Hi All,

   When i put music files on my SD Card, some of them are accessible and play fine while others don't even show up on the infotainment screen ?. When i put my card back in to my PC, the files are right there in the folder. All the songs are in MP3 format so i'm curious as to why this is happening ?

If anyone has a suggestion i'd be grateful.

 

Thank you guys

afternoon

 

what infotainment system is it you're using?

I have the Columbus system

I have the same problem with my 2013 Amundsen. Quite a few folders and individual files missing.

 

Any answers appreciated.

Have you checked the missing files are playable on your PC and not just visible. Although they might have an MP3 file extension they may not be MP3 files.

Yes i've checked and they all play fine on the PC. My nephew actually works for Skoda and even he doesn't know what's going on. Strange one....

Any odd characters in the file names

No just letters and spaces. I've tried removing the spaces but the files still don't show up.

Are the file names that don't play very long?

 

Are the files all in the root folder, or separated into folders by artist/album?

 

If in multiple folders, are the ones that don't play in a folder with a large number of files?

2 hours ago, PetrolDave said:

Are the file names that don't play very long?  Not necessarily no  

 

Are the files all in the root folder, or separated into folders by artist/album?  They're separated into different folders by Album

 

If in multiple folders, are the ones that don't play in a folder with a large number of files?  No, some of them only have about 10 songs in them

 

What encoding? Yes, MP3, but VBR or CBR? And max 16 bit 44Khz?

 

how are you trying to access them from infotainment? DB view or file / folder view?

i wonder if it may be limited by the 256 character limit file path.

 

I'm sure that applies to these headunits.

32 minutes ago, brettikivi said:

What encoding? Yes, MP3, but VBR or CBR? And max 16 bit 44Khz?  Sorry mate but that sailed about 6 ft over my thick head. 

 

how are you trying to access them from infotainment? DB view or file / folder view? I just scroll through the albums on the infotainment screen

 

17 minutes ago, tunedude said:

i wonder if it may be limited by the 256 character limit file path.

 

I'm sure that applies to these headunits.

 

What is the 256 character limit file path ?. 

6 minutes ago, Pol04 said:

What is the 256 character limit file path ?. 

It is the maximum drive path limit is the data path

 

e.g. /sdcard/drive0/path/to/music/ is 30 characters.

 

The maximum character path is 255 characters.

2 hours ago, Pol04 said:

 

 

What is the 256 character limit file path ?. 

 

2 hours ago, varaderoguy said:

It is the maximum drive path limit is the data path

 

e.g. /sdcard/drive0/path/to/music/ is 30 characters.

 

The maximum character path is 255 characters.

 

What varaderoguy said

I've been exploring mine. Amundsen in a 2017 Octavia.

It seems to find 'more' if all albums are in the root. I also used TagScanner (PC) to check that all tracks have name/artist/album.

so a couple of things i've found: if there are too many files on the card, the db view will refuse to play ball. I would suggest browsing by file structure. I currently have a 256GB full-size SD in the car and it's got around 5000 songs on there, with 700+ albums and a bunch of directories with 2000+ songs in. The Database says "no" at that point.

If the file format is wrong, it will normally say that, so "this file is not playable" or "no music found". I've seen a hard reboot help (press and hold power button for 10 seconds). 

 

Other than that, I would strongly suggest checking the precise format the files are in; they might have an .mp3 file extension, that doesn't mean they are actual .mp3 encoded files. There's also a couple of different ways they could be encoded, even if they're really MP3; one is CBR or Constant Bit Rate, the other is VBR or Variable Bit Rate. There's also the sample frequency which makes a difference. Put the card in your laptop, pick a couple of files. Check they are CBR and 44.1KHz, then put them in a directory in the root of the card. If they play, great. Now take the card back to the PC, add an artist folder, create a subfolder, drop the same files in there. Test in the car. If it works, great. Now go add another couple of folders worth and see what happens. 

Foobar (application in the app store on Windows) has some options to move stuff around, so you can just drop all the music in there and then export it based on %artist% or %album% etc to specific folders. You could also try exporting to MP3 again from there with high quality and see if that makes a difference, as foobar is pretty good at playing most things back. 

 

Are you sure, if you're selecting based on an album, that the tracks for that album are there? Not that there's a playlist and tracks 2, 3, 6 and 9 are missing so it complains... 

 

 

Ok i've tried a few things and here's what happened. 

 

First of all i performed the hard reboot.....still the files aren't showing up.

Secondly, i had a double album on the list, CD2 plays but CD1 doesn't appear on the screen. They're both CBR so that's not the issue.

After this i took two songs out of CD1 and put them directly into the root folder.....and they don't come up on the screen

I then took two songs out of CD 2 and they play fine.

I've checked both playable and unplayable files, and they're all 44.1KHz

I've also checked that all the songs which are supposed to be in the various folders are actually there, and they are.

 

At this point I'm thinking i might just have to leave things as they are and be glad i can at least play some albums !

5 hours ago, Pol04 said:

Ok i've tried a few things and here's what happened. 

 

First of all i performed the hard reboot.....still the files aren't showing up.

Secondly, i had a double album on the list, CD2 plays but CD1 doesn't appear on the screen. They're both CBR so that's not the issue.

After this i took two songs out of CD1 and put them directly into the root folder.....and they don't come up on the screen

I then took two songs out of CD 2 and they play fine.

I've checked both playable and unplayable files, and they're all 44.1KHz

I've also checked that all the songs which are supposed to be in the various folders are actually there, and they are.

 

At this point I'm thinking i might just have to leave things as they are and be glad i can at least play some albums !

You're taking the same attitude as me. After doing a software update I was hoping it would play all my files. At least it plays the files I listen to most.

You will need to format the SD card with FAT32, that should solve it

4 hours ago, Noms said:

You will need to format the SD card with FAT32, that should solve it

Note that if the SD card is larger than 32GB the Windows format program won't do it, you'll need to use another program - a silly limit placed by Microsoft!

You can use Windows to format above 32GB but not with the format dialog box. Use either the Disk Management interface , or in a command prompt use FORMAT or DISKPART.

 

Open a Command Prompt.

On the Command line type "format /FS:FAT32 D: /q", assuming D: is your SD card.

 

Alternatively also in a command prompt type,

Type "diskpart" then press Enter

Type "list volume" then press Enter

Type "select volume x", where x is the drive letter of your SD card.

Type "format fs = fat32" and press Enter.

 

 

Edited 5 May, 20215 yr by FrankNicklin

1 minute ago, FrankNicklin said:

You can use Windows to format above 32GB but not with the format dialog box. Use either FORMAT in a command prompt or DISKPART.

Never knew that, you're the first person to mention that workaround - and I've been posting my advice for the last 10 YEARS!!!

 

You learn something every day 

On 05/05/2021 at 03:16, Noms said:

You will need to format the SD card with FAT32, that should solve it

Thanks mate but it is already in FAT32 format