Help with USB input 2008 535xi
 

This car is new to me by a few days.. and I'm slowly trying to figure things out.

I have an AUX in and USB that is installed in the arm rest near the front of the cubby hole. I haven't tried to use the AUX plug itself, but what I did today was get a 4gb memory stick with various formats of mp3's mp4's etc.

I switched mode to AUX and nothing.. of course I thought maybe the fact that it doesn't actually say USB in the menu might mean something? Is there some extra trick to get this to work.. or is it not going to?

Thanks!

The aux is for the aux input. If you have a iOS device the USB port would be for steering wheel controls. However you would need the BMW y-adaptor cable to do that, plugs into both the aux and USB port with a 30 pin on the other side.

i have a 32GB thumb drive hooked to the usb port in the center console. Just go to the external device section on the iDrive and they load quite fast. Way faster then the external harddrive in the car. Not sure what formats it supports. but if you have trouble with certain ones, just convert your whole library to mp3. itunes and many other programs can do it all in one batch file.

Thanks for the input guys.

I don't have a "Y" cable, but I do have extra audio jacks from other cars. I didn't try the ipod interface, but I connected my Note 3 to the aux port.

It did play music... it does have the bass filtering as I read on other people taking the resistors out. What was odd, however, was after a call came in it really messed things up:

1) The phone call didn't work.. probably because the headphone jack was trying to pick up a microphone, but no sound came out etc. It was bluetooth paired, so once I disconnected the aux plug it defaulted back to bluetooth.

2) After the fact.. I got bad ground loop isolation noise. Ie a whine through my speakers that changed pitch as the car was accelerating like alternator electric noise. No matter how I unplugged, started, or stopped the music it was there.

I'm a tad bit bummed so far since I can't get it to play music otherwise.

I cannot find the external device section on the idrive.. I assume it's because you have a CIC unit, and I have the CCC unit.. unless I can't find it yet.

I haven't looked into making an mp3 disc to see if the cd player decodes it yet. Can someone save me the trouble and tell me if it will be able to decode or not?

Thanks again!

MP3 format and iTunes on a thumb drive has worked for me in the past. You can also get the y adaptor from bmw dealer or order on line and use an iPod. The 16g mini works well, and is nice and small. The music can be controlled through the buttons on your steering wheel. I'm not sure how well aftermarket adapters work. I can't remember exactly the title that it sits under, but when you go into the idrive and along the top where you can change from am fm cd etc you should see one that says aux or something like that. CCC or Mask can have this option.

I'll give it another try... when I put the aux function with the USB stick in there nothing changes in the display to indicate its reading.. nor does sound come out. These MP3 formats I tried a few different ones.. all play on my android phone. I didn't put a lot of songs either in case it has to scan it.

Again, I can find the source as AUX, which indeed works with the headphone jack, just no USB function seems apparent. If I use the MODE button right on the cd player it seems to do the same as selecting it on idrive menu, but still nothing. I'll try to push songs through itunes onto a memory stick just to make sure the format is ipod friendly.

Okay updates guys.. the most awkward thing happened... I finally figured out my problem.

So after trying to normalize, convert, and put on to a memory stick.. I waited one entire ride hoping it just took a long time to decode. I got to work and was frustrated, so I tried a different memory stick thinking that maybe it was incompatibility. SANDISK popped up right beside the AUX option when I was in the idrive.

The music played right away... so I unplugged it and put in the original memory stick. Still blank. Well I jogged the idrive button to aux, and rolled the dial to the blank space where sandisk USED to be. And it went to a one character BLANK spot on the idrive! So this whole time it was there but since it doesn't have a manufacturer name linked to it, it put it as a one character blank space that i could not see!

Well.. now I know why. I don't know how to actually label the memory stick to say something else.. but since I have plenty of branded memory sticks I'll swap them over to those ones.

Awkward....... but at least I have an answer and hopefully help someone else having the same problem!

Does anyone know if there is a maximum limit to the capacity of USB stick? eg. 32GB or larger?

I had 1 TB drive connected to mine ('10 CIC). I assume it should be the same for CCC.

thanks tpax
anyone with CCC pro?? whats the biggest usb stick you have successfully used for music?