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Can CUE play iTunes music (files) from a hard drive in the same way it does an iPod?

20K views 47 replies 10 participants last post by  RippyPartsDept 
#1 ·
Having a lot of problems playing my iPod library of 7,000+ songs on CUE. I am sure many of you have been following my struggles in this forum.

Had a thought....and maybe this would work....and maybe it wouldn't....

I don't keep my music on my computer. I copied all my iTunes music (and folders) to an external portable hard drive. I can plug it into my desktop iMac or Macbook laptop, launch iTunes, and the software will find the appropriate iTunes file to properly index my music in the iTunes software no matter what computer I use.

Sooooo.....

Could I simply plug my portable hard drive into my vehicle's USB port and hope that it recognizes all my playlists and songs without the need of an iPod? Or, is the iPod and its internal software the thing I need for CUE to properly place my playlists?

After all, I am copying my iTunes folders and file structures onto an external hard drive.

Yeah, I could simply go out to my vehicle now and test it out, but I thought I would simply ask first.

If this could essentially work, I could ditch my iPod and put all my music on a SOLID STATE 250GB hard drive. Access time would be phenomenal, I would have more HD storage space, and I could still transfer music using iTunes and have CUE recognize the hard drive in the same way it would an iPod.

It might also solve the problem of CUE not being able to play that amount of music.

Is this possible, or is the key to CUE playing music as it would appear in iTunes essential to having it played through an iPod?

----------EDIT:

You know, I could have saved myself and all of you a lot of time by just testing it myself....

Plugged my portable drive into the CUE USB port. This drive contains the iTunes file structure. If it were plugged into a computer iTunes would properly index all the music on it.

...but that seems to be the magic mojo missing here. Apparently, you can't just plug a hard drive into the USB port with iTunes files and expect it to work. You would need an iPod, which contains the necessary software to translate everything to CUE.
 
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#30 ·
I am working to get a definitive reply on this from the Cadillac CUE team.

I have someone I have speaking with high up with the team and have posed questions regarding whether CUE will read an external hard drive and what format it needs to be in. Someone else has been asking whether CUE supports USB 2 or 3 and I am hoping to be able to get a response to that question as well.
 
#32 ·
The CUE team was great about responding...


The system supports any device that mounts as a USB mass storage device - this would include USB sticks, sd cards, and other devices. I am not sure many external hard drives mount that way - but there may be some. Please keep in mind that your CUE system is optimized for up to two devices and 10,000 songs total. This implies that system performance can start to degrade beyond this point - very similar to other devices on the market.

The system is currently USB 2 as USB 3 was being introduced and developed concurrently. Of course USB 3 devices are usually backwards compatible but the system wouldn't be able to operate the device as USB 3 speeds. Also, the CUE system is a bit unique that it does support 1.0 amp of USB charging (it is a powered USB hub) - great for iPads and other tablets so you can charge while on the road.
 
#34 ·
Further notes regarding my testing. My car at times would continue playing the song however I would not be able to change songs or do anything until several minutes of it being unresponsive but continuing to play whatever song it is playing. Regarding the above 10, 000 song optimization 160gb is roughly 27, 000 song woth an average song being 6mb.
 
#36 ·
Rippy,

It appeared to work fine initially, however intermittently it would stop functioning properly like noted above. Song continuing to play however cannot forward to next song or browse songs. Also last night I could not properly browse through all of the artists when in that search view. If this system is only configured to handle 10K songs that explains it, however it does not make much sense to program it to only be able to shuffle through 10K songs.

Needless to say I have removed the large HDD from my car and will not replace it until this limitation is resolved.

Also note where I had limited success while others had complete failure, I just placed MP3 files on the disk. These other users placed their entire itunes library on the disk which contains tons of different files which this system may have had issues with scanning - though one of the CUE engineer would have to speak on that more as I do not have the tools nor can I view the logs of what is going on on this system when it is scanning files.

What do you mean model #? The specific HDD?
I bought this one from target for testing:

http://www.target.com/p/western-dig...#prodSlot=medium_1_6&term=portable+hard+drive
 
#39 ·
I was also able to connect a portable HDD to the USB port in the center stack behind the display. Not a brand name device or anything, just an old 250gb 2.5" drive from an old notebook that I dropped into a generic usb-sata housing for USB use. It contained my entire music collection (artist/album1, album2, etc) and several large playlists, about 115gb total. A few seconds after plugging it in, it picked a song and began playing, so using a HDD drive is indeed possible. So, I shut the car down and left it in there. The LED was still blinking so my assumption is it was indexing even while the car is off?

Hours later I came back out to test and it was still indexing, so clearly either the large volume of folders and files was an issue, or HDDs are just slow to index given their size.

