Reading media files from USB-stick?

[LarsKC]

In my old Fabia I used to have a ton of music-files on an SD-card, permanently mounted in the SD-card reader that was hidden away in the glove compartment.
Since that is not an option in the Octavia 4, I have copied my music files to an USB-stick, and put that into one of the two USB-C ports.
However, I can't seem to get the mediaplayer in the infotainment system to work with the stick.
In the beginning, after some lengthy fiddling, I did manage to play some tracks. But the next time I tried, it would only show the tracks, not play them.
The files are flac and mp3, both of which should be OK according to the manual.
I've tried to reformat the stick, the first time in exFAT, the second time in NTFS - both of which should also be OK according to the manual. The first didn't help, the other just made matters worse, as the whole infotainment-system now reboots every time I try to access the media-files.....
It could of cause be a faulty stick - but it is completely readable from two different PC's and even when plugged into my Android phone.
Anyway, I shall get hold in another USB-C stick to try out.
But meanwhile, I would like to hear: What are your experiences with playing media-files on the infotainment system? 

[TheUltraRunner]

I don't have any issues with my USB stick. It works normally every time.

But I did wonder yesterday how to fast forward the current track to a certain time point. I have a few long mixes (1h+) and it seems that the only option is to use the left buttons on the steering wheel. If you hold them the time starts to move but still too slow to be able to fast forward for half an hour in a decent time. I also tried to use the touch screen and move the time pointer with my finger but it didn't work. Every time I try to touch/hold the time pointer and drag it forward I have entered the file list on my USB stick. 

[LarsKC]

If the mediaplayer supports gapless playback, a possible workround might be to split the mix into several tracks and play them as a playlist. Then you could at least skip from track to track.

[TheUltraRunner]

Thanks for the idea. I just can't imagine that car media player wouldn't support fast forward. On every touch screen device, which plays music, you can slide the time pointer back and forward without any issues.

[Skodev]

11 hours ago, TheUltraRunner said:

I don't have any issues with my USB stick. It works normally every time.

But I did wonder yesterday how to fast forward the current track to a certain time point. I have a few long mixes (1h+) and it seems that the only option is to use the left buttons on the steering wheel. If you hold them the time starts to move but still too slow to be able to fast forward for half an hour in a decent time. I also tried to use the touch screen and move the time pointer with my finger but it didn't work. Every time I try to touch/hold the time pointer and drag it forward I have entered the file list on my USB stick. 

I think you should persevere with the steering wheel buttons. From experience of similar functionality on other cars, the “skip” ratio starts fairly slow for smaller adjustments, but the longer the buttons are held down, the increments speed up rather rapidly until you are literally skipping minutes at a time. 
could be worth a revisit?🤷🏻‍♂️

[TheUltraRunner]

@Skodev could be.  Maybe I gave up too early. I'll try again next time.

[Skodev]

30 minutes ago, TheUltraRunner said:

@Skodev could be.  Maybe I gave up too early. I'll try again next time.

My car is still a long way off, so I am experiencing the steep learning curves of all the fellow owners on here. When my car finally arrives, I’ll be a Mk4 expert already!! 🤣🤣😎

[TheUltraRunner]

12 minutes ago, Skodev said:

My car is still a long way off, so I am experiencing the steep learning curves of all the fellow owners on here. When my car finally arrives, I’ll be a Mk4 expert already!! 🤣🤣😎

That will be 5 GBP please. My Paypal account is... 

Looks like I ordered mine too soon. 

[VAGProf]

On 05/04/2021 at 07:33, TheUltraRunner said:

I don't have any issues with my USB stick. It works normally every time.

But I did wonder yesterday how to fast forward the current track to a certain time point. I have a few long mixes (1h+) and it seems that the only option is to use the left buttons on the steering wheel. If you hold them the time starts to move but still too slow to be able to fast forward for half an hour in a decent time. I also tried to use the touch screen and move the time pointer with my finger but it didn't work. Every time I try to touch/hold the time pointer and drag it forward I have entered the file list on my USB stick. 

I had a few problems with my old USB-A, taking 5 minutes to load before I could play from it.

It was a faulty cheap USB stick (INTENSO, never again!), unable to connect to my PC, unable to format, broke it in half yesterday.

 

Now for the last month I'm using a Sandisk dual USB-A + C 64GB stick, works so well.

 

And I can move the little time-bar on my touchscreen to fast forward my long mixes! To skip just 1 or 2 minutes is hard, it only likes to take big jumps. 

[TheUltraRunner]

5 minutes ago, VAGProf said:

And I can move the little time-bar on my touchscreen to fast forward my long mixes! To skip just 1 or 2 minutes is hard, it only likes to take big jumps. 

Whaaaaat?! 

