SargeInSocal

Hahaha - I've had'em busted a helluva lot harder than here.

I've got the Sirius account and due to privacy issues with client info in communications on my phone - I'm restricted from plugging my phone into the RAM or Vette.

Besides - After ripping all that hair band music I'm set.

But I am also curious about the book-on-CD question above....

rebel502

It seems to me that if the mp3 files are in fact chapters and such, you could rename each file to reflect that. Then they would be accessible as chapters. Each book could be placed in a separate folder by author, with the book title as a sub-folder, all of the chapter files in that folder. I have not tried this, as I pick up my 2017 Z51/3LT on the 2nd of may. It's been a long wait! What say ye all?

CP

I loaded 3 books on a USB. There was a total of about 24 individual folders which each folder being one CD. The infotainment system ignored the folder structure and grouped all the mp3 files for playback, regardless of the order, the book, or the CD it was from.

AaronZ51

At first, I ripped the CD audiobooks to iTunes and loaded them on my phone - I used the "lossless" higher bit rate to increase the audio quality. This way I had all the chapters to keep track of where I left off.

Now I primarily check out downloadable audiobooks to my iPhone and listen to them through an app called "Overdrive." I believe they also have this app for android. Become a member of a large library system that has a robust collection of downloadable audiobooks.

I check books out on my computer from home and then download them directly to my phone. It works great.

JaxC7

The key to getting the MyLink (and most other systems) to properly recognize MP3 files is making sure the embedded information tags are correct. Most systems that recognize and play MP3 files don't care about filenames, folder structures, etc. unless the system is specifically in a folder based play mode which is rarely the default.

For my own sanity I organize the files into folders by artist and then sub-folders for each album with the files named using the "artist-album-discnum-tracknum-songname.mp3" format. But again, this is for my own sanity, not for the system. For the MyLink and Gracenote software to properly recognize and order things, the embedded info tags must be correct. In particular, the album, artist, track number, disc number, and song title must be there. These are the essential tags and if they're not correct, songs won't display, the artist and albums will be out of order or it will appear that songs are missing.

When I rip my music to MP3 format, I make sure the software I use properly tags the files to begin with, but I then use a program called MP3Tag if I need to make any post-ripping changes. I also embed the CD cover art into a tag so that it will display on the screen when the track is playing.

For those who are dealing with audiobooks, the tagging is also essential to keep books together and chapters in order. Embedding the book cover would also be a nice to have.

Once everything is tagged properly and organized into whatever folder structure you want to use, you need to make sure the USB drive is formatted correctly. MyLink recognizes both FAT32 and NTFS formats. If you format your USB drive using exFAT, it will not be recognized by the car at all. I'm using a 128GB USB drive, but I'm not sure how much larger the car will support. After formatting, just copy your folders and files to the root of the USB drive. At this point it's good to go.

If you want one or more custom playlists, you simply create them as text files with an M3U extension and place them in the root of the USB drive. Each line in the file should be the folder(s) and filenames you want to play, in the order you want them to play. Do not add a drive letter or leading '/' character: use artist/album/filename.mp3 rather than X:/artist/album/filename.mp3.

One last item... Any time you update the files on the USB drive, you should change the volume label. I use "Corvette x.x" and change the x.x from 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, ... 1.x for each time I update the drive. MyLink will see the drive as new when the volume label changes and will rescan it. I've had problems with MyLink not recognizing changes when I didn't change the volume label.

I hope this helps. I've had nothing but success using the procedure above but your mileage may vary.