3G MMI 4000 File Limitation?
 

Can anyone here confirm 100% that they have NOT run into the 4000 file limitation of the 3G MMI system? I ask as I feel I've seen conflicting reports about some people using large capacity USB drives and having no issue with file limitations.

I could be confusing those reports with 2G MMI owners but I feel like I saw some comments about 3G users not having the issue. The issue does not affect 2G units.

On a related topic, if the 4000 file limit is a fact of life with 3G MMI, can anyone tell me whether that is a total number of files or whether the 4000 is limited by source? For example: I have 1000 files on my jukebox, 3000 files on SD 1 and another 3000 files on SD 2 for a total of 7000 files, is that possible?

Thanks.

3g File Limit
 

I came across the limit as well. For example, I connected a 500gb hard drive to the glovebox with around 25k songs, it would load for awhile and then the list would stop around the letter 'J'. My file structure was artist/album/track. It appears that it would load all of the files in the order they were on the drive, hence at Janis Joplin, nothing more would load.

Now if I connect a 160gb ipod with 25k songs, it is fine. I think the difference is when it is a hard drive, the MMI caches/stores the list, when it is hooked up to the ipod, it doesn't cache that info, only talks to the ipod to pull the data.

Now I use the ipod and still have two SD cards loaded with songs, but have not tried the see if I can load the two SD cards, in adittion to a hard drive..I just resigned to using an ipod..

As far as I can tell the MMI looks at each drive (SD1, SD2, hard drive, & iPod) independently. At least when I select one source, the MMI ignores the others.

I think that using iPod is quite different story than using just plain storage (SD card, CD/DVD or USB device). While the second one is just storage the first one is connected to MMI as external appliance with its own controls. So MMI is just end-user front-end to functions that are performed on the attached device. So in this case limits, if any, are on the device side. MMI is just displaying song title, length etc. from device (not from file) and working as kind of remote (play/stop/FF/Rev etc.). It also searches, scrolls or searches data on iPod using interface functions and does not touch actual data on it.
Also please note other limitations of MMI: max 1000 files in single folder/device and max 3000 files in total on internal MMI jukebox.

I was under the impression I could put up to 4000 on an SD card as long as there was no more than 1000 files in any single folder. Are you saying I am also limited to a max of 1000 files per SD card as well? That would totally suck. Why buy a 32gb card then? An 8gb would hold about 1000 songs on average in that case. This is so frustrating.

Marley, any idea how many files you have on each of your SD cards? Are you approaching the 4000 max limit on each? I'm trying to figure out if I can load up two cards with 4000 files each.

I'm not really sure, but far short of 4,000. I'm probably not typical, as each of my sources has many different types of music, including classical. Beethoven's 5th, for example takes has only 4 tracks on a CD and therefore only 4 files on an SD. Further since most of my music came from CDs (and quite a few from old LPs, converted to digital format) and very few from more compressed formats, I'm using a lot more space with fewer files than many here. Many tracks on my jazz collection are also quite lengthy.

Not to say that I don't have plenty of current (and much older) popular music, just some examples as to why I am not approaching the 4,000 file limit.

Tridentnyc, what I wanted to say is max 1000 files per one folder on any storage device and 4000 of files per single device in total... sorry, English is not my primary language...

FYI, on my 2009 Q5 I just ran into the same problem, 4K file limit.
I was puzzled by it, figured it might be the naming scheme, bitrate, special characters.
Then it struck me when both SD cards worked till around 4K files and then would cut off... is there a limit?
Then I googled and came here. Fudge... 2x 32GB SD cards, useless.

So, it's confirmed. If anyone knows if this file limit can be modified somehow then please clue me in.

Hmmm

There was a gateway firmware update for prefacelift and facelift...... at the same time. Something about mmi. If I remember well it mentioned bluetooth telephone long names at the mmi screen being sorted out but could it be not just that ??? If one can find the service bulletin TPI then we would know if it also corrected other glintches of the mmi 3g.

For prefacelift gateway firmware becomes 0121 (most of us have 0120). For facelift I cannot remember the number because it has different hardware and firmware numbering than mine. Probably it only fixes what I read it would and does not solve anything else (only read the heading not the content)

If not, an update of the mmi3g surely could help to resolve the issue.

Start by checking if you have latest mmi3g nav software/mmi firmware.

I did update my previous prefacelift gateway to 0121 but did not observe a difference probably because I have radio concert and not mmi. Thus I did not update the extended can gateway which I upgraded when retrofitting the high beam assist. Comes with firmware 0120 but if you have prefacelift updating to 0121 might help but I it could also not help.

Unfortunately I had only access to some TPIs on erwin regarding my Q5 vin specific ones. Probably the gateway update was available frrom year 2017. (March)

MMI3g update goes via SD card. So that should be easy.

I cannot be more specific since I dont have mmi 3g.

4k is not a lot??? Do you wish for like indefinite?? 1T can get 200,000 songs. So 200k vs 4k, is this the comparison study or the target you wish???. Well it could also have hardware limitations like memory or cpu. ??

@spijun should be able to say what the latest mmi3g software/firmware version is.??

anyhow. If you dont have latest mmi 3g update then consider it as main priority because german programmers are very diligent with fixing glitches and perfecting software code.

i know because my 2009 Q5 was software limited at some point in time until it had a total software transformation. Seen many improvements since then.