Dave W Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 You may have a combination of issues going on. First off you are trying to use a music file that was purchased from iTunes and may well be encrypted so it can only be played by iTunes. Second, you are using a .m4a file instead of .mp3, it may be that your head unit supports AAC but it's possible it's not recognising the .m4a extension so you might want to stick to .mp3 until you isolate the problem. Third, it is possible that the hidden directories that the Mac creates might be confusing the head unit. This is a difficult one to fix but there are apps available on the app store to do it or you could write an AppleScript or drop into unix and do it from the command line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted June 24, 2017 Author Share Posted June 24, 2017 Haven't tried an MP3 as yet. Going to do that later. For all of that though, as was mentioned before, you would think that the head unit would at least see the SD card even though it's not able to play anything. It doesn't even recognise that there is an SD card in the slot.. I will download an MP3 file onto the SD card and see what happens. Dave could you point me in the direction of one of these apps that I may need to convert file formats? Sorry, I'm a bit of a noob with these things. What happened to cassettes......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted June 24, 2017 Author Share Posted June 24, 2017 Right. I'm starting to get really p!ssed off now. I purchased an mp3 file from Amazon as advised. However in order to see this download I had to download the Amazon music player. So I do that. While I'm able to play and hear the song, i seem to be unable to drag this file into my SD card. Why the Fck can't I just transfer the iTunes files that I have legitimately purchased onto any damned memory card I choose? I bought it ffs.... Is it going to be easier to buy some file converter in order to convert my iTunes files? Beginning to think I splashed out on this expensive head unit for fxk all. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 (edited) If you have a blank CD try burning a file from I tunes onto it and an mp3 and see if it will play off the CD. That will prove it the file format is ok. Make sure you finalise the CD otherwise the head unit might not see it. Alternatively try a different brand sd card to see if it just doesn't like yours. Of if it has a usb socket try putting an mp3 on a flash drive. Edited June 24, 2017 by Cynic-al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted June 24, 2017 Author Share Posted June 24, 2017 My Mac doesn't have a cd drive.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 There are copyright issues. I'm out of touch where we officially stand now but a lot of the software tends to play it safe. Tesco just used to give you a file but then they stopped doing downloads. Can you try a different memory card or Sun flash drive? I find SanDisk and Kingston work reasonably well. Can you format the card in a pc or other device and see if the radio sees a blank card to rule out anything odd the mac might be doing? I have a Panasonic tv which allows you to record onto usb but as soon as you've had the device plugged into that tv it won't work with anything else due to copyright. Or just sync your library onto your iPhone and bluetooth stream it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 17 hours ago, need4speed said: Right. I'm starting to get really p!ssed off now. I purchased an mp3 file from Amazon as advised. However in order to see this download I had to download the Amazon music player. So I do that. While I'm able to play and hear the song, i seem to be unable to drag this file into my SD card. Why the Fck can't I just transfer the iTunes files that I have legitimately purchased onto any damned memory card I choose? I bought it ffs.... Is it going to be easier to buy some file converter in order to convert my iTunes files? Beginning to think I splashed out on this expensive head unit for fxk all. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Can you see the Amazon mp3 file in the finder or do you need to know how to find it ? There are a number of utilities on the App Store that will clean the Mac stuff off your SD Card. CleanMyDrive 2 looks like a good free one, interesting that the second review for the app says that he used it to clean all the carp off a flash drive so it would work in his car stereo... Macs store a lot of hidden information on drives, including external ones, to speed up mounting and to allow indexing of the contents. Being a unix based operating system they assume that by adding a . at the start of the name it will be ignored by anything trying to read the drive. Sadly, most car head units are pretty badly programmed and will try to read these "hidden" directories first and, not making any sense of the content, will show the drive as unreadable or unusable. The app above can be used to remove all those hidden folders before you eject it. You can also create your own .mp3 files from any audio source you are playing on your Mac, including iTunes, Amazon music player and Spotify etc... using an nifty application that "captures" an audio stream from an app or audio port and streams it to an mp3 file on your hard disk. I would never condone such a thing myself but, apparently, you can decode DRM protected files that way or download whole albums from Spotify as mp3s.https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elbekko Posted June 26, 2017 Share Posted June 26, 2017 This whole thread is a giant advertisement for music piracy. Just ridiculous what hoops you have to jump through to listen to legal content on all devices... Googling around a