I was happy to find that my new (to me) Clubman S came with the Bluetooth/USB option. I had recently purchased a nice, cheap, used, 30GB iPod and was anxious to try it out with the new ride. However, my car did not have the factory cable that everyone talks about.

So, I figured what the heck, let's just hook it up anyway. I grabbed the stock Apple USB-Doc Connector cable and inserted the USB end into the port in the car. I also connected a 1/8" mini-plug from the iPod's headphone out into the Aux In on the Mini.

It worked perfectly! I could navigate the artists, albums, songs and it sounded quite good. On a lark, I tried disconnecting the 1/8" cable. Guess what - it still worked as before, full control and great sound!! Woo-hoo!

I then figured "how well would a USB thumb drive work?" and went inside the house to find two of my USB drives, 1 is 4GB the other is 16GB. The 16GB drive would not work at all, the Mini's head unit did not recognize it. The 4GB drive worked *perfectly*, exactly like the iPod did.

I've now decided to simply use the 4GB thumb drive (also called a flash drive) insted of the iPod. It's completely solid state, so it should be able to weather the car's environment with no worries, it's quite unobtrusive and fits nicely in the little well under the radio, and if someone does break in and rip me off, I'll only be out the cost of the flash drive, about $10 nowadays.

If you haven't tried one of these, give it a go. They work quite well and don't require any fancy Mini-specific cable ($$)...

 

That's pretty cool. Nice find!

 

I still prefer the iPod adaptor for many reasons.... One you can control it from your steering wheel (If you have the MFSW). You can still navigate your songs and playlists from the radio display (Granted no where near as convenient as using the click wheel) and third it recharges your iPod, thus eliminating cable clutter. My adaptor is installed inside the secret compartment so the iPod is always out of sight.

 

Also if you don't the Blutooth/USB option your car will not come equipped with an USB port. Just the AUX port.

 

This is where the confusion exists for many people. I, too, have complete control over the iPod and my USB drives. The MFSW works just the same for me as it does for you. You do NOT need the Mini-supplied cable, the standard cable that comes with the iPod works the same. And you do NOT need the 1/8" Aux connector cable, it serves no purpose.

I just did a quick search on Amazon and the cable sells for $1.85 + shipping:
http://www.amazon.com/Dock-Connector.../dp/B0007RV3IE

Here's one for 85 cents!!
http://www.amazon.com/IPOD-USB-SYNC-...SPQ1WNACEYFYGT

And, this is a bonus, the USB drives don't need recharging, they operate quite well using the current supplied by the USB port in the Mini...

 

The difference here is how the iPod is set up. If the iPod is used as a mass storage device ( which is not how iTunes normaly set it up) then it may or may not work. Usually if there are not a hole bunch of songs on the iPod there will be no problem as it is just seing the iPod the same way it see a USB Stick. On the other had if there is a lot (more than 4000 -5000 songs) what you will ifnd is that many of them do not show up or that there is a very long lag time in getting to them.

The other problem is that most people will not have the knowledge to set up their iPod as a Mass Storage Only Device. Infact most iPods come wiht that function disable formteh factory and it takes a lot of work to get it to function properly as a Mass Storage Device. I would go into al the details here but i would overload the forum doing it.

 

I'm not sure how my iPod is setup, it may be in Masss Storage mode. All I did was to rip a bunch of CDs to 256K MP3s using Windows Media Player and then I dragged the folders into iTunes to place them on the iPod. Easy to do and works perfectly.

On the USB drives (thumb drives), I simply dragged the same folders onto them using Windows Explorer. Again, easy to do and works perfectly.

I just wanted people to know that they do not need any special cables ($$) to allow an iPod to work with their USB-enabled Mini...

 

I have a 30 gig iPod and when filled with music and set for mass storage it works but will only show around 3500 songs. The ipod actually has over 12000 songs on it. This is a limitation of the Mini USB system and to access the rest of the songs on the iPod i must either wait for it to reload a hole bunch of data and then loose the first 350 songs or what is better to do is to use the iPod as it was designed and have access to all 12000+ songs by setting the iPod to Regualr mode and use the Mini USB cable.

There are threads inthe nav and audio section that explain all the limitations of the Mini USB system and use of the iPod. I would suggest you read them, as for 95+% of the people out there it WILL NOT work the way you are saying it does.

 

Interesting info.

 

Thanks for the post .. nice write up.

I found that out on my own a day after I bought the MINI and thought everyone already knew.

 

Whatever you say, dude. It certainly ain't worth sweating over...

 

Here's an iPod frustration that I have: I normally just hit the "random" button, and let my nano surf around my ipod for me. If I hit the "artist" button, it then just surfs around that artist. If I then hit "artist" again, it doesn't uncheck the box, and I'm stuck listening to that artist until I turn the car off.

Am I missing something? Is there a way to undo this?

 

Nice to know a thumb drive will work just fine. Many times, I'll just have an audio book on my ipod, and listen to it anytime I'm in the car. Knowing I can just put in on a thumb drive and not worry about the ipod itself is a big plus.

