USB has album but sync refuses to see it

[ben senise]

56 minutes ago, CosmikDebris said:

Logging in today to see if anyone else has found the answer. Looks like not. The phone solution works pretty well but I do miss the voice commands. 

In my defense I don't think that I quit as much as ran out of things to try.

 

 

i would bet money that the solution i gave you would work simply because i had the exact same problem and solved it that way.

 

if you want, PM me and i'll give you my email address. send me one of your music files that sync cannot see and i will look at it and check if it has the same problem that mine did. if it does, i'll fix it and send it back to you, then you can see if it works on your system.

[CosmikDebris]

I have meticulously managed the tag data in the 15,000 mp3 files stored on my pc. I had tried erasing all tags, renaming the files, reripping, downloading other copies. No luck. Part of the problem with the  solution you suggest is that, unless it is known what detail of a file is causing this behavior, you don't know which files need fixed. There may have been a dozen albums not showing in sync, but you don't know which ones. Once I knew that a particular folder/album wasn't seen I attacked it to try and find the added or missing feature. Removed album art, scanned with mp3 file checker/fixer. Tried it with only a couple albums on disc. Tried having sync re index. 

What I'd like is to know that one little offending detail so I can globally check that none of the other files also did fixed. 

Thanks for the offer, but at this point I'd have to recreate a drive then try and find a non-displaying folder. 

 

[Muzicman61]

Would you be willing to put the song files on a DropBox where I could download them and see what I can figure out?  If so, just PM the Dropbox link.

[ben senise]

2 hours ago, CosmikDebris said:

I have meticulously managed the tag data in the 15,000 mp3 files stored on my pc. I had tried erasing all tags, renaming the files, reripping, downloading other copies. No luck. Part of the problem with the  solution you suggest is that, unless it is known what detail of a file is causing this behavior, you don't know which files need fixed. There may have been a dozen albums not showing in sync, but you don't know which ones. Once I knew that a particular folder/album wasn't seen I attacked it to try and find the added or missing feature. Removed album art, scanned with mp3 file checker/fixer. Tried it with only a couple albums on disc. Tried having sync re index. 

What I'd like is to know that one little offending detail so I can globally check that none of the other files also did fixed. 

Thanks for the offer, but at this point I'd have to recreate a drive then try and find a non-displaying folder. 

 

 

i did not have success when i tried correcting the problem en masse or individually using an app. i had to open the properties of each individual file and edit the metadata in windows itself. i would guess that it's possible to do in macOS as well in the file info but i don't remember. which OS are you using?

 

i don't quite understand your "part of the problem" statement. i knew which files needed to be fixed because looking at the thumb drive on my pc, i could see the songs A, B, and C but on Sync in the car, I could only see A and C. So I looked at the metadata of all three and noted that B was missing X. once i edited in that metadata on my PC and put the thumb-drive back in the car and re-built the index, I could see B. I did this a few years ago so i don't remember exactly what meta-data i edited but it was fairly simple to deduce. since i don't have any files that present a problem at the moment, i can't look at them again to see where the problem was. from memory, i'm fairly certain that it was album artist, album, track #, or similar.

[CosmikDebris]

I located the old USB stick, let the truck index it, then tried browsing through the files, and located an entire album that is invisible. I compare it side by side with a couple of MP3 programs (MP3Tag, Foobar and MP3Diags) and see nothing standing out. If your offer still stands, pass along an email address and I'll send you one track.

If you do find something in that one, then I can try modifying the rest in that album.

Thanks

PS Now the Sync is claiming to not be able to perform audio commands. Maybe it just needs more time, as it is a 64GB stick, formatted to FAT32 by the way.

My OS is Win7 64bit.

Edited January 21, 2019 by CosmikDebris

[Muzicman61]

I sent you a private message with my email address.

[CosmikDebris]

55 minutes ago, Muzicman61 said:

I sent you a private message with my email address.

Email sent with one track. Thanks

ben senise do you want a copy to inspect too?

[Muzicman61]

Well you're probably not going to like this, but I copied your file to an NTFS formatted flash drive as well as 4 of my own songs.  Sync quickly indexed the drive and immediately began playing your JT song you sent me.  My inspection of the file did not reveal any issues as far as I could see.  

