Kelleytoons Posted July 16, 2014 Report Share Posted July 16, 2014 I can't believe how cheap USB memory has gotten over the years (heck, almost ANY computer memory -- I paid 2K for a 1GB hard drive less than 15 years ago. Ah, those were the days). Anyway, while I plan on using the Bluetooth sync to my iPhone for most of my music playing needs, it occurs to me that where reception is spotty (or where I just want to take advantage of the "Play [that album]" voice feature in MFT) I could copy most (not all, but most) of my music onto one of these drives. However, I do know that not all hardware supports these larger drives (most of which use some modified FAT or other formatting to account for all the space). Not only that, I'm a bit worried that it might end up slower if I load that much music into it (it says, IIRC, that it handles up to 30K worth of songs, which would be less than I would be copying, but I still don't want things to slow down in the searches). So -- anyone have experience using a very large stick? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelleytoons Posted July 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2014 Oooo -- add on question (do I get a bonus?). Just noticed I can get a 256GB USB 3.0 drive (a lot more money but then it WOULD hold all my music :>). However, size aside, what interests me is the USB 3.0. Can the C-Max take advantage of that technology or is it limited to 2.0 (in which case speed wouldn't be improved any and the premium to pay for that wouldn't be worth it)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdbob Posted July 16, 2014 Report Share Posted July 16, 2014 Oooo -- add on question (do I get a bonus?). Just noticed I can get a 256GB USB 3.0 drive (a lot more money but then it WOULD hold all my music :>). However, size aside, what interests me is the USB 3.0. Can the C-Max take advantage of that technology or is it limited to 2.0 (in which case speed wouldn't be improved any and the premium to pay for that wouldn't be worth it)? It's extremely unlikely that the SYNC system would have USB 3.0 support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotomoto Posted July 16, 2014 Report Share Posted July 16, 2014 I have a pathetically small by comparison 32GB drive that's no where near full and it works with no issues. I use it on longer drives when streaming bluetooth would use up a lot of battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banditb17 Posted July 16, 2014 Report Share Posted July 16, 2014 Oooo -- add on question (do I get a bonus?). Just noticed I can get a 256GB USB 3.0 drive (a lot more money but then it WOULD hold all my music :>). However, size aside, what interests me is the USB 3.0. Can the C-Max take advantage of that technology or is it limited to 2.0 (in which case speed wouldn't be improved any and the premium to pay for that wouldn't be worth it)? I doubt the CMax has USB3.0 in it, but I also doubt you would see much performance increase in this application even if it did. The bottleneck would more be on the software side and its ability to translate the data that it sees. You may see a much faster speed when initially loading up the stick from your PC, however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelleytoons Posted July 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2014 Yeah, after I posted that I thought about that. I ended up buying a 128GB 3.0 stick just so I can transfer the music to it faster (since my PC supports 3.0). It was only a few dollars more than the 2.0 version (and still less than $45 -- really amazing). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salsaguy Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 (edited) Highly suggest using one of these LOW profile USB sticks:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00812F7O8/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DERthey have it in up to 64 gbmaybe u can find another version in 128i checked but couldnt find any in USB 3.0 to help on the download speed from the PC to the stick I can't believe how cheap USB memory has gotten over the years (heck, almost ANY computer memory -- I paid 2K for a 1GB hard drive less than 15 years ago. Ah, those were the days). Anyway, while I plan on using the Bluetooth sync to my iPhone for most of my music playing needs, it occurs to me that where reception is spotty (or where I just want to take advantage of the "Play [that album]" voice feature in MFT) I could copy most (not all, but most) of my music onto one of these drives. However, I do know that not all hardware supports these larger drives (most of which use some modified FAT or other formatting to account for all the space). Not only that, I'm a bit worried that it might end up slower if I load that much music into it (it says, IIRC, that it handles up to 30K worth of songs, which would be less than I would be copying, but I still don't want things to slow down in the searches). So -- anyone have experience using a very large stick? Edited July 17, 2014 by salsaguy obob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelleytoons Posted July 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 Yeah, I thought about that but I just bought a "regular" size one so I could get the larger space. It will be okay, though -- we rarely put anything in our storage compartments so I don't think it will get in the way (in the Durango I was cleaning it out yesterday to see if there was anything I needed to transfer and the only thing I could think of was my phone charger cable). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wamba2000 Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 I use a Patriot 32Gb minisize USB drive ( only 2.0) so that it does not get knocked into by other console items. It is smaller than a quarter in size, and has worked flawlessly, only about 1/3 filled with music so far.I see there are USB 3.0 versions from Patriot that are very small physical size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B&B Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 I have tried this and had mixed results. I have a 128 gb Scandisk that a friend put on about 3000 tunes from ITunes. While it will play, the flash drive never fully loads (I have had it playing for an hour or so to test) and you cannot use the search (voice or otherwise) to look for specific titles. I tried removing about half, down to 1500 songs and still the same result. I have a few smaller flash drives, one with 350 songs and that one works fine. Might be