Using the USB port
 

A few questions about playing music from the USB port. I've ordered a 2.0d R-design SE V70 (due in September) Can anyone confirm how this works - the test drive car I borrowed had the autochanger so no USB to try out. I'm hoping it will be possible to simply copy a load of music onto a USB flash stick and plug it in. If this works, how does the head unit see the tracks? I'm hoping it will see a list of folders named by artist that if you select will show the album titles and then the tracks under that. I'm also hoping there will be a "shuffle all" feature like on an MP3 player. I was dissapointed when I had a 3 day test of an Insignia that although it recognised the music on the flash stick it did not see the "artist" folders but instead just showed a big pile of album titles. It also didn't seem to be able to remember what you were playing last and everytime you started up it went back to the first track of the first album in the list. It would n't even let you change trackes until it had read the whole stick and list all the albums so by the time you got to a point where you could select something else you had heard about a minute of the first track - you would soon get sick of hearing that same 60 secs of music everytime! My A6 reads mp3/wma files saved on the CD and (usually) starts playing from where you left off. Can anyone please confirm how the Volvo works in this respect - hopefully more like the audi and not the insignia!

I've used 2 different USB sticks so far. A Corsair Flash Voyager 4Gb and a 8Gb OCZ Cruzer Diesel.

The manual recommends using the included usb cable to connect the flash drive to save wear and tear on the socket - it also makes connecting less fiddly.

In both cases the drive was recognised without problem.

To access the contents of the drive you press the MODE button on the audio control panel. You can then scroll through the contents by turning the tuning knob or using the up/down keys on the audio control. You can also use the forward/back buttons on the steering wheel.

When scrolling you scroll through the top level of the drive i.e. the folders you would see when viewing on a PC. To view the contents of the folder (either album tracks or other folders you have created) you can press ENTER or the tuning knob.

To answer a few of your questions

- it does remember what you last played
- it plays MP3s (not sure about WMAs - would need to read the manual)
- it sees any folders that would be seen by an operating system but does not handle music as a PC based media player such as ITunes would BUT I do understand (but have never tried) that if you plug in an IPOD with playlists set up it will be able to read them.
- the audio unit only reads the full list of tracks when a new stick is inserted. with 7Gb of files it takes about 15 seconds in my experience. Music playback of an existing stick takes about 4-5 seconds after starting the car.

The most annoying (and counter intuitive) 'feature' is when you've been listening to an album that starts with, say, 'W', when you try to scroll through the albums to choose something else it doesn't start at the current playing item, rather it goes back to the beginning of the list.

I can confirm this - highly annoying. Hence the reason why mine is set to play random. Works great and you get everything.

Will my new car have a usb port ???
 

I am about to collect (this week) a V70 se lux. Although new, it is a 2009 model built at the beginning of January.

Can anyone confirm whether it will have a USB port ??

Thanks

As far as I know (from looking at the 09MY brochure) it should have a USB port as long as it doesn't have the CD changer - for some reason if you select the 6 disc changer then they omit the USB port!

It doesn't have one
 

I have now got my new car and, unfortunately, it does not appear to have a usb socket.

There is a jack plug for an ipod in the centre console, but no signs of usb.

Daft question - it is not 'hidden' somewhere is it ?

Thanks

It should be located next to the AUX in socket.

Have you've got a 6x CD Changer instead?

In the centre console next to the AUX input

Attachment 15703

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Lets try that again !

Definitely not there
 

Thanks for posting the photos.

I def only have the ipod / jack plug - no usb port. What a shame !

Mine is a 2009 model V70 SE Lux.