How to copy playlist albums and tracks to USB C ?

[David McQuarrie]

Hello and Help!

When trying to follow attached INSTRUCTIONS for TRANSFER to a (FAT32-formatted) USB, attachment below, we found 

1) On Step 1, the PLAYLIST search option is not available.  Also to search, we're having to TYPE each track or album name.  

2) On Step 2, none of the options TRACK or ALBUM or PLAYLIST to USB is available.

We also tried  "export to C", which only transfers ALL (ie. total backup) vs. individual selections.

 

Please advise exactly how to proceed to transfer a small collection of tracks or albums or artists in a playlist to USB C.

We did manage to copy our entire list of Playlists(58 or 59) to a memory stick(FAT formatted). We need a larger playlist menu, because B2, having played all the tracks of the top album in an artist's list, does not go to the next album in the list but defaults to random play of the entire 11K+ track list. So If I want to hear only Beatles, it has to be in a playlist.

We hope this explanation could be followed enough to help us with an answer. 

Thank you, David and Teresa

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi,

First is your Brennan device a JB7 or a B2 (or BB1) - your attachment is for a JB7 but some of the language you use in the above email suggests you are using a B2!

Fred

[Daniel Taylor]

Assuming that you want to do this on a B2, use the Export Playlist command (Playlist menu).

[PMB]

Hi David and Teresa,

We need to know which Brennan unit you have - a JB7 (with the blue/green display) or the B2 (with white characters display).

Paul

Brennan Support.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

FYI

B2 =

BB1 =

JB7 = 

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

I got this in my private e-mail.

------------------------------------------------

Hi Fred, Thought I'd try again. While I'm here, do answers from you or any of the community go to the questioner's own email or only within this space?  Anyway, we are using a B2, we're very happy with it, even with occasional quirks. However we cannot find a way to export or copy only one playlist at a time. If we try any export menu item, it will export all 11K+ tracks or try to. We just discovered in trying to back up  all the tracks that we will need 8, maybe 10 64 gig flash drives. We bought a terabyte drive but it is exFAT and the B2 won't use that. 

Hope this helps my quest...Thanks, David and Teresa

-------------------------------------------------

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi David and Teresa,

OK You have a B2.

First I will point you at a section of the Brennan web site which explains all you can do using the Front screen and round knob of the B2's menu system.

Have a look through this because while the Web UI is good for using the Brennan, when you want to do things to /with the B2 you will need to use these menus.

https://www.brennan.co.uk/itemcontent.php/content/Menus

Lets first sort out your nice new Terabyte Drive. For the B2 to see/use this it needs to be FAT32 format not exFAT (as you have discovered).

The best way to format it to FAT32 is to use your B2 (and the menu system).

Plug the drive into the USB A port of the B2, power up the B2 and let it finish booting. Then using the Display and Front knob, go-

Main Menu > Settings > Maintenance > Format USB A

This should not take too long.

The next thing I would like you to do is make a "backup" of your B2's music.

Unplug  the Terabyte drive from the USB a port, then I would now like you to go -

Main Menu > Settings > Scan Disk

This may take some time (the red light will flash).

When the red light stops flashing please press and hold in the "Stop/Play" button until "Saving" appears on the Front display.

When the clock reappears, please power the B2 off, plug the Terabyte drive into the B2's USB C port and then power it on again and wait for it to boot.

Then go -

Main Menu > USB Functions > Export to C

This is the recommended backup for a B2. It does a backup of the entire music collection to the drive in USB C and is incremental for subsequent uses of Export to C. The music is organised artist->album->track. Use in conjunction with Import USB C.

This may run for some time - leave it to finish no matter how long it takes - it finishes when the read light stops slashing.

When the red light stops flashing please press and hold in the "Stop/Play" button until "Saving" appears on the Front display.

When the clock reappears, please power the B2 off, and Unplug the Terabyte drive then power it on again and wait for it to boot.

Keep your Terabyte Drive safe!!

Next plug an empty USB stick into the B2's USB C port and go

Main Menu > Settings > Maintenance > Format USB C    (Please NOTE this will DELETE anything previously on the stick)

Using the Web  UI create a small playlist of some of your music (just small for this test)

then go 

Main Menu >  Playlist Menu  > Export to C

This operation will write all the music in a playlist to the drive in USB C. It can take a long time if the playlist is big. Originally intended for transferring smallish collections that you can listen to in the car for example. 

When the red light stops flashing please press and hold in the "Stop/Play" button until "Saving" appears on the Front display.

Once the clock reappears you can unplug the USB drive and try it in your car.

