My 09 Octavia has the Bolero sound system that plays Mp3's off SD cards.

I've got a 32G card onto which I copied a large chunk off my music collection - but man, it's slow to use.

When I start the car and/or select the SD card, it says processing---and it takes over 4 minutes before it starts playing either the song it was left at, or the first song of the first album on the card.

When I click on return to selection, it takes at least a minute or two more to get to the song list view, and again pressing back to main list takes a few minutes...and all the while you can't stop the song that's playing because it's unresponsive while it's 'processing'.

That's ridiculous, IMO, every time you change the album you need to wait for almost like ten minutes total to get it done.

I tried a fast-rated 8G card as well, just as slow. Same with a 1G card.

Is it always this slow? Any tricks or such to get it to a more usable level of speed? Would some other music format be quicker? It'd be awesome to be able to have just a bunch of SD cards, no CD's or anything.

I had the same problem with the Bolero in an 09 Yeti. On the advice of a member on here I asked my dealer to check for a software update. They connected the car to a computer in the workshop and downloaded what I took to be a new firmware for the unit. I seem to recall it took over an hour, but once completed the unit was lightning fast - reading a full 32 Gb card is a few seconds and changing tracks with no delay at all. I also had a Bolero in a fl Octavia (2010) and that was quick from the beginning, as is the Amundsen+ in my current Yeti.

Thanks...I guess I'll ask for an update come the next service time! :-)

Be prepared (as others have found out) for the garage telling you that there isn't an update available........even though there is!

Is the card branded, and what class (speed) is it?

Kingston class 4, 32 and 8GB cards and some other brand 1GB card.

Edited 10 August, 201213 yr by deeaa

Class 4 maybe too slow.

Have you tried a class 6 or 10?

This problem has been around since the advent of the Bolero. Back in early 2010 there was a huge thread about it. The problem is NOT related to the speed of the SD card it's related to the way the Bolero scans and indexes all the songs on the card each time it starts up. In my testing there is no appreciable difference between a class 4 and class 10 card with the same songs and same directory structure.

There was a member here who wrote a small computer program that optimised the directory structure on the card to the best way for the Bolero to understand. From memory it was something like 8 directories deep with all the top directories empty and all the songs in the bottom one. Don't quote me on that but if anybody wants to search the archives I'm sure that they will find both the thread and the software links if they still exist.

As far as the software update for the Bolero is concerned I would love it if somebody could post a definitive link. I have asked about this every time my car has been in for service and every time they have told me (here in Australia) that they have looked on the computer and that no software update is available.

Well I 'm just awaiting for my car from service, solely booked it in order to update the Bolero firmware and they said sure...we'll see in a few minutes I think, if it helped...has taken an hour already .I'll try to remember to report back how it went. Hopefuly not 45e euros down the drain...

Okay, just got the car back...and it works nothing like before! I have 32GB of music on an SD card, and when I select SD card as media source, it only takes 3-4 seconds to start, and after that there's basically no delay whatsoever when browsing categories and songs etc, it all works flawlessly smooth & quick now.

So yeah, you CAN firmware update 2009 model Bolero player just fine. 45€ cost. Also it changed the parking radar screen, the alerts are a bit different as are colors, and now instead of a car 'shape' it shows an almost photorealistic picture of the car seen from above which looks much nicer than before. Some minor changes apparently in the 'setup' screen where you can also select to randomize entire collection etc.

i use a 4 gig card, and that always seemed slow, compared to when i borrowed a scirocco and it was lightning fast!

i may have to drop into my local dealer and see if they can fix mine too :sun: