Cannot transfer music via USB
 

Gentlemen, I cannot transfer mp3 music to my XJ using a flash drive plugged into the console USB port. I have purchased mp3 format music on line from Amazon and downloaded it to my laptop PC where the music plays just fine. I then copied the individual mp3 file selections one by one onto a clean flash drive. When I plug the flash drive into the XJ's USB, the flash drive is recognized but will not download or play. Screen says Device Error. What am I doing wrong?

Perhaps the car does not recognize how the USB flash drive has been formatted. Try formatting it with a different format.

Search the forum for other help but this thread is a good start mp3 usb issues. I have had some issues where I can get the ipod to work perfectly but a usb loaded with mp3's will work but some tracks only play for a short time.

Freddy, look at the formatting of the music. Is it in say 128/256/320 CBR or is it in VBR format? Our cars only like CBR (Constant BitRate) format. If you have the music in VRB (Variable BitRate), it doesn't respond to the changing formats and sees it as an error. There are converters out there that will change the music from one format to another. See where you end up after doing this. This normally solves 99% of the issues. It is possible that the MP3 has copyright data on it and only allows it to be transferred between a number of devices and you have exceeded that. But, that is a rarity these days. This is part of the reason why I always buy the CD and then burn it on my own.

+1 to Thermo's comments. The data has to have constant bit rate for the media player to recognize it. I downloaded a free program (can't remember the name) to convert the music data and all is well.

John

Thanks guys. I suspect what you suggest is the case. The flash drive is formatted in FAT 32 which should be okay. None of the tunes exceed it's limits. I know the music is 256kb/s but CBR or VBR?. Trying to discern that.
Regardless, I would like to apply a converter and after spending the last 3 hours trying to find a free S/W converter, I could trust, I give up.
TNJohn, Thermo, I'd appreciate it if you could advise what the converter program is that you have used.

The problem was converting VBR to CBR as suggested. The freeware converter was called "LameXP". I found the site and instruction in I think one of Thermo's previous threads. So, thank you. Music transfer problem solved. All tunes play just fine.

Freddy, good to hear that all is good. I know I had a hell of a time as I have like 15,000 songs that I had to figure out which ones were CBR and which were VBR. Now I am contemplating redoing all my songs up to 256K or even possibly 320K to get a bit more out of the audio system. I recorded most of them in 128K format, which has me loosing a little bit of the top end.