 

And for you millennials JT=Jethro Tull... not Justin Timberlake. :)

 

(of course it could also have been the original JT... James Taylor)  

[CosmikDebris]

See, THAT is why I went to using my phone. After spending $150 or so to have Ford check out the unit, countless attempts to fix things my self, and no love. You have this same older version of Sync or Sync 3? I wanted Ford to upgrade my radio but they said they could not, under my extended warranty, even though they said the warranty only covers hardware, not the testing (that I paid them for).  So, I have a less than fully functional unit, files have no problems, but Ford will not remedy. 

Thanks for testing. Maybe I'll try again with another USB stick, formatted NTFS and just a few albums. 

Also, you say that you tried it with no folders, just tracks. I may give that a try too.

Edited January 21, 2019 by CosmikDebris

[CosmikDebris]

So, formatted another stick, NTFS, 4GB, and just put about eight albums on it, no folder structure, just the files. Sync said the device was unsupported. 

Definition of QUITING: to stop, cease, or discontinue; to give up or resign; let go; relinquish. 

I think that is what I'm going to do, again, no way to get this working.

[Muzicman61]

My vehicle is a 2017 Fusion Energi with Sync 3.  If I remember, I think Sync 1/2 only supports FAT32 file system.  My first experience with Sync was with my 2008 Focus which was Sync 1.

 

Here's a few crazy ideas: 

1) Remove all mp3 tag info and name the files with just <artist name> - <song title> (it may show up but as "unknown")

2) Take a working song file, change the tag info and file name to match a song that's not working.  See if that song still works.

3) Not sure if this is possible, but flash back to an older version of Sync or re-flash the current version.

4) Rip the CD to WMA.  Again, not sure if Sync 1/2 supports WMA.

 

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by Muzicman61

[CosmikDebris]

Could it be that having the files in a artist, album folder structure cause issues, versus dropping all individual tracks into root? I assume that Sync would use tag info to display, but it would be nearly impossible to remove a single artist or album later. 

I'm convinced it's just a flaw in this unit, either hardware or firmware.

[Muzicman61]

2 hours ago, CosmikDebris said:

Could it be that having the files in a artist, album folder structure cause issues, versus dropping all individual tracks into root? I assume that Sync would use tag info to display, but it would be nearly impossible to remove a single artist or album later. 

I'm convinced it's just a flaw in this unit, either hardware or firmware.

 

Not likely.  I have 18,000+ songs on a 128GB flash drive.  All are in Artist/Album folder structure.  All my files are then named  <Artists><Album><track><title>.  Unless maybe there is some sort of special characters in the artist or folder name.  I know at one time I had issues with .38 Special and had to rename it 38 Special (no period).

Edited January 22, 2019 by Muzicman61

[CosmikDebris]

Today's experiment is a freshly formatted 4gb drive, FAT32, with only tracks, including the JT album. 

I assume I'll be able to use voice commands, and/or browse to an album, via tag info, or at lease file names.

If the troubled album plays, uncertain how to go forward. Seeing as though you have Sync 3, we're comparing apples to oranges (or Windows).

Have not heard back from ben senise on his findings, if any, from the track I sent him.

[ben senise]

46 minutes ago, CosmikDebris said:

Today's experiment is a freshly formatted 4gb drive, FAT32, with only tracks, including the JT album. 

I assume I'll be able to use voice commands, and/or browse to an album, via tag info, or at lease file names.

If the troubled album plays, uncertain how to go forward. Seeing as though you have Sync 3, we're comparing apples to oranges (or Windows).

Have not heard back from ben senise on his findings, if any, from the track I sent him.

 

i'm here and will get on this today. i'm on the left coast so may be a few hours behind you.

[CosmikDebris]

Experiment was a success. No idea why though. All artists, albums and songs were able to be called up via voice command, even that Jethro Tull album. So, going to assume its having an issue with numbers of files, folders. Will next remove all folders from the 64gb drive and retest. The issue of later wanting to remove some will have to be accomplished by MP3Tag, in order to see artist/album info, where it used to be just delete that folder. Oh well.

I wish, before moving all single tracks to the root of the drive that I had first removed the artist level, as a test, leaving tracks in the album folder. Oh well. I guess if this still works then I can start over with just album folders, but adding the artist name to them also for ease of removing.

Edited January 22, 2019 by CosmikDebris
update

[ben senise]

i have an idea why but i'm not sure.

