USB thrumb drive problem for LR4 music

[Viper17]

Need some advice on my USB thumb drive situation. I've made several folders on a new 16GB thumb drive and loaded about 15 mp3 song files into each folder. Everything seems to work as advertised when plugged into the 2011 LR4's USB receptacle. However, for each mp3 song file (e.g. Little Bitty.mp3) an additional extraneous line appears on the LR4's display with "._" preceding each song name as follows:

._Little Bitty <-- extraneous line
Little Bitty <-- the only line that should appear on the LR4's display for this song


I can select "Little Bitty" and the song plays as it should. But when I accidentally select "._Little Bitty" the entire sound system hangs for about 20 or 30 seconds which is, of course, very annoying.

Has anyone else had this problem and been able to eliminate the extraneous lines?
I tried another 16GB thumb drive and it does the exact same thing.

I'm having no issues with an iPod or iPhone which works great with the dealer supplied cable.

 

[Count Laszlo]

I thought you needed to load songs into just one folder, in a linear fashion? Doesn't it even state this in the owners manual? I might be totally mistaken... iPod and iPhones work great.

 

[Viper17]

I actually tried just one folder and had the same problem. I have also read where others have made several folders where each folder is a play list of various songs or all the songs from a particular album. And it worked fine for them.

After doing some more research (did a google search for "._file") and came up with an article which describes a potential problem when using a Mac (which I'm using) to transfer files to a Windows formatted drive. The USB thumb drive is formatted MS-DOS (FAT32) which the LR4 manual says it should be (i.e. "use FAT or FAT32 file format").

This article's URL is:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10329972-263.html

The article says that Macintosh files have a little bit of extra stuff (i.e. "meta" data) not typically used by a Windows oriented machine (e.g. such as the x-y pixel dimensions of the file's window size the last time the file was opened in the case of a picture file or word processor document). And this "meta" data is written as a separate small file along with the main data file -- whenever the file is written to a Windows formatted storage device (hard drive, thumb drive, etc.). So, the extraneous lines I'm seeing on the Land Rover are probably these small "meta" data files. And they temporarily confuse the LR4 if selected to be played.

The cure looks like some special software to remove these "meta" data files from the FAT32 formatted thumb drive. Or perhaps a future software update the LR4's system to simply ignore these meta data files (e.g. easily identified by period and underscore as the 1st two characters of the filename).

I'll keep plugging away at the problem if nobody else posts an easy fix.

 

[Viper17]

Thanks for the suggestion. Even with just one folder I still had the problem. However, the problem is now S O L V E D thanks to the help from my wife, the computer software expert in the family.

The problem stems from the small amount of additional data (called meta data) contained in Macintosh files that does not transfer into the Windows type file format (i.e. FAT or FAT32) required for the USB thumb drive. Nor do many computers other than Macs normally make use this “meta” data.

Skip this paragraph if you want. This additional small amount of “meta” data might contain, for example, the size of a picture or document when it was last closed by the user so that when it is opened the next time it can be the same size it was when it was last closed. It might also contain other data such as the color of a folder’s background.

However, when transferring (i.e. copying) Macintosh files to a Windows formatted drive (UBS thumb drive with FAT32 format in this case) the Mac also transfers the meta data just in case it is needed. This meta data is in the form of an additional very small file for each file transferred. Most computers systems that do not need the meta data simply ignore the meta data files which are easily recognized (e.g. by the period and underscore as the first two letters in the filename). But, since the Land Rover’s system is not ignoring these extraneous meta data files they need to be removed.

There is free software available for this and here is what I did:

1. Simply download the “Hidden Cleaner” application from the following URL:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/27416/hidden-cleaner

2. Drag and drop the USB thumb drive icon onto the application which instantaneously removes those pesky meta data files. Note: If you don’t blink you will see the application launch, and almost immediately unmount (i.e. eject) the USB thumb drive. It all happens so fast you think nothing happened.

3. Your done. Just plug the USB thumb drive into the Land Rover’s USB port and enjoy.

This should work equally well with the other Land Rovers (Range Rover Sport, etc) that have the USB port as well.

