USB thumb drive format for media outlet

[Cat22]

I have a 2022 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited. I can not get music to play off a thumb drive plugged into a media port. I have tried various FAT formats and two different thumb drives (both of which play the music just fine on a laptop) and i always get the Error Message to Reconnect.
1: What is the partition format?
2: What is the max size of the thumb drive?
3: What is the music format supposed to be? .mp3? .mp4? .wav? or what formats are acceptable?
The owners manual is useless and doesn't touch on any of this.
The dealer is trying to research it for me but I don't count on getting a good answer there.
TIA
Cat22

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[Rhinebeck01]

@Cat22

Read here... read the whole thread..
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/flash-drive-issue.6602/

 

[Heimkehr]

I play mp3s from a thumb drive plugged into the Media panel's USB-A port. That's all, really.

Uconnect 3, if that matters.

 

[JL MADDOG]

My USB sticks are formatted in FAT32 and I use .mp3 & FLAC digital files. Works just fine in my JL.

 

[AFD]

Most automotive media players have a max file/folder limit for USB drives, does anyone know what that is for the uConnect units?

Saw in the other thread that sometimes 128GB drives work and one person tried a 256GB drive and couldn't get it to work, but that could still be due to other issues like going over the max file/folder count limit (or having the file/folder characters exceed a certain combined length). Saw that one person didn't have problems with a collection of 4,500 tracks.

Really not sure why these specs and limitations aren't officially published anywhere. For example, my decade-old Alpine INE-S920HD supports FAT12/16/32 and MP3/WMA/AAC/DivX (no DRM) with up to 10,000 total files/folders.

Read here... read the whole thread..
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/flash-drive-issue.6602/

Lol. And that leads to another post of yours telling us to read a completely different thread, and there's really no definitive answers in either ?

 

[Rhinebeck01]

Anyway, the OP of this thread, hopefully, will be able to obtain enough info in those 2 other threads.

Format to FAT32, mp3, limit size of USB stick and use a USB stick brand that is known to work in the JL.

 

[Ct_Formula]

I was using a 32gig sandisk on the OEM 8" head unit. Now with the Stinger I'm using a micro 256gig Verbatim and still working great.

 

[JL MADDOG]

I use a 128GB stick and I do not have folders on the stick, only music files. The head unit & OEM USB will decode higher resolution files such as FLAC or WAV with no issues.

I've never been able to get a 258GB stick to work.

 

[Cat22]

Well. I made some progress. It turns out the thumb drive can not have a separate partition. The whole drive has to be treated as one big partition. So you just delete any partitions that are on it and then format the whole drive as FAT32. Then i put a single mp3 on the thumb drive and it worked perfectly.
When i get a chance i will copy more files onto the drive and maybe try an mp4 although i doubt it will play as mp4's are mixed video and audio.
I spoke with the dealer late yesterday and they didn't have n answer as to how to setup a thumb drive but they said they will call it in and see if they can get all the specs so we can know for sure what is supported and what is not
BTW: if you have a bunch of mp4's in linux you can use VLC Media Player to convert them. Its the option under the File menu near the bottom of the menu. It wil convert the list you specify and will use the same base name but insted of .mp4 it will be .mp3 I selected about 50 mp4's all at once and it just worked its way through them. Its slow but it works. Expect 30-45 minutes for that many files so be patient and yeh there is a progress bar if you look carefully.

 

[JeepCares]

Well. I made some progress. It turns out the thumb drive can not have a separate partition. The whole drive has to be treated as one big partition. So you just delete any partitions that are on it and then format the whole drive as FAT32. Then i put a single mp3 on the thumb drive and it worked perfectly.
When i get a chance i will copy more files onto the drive and maybe try an mp4 although i doubt it will play as mp4's are mixed video and audio.
I spoke with the dealer late yesterday and they didn't have n answer as to how to setup a thumb drive but they said they will call it in and see if they can get all the specs so we can know for sure what is supported and what is not
BTW: if you have a bunch of mp4's in linux you can use VLC Media Player to convert them. Its the option under the File menu near the bottom of the menu. It wil convert the list you specify and will use the same base name but insted of .mp4 it will be .mp3 I selected about 50 mp4's all at once and it just worked its way through them. Its slow but it works. Expect 30-45 minutes for that many files so be patient and yeh there is a progress bar if you look carefully.

Sorry for just now coming across this, Cat22. Feel welcome to PM us your VIN and we'd be happy to do an internal research on compatible USB devices for you.

Steph
Jeep Cares

 

[IbizaGuy]

I can report success with this drive Lexar JUMPDRIVE S47 32GB USB 3.1 Black. It's very low profile so you can mostly close the media port lid with it inserted and it also worked in the centre console. It has 250Mb/s read with no delays in loading tracks. For a pleasurable experience fast read and random read is essential for loading tracks. Much better than the previous Sandisk with 120Mb/s I tried. I used "Export for iTune" to export to the drive from iTunes.
@JeepCares As a humble request please ask the Uconnect team to enable gapless playback in the units audio playback software. I have mostly a collection of mix albums with separated tracks and there is noticeable gap between tracks which really detracts from the listening experience. Live albums also suffer.
Also another fix is even though I disabled music to start when the ignition is started it still plays when I enter the car. Even if the track is manually stopped before the ignition is turned off.