bit, how old is your Touran? Apparently there's a firmware update for the RNS510 that allows it to read SDHC, it might not before that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted June 26, 2017 Share Posted June 26, 2017 (edited) 4 hours ago, elbekko said: This whole thread is a giant advertisement for music piracy. Just ridiculous what hoops you have to jump through to listen to legal content on all devices... Googling around a bit, how old is your Touran? Apparently there's a firmware update for the RNS510 that allows it to read SDHC, it might not before that. It's exactly the same with software elbekko. The hassle a lot of the software providers make you go through is unreal. I spend more time phoning support lines with license problems than anything else. I even have licenses for license management software. I've often felt it would be easier to pay the license fee then find a crack for the software to get it to work. Edited June 26, 2017 by Cynic-al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted June 26, 2017 Author Share Posted June 26, 2017 Haven't looked at this for a little while. I was getting a little disheartened if I'm honest. Then the washing machine threw a bearing and the fridge/freezer decided it didn't feel like freezing anymore - all in the same day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted June 26, 2017 Share Posted June 26, 2017 Have you ever thought about taking up humming? I'm told it's quite therapeutic and can be done whilst fixing washing machines, freezers and driving with little need for technology. Try getting your memory card formatted on a pc fat32, they don't do anything clever, see if it will see it. If not try blag an old sd card (not sdhc), format it in the pc and see if it sees that. Or try a sub stick if possible? I'm not sure which stereo my amarok has in it bit it has 2 sd slots, one for the sat nav maps so I guess the other must be for music. I will stick a card in and see if it works sometime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 Don't know how useful this video is to you but this worked for me. It's a factory formatted SanDisk 8gb sdhc memory card out of a digital camera at work. I dragged the wonderful free mp3s that come with Windows 7 onto it and stuck it in the car. Seemed to work straight away so not sure it helps you :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UdderlyOffroad Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 Try a proper, umolested mp3 file first! Don't bother with Amazon or some other digital music store...so for instance, go to youtubeinmp4.com , copy and paste a link of any youtube video into the box, select create mp4...then importantly, when the page loads, press the 'download mp3' button to get an audio only file. Copy that to your SD card and see if your head unit plays it. To be honest I think your HU has issues. Mac hidden folders don't usually confuse them, as they're, well, hidden. But I'm sure someone will be along to say they've had issues with that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 But as noted above by Dave W, not all head units manage to ignore the Mac hidden files. In theory, even if the head unit is running an operating system that doesn't consider files starting with "." as hidden, it should just skip the Mac hidden directory as irrelevant - but that assumes a degree of competence on the part of the developers that wrote the head unit software. Which is a dangerous assumption... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 Late update on this. Spendrey sent me an SD card that he downloaded music onto. My Hu plays it no problem! I forgot to ask him if he used windows pc or a Mac like I have so I still don't know where the problem lies exactly. All I know is it rules out the hu itself.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPendrey Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 No Mac's here, PC's (and Windows) for me! No iTunes for my music either, only use it to manage apps for the Apple device owners in my house. Now, this link describes how to convert files within iTunes. The downside of this though, is I believe it will create copies of the files so your library will take twice the space and you'll have to manage the files/library accordingly. It should, though, allow you to populate your own SD card with 'proper' MP3's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted July 31, 2017 Author Share Posted July 31, 2017 Awesome scott. That guide did the trick! I have to convert 1 song at a time but my HU is playing them! Im a very happy bunny... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPendrey Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 Can't speak for a Mac, but on a PC you can choose multiple files using the <CTRL> key, or a list of files with the <SHIFT> key. So, click the first track of an album, hold <SHIFT> then click the last track of the album, then File/Convert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need4speed Posted July 31, 2017 Author Share Posted July 31, 2017 I give that a try scott thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 The CMD key on a Mac, with the funny 4-leaf clover type symbol on it, near the space bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 Yay well done. I would be spat my dummy out and thrown the towel in long ago Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arjan Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 Living in cars, I play too much Mp3 files and sometimes the HU's can be funny. Good to hear you've got finnaly tunes !! The 110 has one that eats 64 GB SD cards.... Now we're talking.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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