Music on SD card. Problems. Media keeps resetting.

Hello,
I am hoping that someone can provide some advise. VW have not been much help.

I have a 2017 Golf, purchased new from VW in FEB 2017.
From day 1 I have had problems with music on the SD card.

Media System info:
Device Part Number: 3Q0035874B
Hardware: 840
Software: 0751 (was upgraded to 0753 in May/2017 by VW)
(system also contains NAV)

The problem experienced is this:
Music is on SD card and is in one of the SD slots.
All appears good when you put the SD card in. All menus work correctly. All album art is shown correctly. All music plays correctly.
Then after 1 or 2 days max, when you come back to the car after being parked for a few hours, and start it:
Music starts but instead of continuing from where it left off, it goes back to 1st track on 1st album. Also the "Selection" Button is greyed out. Also the Albums will not "stack". i.e album art shows for 1st album (now playing), but by pressing on the album art you cannot move to any other album. All you can do now is skip through the tracks one by one to get to 2nd album, etc.
To get out of this problem, you have to eject the SD card and put it back in again. All then works as expected for 1 or 2 days again.

A slight variation on the problem is that the music does not go back to 1st track on 1st album, but selection button is greyed-out, and album covers do not stack, and again you have to eject SD card to fix.

I have spent many hours with various combinations of music and SD cards.
I have tried:
16GB SDHC class 10 card, formatted as FAT32
64GB SDXC class 10 card, formatted as exFAT

Music is always mp3 files.
Music mp3 files are a mix of imported into PC from CD's and some downloaded ones. I have approx. 200 albums on the SD card.

Directory structure on SD card is:
Artist, album, mp3 files
I have tried with embedded album covers in the mp3 files and with album cover as separate file in album directory. folder.jpg
I use mp3tag on my pc to clean-up with mp3 tags.
On my PC I turn-on viewing of hidden files, and delete any files except for the .mp3 and folder.jpg file for album cover.

I took the car to VW in May, with my SD card, with about 200 albums on it, and they did experience the problem, and took a photo of it. They contacted their "expert" team at a central location in the UK (Milton Keynes), but all they advised was:
Upgrade the Software (they upgraded from 0751 to 0753)
Customer to buy new SD card 16GB SDHC class 10, put on it music files that have been imported from CD only. This is the only advise and it was not very clear.

I then purchased 16GB SDHC class 10 card from Maplin (Maplin own brand).
Imported 22 CD's into PC using Windows Media Player as mp3.
Dir Struct: Artist, Album, mp3 files
Used mp3tag to remove all album covers.
Copied all 22 to SD card.
Put SD card into SLOT 1 of card (put NAV into SLOT 2). Reason is because VW said that SLOT 1 was faster.
All looked good. No album covers in car as expected. All works as expected. Left for 7 days. No problems.

Then imported more CD's as mp3.
Now up to 49 albums.
Still no album covers.
Left for 7 days. No problems.

Then added album covers to all 49 albums. Used mp3tag to make them all embedded. All album covers had been re-sized to 300x300 pixels (as I read somewhere VW does not like > a certain size).
Next day PROBLEM. Media is slow to start-up, music starts playing from where it left off, but Selection Button is greyed out. Album covers do not stack.

I then used mp3tag to remove all embedded album covers, and put album covers as separate folder.jpg file in each dir.
Left for 1 week. All ok.

Added in 3 originally downloaded albums.
Ensured that all appears same as CD imported albums using mp3tag.
Bitrate 320kbit/s Frequency 44100hz. Extended mp4tags are deleted.
Album covers are folder.jpg of 300x300 pixels.
Left for 1 week, all ok.

Now added another 9 originally downloaded albums, again with the structure looking same as imported from CD.
Now have 16GB SD card class 10 with 61 albums with covers..
After 2 days, problem. Selection Button is Greyed-Out, no album cover stack, although music did continue from last played track.

At this point I don't know what to try next.

Clearly embedded album covers seemed to cause the problem, but now problem happened even with album cover as separate file.

VW said to take it back to them if still have problems, but I don't think they know what they are doing with the media system. Last time they had the car for 2 days, next time they want it for longer.

I ultimately want to get to:
64GB SDXC SD card, with approx. 200 albums on it, with album covers.

I have even tried putting the music on USB memory stick and putting that in the USB slot below the media control unit in central section. Same problem even with that !!!

