First, let me say that we love our new F-type coupe. The design of the coupe is outstanding and it drives and performs better than I expected. We just returned from a trip to FL (over 3000mi); a good test. My complaint is with the audio/information system. This is a brand new design yet it lacks features/functionality that has been available for a number of years. I have sent email to Jaguar but thought I would post some of this as I know from other blogs that the mp3 issue is common. My first disappointment was that the information system does not support the Sirius XM weather map features. Since we travel a lot, this is a great feature in our other vehicles (including a 2011 Ford Expedition) and I found it hard to believe it was not supported with this new package. Prior to our recent trip, I copied one of my music memory sticks with mp3 music. Understand that these sticks work in my other vehicles along with portable mp3 players, etc. I quickly found that a number of my songs would not play; exhibiting a "file or folder not found" error. After attempting new downloads and new purchases of some of these songs, and investigating other blog sites, it was clear that there is an issue with the Jaguar audio mp3 system. After some additional research, it appears to be an issue with the bitrate format. I found that any song I had that used a bitrate exceeding 256k would not play. I used a bitrate converter program and modified my problem songs and resaved them with a bitrate of 250k. This resolved my problems and all of the songs now play correctly. I can't promise this is the complete solution but it did resolve my issues.

 

That explains my issue. Same only I did not dig into it. Just some would not play and some were not found.
Thanks for the info.

 

If you try this, also set your bitrate mode to "average". Although you will give up some quality (with respect to a true "variable" setting) the sound quality is still fine.

 

3000 miles? In one trip?!?

Respect...

 

My wife's (British!) mother and father (in their 70's at the time) bought an old Honda Goldwing while on a visit one year, fixed it up and rode from Virginia to California and back in 10 days. They wanted to ride the famous Route 66, so they did...

 

That's a pretty average road-trip in this country for those who would rather drive than fly. We have large distances to cover. We used to go from Maryland to the Gulf Coast, 5-6 times a year, which is about the same distance. I drove it straight through one-way a few times, and that does get a little painful, otherwise it was one overnight stop each way.

I suppose for you, that would be like going from London to Moscow, which I suspect would be a little more involved.

 

Oh, my parents drove us from Arlington to San Francisco and back in the summer of 1970.

In a '67 Falcon Station Wagon with a tent trailer on the back.

Sloooow...

 

My condolences. My parents were nice enough to sentence us to those types of trips in a slightly larger vehicle--'66 Ford Ranch Wagon. With 4 boys, 12 yrs. and under, all 2 years apart, I don't think my family ever recovered.

 

I had the same problem; some mp3s not playing for no particular obvious reason.


What I did find out was that, mp3 downloaded from a large, respected online music service had no problem playing, while files downloaded thru torrent had trouble. I figured that slightest glitch in the mp3 and the Meridian system refuses to read.


So what I did was, instead of changing all the mp3s to the OP's bitrate of 250, I just recoded 320kbps --> 320kbps using a good mp3 converting application.


And on test, all the files that were unable to read, were all readable, in 320kbps.


I leave this quick reply for the record, in case this works out for other people with similar problems.

 

Also for the record, what model year is your car? Perhaps there was a firmware update. My 2016 plays 320kbps MP3 files without trouble. They were all ripped directly from CD using iTunes.

I did have trouble with my previous car telling me I had unreadable media sometimes. If the flash drive was too big I had to format it with a non-default block size. I ended up just using 8GB maximum.

 

My car is one of the first batches made, so is MY2014.

Nobody with a '15 or '16 car have MP3 reading problems?

I am having my hopes up that an update of the car can fix this!

 

yeah the audio system is taking me time getting used to. When I first insert a cd, it plays fine. But then if I switch it to another mode, or turn the car off, it won't read the cd again. I have to reinsert the cd for it to play. Anyone else have this problem? The cd is original and no mp3's.

 

11 months of ownership, when I first got the car I loaded an 8 gig memory stick with .mp3s but the Meridian system only accessed one folder at a time and played the music sequentially with no way of choosing via a menu system. I had manually copied the .mp3 album folders onto the memory stick. Just had annual service (7,500 miles) which included an oil change and a software update for O2 sensors and flux capacitor and maybe the radio head unit.

People ask me "which Meridian Radio did you get" and I like to say "The V6S -- the car comes with a radio??"