TIM

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I finally find the best way to manage my music on USB

My first tip: don't use File'n'Folder if you have a huge library as you have no "elevator" on the right of the screen, you have to "swipe through" (you'll never listen anymore to ZZ top :CWL:)




Better browse per artist (it's my usual way to listen to music: per artist) as this time you'll have the "elevator" on the right (ZZ Top is back again :rock::rock:)




But there is still a problem: when you select "all" then it play all the 1st song from all album then 2nd and so on. So the workaround is to renumber your track according your taste (see the pdf to see how to do it with https://www.mp3tag.de/en/).

If you want to play music according "Genre" you will have the same problem as before, You can use the same workaround as before or you can generate playlist with https://www.mp3tag.de/en/ I advise when creating them to place the playlist on the root of the USB.
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evanevery

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No, there would be very little difference between searching via folder/files and artists if you have a big collection with many artists (and folders).

In any case, we shouldn't have to work for the software. The software should work for us. We shouldn't be forced to try and use some "work around" to get past the stupidity of Porsche's design. The fact that most folks (with serious music libraries) arrange them by artist and album should be enough motivation to give us a method which allows us to search all of the folders effectively.

Porsche COULD have done this if they gave us a simple wheel (or even a slider) on the lower console. But they sacrificed functionality for appearance cause they didn't want any buttons or wheels to clutter up the console. (Makes we wonder how well a "Porsche Design" Toaster would actually make toast...) Still, a vertical slide bar on the lower console could be graphically added and then the further one slid their finger from the center/neutral the faster the list scrolled up or down.

I currently have 165 GB of music in my collection (271 artists, 7000 hi-res files (flac), in 531 albums). I manage these files on my network and continually keep a bunch of 256 GB thumb drives in sync for use in several of my cars. All but my Porsche deal with the library quite efficiently.

For what its worth, I personally loath "playlists". They only serve to overplay individual songs such that you never hear stuff if it doesn't end up on some playlist or another. I like to listen to my music album by album. This way I hear stuff that I would not normally get if I set up a playlist. I also prefer to "browse" my music collection (rather than "search by name") for similar reasons.

...and yes, I've also used the "ZZ Top" analogy in several other threads in the past. ;-)
 

svp6

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I wish the voice recognition would be able to pick up the song from the library - think Spotify implementation in Tesla (play xx by yy) so you avoid scrolling altogether. SO far I have been successful to get the car to switch to USB with voice commands but not to select a song.

The other thing that drives me nuts is that "shuffle" in the Apple Carplay via Porsche implementation (not via phone) is there for artistic effect, as it does nothing..... Each time I select a playlist and choose shuffle, it rearranges the songs in the exact same order they were in the first place. Now that is one impressive magic trick....
 

evanevery

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I wish the voice recognition would be able to pick up the song from the library - think Spotify implementation in Tesla (play xx by yy) so you avoid scrolling altogether. SO far I have been successful to get the car to switch to USB with voice commands but not to select a song.

The other thing that drives me nuts is that "shuffle" in the Apple Carplay via Porsche implementation (not via phone) is there for artistic effect, as it does nothing..... Each time I select a playlist and choose shuffle, it rearranges the songs in the exact same order they were in the first place. Now that is one impressive magic trick....
The other thing to consider is that using "Files and Folders" to locate (or browse) your selected music is actually significantly more efficient than asking to search by "artist"!

Using "Files and Folders" simply relies on the file system on the USB Drive. The software always has to go to the file system first to find anything. But when you ask to search by "Artist" (for example) the software doesn't use the file system it uses the metadata embedded in each individual file. That means that in order for the software to find all songs by a specific "artist", or on a specific "album" it has to open, read, and index each and every song on your USB device. The "metadata" or "tags" which contain that info are embedded into each song/track. So in order for them to be processed, searched, every single song needs to be opened up, read, and the contents of the metadata tags put into a database. ...and the software needs to go to the Files/Folders FIRST before it can even start to open, read, and index any file on the device. Although the Taycan appears to preserve this database to some degree, it will try and recreate it any time it detects a change to the filesystem on the USB device. (Add one song = ReIndex)

When you search by "files and folders" you do not need any metadata info at all. All you need is the file system itself. Once a file or folder is selected, the software can then parse the individual metadata in each song as it is played (album cover, etc).

Typically, the software will be indexing metadata in the background in any case but this can cause the Nav System to refuse to allow you access to any of the associated data until it is done. We have seen situations (when you have more than 3000 files or so), that the Taycan PCM will kick you completely out of USB access an into an unused FM Band as it tries to re-index when the car is restarted. (This has been tested and documented by myself and @louv in a couple other threads if you care to search for them).

How you sort and organize your "files and folders" can effectively achieve much the same results without having to open and index everything on your USB drive. Most folks (I believe) organize their music by artist and then album. If you do this, you already have a method to search by artist and/or album without having to create or maintain a metadata index. (Which the car will ultimately create anyway...)

Some folks I know also add another top level folder such that they have {Genre}/{Artist}/{Album} which also makes it easy to narrow down their browsing based on the type/genre of songs they want to listen to at some specific time. (This gets a little more complicated if an individual artist provides multiple genres of music).

The other thing to consider is the difference between BROWSING and SEARCHING. I prefer to BROWSE for my music as sometimes I come across something I would not normally have SEARCHED for. If all you do is SEARCH for music by name, I don't think you'll end hearing as much diversity as if you just scrolled around until something strikes your fancy.
 

Crater

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I have an additional simple question : how to play folders one by one.
Player finishes last song and stop :(
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