Problem playing MP3 files from USB drive

I'm having a problem with my ability to play music from USB that apparently (according to my local Honda dealer) nobody else in the world has ever experienced. When playing a song from USB the head unit will randomly pause the song, back it up a half-second and resume playing it back again after about one second of silence. It does it several times per song. Therefore I get angry several times per song. I have a new-to-me 2017 Civic Sport HB with the old non-touchscreen head unit.

As for the files being played, I have six folders containing a total of 3.17GB of mp3 files (580 songs). The MP3 files are generally 128 kbps or 192 kbps bit rate. I have exact copies of these songs on a 32GB PNY USB 3.0 drive, a 32GB USB 2.0 drive and an 8GB USB 2.0 drive. The drives contain only the folders and songs - no unplayable files like .TXT, etc and I don't even have album art files. The same behavior is exhibited using any of these drives so I feel like I eliminated the type, size and speed of the USB drive as a variable.

What I'm thinking is happening is that the head unit is too slow to play the song continuously and it has to stop and "catch up" with the song. It remembers the point at which it stopped playing and backs up just before it when resuming so I know it's not disconnecting from the USB drive due to a bad connection in the USB port. A disconnection should result in the first song in the first folder starting to play upon resuming.

Anyone else encountered this? Better yet, has anyone had the problem and SOLVED it?

Fun fact: the service tech "noticed that I had HID headlights retrofitted and that may affect the radio's performance". FM reception, maybe, but not USB direct-connection to the head unit. It would have been fruitless to try to convince him otherwise...

joeyfan said:

Fun fact: the service tech "noticed that I had HID headlights retrofitted and that may affect the radio's performance". FM reception, maybe, but not USB direct-connection to the head unit. It would have been fruitless to try to convince him otherwise...

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When in doubt blame the mods lol

Just for fun...

Did the problem emerge just after your HID install?

And are there any other apps, sources, cameras, devices, etc... running in the background that may be over taxing the processor in the HU?

And I'd be curious to see what happens when you play .wav files from a USB stick.

Not saying that any of the above is the problem. And not saying any of the above makes sense. Just trying to rule out stuff.

hobby-man said:

When in doubt blame the mods lol

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Precisely, brother! I have an under-seat JBL subwoofer ready to wire up but I'm not going to until they resolve this, otherwise the sub would definitely be the root cause too.

shoegazer said:

Just for fun...

Did the problem emerge just after your HID install?

And are there any other apps, sources, cameras, devices, etc... running in the background that may be over taxing the processor in the HU?

And I'd be curious to see what happens when you play .wav files from a USB stick.

Not saying that any of the above is the problem. And not saying any of the above makes sense. Just trying to rule out stuff.

Click to expand...

Ah, I didn't think to try converting the songs to a different format like .WAV, .OGG or variable bit rate MP3. Maybe I'll give that a shot this evening. Also, as far as other apps running to bog down the HU processor, it's the older non-touchscreen version so I can't really ask it to do more than one thing at a time.

As far as when it started, I'm not sure. I didn't try playing music from a jump drive until after I installed the HIDs.

Update: the dealer has agreed to take the car back in and actually perform some diagnosis. Hopefully (with guidance from the Honda Tech Mothership) they are able to identify the problem. If they do, I will of course pass on the resolution.

I use OptimUSB (Mac) to clean/delete unwanted files after I load the USB. If not it will play ever other song. Try something like that to clean it.

joeyfan said:

Update: the dealer has agreed to take the car back in and actually perform some diagnosis. Hopefully (with guidance from the Honda Tech Mothership) they are able to identify the problem. If they do, I will of course pass on the resolution.

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Don't forget to remove your HIDs first

Well, I'm picking up the car today. The dealer's resolution: "We copied five of your song files to a blank USB drive we had sitting around and it worked perfectly. Must be all your USB drives were not compatible." I'm going to verify that their drive works first thing when I pick my car up tonight, then I've got a lot of time-consuming testing (loading songs one by one and testing) to try to isolate exactly when it starts to happen.