Also everytime I modify the SD car, I do the safely eject operation. Also I do factory reset on the media before putting in modified SD card.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to show that I have tried a lot of things to try to "Workaround" the problem. I say workaround, because ultimately this is a VW Software Problem.

Has anyone seen this problem before ?
Can anyone advise of next steps here ?

thanks, Dave

Same problem. Once in a while mine will reset to the first album alphabetically, and I am then unable to scroll through the album art. It happens about once a week on average, more or less. Usually after 5-10 mins, it will then allow me to scroll and choose an album again. Also holding the power button for 15 seconds or so will do a hard reset, and maybe 1/3 of the time fixes the issue (otherwise I just have to wait it out).

Recently I re-ripped my music collection, so I went from mp3 to flac, and the problem is still there. I can't seem to figure out a rhyme or reason. The dealer basically shrugged it off, and said I can come in anytime there's a software update. So, for now, I'm stuck with it. It's an annoying problem, but luckily infrequent enough. If it happened more often, I'm sure it would become infuriating pretty quick.

There is a more current software update. Check to see if you have software version 0755. Updating to 0755 is what fixed my navigation and other media issues. My entire system would reset prior to the update. About 4 weeks since the update now and no resets at all.

Bizarre. I have a USA-spec '16 Golf R, running the original version of software it came with (0245). I run the same 64gb card spec as you, formatted ExFat. All my files are exported out of iTunes, most in AAC (m4a) format, and some VBR MP3's downloaded from Amazon. I'm having zero issues at this point, after spending a lot of time cleaning up the MP3 tags & artwork, and some naming issues. No resets, no losing its place, 100% of my artwork displays, etc.

There are so many versions of MIB1 & MIB2 - even among MIB2 units, the hardware is different depending on which manufacturer produced it. Features are different in different markets. It's kinda a cluster, must be a royal PITA for VW to try to manage it.

Has your unit been replaced yet? Hopefully it's a hardware problem and a new unit fixes this mess. Good luck - I'd be frustrated as hell in your shoes!

I don't have any additional album covers and I haven't had any problems. Never tried loading more. I do use WMP and never paid attention to formatting or file structure. I have a mix of Amazon, other third-party downloads, and ripped CD's. I use the best name-brand, high-performance 64GB card. I was told to use slot 2 if I wanted my NAV to access the maps faster. I get more of a delay in accessing NAV from startup. I only have about 22 albums loaded.

Sometimes you get a bad card but in your case it could be the unit. Do you have any other MIB/NAV/phone issues?

I have the same issue, but it only seems to pop up if I use the voice commands to navigate to a new artist/album. As soon as I do that, the next time I start the car, it does the first track issue as reported by the OP. The only way to fix it in my car is to eject the SD and reinsert (with the car off of course).

If I don't use the voice commands, everything works normally... Weird.

hi there,
thanks for all the replies.
Just to be clear. We have no other problems with the car, even with the media. Its just this one (annoying) problem as I described. No hardware has been replaced by VW yet. All they did was SW update on the media back in May, as described in original post.

What I have done since my original post :
I went back to the point where I had 49 albums all imported from CD as mp3, all with album covers (as separate folder.jpg file). This was my last good position. As expected it was good again for 1 week.
Then I added 3 new albums, some of which are not imported from CD's, but have been bought/downloaded. Left for 1 week. All good.
Then I added 1 new albums per week, some of which are not imported from CD's, but have been bought/downloaded. Up to 55 albums now and another 1 week passed and all good.
Just added 1 more to make 56 albums. Lets see how that goes.
Will keep going like this for a while. This is at least not too time consuming to do.

I feel like I am debugging this on behalf of VW !
thanks, Dave

Now I have old problem back at 56 albums (within 2 days). I have now removed 1 album (the one before last that I added).
If this is good for 1 week, then this proves that its not 1 particular album causing the problem here. I suspect its the number of album covers that it cant deal with. 55 individual album covers of 300x300 pixels seems ok. More than this it doesn't like. Remember that I previously had 49 albums with embedded album covers (so 1 album cover per track of every album), and had the problem. Lets see. I'll report back soon.
thanks, Dave

If you put the same music on a USB stick do the problems remain?

hi NCR-R,
% If you put the same music on a USB stick do the problems remain?
YES, I tried this a few weeks ago, before I took the car to VW in may.
I got exactly the same problem with USB. So problem does not seem to be in the input device used.

thanks, Dave

Latest Update:
With 55 albums with artwork. No problems after 1 week.
Therefore it seems that 1 particular album did not trigger the problem.

