Using USB thumbdrive for playlists without playing in alphabetical order

[Calson]

Having owned a 2011 Chevy truck and a 2018 Chevy SUV, and currently owning a 2022 Toyota SUV, I expected no issues with continuing to use my USB sticks with my playlists on the 2022 F-150. But I have no control over how the songs are played and they are played in alphabetical order only. I have found information that comes down to editing the file names or editing the meta tags as a work around stop gap solution but this only works with static collections on the drives. It is also quite labor intensive.

I do not want to use Apple Car Play or Apple Siri with my iphone for numerous reasons. I only want to use the truck's electronics to play the tracks on a USB drive in the order in which they are on the drive.

Does anyone have an effective way to move playlists off a computer and onto a USB drive and play them in the correct order in the truck?

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[Buyer2021]

Good luck getting playlists to work for you, I gave up on that exercise.

Not the solution you're looking for, but this works for me to ensure album playback with songs in the as-recorded order (critical for this old-school fan of album music listening). This is on a USB drive with ~200 Artist Folders, ~300 Album Folders, ~4700 Song Files (FLAC format in my case), ~1.4GB total content (and growing).

USB file structure:

Root Drive​

>Artist Name (or Band Name) folder​

>> Album Folder (may be many in a given Artist Folder)​

>>>01-[track 1 song title]​

>>>02-[track 2 song title]​

>>> etc....​

I use freeware Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to rip all my music from CD, it can be (is, in my case) configured to automatically add the prefix 01-, 02-, etc before each song title on the album. The song titles are pulled from a free online database during the rip so it's a quick process requiring no intervention once the CD is recognized by the program.

I resorted to this approach instead of "playlists" after learning the hard way that too many vehicle systems don't respect / 'play nice' with playlists on USB drives. I also learned that album art confused ('locked-up') some systems, so I forego that (no worries, for me it's all about the music); MY USB drive has nothing but music files on it. This approach has worked for me using my USB drives in many different vehicles.

In my F150 I use voice command to call-up music by Artist / Band Name (plays all songs by the artist in random order), OR by Album Name (plays the requested album with songs in correct as-recorded order), OR by Song Title without any numeric prefix (plays the requested song, ignoring the numeric prefix; if the song title occurs on multiple albums, I get a screen listing those to choose from).

YMMV, Good Luck!

 

[Blueshound]

Ditto @Buyer2021 .
Mine plays albums in order if organized in folders Artist>Album> #Song. It's a terrible USB system though. You can't even select or scroll through them with the screen while moving (apparently operating other apps by touch is perfectly safe though lol). No choice but to use voice commands.

 

[Buyer2021]

It's a terrible USB system though. You can't even select or scroll through them with the screen while moving (apparently operating other apps by touch is perfectly safe though lol). No choice but to use voice commands.

I hear ya, but it is what it is, and I actually prefer voice commands over messing with the touchscreen given the size of my music library. I'll credit the voice command system in my F150 for working better with fewer errors than any other I've experienced.

I do keep a double-side printed booklet in the door cubby for a refresher of what's on the drive or for guests to browse, example attached (without apology for my eclectic taste in music ).

 

[Blueshound]

I hear ya, but it is what it is, and I actually prefer voice commands over messing with the touchscreen given the size of my music library. I'll credit the voice command system in my F150 for working better with fewer errors than any other I've experienced.

I do keep a double-side printed booklet in the door cubby for a refresher of what's on the drive or for guests to browse, example attached (without apology for my eclectic taste in music ).

That's a clever solution! Analog to the rescue lol.

 

[Calson]

Thanks for the suggestions. I already have hundreds of tracks on my NAS and am not about to re-rip my CD's. It also would not allow for adding new tracks.

Evidently I will need to create new USB drives with the individual artist's folders copied over and then deleting one by one the songs I do not want on the drive. Microsoft bites yet again but when you have a monopoly (thanks to your parents connections and wealth) there is no need to be user oriented. Small wonder that the ipod, smartphone, and music streaming originated with Steve Jobs.
He was unique in having both the vision and the expertise to create products providing a high end user experience.

 

[fordtruckman2003]

Thanks for the suggestions. I already have hundreds of tracks on my NAS and am not about to re-rip my CD's. It also would not allow for adding new tracks.

Evidently I will need to create new USB drives with the individual artist's folders copied over and then deleting one by one the songs I do not want on the drive. Microsoft bites yet again but when you have a monopoly (thanks to your parents connections and wealth) there is no need to be user oriented. Small wonder that the ipod, smartphone, and music streaming originated with Steve Jobs.
He was unique in having both the vision and the expertise to create products providing a high end user experience.

I don't think MS hasn't been involved in sync since version 1.
Sync 1.0 sucked at "random" and would skip over half my music often repeating same songs over course of a week of commuting.

How do you have your music organized now?
Just using one folder and dumping it on USB?

 

[Buyer2021]

I already have hundreds of tracks on my NAS and am not about to re-rip my CD's.

Fair enough.

Please pardon my ignorance, but what's "NAS"?

