Transferring music

hencyber12 · 08-03-2015, 04:29 AM

I'm about to purchase an M235i coming from a 2013 320d (both with professional navigation) and I was wondering if i can transfer my 70+ albums from the 320d to the M235i? Thanks guys!

sstarrx3 · 08-03-2015, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hencyber12

I'm about to purchase an M235i coming from a 2013 320d (both with professional navigation) and I was wondering if i can transfer my 70+ albums from the 320d to the M235i? Thanks guys!

I do not know if there is a way to do it with a computer. The only way I know is to use a USB flash drive. I am not even sure if you can copy your cars hard drive data back to a USB. Somebody else will have to chime in on that.

sstarrx3 · 08-03-2015, 07:34 AM

Congratulations by the way! Did you get tired of your comparatively low yearly fuel bill or just decide "I wanna go fast!"

Pyewacket69 · 08-03-2015, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hencyber12

I'm about to purchase an M235i coming from a 2013 320d (both with professional navigation) and I was wondering if i can transfer my 70+ albums from the 320d to the M235i? Thanks guys!

Backup your music collection in your existing car using the drive utility, then simply restore it using the same I drive utility to your new car.

I did exactly that, moving my entire music collection from my 2010 328 to my 2014 235. Worked like a champ.

RWDdrifter · 08-03-2015, 12:40 PM

I've been playing MP3s directly from the USB drive and that works very well. I bought a 64GB mini USB drive that sticks out only about 0.25 inches. It's a very slow USB2 drive but that doesn't seem to affect the functions or performance at all. The car lets me play any folder in sequential or random order. One can also play across all folders in sequential or random order. Best of all the car lets you play across all songs of a given genre, again in sequential or random order. So depending on your mood you can get random songs from "pop/rock", "hard rock", "alternative", "jazz", etc., depending on the genre tag fields in the MP3 files. You can also use playlists but I generally don't use them and prefer to have the playback order randomized.

When I first tried this "random by genre" method I discovered that my MP3 files had lots of inconsistencies in their genre tag fields. That showed up as a lot of similar but different genres listed by the car. So I made a pass at cleaning up the genre tags (using the MP3tag app). To my delight, when I plugged in the updated USB drive the car then displayed the updated and much cleaner set of genre choices. It took a few minutes for the car to rebuild the genre list for the USB drive, but that's impressively fast given how many files there are (about 34GB so far) and how slow the drive is. Having rebuilt the genre list, the car remembers them and doesn't take time to rebuild the list.

I haven't tried storing music on the car's hard drive and probably won't do so given how well the car handles USB drives. My wife uses a clone of my USB drive in her car, and I keep a backup/master on a home computer.

Does anyone know if there is any advantage to storing music on the car's hard drive? I may have overlooked it in the manual.

This is a great car! The beloved old E46 it replaced could only play CDs.

hencyber12 · 08-04-2015, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sstarrx3

Congratulations by the way! Did you get tired of your comparatively low yearly fuel bill or just decide "I wanna go fast!"

Thank you! Yeah my son convinced me to drive one when I took my car for a service and I couldn't really resist! To be honest Petrol vs Diesel there really isn't any contest!

hencyber12 · 08-04-2015, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyewacket69

Backup your music collection in your existing car using the drive utility, then simply restore it using the same I drive utility to your new car.

I did exactly that, moving my entire music collection from my 2010 328 to my 2014 235. Worked like a champ.

Will the drive utility pop up when I put in a memory stick?

hencyber12 · 08-04-2015, 10:58 AM

Thanks a lot for your replies guys! You're a lot friendlier than another car forum that will go unmentioned!

Pyewacket69 · 08-04-2015, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hencyber12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyewacket69

Backup your music collection in your existing car using the drive utility, then simply restore it using the same I drive utility to your new car.

I did exactly that, moving my entire music collection from my 2010 328 to my 2014 235. Worked like a champ.

Will the drive utility pop up when I put in a memory stick?

Yes, once I drive recognizes the thumb drive has been inserted, you should have the availability to restore your music.

This is all covered in the owner's manual...

hencyber12 · 08-06-2015, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyewacket69

This is all covered in the owner's manual...

Ah too bad I have an inherent fear of paper......

B.a.f · 08-06-2015, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hencyber12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyewacket69

This is all covered in the owner's manual...

Ah too bad I have an inherent fear of paper......

The iDrive includes a software manual !

08-03-2015, 04:29 AM	#1
hencyber12 New Member 1 Rep 18 Posts Drives: F30 320d Sport Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: London iTrader: (0)	Transferring music I'm about to purchase an M235i coming from a 2013 320d (both with professional navigation) and I was wondering if i can transfer my 70+ albums from the 320d to the M235i? Thanks guys!
	Appreciate 0 Tweet Quote

08-03-2015, 07:34 AM	#3
sstarrx3 Captain 106 Rep 855 Posts Drives: 2014 228i Mineral White/Terra Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Concord, NC iTrader: (0)	Congratulations by the way! Did you get tired of your comparatively low yearly fuel bill or just decide "I wanna go fast!"
	Appreciate 0 Quote

08-03-2015, 12:40 PM	#5
RWDdrifter Private 26 Rep 87 Posts Drives: 2015 228i M Sport Join Date: May 2015 Location: Austin TX iTrader: (0)	I've been playing MP3s directly from the USB drive and that works very well. I bought a 64GB mini USB drive that sticks out only about 0.25 inches. It's a very slow USB2 drive but that doesn't seem to affect the functions or performance at all. The car lets me play any folder in sequential or random order. One can also play across all folders in sequential or random order. Best of all the car lets you play across all songs of a given genre, again in sequential or random order. So depending on your mood you can get random songs from "pop/rock", "hard rock", "alternative", "jazz", etc., depending on the genre tag fields in the MP3 files. You can also use playlists but I generally don't use them and prefer to have the playback order randomized. When I first tried this "random by genre" method I discovered that my MP3 files had lots of inconsistencies in their genre tag fields. That showed up as a lot of similar but different genres listed by the car. So I made a pass at cleaning up the genre tags (using the MP3tag app). To my delight, when I plugged in the updated USB drive the car then displayed the updated and much cleaner set of genre choices. It took a few minutes for the car to rebuild the genre list for the USB drive, but that's impressively fast given how many files there are (about 34GB so far) and how slow the drive is. Having rebuilt the genre list, the car remembers them and doesn't take time to rebuild the list. I haven't tried storing music on the car's hard drive and probably won't do so given how well the car handles USB drives. My wife uses a clone of my USB drive in her car, and I keep a backup/master on a home computer. Does anyone know if there is any advantage to storing music on the car's hard drive? I may have overlooked it in the manual. This is a great car! The beloved old E46 it replaced could only play CDs.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

08-04-2015, 10:58 AM	#8
hencyber12 New Member 1 Rep 18 Posts Drives: F30 320d Sport Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: London iTrader: (0)	Thanks a lot for your replies guys! You're a lot friendlier than another car forum that will go unmentioned!
	Appreciate 0 Quote