Two music questions

[Peobody]

I ride with an iPhone and a Cardo Packtalk headset connected to my XT.

My first problem is that I can't initiate music to start playing from the iPhone. The song title and play arrow are there but they don't start the music. I must start it on the phone itself. What am I missing?

My second issue is a question that may be Cardo specific but I'll post in in the hopes of an explanation here. The Cardo has a built-in FM receiver. It appears that the XT detects that since it shows to music icon in the bluetooth entry for the Cardo. I am curious why that music icon is there. I haven't found a way to access or control it from the XT so why does the XT care about the FM capability of the Cardo?

[jfheath]

I ride with an iPhone and a Cardo Packtalk headset connected to my XT.
My first problem is that I can't initiate music to start playing from the iPhone. The song title and play arrow are there but they don't start the music. I must start it on the phone itself. What am I missing?

If the music is playing then you can use the XT to pause and skip buttons to control it - although it isn't exactly real time operation. But you cannot set it going from the XT, or search whatever music is available.
I've given up on using any music from the iphone. The built in MP3 player produces better quality anyway, and the BT doesn't get all jittery when the phone tries to pair with a passing car. Actually, I usually turn off the Music if I need to focus on riding - which is usually all of the time.

My second issue is a question that may be Cardo specific but I'll post in in the hopes of an explanation here. The Cardo has a built-in FM receiver. It appears that the XT detects that since it shows to music icon in the bluetooth entry for the Cardo. I am curious why that music icon is there. I haven't found a way to access or control it from the XT so why does the XT care about the FM capability of the Cardo?

Again, I think that maybe it might pick it up as a source on the Music player - but you may lose the music connection to the phone - I don't know. But whatever, it will be like the last answer - you will have to set it going before the XT can play it.
I don't know this for sure - its what I would expect having seen it operate with my devices.

[V-Tom]

When you are trying to play music from you phone go to the XT's music player and select the "Source" as the phone.

..Tom

[Peobody]

Actually, I usually turn off the Music if I need to focus on riding - which is usually all of the time.

I hear you. I am the same way except when needing to crank out some miles on the interstate. After some hours in light traffic boredom sets in and i just want to break that with some music. The fact that I can't initiate music on my phone from the XT is disappointing. I will look into copy that music to the XT and seeing how that goes. Unfortunately the owners manual does not contain any details about storing music on the device so I am clueless about any kind of required file type, directory structure, playlist capability, or album/artist capability. Is there a source for this information anywhere?

[Richard_R]

I will look into copy that music to the XT and seeing how that goes. Unfortunately the owners manual does not contain any details about storing music on the device so I am clueless about any kind of required file type, directory structure, playlist capability, or album/artist capability. Is there a source for this information anywhere?

I second that putting music directly onto the XT advice. In my somewhat limited use so far it has worked perfectly.
On the XT itself there is a directory called MP3 you need to copy your MP3 files into that directory, it is approx 2GB in allocated size. IMO a better way is to use an micro SD card. Just create a directory called MP3 or Music on that and put your music into that directory. The XT will find it and play. Using the card means that I can easily add, delete or change music files simply by removing the card from the XT and plugging it into a computer without faffing around to connect the XT to the computer.
I found the XT a bit picky about the card format so just copy one song to the card to start with if you want to go down that route and make sure it works before you start copying many songs. Also be sure to lock down the SD card cover properly (the cover slides away from the hinged end to lock and towards the hinge to unlock) otherwise you may suffer the dreaded music breakup problem.
We currently have 78GB of songs on our NAS and I have a 64GB card with about 3GB of music on it which I find plenty but as my mood changes as I said earlier I can easily add or subtract music.
If your MP3s have correct ID3 tags you are able to have the right third of the Garmin screen dedicated to music and you can see the album art, the song title, artist and album name plus you get basic pause/play and forward/back controls. If you want to search the music database you need to go into the music app properly but that is not something I would do while riding. I just have the play set to shuffle and get a varying stream of music.

