SD Card for music

faigy90 said:
Hi All,

I have just taken delivery of my new A3 sportback. What is the best SD card to buy for my music?

I have seen this one - Integral 64GB Ultima Pro SDXC 40 MB/s - Class 10: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Cheers,
Craig
Click to expand...

That would work. All SD cards are pretty much the same. As they get bigger capacity they just add extra letters to the type of card - eg SDXC

The manual does say there is a max size, i think 64GB but I think others have said larger ones still work.

At the end of the day anything above 64GB gets expensive. and with 2x slots, thats 128GB of music!

If you have more than that you can attached a USB hard drive
 
I'd second that with the addition of making sure you get a 'Class 10' card if you can. The high transfer speed makes loading music on to the card a lot quicker and seems to navigate through tracks quicker in the MMI
 
I bought a MyMemory 32GB SD Card (SDHC) - Class 10 for £13.97. It woks perfectly and only £13.97. Ok its only 32GB but big enough for me. Scanning some covers to work as pictures was the only problem I had but nothing to do with the card.
 
Yeah i've bort the same model as you for £12.45. 32GB more than enough for me. I'll pop some pictures of the new motor on soon. Cheers.
 
I've been using an exfat formatted Transcend 128 GB class 10 card from Amazon with no issues with the card itself. However, the MMI seems to be having trouble indexing all my music. I have ~50 GB worth right now and only about a third is playable. The rest come up as "cannot be located" inside the playlists I have and entire folders of artists don't show up in the file browser. In the root of the card, I have a Music folder (with all the artists) and a Playlists folder with several .m3u files.

Alternatively, I tried getting rid of the Music folder and put all the artist folders directly on the root of the card. In this case, nearly all of my music was indexed but now the playlists didn't work! I guess I can't have everything, huh?

Anyone have any tips?
 
Newb here, just picked up a class 10 64GB card and wondering what's the best way to export itunes library to it. Any tips? Sure I've seen some discussion on the various formatting options for the card on here but can't locate them now....and still not sure how best to export in the first place.
 
I used this approach.
I cut and pasted it from somewhere, so Thank you to who posted in originally- it wasn't me and I cannot give them the credit they deserve.

"I had seen this question asked a few times and none of the solutions met my needs so I came up with this system. If it helps someone out there, great, if there's a better way, let me know!

I'll tell you right now this solution requires that you have iTunes Match, so take it or leave it.

This solution will work regardless of what your source formats are (mine are lossless which you can't just directly copy over). It should also work on Windows, although I did it on a Mac. My steps also assume that you have a second computer with no current iTunes library (like your iTunes is on a desktop and you have another laptop). It may work even if you have only one computer but you'll need to backup your library first, clear it out to start from nothing, and then restore the original library when you are done. Instructions for that are beyond the scope of this post!

Here's the steps:

1. Open iTunes on computer that has no current iTunes library.

2. Enable iTunes match on that computer (this assumes you already have iTunes match set up on your main iTunes computer and that your music is matched).

3. In "iTunes->Preferences..." click on "Advanced".

4. Change the iTunes media folder location to your SD Card (I actually did it to a spare drive and copied the library over to the SD Card when I was done, I think either will work)

5. Now browse through your collection and download the ones you want from iCloud (either by clicking the cloud icon or right clicking and selecting "Download". You can select more than one and download a bunch at at time.)

If you have a big collection and have selected a lot of songs this may take a while! Like overnight or more.

6. Close iTunes, eject the card, enjoy!

When you are done you will have all the songs from your collection on your SD Card and all in AAC 256 (if Apple managed to match your songs this may be an upgrade for some of your collection. I use lossless so it was a bit of a downgrade but 256 AAC isn't that bad for the car). Since there's no DRM on Apple's stuff anymore, that isn't a problem.

I have tried it and confirmed it works! So for me at least, this solution makes managing what I want in my S4 easy. If you want to change it, just bring the card back in, make the adjustments (remove or add from iCloud) and take it back to your car. I leave my laptop's iTunes as an "S4" snapshot and my primary collection (on my desktop) is not impacted.

For what its worth I'm using a 32gb class 10 card (super cheap at ncix right now)."

Phil
 
If you keep all your music locally on your PC rather than in iCloud, the easiest thing is to find your iTunes library, open up the Music folder (you should then see all the artists folders), select all the folders in it, right click 'copy', then select the drive where the card is mounted and right-click 'Paste'.
 
audi upgrades
steverobertsbbc said:
If you keep all your music locally on your PC rather than in iCloud, the easiest thing is to find your iTunes library, open up the Music folder (you should then see all the artists folders), select all the folders in it, right click 'copy', then select the drive where the card is mounted and right-click 'Paste'.
Click to expand...

That's what I do too, but on my Mac.
Incidentally, it's worth getting a useful app called OptimUSB (Download OptimUSB for Mac - Remove temporary files from flash drives and memory cards. MacUpdate.com), which deletes all the hidden files which the Mac puts on the SD card when you eject it.
 
Worked a treat that - thanks guys. Slightly irritating that folders are listed by artist, so compilation albums give rise to loads of entries, but assume I have to live with that.