 

i received your mp3 file and it played fine on my car. in looking at the properties of your file, i saw the "remove properties and personal information" command. now it's coming back to me. i think that's what i did to the files that wouldn't show.

 

something else i remembered; my sync has an "explore folders" option somewhere. this just reads the thumb drive and its files. it is not the same as playing music by artist, album, etc. i remember that i could see and play the files that couldn't be found by artist, album, etc. so i was thinking at the time that the meta-date may have been corrupted for some reason. so, if i recall correctly, i clicked on that link/button to delete all the properties/tags and then rewrote them. i think that was what worked.

 

maybe since you're copying onto a new drive, the corrupted data is being corrected upon re-writing the files.

 

what would be interesting would be if you put the thumb drive that has the problems into your PC. open one file that doesn't show and show its properties. i have windows 10 and i don't know if 7 also shows that "remove properties" link but i think it does. once you've removed the properties, manually enter them. i think just the artist, album name, track #, should work. see if it shows then.

 

in the mean time, my 128GB thumb drive is crashing my PC for some reason. can't read it and i can't even format it. ughhh. 

[CosmikDebris]

Windows 10

[Muzicman61]

19 hours ago, CosmikDebris said:

Today's experiment is a freshly formatted 4gb drive, FAT32, with only tracks, including the JT album. 

I assume I'll be able to use voice commands, and/or browse to an album, via tag info, or at lease file names.

If the troubled album plays, uncertain how to go forward. Seeing as though you have Sync 3, we're comparing apples to oranges (or Windows).

Have not heard back from ben senise on his findings, if any, from the track I sent him.

 

17 hours ago, CosmikDebris said:

Experiment was a success. No idea why though. All artists, albums and songs were able to be called up via voice command, even that Jethro Tull album. So, going to assume its having an issue with numbers of files, folders. Will next remove all folders from the 64gb drive and retest. The issue of later wanting to remove some will have to be accomplished by MP3Tag, in order to see artist/album info, where it used to be just delete that folder. Oh well.

I wish, before moving all single tracks to the root of the drive that I had first removed the artist level, as a test, leaving tracks in the album folder. Oh well. I guess if this still works then I can start over with just album folders, but adding the artist name to them also for ease of removing.

 

Well i'd call that a big success.  I think it may rule out a firmware or hardware issue.  Also not a tag issue with the files.  So perhaps a programmatic issue with how Sync indexes the drive?  Although even with Sync 1 I never had an issue using artist/album structure. 

 

Thinking back to my OS days I do recall there is a limit to the length of a file name including the path cannot exceed 256 characters.  But I doubt that's happening either.

[CosmikDebris]

So yesterday I opened that 64gb drive and manually created album folders and placed the tracks in their respective folder. Took a long while, but the test was a success. From this, I think it would be safe to guess, it is a folder level, number of files issue with this older version of Sync. The only other thing it may have been was some quirky folder, and it didn't come over with the files, which were unaltered. If all tags are done then you don't need artist, album folders, as the unit sees those from tag data, but having them in some form of folder layout makes for easier adding/removing of tunes.

Thanks for the help and suggestions, and file this info away for others that come along with this dilemma.

[Muzicman61]

Glad to hear you have it working and can use voice commands.  You made a good point that if properly tagged, fold structure doesn't make any difference.  Except for us music folks with OCD.

[Multitask]

It is sounding like back in the Sync 1/2 days MS did not look at files or structure, but rather some ID tag for the voice commands to 'look' for

 

Sync 3 being RIM and no longer MS, must do things way different....

 

I haven't bothered to test my external drive yet, to see if it'll read all the mp3's on it in my 2018 .... something to try when I remember

[Muzicman61]

It would be nice if Sync gave some statistics on what it indexed, like song count, album count, artist count.

 

I was not aware that Sync3 was using Blackberry OS.

[CosmikDebris]

Otherwise, with large capacity drive, you would not know that some were unseen, opr corrupt, unless you hit upon some like I did, by requesting one album, then pulling drive to put the album on it only to find it there.

When I paid Ford $130 to check it out, whatever diagnostic they performed did not also check the attached storage to look at compatibility.

[Muzicman61]

I have found most Ford dealers really don't have a good understanding of Sync details at the system level.  They barely know how to use it.