I loaded music on the internal hard drive from a USB stick on a couple of occasions. They all show up as individual collections. Is there a way to combine them into one collection? I would prefer to have them all in one long list when I play and not having to switch between them.

I realize they were trying to mimic a CD collection and one would have to switch between CD's, depending on what one is in the mood for.

The filter & play feature plays music from all collections. Wait, did I just answer my own questions? Just set the filter to play all? I didn't think of that; will try it today.

Didn't try it yet, but anybody know how the random feature behaves?

I think the question has been asked before but didn't see a satisfying answer; trying again in case somebody has newer firmware or found out how to do this.

You're way ahead of me. I'm still trying to figure out the fastest way to transfer all my songs to the hard drive.
Tried using my 100GB hard drive and it didn't work. I have 1GB flash and it'll take forever. Any suggestions?

the usb port is weak so it probably doesnt put put enough power to power an external hard drive unless you have additional power from another usb power supply.

the flash drive might have a slow data transfer rate thats why it took longer to copy the music. i imported them from the original cd and it copied very fast so i guess you could burn them onto a cd/dvd and copy them that way as well

the usb port is weak so it probably doesnt put put enough power to power an external hard drive unless you have additional power from another usb power supply.

the flash drive might have a slow data transfer rate thats why it took longer to copy the music. i imported them from the original cd and it copied very fast so i guess you could burn them onto a cd/dvd and copy them that way as well

I'm digging through my boxes for an old iPod. Going to stick it in the glow box as a permanent music library.
There's no way to transfer all my songs with a flash drive or cd.

I'm digging through my boxes for an old iPod. Going to stick it in the glow box as a permanent music library.
There's no way to transfer all my songs with a flash drive or cd.

Lol I have an iPhone 4S connected to my car 24/7. It has data plan so I can also listen to pandora. I work between USA and Vietnam so I have two phones. I forward all of my calls from the 4S to my my iPhone 5 so it's perfect for me

You're way ahead of me. I'm still trying to figure out the fastest way to transfer all my songs to the hard drive.
Tried using my 100GB hard drive and it didn't work. I have 1GB flash and it'll take forever. Any suggestions?

Bigger, newer stick. Still takes a long time with USB 2.0, but both computer and car will do the copying in the background, so it really isn't too bad.

As other have suggested, a dedicated ipod or iphone may be the more elegant solution and allows you to keep library in sync.

Hmmm, next time I answer a BMW survey, I'll suggest that ... connect to the iCloud or come up with a BMW Cloud to sync content ...

Lol I have an iPhone 4S connected to my car 24/7. It has data plan so I can also listen to pandora. I work between USA and Vietnam so I have two phones. I forward all of my calls from the 4S to my my iPhone 5 so it's perfect for me

I noticed that Pandora has a lot of compression artifacts and looked it up and it has only 64k quality compression going up to 192k if you pay for Pandora One.

Also, I read on the forums a while back than if you rip a CD using the car it only does 192k.

I think its better to do it yourself on a computer using 320k or a lossless format, and use mog or spotify premium to get 320k or lossless audio stream.

"Pandora on the Web plays 64k AAC+ for free listeners and 192k for Pandora One subscribers. All in-home devices play 128k audio, and mobile devices receive a variety of different rates depending on the capability of the device and the network they are on, but never more than 64k AAC+."

Well, it's not a problem for me. Music always sounds good. Much better than the radio. Some stations looses signal as I drive around town. I think the radio reception is worse than my m coupe. XM radio is a waste of my money. I only listen to two stations and they play sucky music half the time.

I found an old iPod (4th gen)
Load my library and it's now a permanent fixture in the center console.

I did try to use the USB in the glove box and it won't work. So iPod in center console, phone charger in glovebox.

Annoying but I could live with it

I believe the USB in the glove box powers on when you unlock the doors, but then powers off after the engine has been on for some time. I found this as I tried to use it to power my dash board camera. Not a good idea!

You would probably have to move your files from the iPod to a regular USB flash stick or a DVD to be able to import your music.

And to answer the original question. I believe exporting all the music, then sorting it the way you want it on the USB flash drive and reimporting it is another (slow) solution. [edit: no it isn't, see ManiacGT below ]

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Little known facts about BMW: 1) The N54 is still in production and used in the current Z4 35i and 35is. 2) In a Z4 you can get sport+ steering combined with normal suspension etc by selecting DSC=off. (Update: DSC=off also offers sports steering in the M135i) 3) All Z4s with 19" wheels are still only offered with the worst performing OEM tires ever sold with a DCT equipped BMW (Potenza RE 050 RFT).

BTW, does anyone have videos in their music collection? I am able to play video with sound from regular DVDs and TV but I haven't found which formats are supported other than those? In fact I do not even know which music formats are supported other than mp3. Does anyone know?

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Little known facts about BMW: 1) The N54 is still in production and used in the current Z4 35i and 35is. 2) In a Z4 you can get sport+ steering combined with normal suspension etc by selecting DSC=off. (Update: DSC=off also offers sports steering in the M135i) 3) All Z4s with 19" wheels are still only offered with the worst performing OEM tires ever sold with a DCT equipped BMW (Potenza RE 050 RFT).

Its my understanding, and I could be wrong, that video is only played back by the iPod or DVD? Even then, for iPod playback you need the COMBOX (2011 cars on).

I'll be overjoyed though if my 2009 can play video lol...

As for your export/import option on the music topic, you can't do that.. exporting the data encrypts it to your USB drive, you can't access it, its for backup purposes only to reload it. Something to do with data/copyright protection of the music.

Today I converted a short video into several video file formats. Flv, h264, mpeg1-4, super video cd, divx and many others. I tried importing all the files via the USB port but unfortunately none were recognized by the iDrive system.

To make sure the 4gb USB flash drive actually worked, I then tried plugging it into my LCD tv. It did work, and I learned that my LCD tv can only play mpeg videos.

So in conclusion, unfortunately a 2009 cannot play videos imported via the USB...

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Little known facts about BMW: 1) The N54 is still in production and used in the current Z4 35i and 35is. 2) In a Z4 you can get sport+ steering combined with normal suspension etc by selecting DSC=off. (Update: DSC=off also offers sports steering in the M135i) 3) All Z4s with 19" wheels are still only offered with the worst performing OEM tires ever sold with a DCT equipped BMW (Potenza RE 050 RFT).