an update on my report of a sudden increase in frequency of random USB "Loading errors" starting sometime after one of the recent software updates (likely starting with 17.24.28, though I'm now on 17.26.76 and the problem perhaps occurs more frequently). In the previous ~1.5yrs or so I don’t recall seeing any loading errors on USB, but now they're so frequent that USB playback is basically useless for me.
I've done some experimentation to gather my observations before emailing service (
[email protected]) - in hopes of getting a more helpful response than a suggestion my USB flash device is defective...
I tested several different USB flash sticks of various sizes (2GB~64GB) and various brands, with different assortments of music stored on them. The problem occurs across all the devices I've tested so I don't think it's due to a faulty device, unless I'm just really unlucky. I can reproduce the errors on a 64GB flash nearly full of music, and also on a 2GB flash with only a couple dozen music files, so the problem isn't related to total music collection size on the USB. It doesn't seem that individual files are corrupted and therefore causing the errors, because if/when a loading error occurs on a song, I can always play that same song successfully if I try playing it at another time. All the songs in my collection have embedded artwork which displays correctly in the Tesla media player, so I don't think that's a trigger.
But I'm now thinking there is correlation between music file format and the loading errors.
My music collection consists of a mix of .mp3 and .m4a (compressed AAC, non-DRM) files, perhaps roughly 50/50 mix. I prepared several USB flash devices, each with two folders, one containing only mp3 files and the other containing only m4a files. Some devices were loaded with only a dozen songs, others with thousands of songs. In the media player, I select one of the folders on the USB and then shuffle play the songs in that folder, so that I'm either playing just mp3 or just m4a songs. I also rebooted the CID between tests.
While playing a folder of m4a songs, I can easily reproduce the loading errors, usually within the first few songs played back - it doesn’t matter on which USB device. But while playing a folder of mp3 files, (so far) I've not yet been able to reproduce the problem - even though the mp3 folder is on a same USB device as m4a files (so I can again rule out a faulty device). This might explain why some people here aren’t seeing these loading errors - perhaps those people are not playing any aac/m4a files?
I can't say with 100% confidence right now that mp3 file will
never cause a loading error, but in my small sampling so far there's definitely a difference between mp3 and aac/m4a file behaviour. Next test I will just leave the USB on mp3 playback and observe over the next couple days of actual driving to verify the problem doesn't exist for mp3 only.
Can anyone else who is seeing an increase in USB loading errors recently confirm if they see any correlation between file format and loading errors?
as I mentioned, the USB player used to work perfectly fine in my MS, with either file type, until very recently. But now, somehow songs in AAC/m4a format seem to randomly trigger these loading errors. I strongly suspect one of the recent software updates changed something in the media player code that now makes m4a playback unreliable.
p.s. unrelated to this issue of loading errors, with one of the latest 1 or 2 software updates I seem to be getting occasional random rescans of the USB again - I thought those had gone away completely for a while and I only just started noticing them again. Could be just coincidental, since I've been concentrating on finding the source of the loading errors the past couple weeks...