Music on an SD card. Where are the instructions?

[Newton]

I put some music on an SD card to play in my '23 Bolt EV 1LT. At first, it played the songs but not in the order in which I put them on the card. It seemed to be shuffling the songs since the genres were changing frequently but the shuffle button was not showing that shuffling was happening. I browsed the song list and I realized it had put them in alphabetical order by song title and it was playing them in that order. Eventually, I was able to find a way to display them in alphabetical order by album, or by genre but, when I do that, I can't find a way to play them. I tried to highlight the name of an album, when I had them sorted by album, in order to play that album but it refused to highlight the album title. I highlighted the first song on an album when I had them sorted by album and I hoped it would play the whole album but it only played that one song over and over. I hit the "skip to the next song" button and it stopped playing and took me to something that looked like trip route planning (it asked for an address). I got tired of hearing that one song while driving so I held the top button on the infotainment down for a couple of seconds to turn off the music and the screen went dark but the music kept playing. I tried to turn the volume down using the steering wheel paddles but it would not respond. I did a word search for SD and "memory card" on the pdf of the owners manual and got nothing. Are there instructions anywhere for getting control of the infotainment system while playing music from an SD card? It certainly is not logical, intuitive, or user friendly.

 

[MinervaIdah]

I put some music on an SD card to play in my '23 Bolt EV 1LT. At first, it played the songs but not in the order in which I put them on the card. It seemed to be shuffling the songs since the genres were changing frequently but the shuffle button was not showing that shuffling was happening. I browsed the song list and I realized it had put them in alphabetical order by song title and it was playing them in that order. Eventually, I was able to find a way to display them in alphabetical order by album, or by genre but, when I do that, I can't find a way to play them. I tried to highlight the name of an album, when I had them sorted by album, in order to play that album but it refused to highlight the album title. I highlighted the first song on an album when I had them sorted by album and I hoped it would play the whole album but it only played that one song over and over. I hit the "skip to the next song" button and it stopped playing and took me to something that looked like trip route planning (it asked for an address). I got tired of hearing that one song while driving so I held the top button on the infotainment down for a couple of seconds to turn off the music and the screen went dark but the music kept playing. I tried to turn the volume down using the steering wheel paddles but it would not respond. I did a word search for SD and "memory card" on the pdf of the owners manual and got nothing. Are there instructions anywhere for getting control of the infotainment system while playing music from an SD card? It certainly is not logical, intuitive, or user friendly.

I’ve had my Bolt act weird when using external media, too. Sometimes, a soft reset of the system can fix these odd behaviors. Hold the power button on the infotainment screen until it restarts, it might resolve the repeating-song issue and make it easier to navigate albums. Also, you might have better luck converting your SD card setup into a USB drive. The system seems to handle USB playback a little smoother.

 

[Newton]

I’ve had my Bolt act weird when using external media, too. Sometimes, a soft reset of the system can fix these odd behaviors. Hold the power button on the infotainment screen until it restarts, it might resolve the repeating-song issue and make it easier to navigate albums. Also, you might have better luck converting your SD card setup into a USB drive. The system seems to handle USB playback a little smoother.

Thanks for those tips. It seems to be behaving better now. I have not had the "playing the same song over and over and can't turn it off" problem lately or the "can't control the volume with the steering wheel controls" problem. Once, while I was trying to select a song while driving, I got a message on the touchscreen that said basically "Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel!*" and it prompted me to use voice control. It has voice control! That is a good idea but it doesn't work very well. About half the time, it fails to find what I ask for even though I speak clearly. It frequently responds "You want Sirius Radio, right?" whenever it doesn't understand. I am afraid to put Alan Parsons's Sirius on the SD card because, if I ask for it, I will get Sirius radio.
*They should have just played the first 12 words of Roadhouse Blues so I would not have had to read that message while driving.

 

[ClarD]

I have a 2GB Windows FAT32 SD card.

I found that the music was better managers after i mad a top level folder called music, and used the directory structure that iTunes uses, with artist and then album name, then songs.
This was easy to do, since it's the same as the iTunes layout on my PC.

I don't find anything odd about the way it operates.

It operates as described under Audio Players on Page 122 on the Owners Manual.

 

[Newton]

I have a 2GB Windows FAT32 SD card.

I found that the music was better managers after i mad a top level folder called music, and used the directory structure that iTunes uses, with artist and then album name, then songs.
This was easy to do, since it's the same as the iTunes layout on my PC.

I don't find anything odd about the way it operates.

It operates as described under Audio Players on Page 122 on the Owners Manual.

I didn't know you could have iTunes on a PC. I don't. I did put a few songs in a folder and gave the folder a name but the folder does not show up on the touchscreen so I have not been able to access the songs in it. I guess I will have to move the songs out of the folder and into the longer list of songs and delete the folder. The voice recognition system seems to be only able to handle 3 or fewer syllables and sometimes it can't handle 3. This makes it hard to request classical music. I have never been able to successfully request Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition, for example. I've tried saying only the first 2 syllables and I've tried saying the complete composer, composition, orchestra, and conductor (individually) and it did not find anything. I have to do it manually when the car is stopped. Also, it can't find Roadhouse Blues. But, if I say "Play Mozart", it plays all of the Mozart compositions on the card (in alphabetical order ). Got any suggestions requesting things with more than 2 syllables?

 

[Newton]

When I touch Browse, one of the selections is "Playlists". Page 119 of the owners manual mentions playlists but I don't see instructions for creating one. How do I create a playlist on my SD card?

 

[ClarD]

Playlists

There's are Windows apps to create playlists, but I had no success building them.
I haven't tried asking for a song by name.
I am able to navigate folders, nothing is at my top level.

I have also used a 60 GB spinning disk iPod Classic in another car that had a specific "iPod" button on the face of the radio.

I can't recall if I've used that in the Bolt.

Use Google to search for playing music from a USB flash drive in the car.
Lots of pages, none definitive. No manufacturer or industry group users guide.

I think it started with Sony Discman.

Here's one I found this morning.
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/thre...-with-albums-to-play-in-a-car-how-to.1161197/

 

[Jon GrosJean]

I just tested mine. At first, I loaded all my .mp3 music files on to a thumb drive which had been formatted with Fat32.. You can select them to be played randomly or in order. Fat32 can be read by any computer.
Then, I decided to load different folders with mp3 files instead of just loading files. The Bolt found all the folders and they can be selected using the browse button on the screen. Now, I have a wide variety of music and sounds in different folders to please everyone.