I copied the contents of the iTunes Music folder into the SD card. If you open the SD card, you should see a list of Artist folders and that's why the paths in the M3U playlist file always start with ARTIST name like this example where "Abba" is a folder in the SD card:

 

hahahahaha...... a frank and honest admission there,

 

His post was so useful I bit my fingers and let it alone.

 

OK. I have to admit that this is all confusing to me, so I would appreciate a tutorial (step by step) of how to use and SD card as the music source in my new 992. I have a 128 GB SD card. It shows up as a Removable disk on my PC. At present, it is blank.
1. Does the SD card have to be formatted? If so, how?
2. Does the process of putting music on the SD card involve in anyway using iTunes on my PC (which is how I otherwise interface with my iPhone to load music)?
3. Specifically, where do I find the music files on the PC that are to be copied to the SC card? I have iTunes folders on the PC, but nothing large enough to include the 28 GB of music that iTunes says I have. How do I move the music I find into the SD card?
4. Above it says a lot about editing playlists. Not sure what kind of playlist is being referenced. Is it a playlist first set up in iTunes? Where would I find an editor, and would this be a simple global command, rather than going file by file?
5. What is meant by "having a working iTunes playlist in the PCM and how did it get there?
6. When all of this is done, does it just give you the ability to run a playlist from the beginning, or can you select albums, do random shuffling, or select specific tracks?

I am not as technically illiterate as this sounds, but there are just so many moving parts that I would really would like some guidance to save me going off in the wrong direction.
Any help greatly appreciated.

 

Your SD card is likely pre-formatted and compatible. You are using iTunes so that makes it easier. I think all you need to do is copy the contents of your "iTunes Music Folder" onto your SD card by:

1. On your computer, go into the Music folder.
2. You should see an iTunes folder inside of it. Keep clicking into it until you see a list of folders named by Artists.
3. Now copy all of these Artist folders to your SD card. You can do this by selecting all of them with CTRL-A, then dragging them to the SD card icon under My Computer (dragging will copy, not move these files, and that is what you want to do).

That's enough for now, put your SD card into your 992. See if you can now see and play your music from it from the Media menu item in the PCM.

For #1, if your Music folder doesn't seem to have the music you see in iTunes then you can find the exact location of your iTunes music inside iTunes:

• Select Edit...Preferences to bring up General Preferences
• Go to the Advanced tab
• Your iTunes Media folder location is displayed there. If you go to that folder there should be a Music subfolder inside and that contains all the Artist folders that need to be copied to your SD card in step #3 above

 

Your hint to go into iTunes to find the folder was most helpful. So, I am copying the Artist folders now, and tomorrow I will put the SD card into the car, and try it out to see what I can do.

Thanks.

 

OK. Did it. It is great. At least as good as using my old iPod with Dension system in my old 997. PCM gives option to shuffle, choose album or artist, just like iPhone. Very user friendly. Definitely the way to go for your own music library.

The only thing I things I would like to be able to do:
1. Delete specific tracks that I hate on an album I otherwise like, so they don't come up in shuffle (not a big deal).
2. Make different playlists, so I can separate rock, jazz, classical music (shuffling classical music is not very satisfying). Can anyone provide instructions for doing that?

 

yes the root directory is what they mean.

 

Mac user here also. Did you reformat the USB Flash drive using your Mac so the 992 could read it, before transferring your Music over to it? If you did, what format did you use (FAT 32 etc).

 

Yes FAT32 is a good choice. From the online manual:

 

Very helpful thread!

 

I created separate folders for each genre on my usb drive, but pcm doesn't seem to recognize separate folders and just lists all the mp3 files on the flash drive.

 

You could just use Apple Music/Spotify and CarPlay/Android Audio. Both offer a much better interface and organization. Apple Music also has lossless which sounds way better in pretty much any vehicle. Then you don’t have to deal with PCM/Drives, etc.

Just my 2c

 

There are albums and mixed tapes I have on CD that are not on Spotify.

 

Ah yes. Excellent use case for using a drive. It’s too bad most car systems are half decent (At best) at organizing and displaying audio files but at least they work!