I have now moved to 177 albums, with without ANY artwork at all.
Took empty SD card, 64GB SDXC exFAT.
Put original 177 albums on it, mix of imported CD's and downloaded/bought mp3 albums.
Used dir structure: Artist, and subdir for album(s).
Its now been 4 days, and all still ok (it normally fails within 2 days if its going to fail).

So current conclusion, is that the album artwork is causing the problem.
Not one particular album artwork, but number of album artworks it has to deal with.
My next step will be to add in artwork to 55 of the 177 albums, leave for 1 week (expect it to be ok), then add 1 more artwork, and it should fail. At that point I will be ready to discuss with VW again.

Will provide further updates.
thanks, Dave

Dave H said:

Latest Update:
With 55 albums with artwork. No problems after 1 week.
Therefore it seems that 1 particular album did not trigger the problem.

I have now moved to 177 albums, with without ANY artwork at all.
Took empty SD card, 64GB SDXC exFAT.
Put original 177 albums on it, mix of imported CD's and downloaded/bought mp3 albums.
Used dir structure: Artist, and subdir for album(s).
Its now been 4 days, and all still ok (it normally fails within 2 days if its going to fail).

So current conclusion, is that the album artwork is causing the problem.
Not one particular album artwork, but number of album artworks it has to deal with.
My next step will be to add in artwork to 55 of the 177 albums, leave for 1 week (expect it to be ok), then add 1 more artwork, and it should fail. At that point I will be ready to discuss with VW again.

Will provide further updates.
thanks, Dave

Click to expand...

Hi Dave, did you get anywhere with this? I've contacted VW and I've basically been told they're aware of the issue and that I have to wait for the new update...which is a bit rubbish considering the system is faulty. The US seem to already have an update which fixes this issue (0755) but apparently the UK is still stuck on 0753, which isn't a reliable fix. To be honest, I'm surprised there's so little information about this issue online. It's driving me up the wall!

hello Mr/Mrs Cradley Heath. I know that area well as I grew-up in Dudley !

haven't posted for a while, but I am keeping a record. See below:

*********************************************************************************************
1/Aug

Latest Update:
With 55 albums with artwork. No problems after 1 week.
Therefore it seems that 1 particular album did not trigger the problem.

I have now moved to 177 albums, with without ANY artwork at all.
Took empty SD card, 64GB SDXC exFAT.
Put original 177 albums on it, mix of imported CD's and downloaded/bought mp3 albums.
Used dir structure: Artist, and subdir for album(s).
Its now been 4 days, and all still ok (it normally fails within 2 days if its going to fail).

So current conclusion, is that the album artwork is causing the problem.
Not one particular album artwork, but number of album artworks it has to deal with.

*********************************************************************************************
10/Aug
Went back to first track of first album.
Eject and put back SD card to recover.
Leave with same set of albums and continue.

*********************************************************************************************
09/Sept
No further problems

Added 6 new albums: Adele 21, Kasabian Kasabian, Kings of Leon Only By The Night,
The Cure Disintigration, Kiss Me, The Head On The Door
All with no album covers
*********************************************************************************************
11/Oct: No further problems at all.
This is with no album covers.
*****************************************************************

I haven't had time recently to experiment more.
I spent many hours on this earlier this year.
I will call our local VW dealer service dept today and ask them about the potential software update: 0755

****************************************************************

Update 11/Oct/2017
Called local VW dealer service dept
They say they usually get notification from VW if a new SW update is available. They have had no notification of 0755 yet. They offered to take the car in again for 2 days, but not sure what they were planning to do ! I said no, as it would be a waste of my time and theirs. They have offered to call me once they get notification of 0755 availability (they say they usually get an email from VW).
Dave

Haha what are the chances?!?! No one seems to realise Cradley Heath even exists so this is a nice surprise!

Great to hear you've been so meticulous about this; it certainly sounds like album artwork (pretty much the main reason why I want to use SD cards rather than Bluetooth) is the main issue. I'll make a backup of everything tomorrow, remove all the album artwork from the songs on my SD card and see if I have the same success as you. Just today the system has reset my card around 4 times...it's insane!

VW pretty much told me the same thing. It's baffling that they're so laissez faire about the whole thing. It doesn't sound like a particularly difficult fix, especially if the update exists elsewhere. We'll just have to wait and see what they come back back if/when that happens.

Thanks for getting back to me,
Mr Cradley Heath