 

[JeepCares]

I can report success with this drive Lexar JUMPDRIVE S47 32GB USB 3.1 Black. It's very low profile so you can mostly close the media port lid with it inserted and it also worked in the centre console. It has 250Mb/s read with no delays in loading tracks. For a pleasurable experience fast read and random read is essential for loading tracks. Much better than the previous Sandisk with 120Mb/s I tried. I used "Export for iTune" to export to the drive from iTunes.
@JeepCares As a humble request please ask the Uconnect team to enable gapless playback in the units audio playback software. I have mostly a collection of mix albums with separated tracks and there is noticeable gap between tracks which really detracts from the listening experience. Live albums also suffer.
Also another fix is even though I disabled music to start when the ignition is started it still plays when I enter the car. Even if the track is manually stopped before the ignition is turned off.

Thanks for the shout, IbizaGuy

Your feedback is heard and shared towards the proper teams for further review.

Steph
Jeep Cares

 

[AZSpar10]

I have a 2022 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited. I can not get music to play off a thumb drive plugged into a media port. I have tried various FAT formats and two different thumb drives (both of which play the music just fine on a laptop) and i always get the Error Message to Reconnect.
1: What is the partition format?
2: What is the max size of the thumb drive?
3: What is the music format supposed to be? .mp3? .mp4? .wav? or what formats are acceptable?
The owners manual is useless and doesn't touch on any of this.
The dealer is trying to research it for me but I don't count on getting a good answer there.
TIA
Cat22

THIS SHOULD WORK JUST FINE:
I recently 'misplaced' my 128gb sandisk usb drive and needed to buy a new one. I purchased a newer version of the exact same usb drive. After dumping 3000+ songs on in (including several folders) I tested in the Jeep and got the dreaded "reconnect" msg.

Back inside, I looked up the drives properties - exFAT formatting. After unloading all the 3000+ files here's what I did:

1. Downloaded a free program called RUFUS (rufus.ie/en/)
2. Install
3. Select your USB drive in DEVICE
4. Boot Selection > unbootable (not really needed but why not? - this isn't a system booter)
5. Partition Scheme > FAT32
6. Cluster size > 32
7. Unselect "Create extended label and icon files
8. If its a new USB you can just use Quick Format
9. Hit start

Take about 10 seconds to reformat into FAT32

10. Moved about 10 songs onto the disk and went back out to Jeep
11. Worked perfectly
12. Moved ALL 3000+ songs back onto USB
13. Put back in Jeep...UConnect only listed 10 songs
14. Hit BROWSE...UConnect thought about things for a while...when it was done all 3000+ songs were available.

Hope this helps

 

[BetOnBlack]

THIS SHOULD WORK JUST FINE:
I recently 'misplaced' my 128gb sandisk usb drive and needed to buy a new one. I purchased a newer version of the exact same usb drive. After dumping 3000+ songs on in (including several folders) I tested in the Jeep and got the dreaded "reconnect" msg.

Back inside, I looked up the drives properties - exFAT formatting. After unloading all the 3000+ files here's what I did:

1. Downloaded a free program called RUFUS (rufus.ie/en/)
2. Install
3. Select your USB drive in DEVICE
4. Boot Selection > unbootable (not really needed but why not? - this isn't a system booter)
5. Partition Scheme > FAT32
6. Cluster size > 32
7. Unselect "Create extended label and icon files
8. If its a new USB you can just use Quick Format
9. Hit start

Take about 10 seconds to reformat into FAT32

10. Moved about 10 songs onto the disk and went back out to Jeep
11. Worked perfectly
12. Moved ALL 3000+ songs back onto USB
13. Put back in Jeep...UConnect only listed 10 songs
14. Hit BROWSE...UConnect thought about things for a while...when it was done all 3000+ songs were available.

Hope this helps

Great info. I think an issue that is run into is formatting drives bigger than 32gb using Windows. Windows for some reason doesn't support partition larger than 32gb using FAT32. 3rd party tools do it no problem. Just Microsoft being Microsoft and pushing people to use NTFS.
I just wonder how much memory the head unit has to hold file tables of the USB drive. So far I've only used 32gb drives, but want to try a 512gb SSD. That should hold most of my mp3 collection.

 

[Whaler27]

Thanks for the shout, IbizaGuy

Your feedback is heard and shared towards the proper teams for further review.

Steph
Jeep Cares

Thanks, Steph!

We’ll await your answer with enthusiasm and hope!

And thanks to AZSpar10, Heimkehr, BetOnBlack, and others for the helpful tips.

Steph should have the summary explanation and recommended options from the system designers in a day or two, as JeepCares has inside access and influence!

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