UPLOADING MP3 FILES

[kaa1666]

Hi,

Please can you humour me. I have just the plunge and  taken delivery of  B2 and seem to be having some difficulty in uploading MP3 files. I have used the UI but that seems rather slow and a number of files have been rejected. I have in excess of 15K files to upload, which are currently on an external hard drive. I have managed to upload about 100 so far. At this rate I may die of old age before completing the task.

I assume that I could use a memory stick in one of the USB ports, but which one should I use A or C?. Also which menu do I access this functionalty from?

Thanks in advance

Ian

[Ray Dion]

The short answer to your question is yes you can use the USB ports, both in fact. The difference you may notice is that the USB C will be capable of providing more power to the device used. A regular USB memory stick should be fine in either one. 

• The memory stick must be real! Those sold cheap on EBay or Amazon and large are probably fakes (I learned the hard way). Buy from a reputable source and a reputable brand. I bought several 2TB USB disks from SanDisk. I also bought a powered USB bridge so I have more ports and plenty of power.
• The USB memory stick or disk must be formatted FAT32. Most are NTFS. When you reformat you will LOSE ALL DATA ON THE DEVICE. When you insert a FAT32 memory stick into a Windows PC it will tell you there is an error and ask to fix it, DON"T. It will work fine. It is not broken. You Windows (I assume) machine may not be able to format FAT32. Follow instructions on the Brennan page to use the B2 to format the device or find a free program to run on Windows, just google for it.

Consult the Brennan web page at  Backup your B2 - using USB storage – thebrennan. It also has instructions to restore. Please note that your files must be in the folder structure indicated on the page Arist >> Album >> tracks.

Other thoughts about what might be happening 

• If you are using WiFI, what is the signal strength (Settings >> Maintenance >> WiFi Strength). It needs to be better then -40dB. That means the number must be less than 40. -30 dB is good, =55dB is bad. Try to play Internet Radio. It will have issues if you have poor WiFi performance. If you are near your router and can run a cable between them, it will provide better performance.
• Are the special characters in the file/directory names?
• The file structure must be the same as above webpage.

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

Hi Ray,

I always understood that the B2's USB A was capable of more power than the C port because the C port was shared internally with the CD drive.

Also one could also use the B2's NAS function to load music (just remember to do a Scan Disk afterwards).

However, for NAS to work fast it would be best to make an Ethernet rather than WiFi connection.

Fred

[Ray Dion]

Sorry I got it backwards. I know the ethernet cable is faster. That opened enough can of worms I thought you or the other regulars would provide a better description. I just answered the question about using a USB device. I actually tried to look up and verify all the ways to do it but dug myself into too much stuff. The one thing I did not check was the A and C, serves me right. Sorry for the mixup.

[PMB]

Hi Ian,

The files on the USB stick need to be arranged by Artist then Album then Tracks, like this -

music - a folder - must only contain Artist folders, no other files

         Artist #1 - a folder - must only contain Album folder/s - no Tracks or other files

                      Album #1 - a folder - containing the Tracks and Album artwork (if available)

                                     Track #1 - a file e.g. Here comes the Sun.mp3

                                     Track #2

                                     etc

                      Album #2

                                     etc

         Artist #2

                       etc

Paul

Brennan Support.