I have an old iPod Touch that's loaded with music throughout the years that I like to play in the car. It was compatible with my previous 2017 GLC when plugged into the USB connection located in the center console. I recently took delivery of a 2020 GLC, and after purchasing a USB-C adapter received a message that the device is not supported. I completely understand that with the new MBUX there have been a lot of changes, but was wondering if there is some type of workaround? If not, what are my options to transfer all those albums to another device that would only be used for portable music storage and be compatible with the 2020?

 

Do you have all of the music on a computer, like in iTunes? Assuming you have the files somewhere, you can simply copy them to a USB flash drive, then use a USB-C to USB-A Female adapter. You can then control the music directly from the multimedia system (with album art, etc.) using a nice, modern interface. Note: If you use custom playlists, you'll need to create them using another program,as I don't think iTunes writes the playlist format when you export, but I could be wrong (this part wasn't fun the last time I tried it)..

I used a 256GB flash drive I already had and bought this 2-pack of cables (I specifically wanted cables, not more rigid plug adapters, so that I wouldn't accidentally snap something when reaching into the console):
If you use a Windows PC, just navigate to Music > iTunes > iTunes Media and copy the whole Music folder to a USB flash drive. I assume you can do something similar on a Mac, but don't own one myself. You now have your entire iTunes library in the car, and no device to worry about.

 

If your IPod library contains music that was not purchased, but downloaded from another person’s library or other tracks that were copied from sources other than ITunes , you may not be able to transfer those to a different storage device. There is encryption that prevents that. There are some third party software providers that claim they can bypass and handle the transfer. Good luck.

 

That adapter is a great idea! I wish I knew about that before I bought the small USB-C adapter that I now have. Yes, all the music is in iTunes on a Windows laptop at home. So, all the album art would transfer over as well when moving the music over to a USB flash drive? I do have some custom playlists, but if I can get that to move over, it won't be the end of the world. I'd just like to play my music again. When copying the whole music folder over, will the albums stay organized? So it's not just a whole bunch of random tracks being moved over?

I think most of the music was directly copied from disc into iTunes. That being said, when I transfer the music to a flash drive, can I also move the music to a new computer using that copied data?

Thanks for all the advice!!

 

Yes, everything should just work (except for the iTunes playlists). iTunes files have embedded tags with Artist, Album, Genre, Track Number, Track Title, etc. as well as the artwork). The MBUX system reads these tags, so you have an iPod-like experience via USB (you can pick Artists, Albums, etc. just like you can on an iPod.

I also believe that Apple abandoned Digital Rights Management (DRM) a long time ago for music bought via iTunes, but encodes your Apple ID on the tracks in the tags just so they can track who may have leaked something....So you shouldn't have problems playing anything.you purchased. If you do have any errors from purchased media from before they abandoned DRM, I think you can simply delete the files in iTunes and then go to the iTunes Store and re-download them (for free of course), now without the DRM.

Organize your library
Normally iTunes self-organizes your library folder, but sometimes it's not set up right (especially if you originally used a really old version of iTunes or you had a media folder that you dragged/dropped to your iTunes library).

So, before you copy things over to USB, it might be a good idea to launch iTunes and make sure the following settings are both checked: Go to EDIT >> PREFERENCES >> ADVANCED, then make sure the first two check boxes are check (Keep Library Organized and Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder when Adding to Library).

When you click OK, it will then reorganize the folder structure. Depending on how many files you have and how many need to be copied, this could take a minute or it could take several minutes. After it does it's thing, your song folders will be organized in iTunes using the following hierarchy: iTunes Media > Music. > Artist > Album . You can then copy the whole MUSIC folder to the USB drive and MBUX should read the individual song tags just fine (the directory structure is just for good housekeeping)..

