I was hoping to be able to play music from a USB stick (thumb drive) through the Aux port.

I bought a cheap USB to male 3.5mm cable and tried but no go. Am I missing something or is this just not possible?

USB stick plays fine in my car

Thanks

 

Are you using the same setup in the car (usb to male 3.5mm cable? Most stock car radios these days have the ability to read thumb drives. Old units do not. That may be your issue.

 

My car has a female usb input built into the console between the seats

 

That's why it plays in your car. I'm sure if you tried using the aux input via the 3.5mm plug you would get the same results as on the bike.

one sends unprocessed digital data to the head unit (USB), and the other one sends a processed, analog audio signal (3.5mm). It may be easier to think of it as the USB cable transferring data, like you would to a computer, and the aux cable transferring an audio signal, like you would to your earbuds. So because the USB stick is not processed it needs to be processed by software in the deck which the stock head unit does not have.

Time to swap out your head unit. $109 on Amazon and Ebay for the Sony 310BTX. Great deck at that price.

 

correct - stocker HU (2013-and older) is not able to play mp4 from usb tick (from CD it does for the more recent models up to 2013, but PITA in my opinion to burn a good working. audio aux input you can use to put in your phone or ipod/mp3 player

 

Thanks guys your explanations makes sense

I will continue to use my phone and forget the usb stick