How to transfer Music from iTunes to SD card for the car?

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Tom75

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Hi everybody,

I just got a 2014 A3 1,8 TFSI with MMi radio system and wanted to ask if there is a way to use music with the MMI that is stored on a SD card. I know it works for listening random songs etc on the card but I would like to have the music sorted by albums and artists as in iTunes on a mac.

Is there a way to transfer the music and maybe playlist from mac to the SD card that the MMi can read it and also keeps it organized by album etc to be able to browse by album and artist?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Regards,
Tom
 
You can obviously save all your different artists into folders . I have all different albums on my 2 sd cards , you just have to choose your album
 
Thanks a lot for your help, this sounds like a simple solution.
If I understand you correctly you are not at all using playlists that are generated by iTunes? So I just have to create a folder for each artist and then safe the albums in sub folders within the artist folder?

That would be great, I will try that.

Thanks again.

Regards,
tom
 
What works for me at the moment (I have an A1) is that each CD album (I don't have playlists) lives in its own folder e.g.

Folder title - Oasis - Definitely Maybe - Mp3 tracks + jpeg image of the album art
Folder title - Oasis - Whats the Story - Mp3 tracks + jpeg image of the album art

Only downside is that you could have a very long list of folders titles...
 
sftdi said:
What works for me at the moment (I have an A1) is that each CD album (I don't have playlists) lives in its own folder e.g.

Folder title - Oasis - Definitely Maybe - Mp3 tracks + jpeg image of the album art
Folder title - Oasis - Whats the Story - Mp3 tracks + jpeg image of the album art

Only downside is that you could have a very long list of folders titles...
Click to expand...


Thanks for the feedback, such a folder system is what I am planning to do now but I thought about to have a main folder for an artist and then have the albums in sub folders which will make the list shorter and manageable.

Why do you have jpg's of the album art in there? Can the radio system read this?

Regards,
Tom
 
Tom75 said:
Thanks for the feedback, such a folder system is what I am planning to do now but I thought about to have a main folder for an artist and then have the albums in sub folders which will make the list shorter and manageable.

Why do you have jpg's of the album art in there? Can the radio system read this?

Regards,
Tom
Click to expand...

Not sure if having a main folder for an artist and then sub folders / albums will work? Maybe someone else could advise?

The jpeg images are there to provide album art on the MMI system.
 
I use I tune my Walkman which syncs the memory card along with I tunes and u can add yr play lists as u would on an I pod
 
Thanks everybody for the good information, I will do some testing and see what works best.

Regards,
Tom
 
I gave up with iTunes, far too much messing about with Apple replacing album art, messing with track orders (UK releases differing from imports), etc. I downloaded Mp3tag as recommended on here in a different thread and let it sort my collection out for me. I have a 3/4 full 64gb sd card and my albums are sorted in folders in order of Artist (alphabetical order), Album Title (alphabetical order) and Track Name (as per album playing order).

Once I had sorted and saved them on my pc, I just copied and pasted to the card. Just make sure you have the right card writer/reader (sdhc, sdxc) for the card you're using - I didn't realise there were several types!

Cheers, Paul.
 
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^ I do pretty much this, with the exception that I put the year of release in front of the album name (eg 2001 - Terria) so that they appear in chronological order within each artist folder
 
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Belfin said:
I gave up with iTunes, far too much messing about with Apple replacing album art, messing with track orders (UK releases differing from imports), etc. I downloaded Mp3tag as recommended on here in a different thread and let it sort my collection out for me. I have a 3/4 full 64gb sd card and my albums are sorted in folders in order of Artist (alphabetical order), Album Title (alphabetical order) and Track Name (as per album playing order).

Once I had sorted and saved them on my pc, I just copied and pasted to the card. Just make sure you have the right card writer/reader (sdhc, sdxc) for the card you're using - I didn't realise there were several types!

Cheers, Paul.
Click to expand...

I have done the same as Paul, athough I don't have the car yet!
 