Fixing Tagging Anomalies
You will invariably notice some oddities on some albums. Soundtrack albums and Various Artist (compilations) are sometimes odd as those songs show up as stray songs under the Artist name. Also the tagging is a bit inconsistent -- You might see "John Williams", "Williams, John", "John Williams & the Boston Pops", and "John Williams and the Boston Pops" as 4 different artists. Also, iPods and iPhones smartly ignore a leading "The", but many other devices don't (I don't know about MBUX, but I fixed my library long ago to eliminate the leading "The" and change all Album Artists so <LAST, FIRST NAMES>. So if you want to fix any of these, go back to iTunes, right click and choose ALBUM INFORMATION (it will ask you if it's okay to work on multiple items, click OK). Change the ALBUM ARTIST entry to whichever you want (including eliminating the leading "The").. Similarly, for Soundtracks/Compilations, check the box about 2/3 of the way down that the album is a compilation. If you do this, your Artist lists will be truly alphabetical (Cars, followed by Chicago, followed by Doobie Brothers, followed by "Eagles", followed by Fleetwood Mac, etc,

NOTE: Every time you do subsequent edits to the iTunes Library, you should completely wipe the flash drive before copying the whole library again. Otherwise you'll end up with two copies of the changed items (old and new) on the flash drive...

I'll leave you with a quote:
Sandisk 256GB Ultra Fit Flash Drive at Amazon: $33 -- Having your entire iTunes Library "built into your car": PRICELESS
(and $19 if you only need 128GB)

P.S. -- for a new computer, check those two initial boxes in Edit >> Preferences on the new computer first before adding any music to the new computer. Then drag the whole music folder from the USB drive to the LIBRARY on the top-left sidebar in iTunes, and it will copy the music from the USB to the new computer and add it to the iTunes database.

 

Wow, thank you for taking the time to write all this information! Crazy times right now, and hadn't had a chance recently to check the board. I'll check out the flash drive you recommend, and take your instructions to transfer the music over to it. If I have any issues, I'll definitely be sure to ask! Thanks again!

 

Can you tell me what format you used for your flash drive in order for the MBUX system to read it? (FAT32, MAC) I currently operate off MAC systems and tried to use a flash drive reformated for MAC OS journaled but it appears my 2020 GLE could not read the mp3 files.

 

I believe it supports FAT32 and NTFS (but not HFS that MAC uses).

 

 

From page 402 of my manual:

The multimedia system supports the following formats and data media:
Permissible file systems
FAT32, exFAT, NTFS

Permissible data carriers
USB devices, iPod®/iPhone®, MTP devices, Bluetooth® audio equipment

Supported audio formats
MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, FLAC, ALAC

The multimedia system supports a total of up to 50,000 files. Data storage media up to 2 TB are supported (32‑bit address space). Due to the wide range of USB devices available on the market, playback cannot be guaranteed for all USB devices.

 

Having read the very informative thread so far I have been able to create an archive of my iTunes music on a usb stick as my iPod classic would not work in my new GLS. However the linguatronic search function “cannot find any music” it also rather annoyingly keeps resetting to the same track every time the ignition is switched off. Any tips on organising the properties of files to make the system work correctly would be much appreciated. I am able to search from the mbux screen, for tracks, albums and artists so it’s a bit mysterious..!
thanks

 

Carplay not working for you? Why not use Carplay instead?

 

I have a 2018 GLC300 with multimedia package and the smartphone integration (AndroidAuto/Apple) was not compatible with that package.

 

Sorry, I missed your post from a couple of weeks ago (year-end work stuff has limited my time in January). While I don't know why the system keeps resetting to the same track each time the car is turned off but there are a few tips that probably would happen automatically if using iTunes but not if using music files without it.

1) Organize your files into folders by, with the parent folder called Music, then subfolders for:

• Genre (optional)
  • Artist
    • Album Name
      • Song title 1
      • Song title 2
      • etc.

So You might have a folder structure of Music\Rock\Elton John\Goodbye Yellow Brick Road\<song names>

NOTE: I don't think MBUX uses the folder structure, so this is really for you own sanity -- having folders all over the place in random order just makes it hard to figure what what's what...

2) Make sure your embedded tags are good. I think the MBUX system and the voice use this, but I'll admit I've not tried to use the voice response to do very much in this car (since I only drive a few miles a few times a week thanks to COVID). Again, iTunes automatically tags files when they are added to the library (when the organize option is turned on as suggested in my prior response above). If the embedded tags are messed up (or missing), the system might see no tagged songs, so it would just revert to the first file (either by filename or by timestamp). So it would be odd to not have tags, but perhaps this is the cause of the system always reverting to the same song upon startup.