What Type USB Drive Audio Files Work?

Trvlngnrs · March 13, 2020

Hi, I have a 2019 1500, LT, AllStar w the non-Bose 8" touchscreen.

I keep all my music for my home stereo on a thumb drive in lossless files (.aif or .flac). These aren't working on the truck. I called Chevy and a lady who I don't know if she understood the question put me on hold for 10 minutes then said the file types supported are .mp3 and .aac.

On one Chevy forum was a copy of an owners manual that said that flac, ogg, mp3, aac, 3gp files are supported.

I'd like to keep a lossless file format (flac), can any of you confirm which audio file formats work on the USB thumb drive?

redwngr · March 13, 2020

2020 infotainment guide seems to verify the info as you've already posted.

How much data on the USB?

Have you tried a smaller subset?

Trvlngnrs · March 13, 2020

It's a 32gb drive with 15gb used.

I just converted everything to .aac in 4 folders on the thumb drive: Blues, Mellow Rock, Vocals & Jazz.

The blues folder is fine, the other 3 are mixed together on the trucks stereo despite being separated on the drive. I'm researching group tag programs for Apple computers now.

redvettez06 · March 13, 2020

Let us know what you find. I would be interested in this as well.

saint1118 · March 28, 2020

On 3/13/2020 at 6:10 PM, Trvlngnrs said:

Hi, I have a 2019 1500, LT, AllStar w the non-Bose 8" touchscreen.

I keep all my music for my home stereo on a thumb drive in lossless files (.aif or .flac). These aren't working on the truck. I called Chevy and a lady who I don't know if she understood the question put me on hold for 10 minutes then said the file types supported are .mp3 and .aac.

On one Chevy forum was a copy of an owners manual that said that flac, ogg, mp3, aac, 3gp files are supported.

I'd like to keep a lossless file format (flac), can any of you confirm which audio file formats work on the USB thumb drive?

I have a 2019 LT as well. I use a 128gb Sandisk USB drive with FLAC files and I have no issues listening to my music.

Trvlngnrs · March 28, 2020

55 minutes ago, saint1118 said:

I have a 2019 LT as well. I use a 128gb Sandisk USB drive with FLAC files and I have no issues listening to my music.

That's encouraging, I still can't figure it out. I know the USB outlet is good because I'm running my iPod thru it, but that only has 16gb's.

Do you know what format your USB drive is? Fat32, etc?

redwngr · March 28, 2020

Have you tried another usb stick yet?

Even if it's the same brand and model.

Trvlngnrs · March 28, 2020

7 minutes ago, redwngr said:

Have you tried another usb stick yet?

Even if it's the same brand and model.

Yes, I've tried 3 of them with MP3, AAC, FLAC, AAIF... sometimes the MP3 worked but stopped... I think it's a formatting issue... I've tried the different formats my MacBook has: MS-DOS, ExFAT, Mac OS Extended but when I plug it in, Eether nothing happens or the "Indexing files" bar moves about ½" then just stays there and stops advancing

avidsailor · March 28, 2020

I was using a 2 USB TB Drive that I used with my truck. Worked great but the drive died. Now I am wondering If I purchase a 3.0 or 3.1 SSD/ usb for the truck will the system be able to read the new drive? Or is their way to upgrade the usb system to 3.0?

Edited March 28, 2020 by avidsailor
Poorly written

saint1118 · March 28, 2020

13 hours ago, Trvlngnrs said:

That's encouraging, I still can't figure it out. I know the USB outlet is good because I'm running my iPod thru it, but that only has 16gb's.

Do you know what format your USB drive is? Fat32, etc?

I use the SanDisk Ultra Fit 128gb USB 3.1 drive. I bought it from Best Buy... https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandisk-ultra-fit-128gb-usb-3-1-flash-drive-black/6182929.p?skuId=6182929

I copied all of my music to the drive. It is very low profile so I just leave it plugged into the truck and you hardly notice it is there. I always switch the radio back to FM before I turn off the truck. I then switch to USB after the truck has started. I try to minimize chance a surge may be sent to the USB that will kill the drive. I am always overly cautious. I know several people that leave the radio on USB all the time with no issues.

I used a program called guiformat to format my drive as a FAT32 (I believe the default format of the drive was exFAT - not recognizable by infotainment system). It is a free download. Nothing to install, it is simply an executable file. I got it here... http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm

Note: I put the executable on my desktop to run. If I saved it in My Documents the file explorer was also "looking at" the USB drive so it would not format the drive. Format was easy and successful once I moved the executable to the desktop.

I ripped my entire music collection to FLAC using MediaMonkey. I purchased a license, but I believe the free version will also work.

Hope this helps.