Fred

[Daniel Taylor]

When I read David and Teresa's mention of needing 10 64 GB flash drives, I thought it would be worth pointing out that an Export cannot be spread over multiple disks.  It requires a single disk that can hold all the music.  The Playlist > Export Playlist command is appropriate for backing up a smaller portion of your music.

[David McQuarrie]

Many thanks for your patience and assistance on "How to Back Up and Restore."    

So far we were successful at: 

1) formatting our exFAT TB drive to FAT32;

2) back up /scan disc, then saving. 

3)tried to Export to C and this took overnight.  So after "Saving" which was a flash (is this normal(?), thought may take longer to save), turned off B2 and unplugged TB.  

Sadly, we seem to have 2 issues:

1) both laptop and PC won't read the MUSIC on the TB.  Checked 250+G space used by backed up B2 music but the Music "folder" shows only 64KB which contained "0" music files.

2) tried to open the music folder, Windows Media Player (WMP) error message "...cannot play the file.  The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file."

In my sleuthing learned CODEC means COde and DECode.  Checked and found our WMPs have as follows & confirmed our audio drivers are updated regularly so don't think these are outdated. 

DMO WMAudio Decoder DMO 0160, 0161, 0162, 0163 WMADMOD.DLL 10.0.19041.508
DMO WMAPro over S/PDIF DMO 0162 WMADMOD.DLL 10.0.19041.508
DMO WMSpeech Decoder DMO 000A, 000B WMSPDMOD.DLL 10.0.19041.1
DMO MP3 Decoder DMO 0055 mp3dmod.dll 10.0.19041.1

Now how do we move forward? 

If we are missing the "codec" necessary to upload/read/play B2 back up music, is there a specific one that B2 recommends and where/how we get it?

Or do we need to change compression i.e. back up as MP3 vs FLAC? 

[Jeff. M.]

I've just plugged my back up into my laptop, amessage came up saying disc was faulty, so opened it up in file exploer and tried to play some tracks. It worked perfectly. My music folder shows 103 gb, maybe your export didn't work correctly.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi David and Teresa

You emailed me (and I copied it here for you) that " We bought a terabyte drive but it is exFAT"  

Please can you tell me what sort of device the "terabyte drive" is please. ie is it a USB stick/thumb drive, or a HDD or SSD external drive with a USB cable?

I ask because the market is flooded with FAKE  USB stick/thumb drives and - if you understood/followed my instructions properly, the result you ae seeing does sound tragically like that cause by a fake!

See this link in the Forum

https://groups.google.com/g/brennanb2/c/1BakkcoHSQQ/m/a_bM-4gGBQAJ

Awaiting your reply anxiously,

Fred

On Thursday, 1 July 2021 at 16:09:00 UTC+1 dvd...@gmail.com wrote:

[PMB]

Hi David and Teresa,

As Fred says, it would be helpful to know what backup device you are trying to use i.e. a USB memory stick, a HDD or a SSD - brand and model?

Paul

Brennan Support.

[David McQuarrie]

Hello Jeff M.,  Thanks for your response and apologies for our late one.  Teresa explains:  Re Transfer/Export ALL tracks to USB 

 1. The FIRST (Helar) USB stick came with 1 TB.  After conversion from exFAT to FAT32 showed 976G total free space. However only copied/exported 67 of 454 artists (sorry did not count albums & tracks.)  The remaining 381 artists were copied as names only, not music.  We concluded that the USB was defective.

2. The 2nd (SANDISK) stick came with only 512G however we were successful in exporting ALL music (not playlists.)  AND, only used 270G of space. 

 

So everyone was right -we bought a bad memory stick. Thanks again, David and Teresa

[David McQuarrie]

Hello Fred,  Thanks for your reply and apologies for our late response. You were correct. We bought a bad memory stick. Teresa says:  Re Transfer/Export ALL tracks to USB 

 1. The FIRST (Helar) USB stick came with 1 TB.  After conversion from exFAT to FAT32 showed 976G total free space. However only copied/exported 67 of 454 artists (sorry did not count albums & tracks.)  The remaining 381 artists were copied as names only, not music.  We concluded that the USB was defective.

2. The 2nd (SANDISK) stick came with only 512G however we were successful in exporting ALL music (not playlists.)  AND, only used 270G of space. 

Everything seems to be working fine and we have a less expensive Sandisk to boot. Thanks again for your support. David and Teresa

[Peter Lowham]

Hi David and Teresa,

It looks like the Helar USB stick is a fake.  These are being churned out in thousands from China, and are causing havoc!  You can download a free program from the web called 'H2TestW'.  This will test a memory stick and will give you an accurate report of what the stick really is.

Regards,

Peter.