Pulled that out and am in the process of moving my "core" music to a 64gb Transcend 10x SD card. Tedious to tag all of that with MP3Tag, but I like seeing album covers and correct titles on the screen. The SD card is formatted NTFS. When I plugged it in this morning with about 6500 MP3 songs in artist/album tree format, 15 playlists with 100 MP3s each, and another single playlist with 1000 songs (all playlists in M3U format) (total storage used on the card is about 58gb), it immediately started playing a song but the volume began to increase to maximum on it's own. Very weird, and I fear it's the beginning of CUE issues for me like I've been seeing others post about here. I'll update the forum in a day or two when tagging is done and it's had time to index completely, and see how it acts.

Don
 
#38 ·
CDN and Paletz, I seriously doubt the USB in our cars is USB3. No need for it really, to have what USB3 calls "SuperSpeed" to simply transfer music from a drive to play - that kind of throughput isn't necessary. Could be wrong but I suspect the rest of the CUE interface bus isn't fast enough and doesn't need to be. It would be like insisting on wifi/n protocol and then connecting with a wifi/b device.
 
#41 ·
Ronbo, will do. How did you format the SD card? I can easily stream audiobooks from my HTC1 over BT, so you shouldn't be having problems either. Did your contacts sync shortly after you paired the phone? Are they talking? How are you trying to stream to CUE with your Android?
 
#42 ·
I believe I formatted the card in ExFat.

Not certain. There are instructions posted somewhere in this forum exactly what format to use.

My intent was not to stream the content from the Android to Cue. I wanted a direct connection, as if I was connecting an iPhone or iPod to the system.

That led to problems. First, CUE would not recognize the Android as a music device. I had to actually root the phone so that the external card within the phone (where my music is stored) would be recognized as an external device.

Even after all that done, CUE would recognize the external card but would not play the music.

(By the way, I believe I use iSyncr to move music files from my Mac to the Android).

What I want to do is similar to what it seems you are trying to do...

Put my music on the 64GB SD card. Plug that card into the SD slot within the armrest console and hope CUE recognizes it.

Tried it -- did not work -- but perhaps I did something wrong.

....but then again, CUE has absolutely been the most frustrating system I have ever worked with. I am a tech guy who usually can figure these things out, but to date, I haven't been able to get the SD card to work.

....which is why I am looking forward to reading about your experiments and results.
 
#43 ·
Hmmm. I see what you're trying to do, use your android device as a USB drive, like when you plug it into your PC and open the device as a drive. Not sure that's going to work, and (just me) IMHO, it's easier to drop $40 on a card, load it with what you want, and leave it there so you don't depend on plugging your phone in every you want music... I think I'm going to reach out to the CUE care team and see if they have a recommended formatting and folder structure for the SD card and USB stick to optimize playback, etc.

I think this afternoon I'll strip most of the content off the SD card, leaving only a few music folders, and a single big playlist with the .m3u playlist file in the folder and see what happens, as it shouldn't take long to index fewer items. Ideally, I'd like to know how CUE is supposed to recognize podcasts too - they're all mp3 files, so how does it know it's not simply another song?

You might start with formatting your SD card as NTFS, that worked for me.

We'll get to the bottom of this! ;-)
 
#44 ·
Don,

The big hurdle is playlists.

I like putting my music in specific playlists so if I want to hear, say, Elton John, then all those songs are in one playlist.

It's rather easy to import them over as such. I believe iSyncr takes playlists right off of iTunes and brings them over to the SD card.

I just don't think CUE recognizes that file structure unless it comes off an iPod.

Again, I will wait and see what happens on your end. Thanks.
 
#45 ·
OK, I can't speak to iTunes since I gave it up years ago. I did this:

1. I put all the music I wanted in a given playlist in a folder on the SD card. (this keeps the path to the songs correct and references the SD card instead of the PC)

2. Highlighted and opened all the songs in the playlist with WMP.

3. "Saved the Playlist As" to an .m3u file in the same folder.

I can't confirm 100% as it was still synching when I got to work this morning, but I'm fairly certain that's going to work.

Anyhoo, I'll reduce the number of folders and files and try it this afternoon when I get home, then report back.
 
#48 ·
i would estimate that about 25% of the cue systems installed in the 2013 year model (across all cars that had cue) got their hardware replaced

there were various issues that caused a campaign (read that as a non-govt self-initiated recall since it's not safety related)
all year dealers across the country have been replacing cue systems left and right (we just ordered one today)
all vehicles with cue (at least all 2013s) should have that campaign listed when your service advisor pulls up your VIN

it may seem a bit like heart surgery but it's actually pretty easy to get out and the techs are now well experienced at doing the exchanges so i wouldn't worry about it

i bet that if you mention the volume thing to your service (and maybe even sales) people they will immediately tell you they know how to fix it and it will require a CUE swap out and that they will get you one overnighted and have you on your way the next day
 
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