In summary

Music files need to be in MP3 format
Files need to be in the MP3 directory on the XT or in a directory called MP3 or Music on a SD card
You cannot have files in subfolders as far as I can see
This will work
MP3/song title.mp3
This will not work (in my experience)
MP3/Album name/Song title.mp3
If you want to be able to search files by artist, album, gene or song title you need to have correct ID3 tags on all your files.
If you don't have correct ID3 tags the songs will play but you will probably only be able to see the song title and have no other access for searching data.

[jfheath]

Don't get me wrong, I do listen to music, but there are more times these days when I find that I want turn it off.

My music is arranged in MP3 / Artist / Album / Track folders and that works fine. The MP3 player seems to ignore this structure and just finds the individual tracks so yes, the ID3 information needs to be correct if you want to play album tracks in the correct order.
You can use a dedicated editor, or something like Windows Media Player will allow some editing. You have to be careful that it doesn't then connect to its online database and copy back the incorrect track information !! I think that if you specify your folders to be optimised for music in Windows File Explorer, you can display and edit some of the tags in there - just like you can with filenames. [edit]Yes you can - but only if the file is on the computer. You cannot edit stuff that is connected as an MTP device (Media Transfer Protocol). But you can delete and write the file back.

The MP3 folder can exist in internal memory AND on the SD card and it will find tracks in both places. So if you accidentally copy the same files to both places, when you play an album, it will play tracks in the correct order, but each track will be played twice. A clear indication that it uses the ID3 structure rather than your folder structure.

The folder name MP3 used to be case sensitive. I don't know if that is still the case (sic).

You can create a playlist, but I think it has to be built up on the XT itself. Ive not had much success in creating one on the computer and transferring it. Not without resorting to programming. Too much effort for little reward. Someone else may have had better success than me - I didn't spend that much time on it.

[Richard_R]

My music is arranged in MP3 / Artist / Album / Track folders and that works fine.

Interesting. When I tried to copy files to the card in folders using the artist name/album name (MP3/Artist name/Album name/trackname.mp3) the XT could find nothing. When I simply copied the tracks in a single directory (MP3/trackname.mp3) it happily finds them all and does it's own indexing so I still have the ability to search by artist or album or genre if I want).
The program I use for ID3 tags is Jaikoz. It is not free but I find it is very accurate because it searches several databases. You can also add lots of your own info if you want.

[jfheath]

Check:
* that you have MP3 and not mp3 in the root of the SD card.
* that you have selected MP3 as the source of the music (next to the Browse button on the player

Note:
That it sometimes reports 'No Songs Found' but has something like 1/358 at the top of the same screen.
No Songs Found, means that it hasn't been told what to play yet. Click Browse, and choose (say) 'Play All'. It will then display the first track.

If it isn't any of these, then there is something wrong somewhere else. It should find the tracks in folders and subfolders on the SD card.

What size card?
What software version - one of the later releases increased the number of mp3 files and also made provision for larger cards.

[Richard_R]

Check:
* that you have MP3 and not mp3 in the root of the SD card.

yes

* that you have selected MP3 as the source of the music (next to the Browse button on the player

yes

What size card?

Sandisk Extreme 64GB

What software version - one of the later releases increased the number of mp3 files and also made provision for larger cards.

GPS? - 6.3

I see no problem with having all the files under the MP3 directory. I have full functionality for searches if I want and they are only copies of files from my NAS so they are no in any way important to me in the GPS. Most of the time I just have music set to shuffle so the songs played are random. I am certainly not going to bother trying to select particular artists, albums or tracks while I am actually riding but I can still do that if I want to when I am stopped.

[shealbi]

I have mp3 songs stored on my zumo (have cardo system), but prefer the ones stored in playlists on my iphone. Thru trial and error, found if i start the music on my iphone one time when i initially turn on the zumo - i can control everything from the xt, the rest of my ride. However, if i wait to start the music the first time on my xt, it only plays on the xt speaker. Strange quirk. no biggie - just remember to start the music when turn on all equipment, and you can pause it till want it later. I have zero issues with playback quality. And i use "hey siri" to control song skipping and volume...and for an occasional, "tell me a joke"