Problem putting Music on Flash Drive.

[johneee]

Hi, I’ve just used iTunes for first time, I started by Ripping a CD to MP3 then I Dragged & Dropped the songs into a folder on my Desktop then Dragged & Dropped the Folder on to my Flash Drive & when I tried it in the Car the album looked OK & all the songs played well but the problem was under the album it said UNKNOWN then when I clicked on it it showed a list of all the songs each one had a dot and a line in front of them & they wouldn’t play. Not sure how to sort it out, Any advice would be appreciated. John.

 

[honestone]

I wonder if the flash drive needs to be formatted in a "specific" way. I know that with our Samsung SMART TV, if I want to use a flash drive with it, the flash drive must be formatted in "Windows" fashion. For me, for the movies and/or TV series I want to copy from my Mac to the drive, it must be formatted as ExFAT, with a Scheme of Master Boot Record. I can then watch the videos on the TV.

 

[johneee]

Hi honestone, The only format that works is :- MS-DOS ( Fat ) / Master Boot Record.
John S.
P.S. I have since been informed on Apple Forums that this is normal so not sure where to go from here. It seems I have paid over twice the price for an inferior computer with hindsight I would have stayed with Microsoft.

 

[MightyGem]

I think that it's probably a problem with your car radio rather than your Mac.

 

[honestone]

Hi honestone, The only format that works is :- MS-DOS ( Fat ) / Master Boot Record.
John S.
P.S. I have since been informed on Apple Forums that this is normal so not sure where to go from here. It seems I have paid over twice the price for an inferior computer with hindsight I would have stayed with Microsoft.

But you can use Disk Utility to format the drive as either MS-DOS (Fat), or ExFAT, and a scheme of Master Boot Record. In actuality, at least for the movies and/or TV series I am placing on a flash drive, I format it as ExFAT, with a scheme of Master Boot Record.

 

[johneee]

Many thanks for the replies much appreciated.

John.

 

[honestone]

If you format the Flash Drive as MS-DOS (Fat), or ExFAT, did that work?

 

[johneee]

Did format as :- MS-Dos ( FAT 32 ) / Master Boot Record. This is the only one the car stereo accepts. The good thing is it doesn't show UNKNOWN file after every album it just shows one at the end of list of albums & just keeps adding song files inside it all start with ._
John.

 

[honestone]

So the name of each individual song "file" is there, except the name starts with a ._, is that correct? For example, if you add the song "Under Pressure" (by Queen), the name would appear as "._Under Pressure", right?

I know a strange thing does happen after I copy a series to a Flash Drive (formatted as ExFAT, Master Boot Record) inside a folder containing some or all those series episodes. For example, I have the (excellent) TV series Fargo Season 1 (also have the other two seasons). If I drag the folder containing all 10 episodes (numbered in order, sequentially, ie, Fargo - Episode 1, Fargo - Episode 2, etc.) to the flash drive, on my Mac I can see those episodes in the correct ("expected") order, but when I plug the drive into one of the USB ports on our Samsung SMART TV, and its built-in video player recognizes the drive, the order of the episodes is no longer in order. That is, it might be "Fargo - Episode 8, Fargo - Episode 3", etc. All the episodes are there, but not in the order I placed them in inside that Fargo - Season 1 folder.

 

[johneee]

Hi honestone, The first song on the list would show as "._ 01Under Pressure" if that song was say no. 6 in the play list it would show as "._ 06 Under Pressure".
John.

 

[honestone]

Thanks, John. At least they are in the expected, correct order. Not like I experience with TV series on a flash drive as viewed by the video player on our Samsung TV. Maybe more recent models of SMART TVs are better with that.