BlackjackM

Hello all,

Anticipating my new E without a CD slot, I've downloaded my entire CD library to a USB stick. When I tested it in my 2015 C300 and my wife's 2015 ML350, it worked fine and showed album art. When I plugged it into the 2017 E300 loaner today, the album art is not showing up. Is there something special I need to activate on the E? On the C and ML, I just plugged it in and selected it in the Media folder, and all of the album art showed up. Help!

RickInHouston

I had a 2017 E for awhile. It got album art from GraceNote servers. That's one of the main reasons there is such a long delay before music is even available when you turn the car on. It matches songs in an 'album' to their server and then displays it in the car. I thought it was ludicrous since there is no CD slot in the car.

Mp3, flac, ... read tags. They don't need further downloads.

Stupid of Mercedes.

BlackjackM

Mine is not showing up at all though- do I need to activate Gracenote?

RickInHouston

GraceNote is automatically a part of the system. You don't pay extra or have to activate it.

Even if you have the music files stored 'oddly', GraceNote still guesses (and usually guesses wrong) the album art. I had a few albums I made up that were effectively playlists. I wondered why the art was so wrong since there was a jpg file in the album folder (and in the song tag, itself), to draw from. I sent GraceNote an email and that's how I got all this information.

I can't remember if there is a 'show album art' toggle somewhere. I'm back in a 2017 coupe that has the older system in it so I can't check. I'm guessing that's where it's not working.

If all else fails and Mercedes can't answer your question... I'd start by putting one well known 'album' on a USB drive. I'd make a folder (say, Adele), make a folder for the album (Adele 19) and I'd put the .wav files in it naming them 01 - (name of song), 02 - (name of song)... Plug it into the USB port and turn on the car. See what you get. If you don't see album art, then you need to delve into the settings. If you get album art, maybe your file structure / naming architecture is amiss.

ua549

How exactly should the file structure and hierarchy look? What should the file names look like? What data formats can be used, flac, ape, wav bwf?

RickInHouston

mp3, wma, aac, wav, flac, alac. I found this in the manual (https://www.mbusa.com/vcm/MB/Digital...dan_COMAND.pdf), but it doesn't talk about album art). But I've found flac doesn't work in my 2017.

Artist > Album > track - title.mp3 (this works best, because if you must search by folder, songs play in order and you can see the name of the song). This is my preferred method. I use mp3, currently.

I use mp3tag to tag files. If it's not reading the mp3 tag (which I doubt it will), searching can be a minefield. That's why I always search using folder view.

Experiment. Start with four or five artists with one album in each. Then expand from there if it's working for you.

BlackjackM

The files are MP3s. The strange thing is when I launch Pandora via Bluetooth the symbol "Powered by Gracenote" appears where the album art goes. It doesn't appear when I launch the USB.

Egonvdv

could it be that the loaner didn't have an internet connection?

BeachBunny

Okay, I just tried doing this. My MP3s are showing album art perfectly, SD card, USB 0, USB1, and USB2 ports. Even using a crappy USB 1.0 pen drive. I even tried using non-English MP3s, even bootleg MP3s.

In fairness, your 2017 E Coupe is more related to the 212 and 204. The W213 is a completely different car, especially the stereo.

ua549

I really thing it is a file naming and directory structure issue. Can you post a screenshot of the directory & files from one of your albums that show album art in the car? Also which media port are you using? I don't get album art in the car using the SD port or any of the USB ports.

c4004matic

I agree gracenote is a POS.

BeachBunny

(Emphasis mine)

I missed this little detail earlier. This could be the issue -- .WAV files are purely audio files and don't support embedding of any information whatsoever. Not Artist/Song name, and definitely not album art. If you manage to do it in a program, it's keeping a separate database which isn't copied with the file. .MP3 and I believe .MP4/.M4A files do support file tagging and Album Art.

ua549

I finally got album art to work. Thanks BeachBunny. The album art was in a file, not embedded in the music file itself. Once I converted some files to mp3 and tagged them it worked. That said, GraceNote is so slow sometimes I'm at my destination before Gracenote is finished initializing.

BlackjackM

I've noticed this too. Today after my hour long ride to work, it appears that Gracenote only made it up to the "M" level of music, and N through Z still not uploaded. I have about 80 CDs on there, not a ton.

704set

Many of my album covers would not show. Make sure the embedded album cover is 500 x 500 or less. That did the trick for me.

704set

Cambridgehank

Hi BlackjackM
Where in Boston ? I just moved from Melrose.
I burned my cds to iTunes (many here do not like iTunes I have no problem). I then copied my library to an old iPod Classic which lives in the MB. I have no problem seeing artwork and playlist with this set up.
Hope this helps.