But I tried so many times and it didn't want to work. How do you do it? Do you touch the pointer and drag it? Or you just touch the time bar on various points?

[VAGProf]

1 hour ago, TheUltraRunner said:

Whaaaaat?! 

But I tried so many times and it didn't want to work. How do you do it? Do you touch the pointer and drag it? Or you just touch the time bar on various points?

 

[TheUltraRunner]

I'm shocked.  Thanks for the video @VAGProf

The only difference I see is that I was trying on the home screen having media as half of the screen and not directly on the media. Will try you way. Thanks again.

 

[LarsKC]

11 hours ago, VAGProf said:

I had a few problems with my old USB-A, taking 5 minutes to load before I could play from it.

It was a faulty cheap USB stick (INTENSO, never again!), unable to connect to my PC, unable to format, broke it in half yesterday.

 

Now for the last month I'm using a Sandisk dual USB-A + C 64GB stick, works so well.

I've tried both an Intenso and a Kingston stick. Both brand new, both works flawlessly on different PC's - no off them works in the car :-(
PS: How did you manage to cram a USB-A stick into a USB-C port? ;-) 

[TheUltraRunner]

33 minutes ago, LarsKC said:

PS: How did you manage to cram a USB-A stick into a USB-C port? ;-) 

 It's a USB stick with USB-A on one side and USB-C on the other side.

[TheUltraRunner]

I can confirm that I was able to skip and forward music in the media screen. Like in the video above. I just had a bit of a hard time finding it since it was hidden on the right side and I needed to slide it out. 

On the home menu (in the picture below), which I use the most,  you still can't forward music through the touch screen. A bit strange since it is the same interface as on the main media screen.

 

[PJVRS]

I'm using a SanDisk 64gb stick with no issues, I do find that SanDisk works better in other media devices, I have one in my phone also, have tried some other makes over the years with compatability issues 

[LarsKC]

Well, this morning my infotainment died complety. So, at least I dont have to worry about playing media files for at while now    :-(

[TheUltraRunner]

1 hour ago, LarsKC said:

Well, this morning my infotainment died complety. So, at least I dont have to worry about playing media files for at while now    :-(

Did you try to restart it?

[LarsKC]

6 minutes ago, TheUltraRunner said:

Did you try to restart it?

How can I do that? It doesnt respond to anything?

[TheUltraRunner]

Press and hold the power button for several seconds. That should restart the whole infotainment system. 

[LarsKC]

You just saved my day - it worked! Thank you!  Now I'm just wondering why the h... the dealer didn't tell me to do that, when I phoned them earlier today??

[TheUltraRunner]

14 minutes ago, LarsKC said:

You just saved my day - it worked! Thank you!  Now I'm just wondering why the h... the dealer didn't tell me to do that, when I phoned them earlier today??

You can ask the dealer if they know how to reset the infotainment system. 

Just remember for the next time. First check and ask on this forum, then call the dealer. 

[VAGProf]

On 07/04/2021 at 20:53, LarsKC said:

I've tried both an Intenso and a Kingston stick. Both brand new, both works flawlessly on different PC's - no off them works in the car :-(
PS: How did you manage to cram a USB-A stick into a USB-C port? ;-) 

My new stick is dual A and C, the old one was only USB-A, connected with the Skoda adapter (part number 000 051 443 J) 

 

As I'm switching cars 3 or 4 times a week, I allways have a USB-A to C cable with me and the extra adapter if I need C to C.

 

Haven't had any issues yet with cars not accepting my USB drive to play music.

As mentioned by PJVRS, Sandisk is the way to go for compatibility.

 

grts

Wes

[LarsKC]

OK, so now I'm finally able to play MP3. My car was at the dealer for some other issues, and I asked them to fix the MP3-thing too. When I picked up the car, they told me that it had worked the first time they tried it.
I was a bit baffled. 
But it does work now. And after returning home, I see in the papers that they have actually done som sort of software update. So probably it wasn't just me and my bad karma.....

[LarsKC]

On 14/06/2021 at 16:48, LarsKC said:

OK, so now I'm finally able to play MP3. My car was at the dealer for some other issues, and I asked them to fix the MP3-thing too. When I picked up the car, they told me that it had worked the first time they tried it.
I was a bit baffled. 
But it does work now. And after returning home, I see in the papers that they have actually done som sort of software update. So probably it wasn't just me and my bad karma.....

Sadly, it lastet only for 24 hours. Then the system refused to play music - and decided to restart itself. After several attempts, including removing and re-inserting two different usb-sticks, it finally came back to live and startet playing mp3-files again.
Meanwhile it had restarted itself several times, shut down completely at least one time, briefly disabled the online emergency system and displayed at text saying "Please contact dealer". 
I'm not sure I even dare to try to play music anymore........