MP3 intergration

[juggernautrises]

Hello,

Does anyone know if you can play MP3s directly from a flash drive through the USB port? I haven't been able to find a definitive answer on this with the CX-5.

Thanks!

 

[popeyecahn]

From my understanding and experience, yes. But codec and bitrates have some limitations as to what will work, typical mp3s have not been a problem for me. YMMV though...

Read through this thread.

 

[stromdriver]

short answer yes

long answer is complicated

 

[Lozza57]

Mine plays mp3's from memory stick fine - shows folder list and track titles as well. Long answer might be useful....

 

[HandA]

I haven't had any issues playing them from a flash drive on mine. I love that setup because the flash drives are so cheap and small. I have found that some of the drives seem to be slower than others but that doesn't affect playback, just the first time you start the drive playing.

Trevor
Mazda CX5 Accessories

 

[ruthrj]

I like the iPod support much better than the flash drive support, but that's only because of the way iTunes manages my folders I think. Even though songs are sorted by Artists (folders) -> Albums (folders) -> Songs, my CX-5's radio wouldn't sort by artist when I dragged and dropped all of the artist folders onto the drive. Everything appears in alphabetical order by album and I couldn't figure out how to fix that. It also wanted to go through and re-index the entire contents of the flash drive every time I started the car (confused) With about 20 GB of music that left me waiting about 5 minutes before being able to use the stupid flash drive.

Easy fix. I used my 8 GB iPod instead. Now I can navigate by artist, genre, etc. One of these days I'm going to buy a used, older style iPod with the click wheel to just leave in the car so it can hold all of my music

 

[not_too_shabby]

ruthj- When you turn off the vehicle and turn it back on again, does the ipod start playing where it left off? Is there a long delay while before it starts back up? I was looking at a 2013 cx-9 which I believe has the same tom-tom system, and the iPod took about a minute before it read all the data and started playing. Then when I turned off the car and back on again, it said ipod, but all the controls were blank on the screen and it would not start playing again till I unplugged it and plugged it back in. But then it started all over again at the top of the songs list. The sales guy was clueless and tried to explain that is the way it should be?!

 

[brainbasher]

For me it starts at the beginning of the drive when you turn the car back on with a thumb drive. I wish it would resume where it was when I turned the car off.

 

[HandA]

For me it starts at the beginning of the drive when you turn the car back on with a thumb drive. I wish it would resume where it was when I turned the car off.

Mine always restarts where it left off when I turn the car off and back on, it doesn't matter if it was 5 minutes or 5 days. The only time it starts over at the beginning is if I unplug the drive.

It also wanted to go through and re-index the entire contents of the flash drive every time I started the car (confused) With about 20 GB of music that left me waiting about 5 minutes before being able to use the stupid flash drive.

I wonder if part of that was the folder structure on the drive. I've had up to about 12 GB of music on my 16 GB drive and at most it took about 5 seconds to start playing music when I'd start the car. But I just drag each individual album to the main directory on the drive since it doesn't help putting them in any other way. I use the small USB drives that only stick out a half inch or less and the first one I used was somewhat slow even when using it just for files on the computer and it took maybe a couple seconds more to load each time I'd restart the car.

Easy fix. I used my 8 GB iPod instead. Now I can navigate by artist, genre, etc. One of these days I'm going to buy a used, older style iPod with the click wheel to just leave in the car so it can hold all of my music

I do wish it had some way to do those things with a USB drive but I am happy it at least has the USB as our Mazda3 doesn't.

Here's the drive I've had good luck with:

http://www3.pny.com/category_buymulti.aspx?Category_ID=459 They only show up to 8 GB on their site but they have a lot bigger. I haven't tried anything over 16. I like it because it doesn't stick up too far so the tray can sit above it and I don't have to worry about catching it on anything as easily.

My first USB drive was a no-name one that was even smaller and it would occasionally have errors and the player would crash and switch to radio. This new one has been trouble free.