 

[powerboatr]

When I move music from computer to the USB. I move them as albums under each artist/s
Then I c a n tell sync play Fleetwood Mac
It will play all or
I say Fleetwood Mac. Rumors
It plays just that album

Or sync play all.
Then it does it alphabetical order
Been doing it that way since my 2016 expedition


It does get confused if I say to play an artist and somehow it as 2nd artist
Like George strait and Allan Jackson
If say play either one...sometimes it only plays songs. With both artists.

 

[SilverPigeon]

...what's "NAS"?

= Network Attached Storage, basically large disk drives with an inbuilt server, usually sitting on your home network ?

 

[Calson]

I checked the files on the USB drive and each title had a number as the initial characters but Ford Sync ignored these tags and played everything in alphabetical order.

The fix was to have the songs on the iphone and use its bluetooth connection to play them through the Ford's audio system. Apple to the rescue as usual.

 

[tjtennispro]

Good luck getting playlists to work for you, I gave up on that exercise.

Not the solution you're looking for, but this works for me to ensure album playback with songs in the as-recorded order (critical for this old-school fan of album music listening). This is on a USB drive with ~200 Artist Folders, ~300 Album Folders, ~4700 Song Files (FLAC format in my case), ~1.4GB total content (and growing).

USB file structure:

Root Drive​

>Artist Name (or Band Name) folder​

>> Album Folder (may be many in a given Artist Folder)​

>>>01-[track 1 song title]​

>>>02-[track 2 song title]​

>>> etc....​

I use freeware Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to rip all my music from CD, it can be (is, in my case) configured to automatically add the prefix 01-, 02-, etc before each song title on the album. The song titles are pulled from a free online database during the rip so it's a quick process requiring no intervention once the CD is recognized by the program.

I resorted to this approach instead of "playlists" after learning the hard way that too many vehicle systems don't respect / 'play nice' with playlists on USB drives. I also learned that album art confused ('locked-up') some systems, so I forego that (no worries, for me it's all about the music); MY USB drive has nothing but music files on it. This approach has worked for me using my USB drives in many different vehicles.

In my F150 I use voice command to call-up music by Artist / Band Name (plays all songs by the artist in random order), OR by Album Name (plays the requested album with songs in correct as-recorded order), OR by Song Title without any numeric prefix (plays the requested song, ignoring the numeric prefix; if the song title occurs on multiple albums, I get a screen listing those to choose from).

YMMV, Good Luck!

I’m assuming you mean 1.4 TB

 

[tjtennispro]

Thanks for the suggestions. I already have hundreds of tracks on my NAS and am not about to re-rip my CD's. It also would not allow for adding new tracks.

Evidently I will need to create new USB drives with the individual artist's folders copied over and then deleting one by one the songs I do not want on the drive. Microsoft bites yet again but when you have a monopoly (thanks to your parents connections and wealth) there is no need to be user oriented. Small wonder that the ipod, smartphone, and music streaming originated with Steve Jobs.
He was unique in having both the vision and the expertise to create products providing a high end user experience.

then remote to your NAS and run DS Audio in the truck or use a different third party app. I have CloudBeats connected to my NAS and play my ALAC files through CarPlay.
Audiobooks as well

 

[Buyer2021]

I’m assuming you mean 1.4 TB

Ooops, misplaced the decimal point, actually it's currently ~140 GB / 0.14 TB on a 256 GB Samsung USB (C) stick.

It stays plugged-in to the USB (C) port in the covered cubby forward of my console shifter. Unobtrusive, KISS, doesn't involve my Apple iPhone Mini, works for me, YMMV, no worries!

It also would not allow for adding new tracks.

I add new albums at will, but no, I do not have the ability to play a pre-defined selection of songs from among different albums (no "playlists" per se, just albums that playback in correct song-order).

When I want to hear a 'mix' I have to be my own DJ using voice commands

Glad you found a solution that works for you, that's all that matters!

 

[Cobra129]

Having owned a 2011 Chevy truck and a 2018 Chevy SUV, and currently owning a 2022 Toyota SUV, I expected no issues with continuing to use my USB sticks with my playlists on the 2022 F-150. But I have no control over how the songs are played and they are played in alphabetical order only. I have found information that comes down to editing the file names or editing the meta tags as a work around stop gap solution but this only works with static collections on the drives. It is also quite labor intensive.

I do not want to use Apple Car Play or Apple Siri with my iphone for numerous reasons. I only want to use the truck's electronics to play the tracks on a USB drive in the order in which they are on the drive.

Does anyone have an effective way to move playlists off a computer and onto a USB drive and play them in the correct order in the truck?

'23 PB, Lariat....I ripped many CD's onto a stick and play them regularly, 843 songs at last count, and will be adding more as I go thru all my CD's and rip them onto this current stick, and others...At first, they were in alphabetical order but when I went to search and then found out I could select them by album or by artists and they play accordingly. I can still go back to all alphabetically. Photos of the screens attached....

Not sure if there was anything special I did other than 'ripping' them to the stick. Now if you're importing music from a playlist from another media source, sorry, can't help you with that, hope this helps....Good luck and Cheers!

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