Which USB drive for music

[garth_angst]

I am not interested in Sentry Mode and just way to play my 100Gb music collection. I want a USB 3.0, but will settle for USB 2.0. The only reason I want 3.0 is for the amount of data to transfer. I don't want to have it transferring for 24 hours.
Every time I see a suggestion, I go to Amazon and look at the reviews and always within the first few reviews dating from today going backwards, I either see: gets too hot, stopped working in a few days, too slow or some other negative comment. I know I can't expect a perfect drive, but what is a reliable drive most people use if they are only interested in music?

 

[srs5694]

In my previous car (a 2017 Chevy Volt), I used this SanDisk 32GB USB 2.0 drive for 2.5 years without problems for storing music. SanDisk also makes a USB 3 drive that looks similar, but I don't know if it would perform similarly. (I've used the USB 3 versions at work with good success, but that's a very different use case and environment.)

 

[garth_angst]

In my previous car (a 2017 Chevy Volt), I used this SanDisk 32GB USB 2.0 drive for 2.5 years without problems for storing music. SanDisk also makes a USB 3 drive that looks similar, but I don't know if it would perform similarly. (I've used the USB 3 versions at work with good success, but that's a very different use case and environment.)

The largest those come in are 64Gb, which is way too small for me. The Sandisk Ultra Fit is the one I read about overheating.

 

[Wennfred]

This is the one I use for my music

SanDisk 256GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07857Y17V?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Make sure to create a “Music” folder and what worked for me was m4a files, the older m4p files didn’t work, I had to convert those over to m4a.

Fred

 

[braoudap]

I found this one on Amazon and it has been awesome. I love it because it barely sticks out and is therefore not very intrusive. At first, I put a bunch of music on it and when I plugged it in for the first time, it wouldn't show up on the screen. I was heartbroken. I figured maybe the unit was too small and just wasn't making the right connection. I had an unrelated Service appointment at Tesla the next day and while I was there, I mentioned it to the Service rep and asked her why the USB drive wouldn't show up. Without batting an eye, she said I probably just need to replace the car's USB hub entirely -- a process that costs several hundreds of dollars. Shouldn't have surprised me, seeing as thought that's their default answer to everything. Not convinced, when I got home I did a little more research, and on a hunch, I reformatted the drive with FAT format, put my music on it, and VOILA! it worked. I've been using it consistently now for several days and it's awesome. Hope that helps!

 

[SpiceWare]

I use this 256 GB one I picked up from Micro Center, currently $24.99

Micro Center 256GB SuperSpeed USB 3.1 (Gen - Micro Center

 

[garth_angst]

This is the one I use for my music

SanDisk 256GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07857Y17V?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Make sure to create a “Music” folder and what worked for me was m4a files, the older m4p files didn’t work, I had to convert those over to m4a.

Fred

Do I really need a folder called Music? I was going to copy my iTunes directory structure to the jump drive. I want to keep the artists and album directory structure. Will that work? I hope I don't have to put everything into one directory. Yikes! I think FAT32 has a file number limit for a single directory.
Is there an ability to play songs in random order? I am reading the Tesla model 3 manual and there is not mention other than it needing to be FAT32. Is there a separate manual for the audio system?

 

[Wennfred]

Do I really need a folder called Music? I was going to copy my iTunes directory structure to the jump drive. I want to keep the artists and album directory structure. Will that work? I hope I don't have to put everything into one directory. Yikes! I think FAT32 has a file number limit for a single directory.
Is there an ability to play songs in random order? I am reading the Tesla model 3 manual and there is not mention other than it needing to be FAT32. Is there a separate manual for the audio system?

Give your way a try, for me with out the folder it didn’t see the songs. Make sure they are m4a format.

Fred

 

[Knightshade]

Here's what I've been using since I got the car in September-

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BPKKTGL/

There's a 128GB version for about half price if that'd be large enough for your needs- has worked flawlessly since install.

 

[SpiceWare]

I was going to copy my iTunes directory structure to the jump drive.

What format is your music in? If MP3 you're OK, but its AAC or Apple Lossless you'll need to convert it to something the Tesla will play. Anything AAC Protected (older iTunes purchased tracks) will not play.

Most of my music is Apple Lossless, followed by purchased AAC. I use Tesla Tunes utility to convert my music to FLAC, which is another lossless format. Sound great in my 3.

Do note you'll want to use TeslaTunes_1.2.6-16-g8858973-dirty.zip which is found in this GitHub discussion. Tesla used to support AAC so the build on the main Tesla Tunes page does not convert AAC to FLAC.

 

[mickle]

I got this from Amazon for $48, partitioned it for dashcam and music, working fine so far for a few weeks. Stay away from flash drives if using for dashcam.

