Lurch63

Hello all,

my first post but I have been a reader of the site for some time and eventually bought a 520d, Monaco Blue, Black Dakota Leather, which I picked up on July 4th. It's early days yet but I am delighted so far. I have one query though about the USB interface and how an Ipod works on it.

I have an Ipod classic 160GB with about 8GB of music on it. When I plug it into the USB interface using the cable that I normally connect it to my PC with, it will show up on the Idrive and list some of the albums (about 20) however, the rest of the music is not listed correctly. The music is all there but the naming is all wrong for example the listing will be -
aghf
aejd
cand
dfea

etc etc.

I was surprised it listed any albums at all as the dealer said I would need to purchase a special cable from BMW to enable my Ipod to work. I guess what I am asking is why it lists some songs and is the BMW USB cable essential?

Thanks for any help.

itzstatic2k1

Don't quote me bud, as I am new here to, however I believe the iDrive screen displays only a limited # of songs, 500 or 1000 if I recall, thats where your problem lies.

Lurch63

Cheers.

I guess there is no point in over engineering Idrive but would be nice if the dealer had told me about that limitation. I thought the Ipod was the alternative to using a USB key in the USB port. Still, how long would you have to drive to listen to 8GB music
Thanks for the reply.

Rudy

Welcome to the forums. I agree that you need to try the BMW supplied iPod cable if you want to use your iPod with the car. If you are only going to use a USB stick, then you don't need the cable.

Take a look at the following threads for more information:
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=54692
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=56257
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=54191
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=53943

Lurch63

Thanks Rudy,

All questions answered in the threads so I really appreciate the help.

Rudy

You're welcome. If you can't manage to get a free adapter cable from your dealer (the cable is included with the car in the US), you might try asking in the classifieds here. I seem to remember some members had an extra one that they were offering...