If I encounter no problems after loading and testing all 580 songs I want, it would seem to confirm it really is an affinity to a specific jump drive brand, size and speed. If I encounter the problem, I'll be able to delete the last song and retest to confirm it's a "number of files" issue or an issue with a specific file, and be able to engage Honda Customer Support with a demonstrable, repeatable problem.

[rant] Note I said Honda Customer Support - I am done with this dealership. The gentleman who was my service advisor literally told me he doesn't know about this "zip drive stuff" like gigabytes, data transfer rate between the USB port and the head unit and head unit processing power. Not really the person I want writing up the service request for a tech to work on. I feel like I need to engage a Honda audio architect... or a find dealership that "knows about this zip drive stuff". [/rant]

Are you using a (possibly bad) USB extension cable between the drive and the input?

I've been using Sandisk USB sticks in my '19 (with the touchscreen) and my '17 (with the basic HU) with no issues. 32GB max, formatted to FAT32, and no crapware on the drives. The '19 will play mp3s as well as wav files. The '17 doesn't support wavs. But so far, so good.

I think that you can pair a phone with the non-touchscreen HUs. If you keep having problems; maybe reset it in case there's a bunch of chatter between them?

And make note if the issues happen during the day or night (re: the HIDs).

Sorry you got the B Team at the dealership.

Well I'll be darned. Seems my Civic prefers Sandisk 16GB USB drives that formerly contained Honda GPS updates. The dealership copied one folder's worth of songs onto their drive and it tested fine. I added folder by folder back with tests between each and it worked... and is still working! I guess using a Sandisk Cruzer USB drive was the answer.

joeyfan said:

Well I'll be darned. Seems my Civic prefers Sandisk 16GB USB drives that formerly contained Honda GPS updates. The dealership copied one folder's worth of songs onto their drive and it tested fine. I added folder by folder back with tests between each and it worked... and is still working! I guess using a Sandisk Cruzer USB drive was the answer.

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Irritating, isn't it?

Glad you got it sorted, though.

I have had exactly this problem. USB flash drives are not all created equal. The only drives I have found that work consistently are the Patriot Rage XT and the Corsair Flash Survivor. I've bought drives from Sandisk, Kingston, Adata, all of which have had this problem, failed within 1mo of usage, or failed when left in the car during particularly hot or cold days.

daPyr0x said:

I have had exactly this problem. USB flash drives are not all created equal. The only drives I have found that work consistently are the Patriot Rage XT and the Corsair Flash Survivor. I've bought drives from Sandisk, Kingston, Adata, all of which have had this problem, failed within 1mo of usage, or failed when left in the car during particularly hot or cold days.

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I've had my 2017 Civic EX-T with the same SanDisk 32gb flash drive plugged in with no issues for 18 months now. I did format the drive to Fat32.

It's back...

I shut the car off today and pulled the (working just fine) USB drive out to add some new songs. My PC, the same PC I used originally to load songs, wouldn't recognize the drive was inserted. Nor would my work laptop. Nor, it turns out, will my car after plugging the drive back in. So evidently Honda treats USB drives like Mission Impossible messages and destroys them upon removal from the car? Since no device will even acknowledge its presence in a USB slot, I can't reformat the drive to FAT32 and start over. Why the actual, homosapial, Scientological, rhetorical F am I having so much trouble with this??

The car is still barely under warranty - I would trot it right back to the dealership and tell them the original problem has reoccurred but I know they're going to tell me to pound sand. They were close to telling me to pound sand the first time I brought it to them because they couldn't just look up a solution in a manual, they had to think and, you know, thinking is hard and not profitable. I might just replace the head unit altogether - I guess it's time to browse the forum for recommendations on aftermarket HUs. The basic non-touchscreen model I have isn't all that desirable anyways.

Thanks for providing an avenue to vent. I feel better now. Slightly. Not much though. Actually, I'm still mighty pissed.