Size Limit to USB Drive Size?

An 8GB flash drive lives in my car. The drive does need to be reformatted & reformatted FAT32, even if your computer reports that the drive's format is FAT32.

Others have used & are using higher capacities. I'm not sure we found an unsupported size. Eventually the sheer volume of files may be more than the listener cares to handle.

The audio unit is not a computer so don't expect it to read all the file formats your computer can. It will also play the files in the physical order they are written to the drive. Make 1 change & it will restart from the beginning.

When you start pressing the "next" button on the same track it's time to replace the track.

Swapping CDs in the 4 disc player is so '90's & got tiring fast. Pull the radio & the CD player out of the car & I won't miss them but don't take the USB port.

 

I'm using a 16gb flash and it's working fine. Alternatively, I tried a usb-powered 500gb hard drive... no dice.

 

there's probably not enough power for the usb-powered hard drive to work.. there are usb cables that double up so you can get extra power if you want to try that...

though you'll need to get a 12V powered usb adapter thingy to plug in to get that extra usb port for the power.

 

I've been using a PNY 4GB flash drive with no problem for a few weeks. However, I have tried 2 different 32gb drives, the last one being a Verbatim, and neither one worked. One said "error" and the other one just wouldn't load any music.

Maybe 4 or 8gb is the limit for the onboard audio system.

 

i used a 16gb once, worked fine

 

Anyone know why when I plug in my droid all I can get is reading files? I can't play through usb but blue tooth works fine...

 

my droid 2 global works fine with a 16gb micro sd. what size is your card and what format/bitrate is your music? are you mounting the phone as usb mass storage?

 

I have two 32 gig drives loaded with about 20 gig of music each for my v. Both work without problem.

 

I have a droid 2 global as well don't know the bit but I have an 8 gig sd card that came with phone connected to my computer and opened it and file format is generic hyperarchical tried connecting all different ways. Purchased an 8 gb usb drive and it works but would like to use my phone any suggestions. I did notice I had to convert music to the usb drive but not my droid.

 

I have a 64GB Sandisk USB stick in my prius c since I got the car... Formatted in FAT32 btw. All the files are 320Kbps MP3s... I also tried to connect a friend's iphone4 with Apple lossless, working flawlessly... I just have not tried playing Apple Lossless directly from a USB flash drive directly...

 

I'm using a cheap 32gb flash drive I got from Tiger Direct and it works great in my C3. haven't had a single issue yet.

 

When you plug in your phone does the screen that shows a usb connection come up? You might have to hit the "connect to computer" option (I don't remember exactly what it's called) to let the phone OS know to open up the SD card.

 

I'm wondering about the ability of a flash drive to play Apple Lossless myself.. my last car read all my iPhone songs fine through USB but it wouldn't read the same files through the memory card slot. Without a memory card in the C I figured I could try a USB stick. I'll test tomorrow and update if anyone is curious.

 

I have a 250GB hard drive in a SATA-to-USB enclosure that's working well. Haven't filled it up yet to test full capacity though.

 

I bought that 64GB Sandisk, but Windows 7 isn't giving me FAT32 as a formatting option, only NTFS and exFAT. How did you manage to format it as FAT32? It definitely doesn't support NTFS formatting!

 

Windows arbitrarily limits FAT32 formatting to 32GB. You can bypass this by going to the comannd line (quickest way there is to press Windows + R and type "cmd" into the Run dialog box that comes up). At the command line the command you want is

Code:

format /FS:FAT32 X:

Replace X: with the drive letter you are formatting.
MAKE SURE YOU GET THIS RIGHT - THERE IS NO UNDO OPTION.

(...as formatting the wrong drive is clearly something you do not want to do. If in doubt, do it on a Mac or use a smaller drive.)

The process will take awhile, so find something else to do while it does its thing.

 

I used a tool called FAT32Format which worked easily in its GUI version. Now for the task to s-l-o-w-l-y populate the stick with 64 GB worth of music ... .