best to have a few smaller drives than one big one so as to be able to use all of the MFT functions. Not sure what the breaking point is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelleytoons Posted July 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Hmmm, that's discouraging. Putting a smaller amount just isn't a solution for me -- the whole point of such a drive is to have all my music. Otherwise, I'll just use my phone (which, with Apple streaming, can play from all my music no matter how large my library goes). I can search using Siri but, of course, not with the MFT (so not hands free). But since the stick is coming tomorrow I'll give it a test and if it doesn't work I'll just stick with the phone (worst comes to worse I have enough onboard the phone so even if I get into an area with no connection I can still play. But a bummer I can't hands free search). I wonder, though, how you organized your music on that drive. Was it all in one folder or individually? And if individually, was it also broken down by folders for each album? My music is pretty organized in that manner precisely for quick searches using other sorts of hardware similar to the MFT and they work well there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B&B Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 The music was taken from my iTunes individually and all of the info carried over. On the smaller flash drives that work completely, I can search (by voice or on screen) by title, artist or album (i.e. if I say "play Let It Be") it asks if I want to play song or album and just say which. Really cool and bummed also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelleytoons Posted July 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 I suspect organizing the music by folder (and also using the Windows Properties to identify it as a music folder) will solve that issue. I tried this with a 32mb drive and about 3000 songs and it worked fine, indexed within 10 minutes or less (and the drive was nearly full, so I suspect a 128gb drive even full would index in an hour or less). I've kind of decided to only use a 64gb drive, though, for size considerations (small footprint) but in any case I'm confident that it will work fine (won't know for sure until I get it Tuesday). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelleytoons Posted July 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 (edited) I have tried this and had mixed results. I have a 128 gb Scandisk that a friend put on about 3000 tunes from ITunes. While it will play, the flash drive never fully loads (I have had it playing for an hour or so to test) and you cannot use the search (voice or otherwise) to look for specific titles. I tried removing about half, down to 1500 songs and still the same result. I have a few smaller flash drives, one with 350 songs and that one works fine. Might be best to have a few smaller drives than one big one so as to be able to use all of the MFT functions. Not sure what the breaking point is. Tried it tonight with my 128GB USB stick and it worked perfectly. I had it about 75% full (about 80gb), with over 10K worth of songs on it, and the indexing took five minutes and then building commands took another four (so it was completely done and ready for all voice commands in less than 10 minutes). After that I was able to get any album, artist or song by voice files just fine. So I don't think it's a matter of a "breaking point" so much as organizing your drive properly. All my music files were in separate folders by artist and album, and each folder was optimized (using Windows Explorer) as a music folder. This is most of the music I really want to play in a car so I think I'm all set but since my wife likes to stick in drives to play certain playlists I think we'll need to work something out. Edited July 22, 2014 by Kelleytoons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacobus Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 i just bought a 128gb 3.0 and no luck. I tried all 3 formats NTFS, FAT32, and exFAT with 1 mp3 on the device Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelleytoons Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Which drive? Not all are alike -- there are some that are much better quality than others. I've used many various types of drives and even some from major makers don't work so it may just be a matter of getting the right brand. This drive worked for me: http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Turbo-128GB-Flash-Drive/dp/B00FE2N1WS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434886763&sr=8-1&keywords=128gb+usb+3.0&pebp=1434886790880&perid=0TYWJTW4EV7VJY7949QG and as always if you order from Amazon and it doesn't work for you you can return it for free (they even pay for shipping). Assuming you can also return the drive you just bought, you might want to try this one. But first... make sure you have updated MFT to the latest version (you can login to your MySync page to find out what version you have and whether you need to update or not). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
openair Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 (edited) All my music files were in separate folders by artist and album, and each folder was optimized (using Windows Explorer) as a music folder.Can anyone point me to any Microsoft documentation that suggests these folder optimizations have any affect outside of Windows (Desktop) pcs or Windows RT? My understand is that these optimization have no affect on the file structure or anything of that sort. They only affect OS's that are looking for these optimization flags and even then only how much extra work they do with these folders. Extra work such as thumbnails, indexing and other preview or preloading convenience features of Windows (desktop). A stand alone mp3 player or sync in our vehicles probably isn't even looking for these flags. Edited June 21, 2015 by openair Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelleytoons Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 I doubt whether they are used by anything other than the OS in determining how it will display things, but it's such a trivial thing to do it certainly doesn't hurt doing it (you only have to do it on the parent folder and tell it to ripple the changes throughout, so it takes less than even one second). I wouldn't obsess over it either way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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