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Just curious, is there a benefit to doing all this rather than just plugging your iPod in?
 
There is a benefit, on another thread it says it will play lossless format and read album art off the SD card so your getting better quality of sound
 
MouseGB said:
There is a benefit, on another thread it says it will play lossless format and read album art off the SD card so your getting better quality of sound
Click to expand...

Thanks, missed that thread. Yes, B&O deserves lossless!
 
MouseGB said:
There is a benefit, on another thread it says it will play lossless format and read album art off the SD card so your getting better quality of sound
Click to expand...

I was under the impression the only way to play Apple lossless tracks was via an ipod/iphone.
 
I read elsewhere that the rns system only played mp3 format - does the apple lossless format work?

I've got rid off all my cd's as whole collection is in iTunes as lossless. Works from iPod plugged in but can only fit so many songs. May have to upgrade to rns if lossless works.

(Or is this just for the fancy 8V system? I have an 8P)
 
Last edited:
Wow, thanks for all the input guys!


Belfin said:
I gave up with iTunes, far too much messing about with Apple replacing album art, messing with track orders (UK releases differing from imports), etc. I downloaded Mp3tag as recommended on here in a different thread and let it sort my collection out for me. I have a 3/4 full 64gb sd card and my albums are sorted in folders in order of Artist (alphabetical order), Album Title (alphabetical order) and Track Name (as per album playing order).

Once I had sorted and saved them on my pc, I just copied and pasted to the card. Just make sure you have the right card writer/reader (sdhc, sdxc) for the card you're using - I didn't realise there were several types!

Cheers, Paul.
Click to expand...


Belfin: Just another question to your workflow, if you have already sorted all your music on the card by albums in folders etc what is this Mp3tag thing actually doing. As far as I understood if you have everything organized in folders then it should already work and if you have the cover art in the folder the MMi should also read that so what is the Mp3tag actually for?

...... Just found out that Mp3tag is only available for PC and not for Mac.

Regards,
tom
 
Tom75 said:
Just another question to your workflow, if you have already sorted all your music on the card by albums in folders etc what is this Mp3tag thing actually doing. As far as I understood if you have everything organized in folders then it should already work and if you have the cover art in the folder the MMi should also read that so what is the Mp3tag actually for?
Click to expand...

Hi Tom, I used the Mp3tag program to 'unify' my music collection. Current albums downloaded from iTunes already have the required info embedded, but ripped cd's don't. Tagging the files with this program ensures that all albums; whether they be latest releases or 25 year old cd's, all have the same tags updated and relevant album art/info attached. Also, some album covers already embedded into files can be too big to display on MMI, so this way solves that too.

I like Cemerson's idea of including the album year, so I may update my files the same way later!

Cheers, Paul
 
Belfin said:
Hi Tom, I used the Mp3tag program to 'unify' my music collection. Current albums downloaded from iTunes already have the required info embedded, but ripped cd's don't. Tagging the files with this program ensures that all albums; whether they be latest releases or 25 year old cd's, all have the same tags updated and relevant album art/info attached. Also, some album covers already embedded into files can be too big to display on MMI, so this way solves that too.

I like Cemerson's idea of including the album year, so I may update my files the same way later!

Cheers, Paul
Click to expand...

Ok, then its clear thanks.

Regards,
Tom
 
Belfin said:
I gave up with iTunes, far too much messing about with Apple replacing album art, messing with track orders (UK releases differing from imports), etc. I downloaded Mp3tag as recommended on here in a different thread and let it sort my collection out for me. I have a 3/4 full 64gb sd card and my albums are sorted in folders in order of Artist (alphabetical order), Album Title (alphabetical order) and Track Name (as per album playing order).

Once I had sorted and saved them on my pc, I just copied and pasted to the card. Just make sure you have the right card writer/reader (sdhc, sdxc) for the card you're using - I didn't realise there were several types!

Cheers, Paul.
Click to expand...

