, its just there more for you ability to organize as its the metatags info for the album name that matters.

 

That does sound interesting.

Almost sounds like what is does is as you use it to put a file into a folder it will create, it then somehow re-writes the metadata to reflect that folder?

Not quite that automatic, but close. If you wanted the custom album title to match you would have a 3 step process.

#1. Create and add songs to the folder.

#2. Highlight all songs in the folder. Right Click and open AudioShell (Multi Files Tag Editor)

#3. Change the Album to (type in) "2018 Rock". Click Save.

So no, its not automatic, but that software allows you to change any field (or multiple fields) all at the same time to a single text string so if you wanted to essentially fool the UConnect and make it think all of these songs from multiple different albums were all from the same one... This works.

In theory they wouldn't even have to be in the same folder, and you could edit each file independently and get the same result, just offering an alternative option.

I use this method for singles. For example, I have 8 or so singles from "Imagine Dragons". While I still have full albums as well, rather than letting the UConnect see 8 different "Singles" albums. I put all of the singles into one folder and then use the multi tag editor to change the album name for all of them to the same thing.

I don't change the album art so they each still load the art from the original single but if I just want to listen to those 8 singles, I can do so via the browse by "album" option in the Uconnect.

 

Thanks greatly

Yeah, I kinda re-read your other post and added more to my reply that said essentially said what you said.

Again, once I get the car it will probably tell me a lot as I might suspect the hierarchy of the search conditions will be key.

Once I know that I will know what metadata is then key and also could help me get to the thing I want the fastest.


-Daniel454, I don't know if you saw this in one of my other posts, but I asked if the search system an for the music on the usb's is something that works via the voice command system.

All in all I very much hate having to do anything that distracts my driving and flipping through 20 stages of something via buttons or the screen on this system every time I want a tune is not something I would prefer. Scrolling through a album to get the one I want or fast forwarding or replaying a song is one thing, but the attention required to choose correctly from multiple cascading menus is another.

So have you ever been able to say call out "Play - 2018 Rock", and it just starts playing?

 

Unfortunately I can not answer that and wont be near my Jeep for a few days to try it. I believe it is supposed to work but no, I can't say for sure.

 

No problem and no need to go through that much trouble.

For how it works if it does I'm sure it might take some effort to figure out and you certainly have helped me enough.

Just thought I would ask in case you all ready knew.

For however its going to work on mine it is what it is, so if it does, great...if doesn't there isn't much I will be able to do about it.


Thanks again for all the help.

 

I don't have any experience with the latest UConnect's, mine is is more with aftermarket and earlier OEM Headunits, 2011. I suspects it still the same.

You can create any folder structure and organization you like. I think the only problem you'd run into is if you nest folder to too many depths, i.e. 3 folders deep or more.

Personally, my USB drive has folder for each artist, with all the songs for that artist in it.

At the head unit you'll have the option to browse through the native folder structure, or using the .MP3 tags, or Metadata as mentioned before. Usually the default is the Metadata, and then you have your choices of how to list the files. By Artist, by Song Title, By Album, by Genre, etc, etc... Of course many .MP3 files may be missing the Metadata or Tags, that is why I spent time editing all of them to have consistent info using MP3Tag, so on the Headunit you can consistent search or browse all the MP3 files.

And I think you hit the nail on the head, what you need to do is get a USB drive, copy a couple of songs to it, then just experiment and learn. After you've got the basics down you can load up your drive with all your songs.

Remember, you can get cheap or free tools to edit MP3 tags, i.e. Metadata, and another useful one is to adjust default volume of songs, so the whole collection is a consistent volume.

 

Re: Tips for config of music for USB?

I like a freeware program for Windows called MP3Tag. It's extremely powerful and makes getting a large number of files in order very quick.

Cheers, Steve

 

Re: Tips for config of music for USB?

I like a freeware program for Windows called MP3Tag. It's extremely powerful and makes getting a large number of files in order very quick.

Cheers, Steve

Yep, MP3Tag is what I use, to edit the metadata of the MP3 files, a.k.a. the Tags. MP3Gain is what I use to adjust volume on all the songs.

And I get a lot of songs free using those websites that build you mp3 file from a Youtube link. I suppose that might not be 100% legal, but I've never got in trouble. I've got nasty letters from my ISP for my kids downloading the latest albums using file sharing software, avoid that. Although,, decades old classic rock albums, they don't monitor those and you likely won't get into trouble downloading those.... ...but you didn't hear it from me....

 

I just wanted to add a comment that is a bit off road to the current discussion, but the unit will also read/play FLAC files (or at least the one in my '18 does - I never tried them when we had our '14).

 

Never used FLAC, my impression is that it's a high fidelity format for audiophiles.

Like anything look up the formats and limitations of the system before spending money, so you don't throw it away.

Do a few songs, and experiment with your stereo first. It would suck to spend a whole afternoon putting together a collection on a USB drive, only to find out it doesn't work and you have to start over.

I often find something doesn't work, go back and check the specs/limitations and see I had something off, like pixel dimensions, etc.... Once I get that all down, I start putting the whole collection together...

Album covers in the MP3 Tag or Metadata always get me, they have to be certain range of pixel resolution and perfectly square or they won't display.

I think the OEM Head Units won't display Album covers, unless it's a commercially produced file. The aftermarket head units do. That might have changed with later OEM Head Units.

They did some things as concessions to RIAA and the recording industry. Like the Hard Drive OEM head units you could upload songs but couldn't download them. Instead of dealing with complex digital right schemes, that would probably frustrate customers, they instead made the system impossible to download and thus share, songs loaded on it. Which frustrated customers but not as much as half you songs no playing because they didn't have the proper digital rights credentials. Now with the USB media, they probably can just avoid those complications altogether.

