While not a perfect replacement for the existing 8.0 USB Media behavior, the following workaround might benefit many owners of large CD collections. (In our case10,000 songs.) Credit due to my girlfriend who noticed that the USB “Folder” functionality was accessing individual Artist “Folders” on our USB drive and also to “JeffB” who, in a prior post, noted that placing artist folders in alphabetical subfolders greatly improved Artist access. I have extended Jeff’s idea of alphabetized folders to a single screen with no scrolling for initial Artist access, and I have identified a simple song renaming convention that will list songs within Albums in numerical order while still preserving random and looping play. The technique can also be used to create and access playlists. The procedure outlined below is for a Mac OS X user, but the technique should work equally well with equivalent Windows tools. Entire procedure takes about 30 minutes of attended time and up to several hours of unattended processing time depending on the size of your collection.
Step 1: If you haven’t already, format a USB drive in Windows FAT32 format. We used a 128GB SanDisk USB 3.0 memory stick.
Step 2: Copy your iTunes folder (User>Music>iTunes>iTunes Music) to the USB drive.
Step 3: Rename the drive to a one word label of your choosing. We labeled ours “Music.”
Step 4: Create 9 new folders labeled ABC, DEF, GHI, JKL, MNO, PQR, STU, VWXY.
Step 5: Drag and drop Artist folders alphabetically into the three-letter folders as appropriate. This can be done in batches by holding down the shift key and clicking a first Artist and then clicking the last Artist you want to move and dragging into the desired three letter folder.
Note: For some users that just want quick access and who don’t care about track order they can stop here.
Step 6: Obtain an MP3 Tag renaming app. We used the $5.99, “Music Tag Editor,” available in the Apple App Store.
Step 7: Using “Music Tag Editor,” select all nine alphabetized folders and drag onto the “Music Tag Editor” file/folder box.
Step 8: At the end of the “Title” tag, check the “Use File name” box.
Step 9: At the top of the “Title” tag, check the “Apply to all” box.
Step 10: Click the “Save All” icon in the menu bar and when the save dialog pops up check the “Overwrite files” checkbox.
Step 11. Wait until the new Title tags have been written back to the USB drive by monitoring the progress indicator. This might take several hours depending on the size of your collection.
Step 12: Eject USB drive, install in your Tesla, and enjoy!
To operate: Wait for Tesla to scan drive; press USB source button; press USB drive name (ours is “Music”); press “Folders”; and you will see a single screen containing the 9 alphabetized folders. Press a folder button and select/scroll to the desired artist, then album, then song. Press the USB Source button again at any time to go back up the menu structure.
It sounds like a lot of work, but it is actually pretty straight forward and returns much of the 7.1 functionality.
Step 1: If you haven’t already, format a USB drive in Windows FAT32 format. We used a 128GB SanDisk USB 3.0 memory stick.
Step 2: Copy your iTunes folder (User>Music>iTunes>iTunes Music) to the USB drive.
Step 3: Rename the drive to a one word label of your choosing. We labeled ours “Music.”
Step 4: Create 9 new folders labeled ABC, DEF, GHI, JKL, MNO, PQR, STU, VWXY.
Step 5: Drag and drop Artist folders alphabetically into the three-letter folders as appropriate. This can be done in batches by holding down the shift key and clicking a first Artist and then clicking the last Artist you want to move and dragging into the desired three letter folder.
Note: For some users that just want quick access and who don’t care about track order they can stop here.
Step 6: Obtain an MP3 Tag renaming app. We used the $5.99, “Music Tag Editor,” available in the Apple App Store.
Step 7: Using “Music Tag Editor,” select all nine alphabetized folders and drag onto the “Music Tag Editor” file/folder box.
Step 8: At the end of the “Title” tag, check the “Use File name” box.
Step 9: At the top of the “Title” tag, check the “Apply to all” box.
Step 10: Click the “Save All” icon in the menu bar and when the save dialog pops up check the “Overwrite files” checkbox.
Step 11. Wait until the new Title tags have been written back to the USB drive by monitoring the progress indicator. This might take several hours depending on the size of your collection.
Step 12: Eject USB drive, install in your Tesla, and enjoy!
To operate: Wait for Tesla to scan drive; press USB source button; press USB drive name (ours is “Music”); press “Folders”; and you will see a single screen containing the 9 alphabetized folders. Press a folder button and select/scroll to the desired artist, then album, then song. Press the USB Source button again at any time to go back up the menu structure.
It sounds like a lot of work, but it is actually pretty straight forward and returns much of the 7.1 functionality.