Paul, this might be a dumb question but does this mean that on your SD card you have two versions of each track one filed under artist and the other filed under album name, so in effect you can scroll through the folders on the MMI by either artist or album to locate tracks
 
Daveotto said:
Paul, this might be a dumb question but does this mean that on your SD card you have two versions of each track one filed under artist and the other filed under album name, so in effect you can scroll through the folders on the MMI by either artist or album to locate tracks
Click to expand...

If the army has taught me anything, it's that the only dumb question is one that's never asked!

I only have one of each track on my SD card. Firstly, in the media folder all the artists names are listed in folders alphabetically. Inside each artist's folder the albums are listed in their own individual folders (chronologically, alphabetically, whatever you prefer). If any album has more than one CD, these are in there own folders again. Finally, inside these album folders the tracks are listed as per correct track listing.

I hope this helps (I confused myself while typing!)

cheers, Paul.
 
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Paul, thanks for the clarification, thats how I am setting up my SD card so that hopefully I can just plug it in on day one and have full aceess to all my tunes as i drive it home form the dealer.
 
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Yep, i've now laid out, prepared, copied, organised, renamed and fully tagged my SD card ready for putting straight into the car when I get it!
 
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I know this was discussed a while back, but did anyone figure out a reliable way to get album art working (on the tech pack)?
 
I don't have the tech pack, and album artwork works fine with the way I described above. I reckon it'll be the same with yours - maybe just higher resolution pics.
 
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Belfin said:
I don't have the tech pack, and album artwork works fine with the way I described above. I reckon it'll be the same with yours - maybe just higher resolution pics.
Click to expand...

So that's embedded in each file using mp3tag? I'll give that a go and keep my fingers crossed it just works on the 1st. Cheers.
 
RossR said:
So that's embedded in each file using mp3tag? I'll give that a go and keep my fingers crossed it just works on the 1st. Cheers.
Click to expand...

Yep, you get to choose which cover to use too (in the case of imports, re-releases, etc). Non-tech pack artwork is restricted to 500 x 500, I think tech pack can be a bit larger.
 
I'm sure I saw 800x800 on here at one point...

None of my MP3s have cover art at the moment - does anyone know if there is an easy service that can tag them automatically (like CDDB can for track names), or is it just a case of google image search and doing it manually?
 
cemerson said:
I'm sure I saw 800x800 on here at one point...

None of my MP3s have cover art at the moment - does anyone know if there is an easy service that can tag them automatically (like CDDB can for track names), or is it just a case of google image search and doing it manually?
Click to expand...

I used the option in mp3tag which searches amazon etc and gives you a list of likely matches, still manual but narrows image search down very well and can tag multiple files from one album. Killed another couple of hours of my wait time
 
Using this method I now have album art for 140+ albums within 2 hours - only another 115 to go :)

All exactly 800x800 as well. God I hope that's the right size for tech pack...
 
It's 500x500 max size for the Tech pack i'm afraid. In my experience the artwork i've used over that size hasn't displayed on the MMI. I will double check for you later and confirm just in case it was another issue causing them not to display.
 
Last edited:
mjcourtney said:
It's 500x500 max size for the Tech pack i'm afraid. In my experience the artwork i've used over that size hasn't displayed on the MMI. I will double check for you later and confirm just in case it was another issue causing them not to display.
Click to expand...

****! Shouldn't be too bad though, I'm keeping them all as folder.jpg so can just write myself a script to resize everything down to whatever I need it to be later, and MP3Tag can then just run through my entire collection and embed the folder.jpg into each file in one go. There is mention of someone's manual saying 800x800 on another thread though.

Another thing that would be interesting to know - does it use the folder.jpg or the embedded version by default? Can it use either? If both are present, which does it use? I'll do a bit of investigation work myself when I get my car I think.
 
Yeah I saw Vertigos post about 800x800 too, I will give it a go again tonight and let you know. I was still getting to grips with it last time so you might be in luck.
 
Heh, cool. I'll finish off as I am then, and possibly take a backup of all the art once I have it all downloaded :p
 
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