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MFT with USB jump drive indexing problem solved


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OK, there had been some discussion in another thread about problems indexing a large number of music files on a USB jump drive.

 

I bought one of the teeny tiny SanDisk drives, which is hardly bigger than the USB connection itself.  I bought a 16GB version.

 

About 15.5GB of music, 2600 songs.  In my iTunes I had a playlist set up for my CMax music, all deduped with my favorite music.  I have over 100GB so I can't put it all on MFT...

 

My first attempt I put them all in a single folder, just a flat collection of files.

 

MFT tried for an hour to index them and never would complete, it would just spin and spin.

 

My second attempt, I used iTunes Export.  I had it export the actual song files as well, so now they are in all the same folders that iTunes organizes them.  Then I just copied all those folders to the jump drive.

 

Worked like a charm.  Now it sees them almost instantly, no waiting.

 

I used the command line version of iTunes Export because I don't want to install Adobe AIR (last thing I need are more security holes).

 

I ran it with this command if you are interested...

 

 

java -Xmx6g -jar itunesexport.jar -fileTypes=ALL -copy=ITUNES -includePlaylist="my car playlist" -library="/myiTunes/iTunes Library.xml" outputfolder/

 

 

 

 

 

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There is an auto-play feature, when you plug in a usb drive the MFT system detects it and switches over. Of course, if you leave a loaded usb stick plugged in all the time, the system will detect it each time you start the car. So go into settings and turn off autoplay and you won't jump to the usb stick when you want to stay with the radio.

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There is an auto-play feature, when you plug in a usb drive the MFT system detects it and switches over. Of course, if you leave a loaded usb stick plugged in all the time, the system will detect it each time you start the car. So go into settings and turn off autoplay and you won't jump to the usb stick when you want to stay with the radio.

Thanks Mike.  That is what was happening.

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Windows Media Player (what I use) works this way naturally when you sync a usb device..

 

Yet another reason why MFT sucks.  It should be able to work with just about any formatting of media storage.  But it doesn't.

 

My Chrysler UConnect worked with any media organization I could throw at it, and it predates MFT by several years.

 

I shouldn't have to twist around my organization to work with MFT (Which is Microsoft Auto and uses Windows Media Player).

 

I can get playlists and media files onto removable storage just fine, and they work just about everywhere except MFT apparantly.  For all my other use I just select the music or playlist I want in iTunes and drop it on the USB device, and I am good to go.  But MFT crapped out trying to index that, so I did some searching and found the iTunes Exporter which will export it into a sliced up folder structure which doesn't kill MFT.

 

This is really only a problem if you have a ton of files.  Again, a limitation of MFT which only supports FAT32.  A folder in FAT32 can only have *up to* 32,000 files.  (If the filenames are longer than 8.3 then that number goes down even further, as long filenames take several directory entries to store and FAT32 only has 65k directory entries).

 

If MFT would support NTFS, ext2 or ext3, or HFS+ file systems then it could have between 2 billion and 4 billion files in a single folder.  But MFT is stuck in 1996.

 

And I don't know what the hell keeps MFT from easily indexing the files in one single folder.  My first iPod had 10,000 songs on it and never hung up indexing or browsing them and MFT has hundreds time more RAM and processor capabilities.  Again, just showing more weakness in the whole Windows Auto platform.

 

My 2008 Dodge with UConnect and (1/4 the power or RAM of the current MFT) had a 10GB hard drive, and I attached a 120GB USB drive (from an old laptop) and it never choked on all that music.

 

There is just no excuse for this in 2012.  MFT should just plain work.

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Not to quibble, but the link in the OP was to an external MAC app called iTunes Exporter, not just using iTunes to do an export.

 

I'd much rather just plug in my Android phone and have it use that as a drive, but it says it's an unsupported USB device, and to please unplug it.

 

I'll try doing an export from iTunes or a sync from WMP and see how that goes.

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Not to quibble but I dint think you actually went to the link in the OP.

 

It's not a Mac app.

 

It is an app for iTunes users, runs on Windows and OSX.

 

It's a java back-end and can be used with an Adobe AIR interface if desired.

 

iTunes Export exports playlists defined in your iTunes Music Library to standard .m3u, .wpl (Windows Media), .zpl (Zune), or .mpl (Centrafuse) playlists. iTunes Export also supports copying the original music files with the playlist to facilitate exporting to other devices. iTunes Export is open source and freely available for use.

iTunes Export comes in two versions:

Graphical User Interface - An easy to use version.

Command Line Version - Supports automated processes and scripting.

Both versions are supported in Windows and Mac OS X. The user interface version requires Adobe AIR and the command line version requires Java.

(Emphasis added by me)

Edited by valkraider
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Yet another reason why MFT sucks.  It should be able to work with just about any formatting of media storage.  But it doesn't.

 

My Chrysler UConnect worked with any media organization I could throw at it, and it predates MFT by several years.

 

I shouldn't have to twist around my organization to work with MFT (Which is Microsoft Auto and uses Windows Media Player).

 

I can get playlists and media files onto removable storage just fine, and they work just about everywhere except MFT apparantly.  For all my other use I just select the music or playlist I want in iTunes and drop it on the USB device, and I am good to go.  But MFT crapped out trying to index that, so I did some searching and found the iTunes Exporter which will export it into a sliced up folder structure which doesn't kill MFT.

 

This is really only a problem if you have a ton of files.  Again, a limitation of MFT which only supports FAT32.  A folder in FAT32 can only have *up to* 32,000 files.  (If the filenames are longer than 8.3 then that number goes down even further, as long filenames take several directory entries to store and FAT32 only has 65k directory entries).

 

If MFT would support NTFS, ext2 or ext3, or HFS+ file systems then it could have between 2 billion and 4 billion files in a single folder.  But MFT is stuck in 1996.

 

And I don't know what the hell keeps MFT from easily indexing the files in one single folder.  My first iPod had 10,000 songs on it and never hung up indexing or browsing them and MFT has hundreds time more RAM and processor capabilities.  Again, just showing more weakness in the whole Windows Auto platform.

 

My 2008 Dodge with UConnect and (1/4 the power or RAM of the current MFT) had a 10GB hard drive, and I attached a 120GB USB drive (from an old laptop) and it never choked on all that music.

 

There is just no excuse for this in 2012.  MFT should just plain work.

 

I can take the same 160gb iPod Classic that chokes in MFT and use it in my RNS510 without a problem. Yesterday I simply wanted to change from one playlist to another and the MFT permenantly stuck on "Reloading"? My right dash display would show the playlist with the correct selection and you could hear the material playing through the speakers but MFT was frozen.

 

You would think that as an SQA baseline they would test an iPod Classic.

Edited by darrelld
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