My Columbus unit has started playing up recently. It randomly forgets to remember the last album/track it played. Sometimes it will remember and when I next get in the car the last track is shown but for days on end it will always go back to the last album/track it did remember days ago.

I have to keep writing down which album/track I was on last time I was in the car and going back to that manually. There seems to be no logic in when it does/doesn't remember. Tried various sequences of getting out of the car but it makes no difference.

e.g.

getting out:

Columbus on -> turn ignition off -> open door -> lock

Columbus on -> leave turn ignition on-> open door -> lock

Turn Columbus off -> turn ignition off -> open door -> lock

Turn Columbus off -> leave ignition on -> open door -> lock

 

getting in:

tried with Columbus switched off before locking last time left car

tried with Columbus switched on before locking last time left car

 

Anyone else having similar problems?

I have tried resetting the unit but that had no effect.

 

Media plays fine, telephone work fine but I am also having problems importing my own POIs. I have been doing that successfully every month using the VW site for the last 10 months but I've just tried the latest update and the Columbus will no longer recognise the POI files. 

Yes, I have had mine forget what it was playing and go back to an older selection it has seemed to remember. I use playlists and it's reverted back to a previously loaded playlist rather than the most recent one I had playing when I got out the car. Doesn't happen all the time and not frequently enough for me to get annoyed about. I haven't come up with any theory on why it happens when it does. I remember posts from others a while back that have noticed the same.

I've had mine forget and go back to the first track of the first album. 

 

I also have have a folder with a huge number of various artist tracks that I have compiled. Although the tracks are listed in alphabetical order of artist, only the track title is displayed. At one point it suddenly started displaying both artist AND title, but now it has gone back to title only. How can I get it to display both artist and title all of the time?

3 hours ago, daveo138 said:

I also have have a folder with a huge number of various artist tracks that I have compiled. Although the tracks are listed in alphabetical order of artist, only the track title is displayed. At one point it suddenly started displaying both artist AND title, but now it has gone back to title only. How can I get it to display both artist and title all of the time?

Metadata, metadata, metadata!

Is the metadata properly embedded for each file? This is what the infotainment uses but if it's missing, incomplete or corrupt, it will use the Gracenote database (stored on Columbus' internal drive, though I don't know if it's also stored on the Amundsen map card) to try to match details for the incomplete/missing/corrupt metadata and that in itself can be quite a hit and miss process.

 

If you create your own compilation of files/tracks then, in the metadata, give them all the same album name otherwise each track is treated as an individual album. I initially just gathered about 1,000 of my favourite tracks from the thousands of albums in my home library and just lumped them all together. It was a nightmare to get Columbus to work with them because it didn't see a "compilation" but rather about 1,000 individual albums each consisting of one or two tracks per album.

I then used a metadata batch editor to modify my compilation of tracks by giving every track the same album name (I used my car registration but it can be named anything you want) and sequentially numbering the tracks. The result was Columbus saw my compilation as one album called "AL09***" and played the tracks in the order they were numbered (obviously overridden if you select Random). I even spent a few days grabbing images of the artists and replacing each track's album artwork in the compilation with a picture of the artist. I know that's probably extreme anal and it's just eye candy but it looks great on the Columbus.

 

In the last 12 months since I started ensuring the metadata is complete and accurate* for every audio file, be it original albums or home-made compilations, whether on the Columbus Jukebox, SD Card or USB, I've never seen Columbus forget the track it was last playing. This works for me [1] if I've switched off and later returned to the car, or [2] I return to an audio source after having switched to another audio source.

 

Now every track that plays on my Columbus shows the song name, artist, album name and artwork...

 

 

* For best results ensure a minimum of: Artist Name / Album Name / Track Number / Album Artwork

For double albums or multi-disc albums either number the tracks 101, 102, 103... 201, 202, 203... etc, or alternatively specify the Disc Number, or even do both.

 

I also read somewhere on this forum that VBR (Variable Bit Rate) doesn't show the song progress. I think the picture above proves that wrong.

And I apologise for it being slightly out of focus but not for my taste in music - hic 

Edited 13 February, 20179 yr by BillyJim

12 hours ago, BillyJim said:

Metadata, metadata, metadata!

Is the metadata properly embedded for each file? This is what the infotainment uses but if it's missing, incomplete or corrupt, it will use the Gracenote database (stored on Columbus' internal drive, though I don't know if it's also stored on the Amundsen map card) to try to match details for the incomplete/missing/corrupt metadata and that in itself can be quite a hit and miss process.

 

If you create your own compilation of files/tracks then, in the metadata, give them all the same album name otherwise each track is treated as an individual album. I initially just gathered about 1,000 of my favourite tracks from the thousands of albums in my home library and just lumped them all together. It was a nightmare to get Columbus to work with them because it didn't see a "compilation" but rather about 1,000 individual albums each consisting of one or two tracks per album.

 

 

 

Yes, when I first tried my USB flashdrive - which I have used in my last three cars - the tracks were all over the place. Even some tracks on actual albums were all messed up. 

 

I did discover that I needed to give them the same album name in order to get them to format properly, and they all appeared in the correct folder/ album. However, I then found that some tracks were out of sequence. A bit more investigation showed that the tracks in question had track numbers assigned to them. I removed all track numbers and everything then appeared in the correct alphabetical order, by artist. 

 

As per your screenshot above, it does display the artist name, track name and album, but when choosing 'selection' in order to view all tracks in that folder, it displays the track name, not the artist name, but in alphabetical order of the artists. I'm sure that at one point, it DID show both artist and track name, but has now reverted to just the track name.

 

What I would like to do is show both, if possible. The actual file names are in "artist - track" format...is this what it is using to order them alphabetically, or is it using the metadata?

17 minutes ago, daveo138 said:

What I would like to do is show both, if possible. The actual file names are in "artist - track" format...is this what it is using to order them alphabetically, or is it using the metadata?

It will always use the metadata first but if the ID3 tags are incomplete then it will reference Gracenote, and if all else fails it will revert to using the file name. In the latter case only the file name is used to display the title of the current song being played. If you had a file named "David Bowie - Life on Mars.mp3" with no metadata then when you select that track it would display "David Bowie - Life on Mars" as the song currently playing.

If that's how you want to have your compilation tracks displayed and played in alphabetical filename order then you will need to remove the Artist Name and Track Name ID3 tags. Album Name and Artwork should be kept intact as it's insufficient for Gracenote to match and override, whilst Album Name keeps it tidy as you've already discovered and Artwork prevents the boring default source icon being displayed.

 

In Selection you can tap the green musical note icon (in Jukebox, or Database view on an external source) to choose what is displayed in the list, alphabetically by artist, track, album, etc. There's no option for combined listings, such as Artist + Track.

 

AFAIK the only times that filenames are displayed is...

• when selecting files to be imported/deleted using Manage Jukebox,
• by selecting Folder View on an external source (doesn't apply to Jukebox)
• if there is no ID3 metadata (as mentioned).

That's great, thanks.

 

Something else to play with!

38 minutes ago, daveo138 said:

That's great, thanks.

Not sure though how that will play out with either the Selection menus or the "forgetting last played" problem, both of which seem to rely on a healthy database created from the ID3 Tags and/or Gracenote.

I'd recommend you try it first with just a few files on an SD Card or USB stick, play around with the menus and see if it meets your requirements.