 

I got am 8GB thumbdrive that's about 3/4" long specifically to use as an iPod alternative in the Clubman. If I don't like the navigation or support for the audiobooks, there is always an 8GB Nano with broken clickwheel - perfect car iPod :D

 

I believe that iPod is always a USB mass storage device. On a computer without iTunes installed, it shows up as a removable USB drive, like a memory stick. If you do have iTunes installed, iTunes has an "Enable disk use" option that controls whether or not it will mount as a drive in addition to access through iTunes (I believe this is specific to the device driver installed by iTunes). The net result is that if you plug an iPod directly into the car USB (without the Y cable), the USB can access all the files, although it can only play those with generic unprotected music file format.

 

Rkw is right, and this is how I was using it. All the files on my iPod are 256K MP3s, no AIFFs or other protected formats. Life is too short to waste it on dealing with silly DRM stuff.

Just got back from work, the 4GB USB stick I have in the car was rockin' some Be Bop DeLuxe like a BIG DOG! Sounded pretty good pumping thru the Boost system - I think Mini hit one out of the park with this car!!

 

I use a 4GB USB thumb drive and have about 20 hours of music loaded on it.
I've got a wide range of music and just set it to random play and it is like my
own personal radio station ... no commercials or songs I don't like.

The only issue I seem to have is that it takes a minute or two to load all
the song information and begin playing music after I first start the vehicle.
Do other people using the USB thumb drive have the same issue? It seems
to load faster if I don't have as much music loaded, but what's the point
then?

I'm not complaining, but wondering if the data were loaded on the drive
differently, would it load the music faster. I use Windows Media Player to
download/sync the mp3 files to the drive.

 

I'm doing exactly as you are, but my music begins to play almost instantly. And my USB thumb drive is a large, 16GB model. However, my drive is VERY fast - there IS a difference in speed among drives. Perhaps you have one of the slower ones. Mine is rated as 180X, you might try to see if you can find out the speed of your drive...

 

These posts will answer your questions about the USB Drive and load times and why it is the way it is. Also, the new cars (09's) may have a larger indexing capacity than what is stated in these posts.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...68-post60.html

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...63-post67.html

There is extensive information about this stuff int eh NAV and Audio Section.

 

I have about 5-6GB filled up on an 8GB stick and it takes maybe 15 seconds to start playing, if that. '09 car thing probably.

 

I don't have the iPod adaptor. Thinking about getting it install.. Is it hard to do it yourself? I also heard that if you don't do it right, it won't link to your MFSW? Help plz~

 

You're making me re-think my whole ICE strategy.

I specced my Clubman w/iPod interface and MFSW in the hope of assigning my old GenII 15gb iPod to car duty. Unfortunately because the iPod is FW only (and the bastard stepchild of all iPods) the Mini bus won't recognize it or charge it...

After realizing the above I picked up a 4gb memory stick and was happy using it until...

Back in September I picked up an 8gb iPhone 3g fully expecting it to fulfill all my ICE needs. To an extent it does but there are a few niggles. It won't always charge: no rhyme or reason to it - it simply won't always charge. Probably the more annoying one however, is that it doesn't always initialize correctly. If I have re-booted the iPhone away from the car it has a hard time picking it up and I'll usually have to disconnect, unlock the iPhone and enter my password before re-connecting. Even then it sometimes won't play the random setting that I have set using the MINI HiFi radio.

So now I'm thinking I'll use my Kensington charger as a dedicated charger attached to the usb part of the Y-cable, have the iPhone plugged into the AUX plug (for Pandora) and pick up a new 4gb stick for my USB interface (Staples has the same PNY one I picked up in June for $13 right now)

Thanks for the food for thought!

 

Forget PNY, look at Patriot Xporter XT USB sticks - VERY hi-speed, ruggedized, lifetime warranty. I got a 16GB from NewEgg for $35 with a $15 rebate, net cost $20. They have a 4GB for $10.99 right now. And speed DOES make a difference, both in loading and reading.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e=USB%20Flash%

 

Just to throw in a dissenting opinion here as a word of warning.

My 2008 MCSa will recognize iPods and play music on those iPods with the standard white iPod cable plugged into the USB port. However, without the MINI/BMW supplied cord, it refuses to recognize playlists, does not properly display track information, and in the case of music purchased from iTunes, displays it with cryptic information.

I've tried this with a 1st gen iPod Mini, 1st and 2nd gen iPod Nano, a 2nd Gen 30GB iPod video, a 1st Gen iPhone, and an iPod Touch. All iPods have displayed exactly the same results. The MINI supplied cable was originally missing, hence all my troubleshooting above. Once my dealer sent me the cable, everything started working perfectly.

 

I have tried th iPod (30 GB) with the standard white cable plugged into the USB port. I do not know if it works with playlists, I don't use them. It does display the track, artist, album, and genre info. correctly. However, I do not use iTunes-purchased music. I use plain vanilla 256K MP3s (VBR and CBR) that were dropped onto the iPod using iTunes software.

In the case of my USB sticks, the same MP3s were simply dragged and dropped onto the sticks using Windows Explorer. For my usage, this is perfectly fine....