Play songs from a USB thumb drive?
- Thread starter erhayes
- Start date
MozDT
Escaped from a Peugeot 3008 to a 2018 SportNav
Hello (first time poster here).
I recently got a 2018 CX-5 SportNav and have been able to use a USB 2.0 memory stick with MP3's on it without any issues.
I believe 16gb is recommended but I've had a 64gb stick working with all 28gb worth of my music on it.
Only thing I've noticed is that the more songs you have, the longer it takes the car to index/cache the music so that selection by Artist or Album etc is available (I can only access the music via the Folders option until that's complete). I timed it at @ 5 minutes before selection by artist/album became available.
Next, I got a 16gb USB 2.0 stick and slimmed down my music library considerably (copied fewer artists/albums which I don't listen to that much) and popped that in. It only took a minute or so to index/cache.
Not sure if the 2021 GT uses the same infotainment system as the 2018 Sport Nav, but I'd imagine it should still be able to access the music in the same way.
Hope that helps!
I recently got a 2018 CX-5 SportNav and have been able to use a USB 2.0 memory stick with MP3's on it without any issues.
I believe 16gb is recommended but I've had a 64gb stick working with all 28gb worth of my music on it.
Only thing I've noticed is that the more songs you have, the longer it takes the car to index/cache the music so that selection by Artist or Album etc is available (I can only access the music via the Folders option until that's complete). I timed it at @ 5 minutes before selection by artist/album became available.
Next, I got a 16gb USB 2.0 stick and slimmed down my music library considerably (copied fewer artists/albums which I don't listen to that much) and popped that in. It only took a minute or so to index/cache.
Not sure if the 2021 GT uses the same infotainment system as the 2018 Sport Nav, but I'd imagine it should still be able to access the music in the same way.
Hope that helps!
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- 2016.5 CX-5 GT AWD titanium/black 2016 Miata Club ST MT white
I don't see why not. I've been doing this since I got my 2016.5 CX and my 2016 MX. The manual for my cars says that 32gb is the max size and it must be formatted using FAT32.
I ripped nearly all of my CD's and I have ten 32gb USB drives worth of music. That's a LOT of songs!
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- 2016.5 CX-5 GT AWD titanium/black 2016 Miata Club ST MT white
What method was used to format your drive?I have a 256GB drive in our 2019. We have over 1k 256kbps MP3's loaded on it with no issues.
Finally giving up on the CD player?
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- 2019 CX-5 Signature
I've actually had 2 drives in the CX-5. The first was a 64GB that was formatted FAT32. The 256GB drive now installed was left default, so not sure.
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- 2016.5 CX-5 GT AWD titanium/black 2016 Miata Club ST MT white
My understanding is that drives larger than 32gb can be used as long as they are partitioned to 32gb or less and formatted with FAT32.
YMMV
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- 2019 CX-5 Signature
Maybe back when your '16 was new, but that certainly isn't the case now.
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- 2018 CX-5 Sport
I always play music from my thumb drive. What is odd is, even if I turn off the music, the drive keeps being read and advancing. If I turn the music back on, it will be playing the middle of a different song.
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You might need to have the firmware updated. Mine will pick up exactly where it left off even if I remove the usb drive then re-insert it.
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- 2019 Cx-5 sport
mine is the same as wlong01... usb works , 16 gig fat 32
push mute button , then unmute later and picks up where it was
muted ....
push mute button , then unmute later and picks up where it was
muted ....
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LOL! Thumb drives work beautifully. No tricks, no formatting, no monkey motion, no long delays. I have a 64 Gb drive with all 320k mp3s (obvious distortion at less), something like 3500 songs.
One of the most entertaining modes is playing the songs in alphabetical order.
One of the most entertaining modes is playing the songs in alphabetical order.
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- Mazda CX-5 GSX 2.2d 2017
Running a 64gig drive in wife’s cx5 which is formatted in fat32 but it will read my 256 gig drive from my car which runs its default format.
The car had its last update in Dec 2020 and had the CarPlay retrofit a coupe years back.
One of the updates changed to play from where it left off on restart.
Music format wise it’s reasonably good. It will play MP3 , Flac , WMA , WMA losses and apple formats. But so far it doesn’t support ALAC which is apple losses. ) however it will stream ALAC tracks
Via car play.
Personally I’m ripping music via FLAC now as that seems the most universal lossless codec that works across all my devices now that USB size is no longer a problem.
The car had its last update in Dec 2020 and had the CarPlay retrofit a coupe years back.
One of the updates changed to play from where it left off on restart.
Music format wise it’s reasonably good. It will play MP3 , Flac , WMA , WMA losses and apple formats. But so far it doesn’t support ALAC which is apple losses. ) however it will stream ALAC tracks
Via car play.
Personally I’m ripping music via FLAC now as that seems the most universal lossless codec that works across all my devices now that USB size is no longer a problem.
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- South Carolina
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- 21 CX-9 13 CX-5
This, 1000x this.
There is no excuse in 2021 to keep using a terrible compression format from the Windows 3.1 days that was designed to move music files across a 14.4kbps dial-up modem, and 200 meg hard drives (MEG, not GIG!) were $1,000.
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- 2019 CX-5 Signature
How are you playing FLAC on a Mazda OEM head unit? It is not a recognizable format on our 2019.
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- South Carolina
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- 21 CX-9 13 CX-5
I installed Kenwood DDX's in both of my Mazdas. A 8905S in my CX5, and a 8706S in my 5. They are so much better than the factory head units, there's no comparison.
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- Mazda CX-5 GSX 2.2d 2017
I think I need to recheck .
I’ll try Flac , WMA lossless and Apple ALAC again after latest update and try again and report back.
Also need to sort some aftermarket speakers and amps that are compatible with stop / start.
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- 2015 Mazda CX-5 Touring FWD
I have used a thumb drive successfully on my 2015 Touring. There's around 1,000 songs on it. I also use a Apple Classic Ipod that has 10,600 some songs on it. It would not play if directly plugged into the port, but I got a blue tooth transmitter, and can play it that way.
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