When I tried to play certain tracks, they just greyed out and the system skipped to the next one on the album - cycling though and greying out the titles. But I noticed that these files had the "mp4.a" extension. Only thing I can think of was that these were albums I loaded to itunes in Apple Lossless format? Surpirsed the system can't handle these though.

Any ideas please?
 
mickv said:
Worked a treat that - thanks guys. Slightly irritating that folders are listed by artist, so compilation albums give rise to loads of entries, but assume I have to live with that.?
Click to expand...
In iTunes, select the tracks then open the info pop up (where artist, track name, etc are editable. In there you can set "album artist". It's blank by default, but if you set it then it's used to decide what artist folder to use in preference to the "artist" entry. It's really useful where there's an album with some tracks with so-and-so featuring someone-else.

There's also an option in there to mark the track as part of a compilation, for true compilations rather than messed up artist names. I think iTunes then stores it in a folder "Compilation" or something. But, for some reason, I couldn't get the car to display the album art for those compilations, and so I turned off that setting and put the "album artist" to "compilation" instead. Or "compilations" - whichever iTunes wasn't already using automatically when it knew it was a compilation.

mickv said:
When I tried to play certain tracks, they just greyed out and the system skipped to the next one on the album - cycling though and greying out the titles. But I noticed that these files had the "mp4.a" extension. Only thing I can think of was that these were albums I loaded to itunes in Apple Lossless format? Surpirsed the system can't handle these though.

Any ideas please?
Click to expand...
Are you sure the mp4.a files aren't videos rather than sound only? MP4 is normally video, and I don't think the car plays those. I don't think they'll be lossless audio, as mp3 and mp4 are lossy compression.

edit: a quick google, and it looks like .mp4 and .m4a are both used as extensions for audio-only, do I guess mp4.a might be too. And it looks like m4a files can contain apple lossless, so you're probably right about that being the problem. I don't think the car does handle lossless. The handbook lists all the formats it does support.
 
Last edited:
Thanks AJB. will try that workaround.
I think it actually said m4a, not mp4.a - so suspect it's Apple lossless that's the problem. I'll check the manual.
 
AJB said:
In iTunes, select the tracks then open the info pop up (where artist, track name, etc are editable. In there you can set "album artist". It's blank by default, but if you set it then it's used to decide what artist folder to use in preference to the "artist" entry. It's really useful where there's an album with some tracks with so-and-so featuring someone-else.
Click to expand...

No, the car doesn't respect album artist tags in the album browser section; it displays compilation albums as if each song is an album by that particular artist, even with album artist tag set - unless anyone knows different?

Due to this, I use folder browser for choosing albums as my data's structured in artist\album folders.
 
phil1824 said:
I used this approach.
I cut and pasted it from somewhere, so Thank you to who posted in originally- it wasn't me and I cannot give them the credit they deserve.

"I had seen this question asked a few times and none of the solutions met my needs so I came up with this system. If it helps someone out there, great, if there's a better way, let me know!

I'll tell you right now this solution requires that you have iTunes Match, so take it or leave it.

This solution will work regardless of what your source formats are (mine are lossless which you can't just directly copy over). It should also work on Windows, although I did it on a Mac. My steps also assume that you have a second computer with no current iTunes library (like your iTunes is on a desktop and you have another laptop). It may work even if you have only one computer but you'll need to backup your library first, clear it out to start from nothing, and then restore the original library when you are done. Instructions for that are beyond the scope of this post!

Here's the steps:

1. Open iTunes on computer that has no current iTunes library.

2. Enable iTunes match on that computer (this assumes you already have iTunes match set up on your main iTunes computer and that your music is matched).

3. In "iTunes->Preferences..." click on "Advanced".

4. Change the iTunes media folder location to your SD Card (I actually did it to a spare drive and copied the library over to the SD Card when I was done, I think either will work)

5. Now browse through your collection and download the ones you want from iCloud (either by clicking the cloud icon or right clicking and selecting "Download". You can select more than one and download a bunch at at time.)

If you have a big collection and have selected a lot of songs this may take a while! Like overnight or more.

6. Close iTunes, eject the card, enjoy!

When you are done you will have all the songs from your collection on your SD Card and all in AAC 256 (if Apple managed to match your songs this may be an upgrade for some of your collection. I use lossless so it was a bit of a downgrade but 256 AAC isn't that bad for the car). Since there's no DRM on Apple's stuff anymore, that isn't a problem.

I have tried it and confirmed it works! So for me at least, this solution makes managing what I want in my S4 easy. If you want to change it, just bring the card back in, make the adjustments (remove or add from iCloud) and take it back to your car. I leave my laptop's iTunes as an "S4" snapshot and my primary collection (on my desktop) is not impacted.

For what its worth I'm using a 32gb class 10 card (super cheap at ncix right now)."

Phil
Click to expand...

Hi,

Must say your instructions are bob on, cheers for posting them.

On my newly formatted FAT32 SDXC card it now has the tracks on a chosen album that it skips through one by one, and then there's a list of tracks that it does play once it's skipped through the first lot.

