Shuffling Songs via the USB

efusco · Feb 15, 2013

I posted this in another thread, but it's a bit off topic and I fear hasn't been noticed.

I finally got around to converting my iTunes music to MP3 and after hours of culling to get the file size small enough to fit on a 32GB thumb drive I loaded it into the car. Everything seems to work fine, I can see artist, song, genre, etc. The album images come up. In short, I think everything is working as it is supposed to.

What I can't figure out, however, is how to shuffle the songs. Is there some hidden super secret way to shuffle say the Rock genre? Or a single artist's songs or must you play through from a single starting spot?

dadaleus · Feb 15, 2013

Don't think there is a way to shuffle. Hopefully it will come someday.

I find my self using Slacker a lot, despite putting my entire collection on a 64GB USB stick. Lack of shuffle is probably a factor.

efusco · Feb 15, 2013

dadaleus said:
Don't think there is a way to shuffle. Hopefully it will come someday.

I find my self using Slacker a lot, despite putting my entire collection on a 64GB USB stick. Lack of shuffle is probably a factor.

Yea, I hope it comes in a future software update, perhaps when they activate the on board storage. Really limits the utility of the USB.

kitk · Feb 15, 2013

efusco said:
Yea, I hope it comes in a future software update, perhaps when they activate the on board storage. Really limits the utility of the USB.

I know some folks have played games with genre tags and other manipulations to "shuffle" things in a static fashion on the USB drive. The poor mans approach that I use occasionally is to flip into the songs view and slide my finger to a random part of the alphabet. While not a shuffle, it at least provides some form of multi-artist mix that you can then play without further interaction.

Hope that shuffle comes in this next 4.3 update.

spatterso911 · Feb 17, 2013

I've given up on playing my music collection on a regular basis for ow. Mainly using slacker until the software improves and lets me access via USB, shuffle, and use a scrubber.

efusco · Feb 17, 2013

spatterso911 said:
I've given up on playing my music collection on a regular basis for ow. Mainly using slacker until the software improves and lets me access via USB, shuffle, and use a scrubber.

Yea, Slacker has been my go-to as well. But what is a "scrubber"?

spatterso911 · Feb 18, 2013

efusco said:
Yea, Slacker has been my go-to as well. But what is a "scrubber"?

A scrubber lets you move to any part of the song using a slider bar. Nearly all music players have a scrubber so you can move to your favorite part of the song, or move back to hear a part again. Really useful for podcasts.

youlikeadajuice · Feb 18, 2013

Yeah, shuffle would be really nice...I do have a scrubber for USB, not with bluetooth on my phone though.

Jason S · Feb 18, 2013

spatterso911 said:
A scrubber lets you move to any part of the song using a slider bar. Nearly all music players have a scrubber so you can move to your favorite part of the song, or move back to hear a part again. Really useful for podcasts.

media play from USB has a slider / scrubber

Owner · Feb 26, 2013

I have found this "Alphabetical Shuffle" to be very sufficient, particularly as I can shuffle in genre. I blogged about it here, but am posting for this thread.

I have been listening to a lot more music in my Model S than I had in the Roadster or my Toyota Highlander. And for the first time, I have a car that can play classical and other "serious" music with decent quality. I actually have a huge range of musical taste, but classical needs a better audio system than other musical genres.

I had read several complaints on the internet about lack of a shuffle songs in the car. I found a solution I like better than the "Shuffle Songs" you get on an ipod. You can easily mimic shuffling songs by category by selecting one song in a list, and it plays subsequent songs alphabetically. This will mimic the ipod shuffle songs.

Although the algorithm is alphabetical, I never found the Apple ipod shuffle songs to be perfect either. Shuffle songs on my ancient ipod does not distinguish between chapters that are books on tape, and often seemed to play the same genre or album repetitively. I don't think there is any 100% random algorithm.What I also like to do is select just one Genre, and pick a random song to start with in the alphabet. That way rock, folk, world music, classical, "Books and Spoken" and other genres are not all mixed in.

Sparrow · Feb 26, 2013

Not much for shuffling by song myself, but what I would like is for it to play music by albums too. I know you can pick one album and have it play it thru, but I don't want it to start all over on the same album when it reaches the end, I want it to go to the next albumwithout my intervention. Is there anyway to make it do that.

bob_p · Feb 27, 2013

Haven't found a way to get the system to stop from going back to the beginning of an album - at least not with the current (42) software release. It should be relatively easy for this to be added, along with a repeat song/album function, that's present on other audio systems - in addition to shuffle and playlists.

kevin99 · Jul 24, 2013

Yes I definitely need the 'Shuffle' capability. I just connected a 2TB drive to the car, though I only fill about 100G of music. I don't want to listen to the music in the same order again and again. I want 'Shuffle'!

towman26 · Jul 26, 2013

I can't figure out how to get my songs from iPod to the car. If I have my phone it's not an issue. I'm technology lacking lol.

gmtom1 · Jul 26, 2013

towman26 said:
I can't figure out how to get my songs from iPod to the car. If I have my phone it's not an issue. I'm technology lacking lol.

The car can't read the songs directly off your iPod. Assuming you don't have the latest iPod touch (with bluetooth), then the easiest way is to go back to the computer you sync your iPod with and copy the songs from your iTunes music folder to a flash drive and plug that in. This assumes you have the songs in m4a or mp3 format with no DRM. It cannot read the files that iTunes shows as "Protected"

Or you can just go get an android phone and use google music....

scaesare · Jul 26, 2013

If anybody who matters is reading this, I too would like to have USB Shuffle capability...

If not.. well I'd still like it.

HHHH · Jul 26, 2013

Do any of you use Spotify? I find it to be my go to place for anything I want to hear. Great quality, streaming, and I don't have to keep music on my phone taking up my space.

Merrill · Jul 26, 2013

If you go into the browse function and go to artist then it will bring up all albums by that artist. Then touch all songs and it will shuffle between all the albums you picked.

fluxemag · Jul 26, 2013

I have a SSD in a USB enclosure full of music. No shuffle means I'm basically never going to use it. I don't want to hunt through thousands of songs and albums while driving. Seems like a pretty big oversight in the media player department.

kevin99 · Jul 26, 2013

Hussain said:
Do any of you use Spotify? I find it to be my go to place for anything I want to hear. Great quality, streaming, and I don't have to keep music on my phone taking up my space.

Then you need to operate on your phone, right?
Can spotify run from the browser in car??

- - - Updated - - -

Merrill said:
If you go into the browse function and go to artist then it will bring up all albums by that artist. Then touch all songs and it will shuffle between all the albums you picked.

Hi Merrill, I tried, but couldn't get it to work as you described. When I touch the "All songs", I still need to touch one song to start playing. Then I try to skip and see what is next song played. It is the very next one on the list. No shuffle at all.

Shuffling Songs via the USB

Moderator - Model S & X forums

4GETOIL P85#S70,FdrX,S85D

Moderator - Model S & X forums

Model S P85 - VIN#2589

P100DL - Raven

Moderator - Model S & X forums

P100DL - Raven

P 9130

Model S Sig Perf (P85)

Active Member

Attachments

S105/ Roadster 189

Active Member

Member

Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Merrill

Member

Member

Similar threads