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      02-25-2015, 11:23 AM   #1
xweb10
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Storing Music and Folders

I'm a new 2015 X5 35d owner as of yesterday coming from a 2015 X3. Beautiful car.

I have a question about storing music on the hard disk. I have a USB drive with music stored in folders such as:

Pearl Jam (Main Folder)
-- Binaural (Sub Folder)
-- Lightning Bolt (Sub Folder)

Green Day (Main Folder)
-- American Idiot (Sub Folder)

and so on.

On the X3, I saw the folders and was able to drill down through iDrive. The X5 seems to clump all the music together alphabetically (if I recall). The only way to drill down is using the search feature, which takes extra time. It does classify and categorize the artists and albums correctly, but it is a little clumsy to navigate.

Is there a way to keep music in a folder type, drill-down structure on this vehicle?
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      02-25-2015, 11:26 AM   #2
Taran.J
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I haven't been able to find a way. & to go and search them it takes forever so I've just adapted to titles in alphabetical order.
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      02-25-2015, 11:43 AM   #3
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Solution: http://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...light=playlist

It lets you create M3U files based on your existing (or new ones you make) playlists in iTunes, preserving song order in those lists, whilst exporting the actual files too, in one step. The result is an USB that behaves very similar to an iPod. You get all your lists, and the M3U file is easily editable with a text editor or by using the app linked above (which also works in Windows). In fact, with the text editor you can change the song order (as shown below, I've opened the Sunny Side FM4 playlist) or the title of the playlist, as it knows to fetch the song for the playlist from the "Music" folder (in blue).

Actual playlist in iDrive in the link above.

Of course the blue Music folder can hold more songs that are not in a playlist. So in my case, 7,348 songs in the blue Music folder (see below), but the playlists contain about 3,000 songs. The rest are songs that you can see in iDrive under the Artist/Composer/Album/Genre sorts.




As you see below, song order is not alpha sort:





edit: added photos
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Last edited by MattBianco; 02-25-2015 at 05:12 PM..
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      02-25-2015, 11:58 AM   #4
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Thank you. I will see if there is a good Windows solutions for non-iTunes users such as myself.
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      02-25-2015, 01:35 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xweb10 View Post
Thank you. I will see if there is a good Windows solutions for non-iTunes users such as myself.
Basically, you need to export your playlist in .M3U format to create a song order other than alpha sort. The good thing with the solution linked above is that it 1) also transfers the required music files; 2) convert DRM files so they can be played; 3) avoids duplicates if one song is in multiple lists.

The key thing is that iDrive is .M3U capable. And, that format allows songs playlist to be in any order. In fact, you can open a .M3U file with a text editor, rename it, change song order, etc.
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Last edited by MattBianco; 02-25-2015 at 04:38 PM..
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      02-25-2015, 02:22 PM   #6
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For those who have a desktop and their music on it, there is a program that you can download for M3U Playlist Creation:

M3U Playlist Creator, on cnet.com

I tried to post a link but I couldn't do it.
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      02-25-2015, 04:05 PM   #7
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I have no problem going into folders with my iDrive in X5.
You just hit Browse and it lists you all master folders, and each subfolder is displayed after you select the master folder.
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      02-25-2015, 04:14 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hyde View Post
I have no problem going into folders with my iDrive in X5.
You just hit Browse and it lists you all master folders, and each subfolder is displayed after you select the master folder.
Ill have to check that. I thought it just dumped an alphabetical list on the screen of all songs.
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      02-25-2015, 04:19 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xweb10 View Post
Ill have to check that. I thought it just dumped an alphabetical list on the screen of all songs.
I don't remember the list but it has Artists, Albums, Genre, etc.. On top there is Browse. When you hit browse, it shows you the root of your drive with all folders listed, so if you go to USB: drive you see Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains. If you hit Nirvana, you will get Nevermind, Smells Like Teen Spirit, MTV Unplugged, Muddy Banks, etc.. (considering you actually folderized your albums this way) otherwise it does not automatically group them.
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      02-25-2015, 07:27 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hyde View Post
On top there is Browse. When you hit browse, it shows you the root of your drive with all folders listed...
That works! It is not exactly like the old X3, but close enough. Thanks.
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      02-25-2015, 09:56 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xweb10 View Post
That works! It is not exactly like the old X3, but close enough. Thanks.
Glad it helped! Also, I use MediaMonkey to organize my tags.
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