Confused with mp3 playback

S

SndChsr

Member
:
2017 CX-5 GT
Can someone please explain to me how MP3 playback works on this thing? I have about 18K songs on a 256gb SSD HD. Having painstakingly organized all my mp3's and their respective id3 tags as well as album art, I come to find out that Mazda uses crappy "grace note" software to identify and name your mp3's. Great. Half my album art is over ridden and the wrong pictures are displayed. What really drives me insane is that when I take my HD out of the car and hook it up to my comp to re-organize some items, or add and delete, after I plug it back in, some of the songs/albums I've deleted ARE STILL THERE on the Mazda infotainment system? How is that even possible. When plugged into the computer, the items are no where to be found on the HDD and yet when I plug it back into the car, there are songs there which have been deleted AND you can actually play them!! WTH?????
Any input on this is appreciated.
 
AFAIK MZD Connect should not be deleting any songs and it shouldn't affect any actual contents.

FYI - I would not use a 256GB SSD HD with MZD connect. AFAIK the system is designed to handle USB drives and even then I would only use thumb drives.
 
Last edited:
FYI: There's practically no difference in using an SSD vs a USB stick.

Agree that Mazda cannot permanently write to your drive. Might be cool if it could. lol

I really have no clue how Gracenote works in the car so I'm afraid I can't be much help but this doesn't sound like normal behavior
 
7eregrine said:
FYI: There's practically no difference in using an SSD vs a USB stick.

Agree that Mazda cannot permanently write to your drive. Might be cool if it could. lol

I really have no clue how Gracenote works in the car so I'm afraid I can't be much help but this doesn't sound like normal behavior
Click to expand...

Many SSD require a lot more power then a typical USB stick. If things are not acting right, I would try a USB stick first. Also, the size could be an issue. We know our systems have memory management issues when using the hacks, so there is probably some limit to number of songs and related data.
 
As far as USB vs SSD goes, I've tried both. USB was first then the SSD. Same issues happened on both media. This is not a USB/SSD issue. I believe it's Gracenote that's messing with me and I wish to God that Mazda would at least give us the option to not use it. The reason I switched from USB to SSD is because 256GB USB sticks are large and when plugged into the port inside the arm rest compartment, they stick out so much that when reaching inside, one can easily bump it and do harm to either the drive or the car's built in USB port.

My music library is quite large thus the 256GB choice in storage size. In this day and age, I think Mazda should give us software capable of recognizing larger drives.
 
Some
alphadog00 said:
SSD's require a bit more power then a typical USB stick.
Click to expand...

FTFY
Most SSD's, especially portable ones not designed to go inside a PC, are absolutely designed and capable of running off minimal typical USB power...
Almost all portable ones they are designed to do exactly that. I would be surprised to find one that isn't.
 
I use USB sticks and yes some of the album art is a picture of the band instead of the album cover. I'm assuming this is what you're talking about. Why it does this I have no idea. My thinking is that for whatever reason Gracenote is not recognizing the tag for the album but it knows the Artist so you get a picture of the band or artist instead of the album. I think it's kinda cool to get a different picture now and again.
 
If you're Android, and your phone can handle 256, just copy your ssd to an sd, and use your phone to play over BT. Then Gracenote won't be involved.
 
7eregrine said:
FYI: There's practically no difference in using an SSD vs a USB stick.

Agree that Mazda cannot permanently write to your drive. Might be cool if it could. lol

I really have no clue how Gracenote works in the car so I'm afraid I can't be much help but this doesn't sound like normal behavior
Click to expand...

I still suspect that MZD connect coupled with the front usb ports are really not designed for much more than basic usb sticks/thumb drives
 
SndChsr said:
As far as USB vs SSD goes, I've tried both. USB was first then the SSD. Same issues happened on both media. This is not a USB/SSD issue. I believe it's Gracenote that's messing with me and I wish to God that Mazda would at least give us the option to not use it. The reason I switched from USB to SSD is because 256GB USB sticks are large and when plugged into the port inside the arm rest compartment, they stick out so much that when reaching inside, one can easily bump it and do harm to either the drive or the car's built in USB port.

My music library is quite large thus the 256GB choice in storage size. In this day and age, I think Mazda should give us software capable of recognizing larger drives.
Click to expand...

I provided a link in another post where apparently Gracenote can be disabled (can't remember which thread)

If one wants to do this, it is at there own risk and nothing to do with me
 
Xeler8ing said:
I still suspect that MZD connect coupled with the front usb ports are really not designed for much more than basic usb sticks/thumb drives
Click to expand...
But the ones that are designed to be portable are built to specs so that they work in low power USB ports like the ones on a computer...or a car. The Mazda port is just a low power USB 2 port..like the ones on the front of many PC's.
 
7eregrine said:
But the ones that are designed to be portable are built to specs so that they work in low power USB ports like the ones on a computer...or a car. The Mazda port is just a low power USB 2 port..like the ones on the front of many PC's.
Click to expand...

I know and agree but since the OP is having issues, sounds to me the Mazda components really don't like some types of portable hdd's connected to them
 
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