Have you any idea why that would be? Bit frustrating, as each album I choose has a 30 sec or so delay as it skips through the initial lot first.

Does anyone know how I can stop this from happening? I'm just after a load of albums that just play!!

Thanks loads in advance.
 
Are the skipped tracks greyed out? If so, I got a terminal command that will remove them all.
 
Agree with Felsby. If you are on a Mac these are probably files with a "." In front of them. Not audio files but file directory/properties files.

Some apps can remove these, alternatively open Terminal and type:

dot_clean -m (and then drag the folder here to complete the path)

John.
 
JohnnyM100 said:
Agree with Felsby. If you are on a Mac these are probably files with a "." In front of them. Not audio files but file directory/properties files.

Some apps can remove these, alternatively open Terminal and type:

dot_clean -m (and then drag the folder here to complete the path)

John.
Click to expand...

OptimUSB provides a very simple automated way to do this as you eject the SD card from your Mac:
OptimUSB (Mac) - Download
 
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I've got a 64Gb SD Card and I'm using a 2008 iMac (no SD card slot) with Mavericks, it won't recognise more than 32Gb of the card though.
I've formatted it in ExFat but it's still 32Gb.
I've no reason to believe its fake because I bought it from a company I've used many times.
I'm thinking it might be my Lexar USB SD Card reader.
Anybody had a similar problem with cards sizes?
 
felsby said:
Are the skipped tracks greyed out? If so, I got a terminal command that will remove them all.
Click to expand...

Hi,

They're not greyed out initially, but after they've been skipped they then turn grey yes.
 
JohnnyM100 said:
Agree with Felsby. If you are on a Mac these are probably files with a "." In front of them. Not audio files but file directory/properties files.

Some apps can remove these, alternatively open Terminal and type:

dot_clean -m (and then drag the folder here to complete the path)

John.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm on a Mac and that sounds exactly what they are to me.

So, type in that command in Terminal and then drag the whole SD card library there?

Thanks loads for this :)
 
steverobertsbbc said:
If you keep all your music locally on your PC rather than in iCloud, the easiest thing is to find your iTunes library, open up the Music folder (you should then see all the artists folders), select all the folders in it, right click 'copy', then select the drive where the card is mounted and right-click 'Paste'.
Click to expand...

How do playlists work though? Can you export the ones you have set up in iTunes or do you need to create them afresh somehow? Obviously they need to know whereabouts the files are in the structure you create on the SD card.
 
I have done quite a lot of research and would be delighted to be proved wrong. I do not believe it is possible to export the playlists to the SD Card. You can effectively create Playlists by moving songs into PlayList Folders on the SD card.
I bought another MMI Cable (I had one for my iPhone 5) so I can connect an old iPod I used in my old car and use Playlists which I have synched from my iTunes on my Mac.


Vertigo1 said:
How do playlists work though? Can you export the ones you have set up in iTunes or do you need to create them afresh somehow? Obviously they need to know whereabouts the files are in the structure you create on the SD card.
Click to expand...
 
phil1824 said:
I have done quite a lot of research and would be delighted to be proved wrong. I do not believe it is possible to export the playlists to the SD Card. You can effectively create Playlists by moving songs into PlayList Folders on the SD card.
I bought another MMI Cable (I had one for my iPhone 5) so I can connect an old iPod I used in my old car and use Playlists which I have synched from my iTunes on my Mac.
Click to expand...

Yeah I basically do the same and use an iPod Touch which sits very neatly in the little net pocket under the armrest.

Whilst you can use an SD card or a USB stick or hard drive, I think using an iPod lets the iPod itself do all the sorting & indexing and collecting of metadata tags from the tracks so when you search by artist, album and so on, it's actually the iPod doing the work rather than the MMI having to sort through a large collection of files.
 
playlists are just that: lists. So you need to arrange the actual tracks into folders corresponding to your favorite playlists in order to have them played in MMI.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16125555

No reason to avoid double filing: 128Gb AAC 320kbps gives you > 10.000 songs / 1000 CD´s
 
I've got two 8gb sandisc ultras in mine - just play lists on them. Only a tenner each. With the ipod docked in, I've got more than enough to go out with that lot. I have faster, more expensive cards for my cameras, which are canon pro dlsr's and need that kind of performance, for music in your car, the cheaper cards are just fine.
 
Surely it'll play m3u files if you want it to?
 
I upload CDs to iTunes as MP3 files and transfer those to the SD card. The tunes show up but I also get a whole 'ghost' list with a "." in front of the file name which is 'damaged and won't play'.....any ideas what that is from?
 
I upload CDs with the MP3 encoder on iTunes and then transfer them to a folder with the album name. I transfer that folder to the SD card. The tunes play but I also get a duplicate list of songs, greyed out with a 'period' before the name of the song. Any idea what that is or how to avoid it?
 
Thank you. Sounds like I should leave well enough alone and ignore them.
 
The MMI won't ignore them - they show up on the list and if set to shuffle then they are included in the playlist; just silent for a second or two until it realises there is no audio file and moves to the next one.

Much cleaner to delete them with one of those apps, but your choice.
 
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