All my files are MP3s at 320 kbps and work well.

Trevor
Mazda Accessories

 

[not_too_shabby]

Thanks guys for the posts. It sounds like there is hope that you can get music to restart where you left off. It's just a matter of figuring out if it's USB brand related, possibly different software versions on the radio, formatting of usb stick, etc.... What OS did you format the drives from, Mac or Windows?

 

[HandA]

I didn't reformat the drives, just deleted any software that came pre-installed on them and copied the files over from Windows7

 

[ruthrj]

Thanks guys for the posts. It sounds like there is hope that you can get music to restart where you left off. It's just a matter of figuring out if it's USB brand related, possibly different software versions on the radio, formatting of usb stick, etc.... What OS did you format the drives from, Mac or Windows?

I had the flash drive formatted for FAT32. I don't think the Mazda receiver will recognize Apple format.

To answer your earlier question though, music starts where I left off when turning on the car using an iPod. After the receiver starts up, it's about a 5 second delay before it starts playing where I left off. Music wouldn't restart where I left off with a USB drive. Pretty sure it was just an issue with with folder structure or something. I was using a Sandisk Cruzer 32 GB flash drive. Since I wanted to browse by artist, playlist, and genre, I never bothered troubleshooting and went straight to the iPod.

Good luck in whichever route you choose though!

EDIT: I don't have the Tom-Tom system. I have the basic touchscreen display without the satellite radio. Not sure if that makes or clears up any confusion

 

[rjdee]

I have the basic radio and my USB thumb resumes at the same place every time. It doesn't read the title/artist but I can easily move folders around. No Apple or iTunes for me.

 

[not_too_shabby]

I had the flash drive formatted for FAT32. I don't think the Mazda receiver will recognize Apple format.

To answer your earlier question though, music starts where I left off when turning on the car using an iPod. After the receiver starts up, it's about a 5 second delay before it starts playing where I left off. Music wouldn't restart where I left off with a USB drive. Pretty sure it was just an issue with with folder structure or something. I was using a Sandisk Cruzer 32 GB flash drive. Since I wanted to browse by artist, playlist, and genre, I never bothered troubleshooting and went straight to the iPod.

Good luck in whichever route you choose though!

EDIT: I don't have the Tom-Tom system. I have the basic touchscreen display without the satellite radio. Not sure if that makes or clears up any confusion

Interesting. It seems the tom-tom systems have an issue with restarting after the car is shut off, but the standard head unit does not.

 

[stromdriver]

Interesting. It seems the tom-tom systems have an issue with restarting after the car is shut off, but the standard head unit does not.

first of all, the tomtom has nothing to do with the audio playback

second, i have the nav system and my mp3's continue where i shutdown

 

[not_too_shabby]

Thanks. Good to know. There seems to be inconsistent results with that....

 

[omarko]

so what do I need to do to get it working? Sorry, its not clear at all.

Can someone please in simple terms explain:

1. How do I get the music to resume when using iPod Nano (latest gen) ?
2. How do I get the music to resume when using USB stick (is it specific folder structure? formatting? brand?)

thanks in advance

 

[xtrailman]

first of all, the tomtom has nothing to do with the audio playback

second, i have the nav system and my mp3's continue where i shutdown

I agree TT has nothing to do with the music system.

But on my 2014 cx5 the USB always starts at the beginning again, which is obviously irritating as I'm starting to hate that song.

 

[ALafya]

Not only does it start from the beginning, but it also shuffles in a way which is not random enough and plays the same set of songs all the time.

We should all complain to Mazda USA. Dealers can't fix something like this, whereas a software fix is probably very easy to do.
What is the best way to let Mazda know?
Is it the customer assistance phone #?

http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/contactMazda.action

 

[stromdriver]

its extremely well documented on this forum that the '14s changed the way usb is handled as far as resuming, search is your friend, there are multiple threads on this topic already