HotFrosty

Think of me as the kind old neighbor who needs your help to walk me through this dang fangled technology, please. Maybe this is easier then I think it is. However...


I have ITunes. I want to put those songs on to a USB jump drive to keep plugged in the factory Mustang stereo. Google searches bring up old how to's that I'm not sure are valid anymore.

mustangfan410

It might work, but your better off connection you phone or ipod to play music.

tukatz

The files on a USB thumb drive would have to be in MP3 or WMA format, but I was reading that iTunes can convert files to MP3s. I have some 300 albums on a thumb drive and can select them with voice commands through Sync. The thumb drive is a great way to go and they are cheap. I leave mine plugged in all the time. From time to time I read on this forum of people who are having problems with Apple devices connecting through Sync.

If I were you I would invest the time to setup a thumb drive with my music. You will want to get the tags (name of track, name of album, name of artist and genre) right so that you can select music by those tags using Sync, assuming you have it in your Mustang. I can't help you with converting files to MP3s using iTunes, but I do have a document that describes much of the rest of the process and would be happy to share it with you. If you are interested, PM me and send your email address. I'll send it to you as a PDF.

laserred38

Look it up on YouTube. It depends if you have a PC or Mac. I can walk you through the conversion.

PJRManagement

Purchase a USB flash drive with the capacity you need (I use a 16GB - handles over 2500 songs). Plug the flash drive into a port on your computer. Go to your Windows Explorer, C:, Users, Your Computer's Name, My Music, iTunes, iTunes Media, Music. This is the folder on your computer that stores all of your iTunes music/songs. You can Copy this entire folder, then Paste onto the flash drive. In your car, plug in the flash drive into the port in the center console, turn on the stereo, push the Media button on the stereo. Let the system initialize and read the flash drive. Once complete, you now have all of your iTunes music in your car - via the flash drive. Every once in a while, if you add music on your computer, you'll need to repeat the process to get the newer songs into your car.

laserred38

Yeah except my iTunes library has like 20k songs in it. My iPod has about 14k of it, and every time I start the car it says "due to the number of tracks on your device, speech commands are disabled" or something like that

TripleBlack14

I bought a flash drive for that very purpose, but it's encrypted and I need to input a password so I can't use it in the car.

Who makes a flash drive that's not encrypted?

laserred38

You can get rid of that. You just need to reformat it (which you should do anyways, to delete all the crap they put on those things, wasting space).

mustangfan410

I was just about to say this. Most flash drives that you could buy don't have encryption enabled when you buy them,but they have software that you can use to encrypt it if you want. Just like Patrick said I usually delete that crap because it's useless to me.

tucsondivots

I put my ITunes ones on a USB an Sync plays them fine.

HotFrosty

Very cool. I was worried i would have to jump through a bunch of hoops. Sounds like it will be simple. I only had a 8gig jump drive available so I'm off to micro center to buy a larger one. Get it home, get it loaded and get to rock'n!
Thanks much. I will let you know how this works.

HotFrosty

How it went down:
I picked up a tiny 16gig drive. Got home. Formatted the drive. Tried to drop my iTunes folder on it, the computer said it requires 30 more gigs. ok. I have a ton of music. No problem. open the folder dropped in some of my favorites (Motion City Soundtrack, The Matches, Pop Will Eat Itself and Schaffer The Darklord just in case I need to chase the wife out of the car, and others). Plugged it in under the armrest. turned on the car and let it boot up. it said something about a new device plugged in and shortly after that the system voice said that it can't play protected music.
(sigh)
But I went ahead and selected the USB and hit play. IT WORKED! Dramarama flowed from the speakers. And it shuffled on through what I had put on the drive when I hit next track. I didn't know if it would shuffle but now I wonder if I can have it just play an album straight through.


No reformatting the songs. Drag and drop, Super easy. I'm going to play with it some more and figure it what this baby can do. Thank you for all the help!

cfraser

There is one other minor "enhancement" to this setup that might interest you. I have a '13, presume it's the same on the '14: did you know there's another USB port "in" the glove box? This is a great place to keep an "always there" USB stick, I think anyways.

To make this other USB port accessible, you need a short USB extension cable, one foot is OK. I used one with this description from amazon: "StarTech.com USBMUSBFM1 Mini USB 2.0 Cable, USB A to Mini B F/M, 1-Feet". You need to attach this USB extension to the port on a unit which is described in a post in this section (should be easy to find, long thread IIRC), accessed through loosening the glove box a bit (no tools required).

Bet we're the only two here with Pop Will Eat Itself on our "permanent" Mustang music drives.

DarrenGT

That's the same experience I had. Just say 'play all' and away she goes. Since then i use my galaxy s3 as storage and use the music app (bluetooth adio through sync) which allows you to make playlists and control the playback a bit more.

PJRManagement

---
Once you get comfortable, you can use the buttons on the console and/or voice activated Sync. The system organizes the same way iTunes does...by Artist, Album, Track, etc. You'll be a Pro in no time!

HotFrosty

I came across a blurb about that. But When I looked in the glove box I didn't see any ports. So it's hidden! I'll investigate more.

As of today you are the coolest guy I know.


I didn't get to drive the mustang today. So far it has auto played the USB once and reset to the radio twice so I'm not sure what the heck it's doing. Then after the auto play it played a song twice in a row and then I hit skip and it did it again the next song.


Thanks Pete! I like all the things this car can do. Now I just have to be trained.

tucsondivots

I downloaded multiple CDs to iTunes on my desktop pc yesterday then picked about 180 songs to download on an 8gb flash drive. Only used about 1.5gb. Plays great through Sync with all song title and artist info displayed. It usually starts right up playing the flash/USB. Sometimes I have to use the "uSB" command to restart. Works great.

mustangfan410

I tried this yesterday and it worked well. I now have something to listen to when theres nothing on sat radio.

tukatz

The port you are after is a mini USB like on your phone or tablet, so you want a cable that has a mini USB male and standard USB female end. Alternatively you can use a cable with mini on one end and standard on the other and use a female to female USB adapter. It goes on the standard end of the cable and your thumb drive plugs into it. That's what I did. The Sync controller is a black box that is up behind your glove box. If you lay on the floor on your back you can probably see it. Feel around and you will find the port. Plug the mini cable end into the port and drape it over the back and into your glove box.

HotFrosty

Ah! So I was looking for the wrong sized hole!
I like the thought of having a larger storage device and getting all my music on the Mustang.