I think the album covers was part of that, I hope its better with the later OEM Head units. My 2011 OEM head unit wouldn't display album covers from any of my songs, loaded on the hard drive, except one or two that were commercially produced files I got from commercial sources. The files I ripped myself and loaded album covers myself with MP3 tag didn't ever display. It might have something to do with built in support for GraceNote also.

 

I use a Windows freeware program named Playlist Creator which, guess what, creates playlists. I then organize my music much like most others - artist folders which contain album folders. I add a Compilations folder for albums containing various artists (Christmas music and the like), a Soundtracks folder for movie soundtrack albums, and a Playlists folder to store all my playlists. If you do that, you might want to put your artists folders under an "Artists" folder to simplify browsing them.

Then you can create playlists for albums where you want to skip certain songs and for your own combinations of various artists (what we used to call Mix Tapes) or even your own "Greatest Hits" playlist combining songs from an artist's different albums.

Playlist Creator allows you easily add tracks (and even other playlists) from anywhere on your flash drive and can put them in a specific order or shuffle them for you if you want more random ordering.

MP3Tag and AudioShell are both excellent programs for tagging files. Other options are Media Monkey and The Grandfather (which can automatically rename the files to match their tags).

 

Loving this thread! indeed

 

Gotta say, I agree with everything stated from Todd3.6 above.

I would like to add that you will likely want your USB drive the be 32GB or less. I have't tried a larger size in my '18 JGC, but in my '15 and earlier, USBs over 32GB could not be read.

Here's a link to those low-profile button drives that are excellent to use, however, they do get a little hot with use FYI.

https://smile.amazon.com/SanDisk-25...V323/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=SanDisk+Ultra+Fit&qid=1550844241&s=gateway&sr=8-1&th=1

Do not copy MP3 files directly to the root of the drive as they cannot be read - have a folder on the root that contains your MP3s. In Windows, for example: E:\Music\my-song.mp3, not E:\my-song.mp3

 

I would like to add that you will likely want your USB drive the be 32GB or less. I have't tried a larger size in my '18 JGC, but in my '15 and earlier, USBs over 32GB could not be read.

You can use larger than 32GB, am using 64GB in our 2015 and have tested all the way up to 256GB in the 2018.... Currently using 64GB daily in it as well.

The key (at least for older models) is to format the USB as "Fat32". Windows won't allow you to format as Fat32 for the larger drives by default but there are plenty of freeware programs that will.

I use "Fat32formatter". Once formatted, Windows will still work with it without issue and the UConnect will see it.

 

Since using the first ever sync system back in 2008, i've always dragged all my files over from itunes. I was told that putting them in folders was not suggested, just dragged them over all in one. With that said, i have a 2014 Dodge Journey that have never been able to organize or read any of my music files. Since then, i've always stayed away from vehicles with Uconnect. I recently test drove a 2018 Dodge Journey and it seems they never changed their version of Uconnect :wtf: no apps, no android auto, nothing. Realized a few days ago that Dodge Journey's were in a world of their own. Surprised to see Jeeps having a updated and much better Uconnect with apps finally. Does anybody have bad experience with file tags and does this Uconnect version do a better job of organizing files?
btw, i've always used 64gb flash drives with my ford sync, no problem, plus, the 2008 would read it much faster than my 2014 Journey. Go figure

 

What OS would you be creating the files on?
If Windoze, Audacity from sourceforge gives you pretty much any format to any format, although you need the mp3 plugin [licensing issues] and allows editing pretty much anything you want, more flexible than WMP, etc. [more ways to mess up available ]
https://www.audacityteam.org/


Dunno what the largest USB is that UConnect allows, or if the old info from 4 years ago is still current. Probably worth trying.... but modest sized USBs are dirt cheap and load up faster anyhoo.

If you have protected music, there are programs that allow you to tap your audio interface digitally and create unprotected outputs--some at far faster than playback speed.

 

I would like to point out another fact that I've learned...


I have a 2012 with the 430N (RHB).
You can't used USB3 flash drives.
The radio just simply will not acknowledge the flash drive.

You have to use USB2 drives.

 

Have you tried formatting the USB3s as Fat32? It’s been a while but fairly certain I used USB3 sticks in our 2012 SRT when we had it.

 

Agreed. I would think the file system would be the problem rather than the USB level - USB specs call for USB3 devices to be completely backward compatible with the USB2 standard. A USB3 device plugged into a USB2 port will only achieve USB2 speeds but should work fine at that speed (in Windows you might get a warning that the device would perform better using a higher speed port).

 

I had searched high and low to figure out how to load music on a USB drive or SD card that would show up as a menu in my 2017 Grand Cherokee Uconnect audio system and would display artist, song title, etc. I had seen suggestions to use iTunes to rip the CDs, but no one explained the rest of the steps. Finally tonight I figured it out. Here's how I did it:

• Rip the CDs in iTunes. I use a Mac, but it may work in the PC version as well.
• iTunes stores the files in AAC format in the iTunes Library.
• iTunes automatically loads the metadata for CDs that are in the GraceNote database, so no typing is required to enter the metadata!
• iTunes automatically organizes files into folders by Artist and Album.
• Copy the folders you want in your Jeep from the iTunes Library to a USB drive or SD card. I used a 4gb USB drive formatted with FAT32. Five albums fit easily.
• Voila! The Jeep reads the folders and files and I can click on "Browse" in the Media player to pick the album, artist, or song I want to hear.

Hope this helps others figure it out.

 

For ripping music from my CD's into MP3 files i use a freeware program called:
FreeRIP MP3 converter.
Extremely easy and straight forward to use.

For editing MP3 metadata i use another freeware program called:
MP3tag.
Also extremely easy to use and can even copy 'n past album cover art into metadata.

Do a google search for each and download the programs if interested.