For those interested there is a more detailed information on the topic written by my wife at the following URL:
http://bit.ly/hhS39E

 

[MottMcfly]

Nice find.

Thanks,

Marty

 

[crewcabrob]

Thanks for the info! I have had a few issues with the USB drive, but figured it was a bad song or something that happened during the copy or rip stage.

I don't use a mac, but my kids have formatted all the music with itunes. I wonder if that could have casued some of the issues I have seen..

Thanks again,

Rob

 

[Count Laszlo]

I actually tried just one folder and had the same problem. I have also read where others have made several folders where each folder is a play list of various songs or all the songs from a particular album. And it worked fine for them.

After doing some more research (did a google search for "._file") and came up with an article which describes a potential problem when using a Mac (which I'm using) to transfer files to a Windows formatted drive. The USB thumb drive is formatted MS-DOS (FAT32) which the LR4 manual says it should be (i.e. "use FAT or FAT32 file format").

This article's URL is:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10329972-263.html

The article says that Macintosh files have a little bit of extra stuff (i.e. "meta" data) not typically used by a Windows oriented machine (e.g. such as the x-y pixel dimensions of the file's window size the last time the file was opened in the case of a picture file or word processor document). And this "meta" data is written as a separate small file along with the main data file -- whenever the file is written to a Windows formatted storage device (hard drive, thumb drive, etc.). So, the extraneous lines I'm seeing on the Land Rover are probably these small "meta" data files. And they temporarily confuse the LR4 if selected to be played.

The cure looks like some special software to remove these "meta" data files from the FAT32 formatted thumb drive. Or perhaps a future software update the LR4's system to simply ignore these meta data files (e.g. easily identified by period and underscore as the 1st two characters of the filename).

I'll keep plugging away at the problem if nobody else posts an easy fix.

Are your files MP3s or iTunes AAC .m4a? I have found if I try and burn a CD with iTunes .m4a files, the songs won't play in the CD player. My first assumption was that it's the DRM copy protection and pretty much gave up at that point. I love iTunes, but at the same time, I try not to buy too many songs and just purchase a physical CD instead - then use the CD to load up my iPod. DRM is pretty lame IMO.

 

[Viper17]

Thanks for the info! I have had a few issues with the USB drive, but figured it was a bad song or something that happened during the copy or rip stage.

I don't use a mac, but my kids have formatted all the music with itunes. I wonder if that could have casued some of the issues I have seen..

Thanks again,

Rob

==========================
Rob,

The problem I experienced with the extraneous hidden files should only happen when using a Mac to download the music files to your USB thumb drive. So, I would suggest that you verify the following two items on your thumb drive:

- your music files are mp3 type files (e.g. 01 Little Bitty.mp3)
- these music files are inside of a folder

Ed

 

[Viper17]

Reply to Count Laszio:

The .mp3 files I loaded on the USB thumb drive have worked fine while the .m4a files did not work (i.e. the LR4 did not even recognize .m4a files on the thumb drive). So, I’m not surprised that .m4a files won’t work from the CD player either.

Most of the song files on my desktop Mac are downloaded from CD’s for the same reason you mention. And I originally downloaded them selecting the Apple Lossless Encoder for the best quality which results in the file being stored as an .m4a file. However, these .m4a files are relatively large as the 18.7 MB file size for the song “Little Bitty” shows below:

Example:
01 Little Bitty.m4a <— Apple’s lossless encoded audio file size is 18.7 MB.
01 Little Bitty.mp3 <— mp3 encoder bit rate of 192K kbps takes only 3.7MB.
You should be able to get over 100 songs on one CD in the mp3 format.

From within iTunes you can easily make a copy of your .m4a song files in the .mp3 format. You also choose the .mp3 sample rate from 16 kbps (very low fidelity with very small file size) all the way up to 320 kbps (highest quality level and large file size). I choose 192 kbps since I cannot hear any improvement above that rate. Actually with the songs I’ve tested I cannot hear any improvement above 128 kbps which probably reflects the high frequency hearing loss everyone faces as they get older. The Land Rover manual recommends 192 kbps or higher (p116).

Ed

 

[paabator]

dsfd