Toshiba HDTB410XK3AA Canvio Basics 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0, Black

 

[sduck]

Skip the usb flash drive. Get an external ssd. I have one of these - https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-1TB-Extreme-Portable-SDSSDE60-1T00-G25/dp/B078SVRH4B/ and it works perfectly. I have 64gb of it partitioned separately for the dashcam. The rest is for music - I have it formatted ext4, which works even better with the model 3, as that's the file system used natively. Doesn't get hot, you can load it significantly faster than any flash drive, and it will index your files in the car extremely fast.

 

[kgoroway]

I have it formatted ext4

Is that supported now? Everything I've read says only FAT32 is supported? Are both of your partitions formatted ext4, or only the music partition?

 

[garth_angst]

Skip the usb flash drive. Get an external ssd. I have one of these - https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-1TB-Extreme-Portable-SDSSDE60-1T00-G25/dp/B078SVRH4B/ and it works perfectly. I have 64gb of it partitioned separately for the dashcam. The rest is for music - I have it formatted ext4, which works even better with the model 3, as that's the file system used natively. Doesn't get hot, you can load it significantly faster than any flash drive, and it will index your files in the car extremely fast.

Looks nice. I may get one of those.

 

[sduck]

Is that supported now? Everything I've read says only FAT32 is supported? Are both of your partitions formatted ext4, or only the music partition?

It's always been supported for music. Just not advertised. It doesn't work for the dashcam partition, for whatever reason.

 

[garth_angst]

Skip the usb flash drive. Get an external ssd. I have one of these - https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-1TB-Extreme-Portable-SDSSDE60-1T00-G25/dp/B078SVRH4B/ and it works perfectly. I have 64gb of it partitioned separately for the dashcam. The rest is for music - I have it formatted ext4, which works even better with the model 3, as that's the file system used natively. Doesn't get hot, you can load it significantly faster than any flash drive, and it will index your files in the car extremely fast.

Windows cannot read or write an ext4 fielsystem. Are you copying files from a Mac? If that's the case, I guess I can copy the files to a Mac and then to an ext4 formatted drive.

 

[srs5694]

Windows cannot read or write an ext4 fielsystem. Are you copying files from a Mac? If that's the case, I guess I can copy the files to a Mac and then to an ext4 formatted drive.

Ext4fs is a Linux-native filesystem that's supported by neither Windows nor macOS natively; however, drivers and/or apps for both OSes are available. For Windows, this article covers some options. For macOS, this article covers one way to do it. Note, however, that I rarely use these tools, and never in the last two or three years, so I can't comment on how well they work.

Another possibility is to use Linux. You could download something like an Ubuntu desktop installation image and boot it into its "try before installing" mode. You can then use that to prepare the ext4 filesystem on the USB drive (use the GParted tool -- but you may need to install it) and copy files to it.

Note that I've not tried using ext4fs for the music partition in my Tesla, so I can't verify @sduck's claims. Although ext4fs has many features that make it better than FAT for many purposes, most of those advantages don't apply to this use case. Improved speed of indexing, as @sduck claims, is possible, but I've not tried to measure it. If you think this is a problem with your FAT media, then trying ext4fs may be worthwhile.

 

[sduck]

Paragon Software | Main page has tools for both macs and pcs that make them ext4 friendly. I have their mac software (Write/read access to Linux files under macOS High Sierra – extFS by Paragon Software for Mac), which basically adds ext4 (and 2 and 3) to what the file system can manage, making it really easy to use.

Whether it's worth the bother or not is really a good question. I've tried the same partition on my ssd with the same files, but formatted in both fat32 and ext4. Except for the initial indexing speed, there's no discernible difference in performance. To be honest, I was just curious about using ext4, as I heard it would work, and the paragon software was relatively cheap and allows me to experiment with it. Since it works marginally better, I guess I'll keep using it, but it wouldn't be a great loss if I couldn't use it for whatever reason.

 

[braoudap]

What format is your music in? If MP3 you're OK, but its AAC or Apple Lossless you'll need to convert it to something the Tesla will play. Anything AAC Protected (older iTunes purchased tracks) will not play.

Most of my music is Apple Lossless, followed by purchased AAC. I use Tesla Tunes utility to convert my music to FLAC, which is another lossless format. Sound great in my 3.

Do note you'll want to use TeslaTunes_1.2.6-16-g8858973-dirty.zip which is found in this GitHub discussion. Tesla used to support AAC so the build on the main Tesla Tunes page does not convert AAC to FLAC.

Actually, I rip my CDs in iTunes as lossless (.m4a) and I transfer them directly onto USB and they play perfectly in my car. No need for further conversion with Tesla Tunes.

 

[SpiceWare]

the guy who wrote Tesla Tunes contacted Tesla and posted this response from Tesla:

Thank you for reaching out to Tesla customer support. This is definitely an interesting topic and there can be a few different variables as to why these owners are experiencing their files not playing. AAC is definitely something we support and as long as it is formatted correctly there should be no issues with playback. At this time we would recommend you inform these owners that you come in to contact with to reach out to Tesla support so we can diagnose their cars and what may be going on.

so it's possible Tesla's fixed something because of it. Been too busy of late to look into it, I hope to do so in July.