Michael Wu

Hi everyone,

I was curious if anyone was able to get an SD card to read in their car? I read several things so I'm not really sure what to believe.... from what I gather you must have and SDHC or SDXC card no greater than 16 gig. I also read that if you get your firmware upgraded you could go higher. Does anyone know about this?

I called my dealer and they said they don't upgrade the firmware unless there is a recall. I told them I rely on the SD card for music since there is no Bluetooth, USB or at minimum, an auxiliary cord. The dealership manager said the firmware upgrade would be $284 since I'm no longer under warranty and he doesn't even know if that would fix the issue. He said it could also completely damage the radio and if it were to be damaged, it would be over $1000.

For the record, I know about the aftermarket MMI bluetooth adapter but I like quality and bluetooth doesn't quite pack that punch i'm looking for.

AudiA42.0

You need to format the card with FAT32

audi8k

Michael Wu

@AudiA42.0 I believe I did format it FAT32 but I will double check.

@audi8k I have a 2011 if that makes a difference

Michael Wu

To follow up, I have my 64gig SDXC card in FAT32 which seems to read now only it doesn't seem to recognize the m3u playlists I ripped from Itunes. Anyone know about the formatting structure for the files on the card? I get the error No Music on Device or something similar... even though I have several M3u on the card.

captain_video

Check out this thread: https://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/811745-Question-about-playing-music-from-an-SD-card. I posted some good info in post #27 that you might find helpful.

Michael Wu

Hey guys I finally got this to work. I'd like to share my experience in case anyone else needs to figure this out. Before I start, I'd like to point out I used a 64 gig SDXC card despite the theory it can only handle standard SD cards with limited capacity.

1. Take SD card and unlock it (little switch on the side of the card)
2. Download a FAT32 converter and convert your card (converter easily found via google search)
3. Open your Itunes and side by side it with your sd card (found in This PC)
4. Click and drag the music from your library onto the card.
5. Done!

The music maps over as the file exists behind Itunes so if your mp3 file is listed on your computer as 01 - Sweet Child O'Mine, for example, but you have it in Itunes as Sweet Child O'Mine it will still read 01 - Sweet Child O'Mine. It is a bit frustrating but at least we got the music on there. I just added some folders by artist name and am transferring everything over manually. Tedious but the quality seems MUCH better than the MMI cable with converter because let's be honest, who has an old gen iphone/ipod that they still plug into this at 2018?

If someone has some pro tips of how to manage the transfers please add on!

captain_video

You don't need a special converter for FAT32 if you're using a PC. Just get a USB SD card reader and plug it into your PC and insert the card. Right click on the card reader drive letter when it shows up in Windows Explorer and select format. FAT32 is the default option. Just do a quick format and you're done.

Michael Wu

The converter wasn't anything special and it was a free download and easy to use.

captain_video

You're missing the point. If you're using a PC all you have to do is right-click on the drive and select format. It will format it as FAT32 by default. There is no third party app required. Windows will format the SD card as FAT32 by default.