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If, for instance, you copied your music that you downloaded from iTunes (copyrighted material), onto a USB stick, without somehow changing the format, the material is bound to iTunes and it won't play in a non Apple device or non-Apple software. There are also many different file formats so it's important to know what your player supports, and make sure your music is in a supported file format. While there are several MP3 file parameters involving bitrates and such, MP3 is a fairly universally accepted file type.
When you run into such issues, it's best to grab a CD and rip it using any one of a thousand different free programs to a USB stick, and get that working first. Then you can eliminate everything but file format or copyright protection.
I use a 128 mini gigabyte flash drive in my FLHTK GTS without any problems, in fact, it's very fast and the music quality is excellent. Although I only have 1,577 files/music pieces on it which only fills it about 1/3 of it's capacity. I import the music from iTunes onto the flash drive using MP3 and M4A formats. All files are dropped directly on the flash drive without any subfolders. I know that method seems unorganized but the GTS can decipher everything just fine.
The fact that two different vehicles do not see the media would lead you to believe its not the bike's stereo (as skratch said). I also use a 128gb drive that looks just like CMSHOG's pic without issue, with around 10,000 mp3's on it, all copied to the root of the drive (no folders at all), and have a few playlist in there as well... almost all of the mp3's show up and play great. There are a few I can't see, and have no idea which ones they are because of the number of files, but it's probably due to some tagging issue.
I'd re-format the thumb drive, probably use ExFat, throw say 5 mp3's on the root of the drive, then try it in the stereo... if it works fine, then throw the rest of the media on there. I have had issues in the past with USB drives in the GT stereo, every time formatting the drive and putting the media back on there "fixed" it. Haven't had any issue with the GTS yet.
Off topic, where are ya’ll downloading your music from, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify or where? I’ve been seeing the subscription prices fluctuating between them and wondering where’s the better deals.
i use mp3va.com they have a sale on right now (as they do several times per year) each track is .10 and if you buy the whole album you get 20% discount. the only downside is you have to 'preload' your account, and depending on how much you load, you get a 'bonus' amount. for example, preload $15, no bonus. preload $30, get a $15 bonus for a total account balance of $45. once you've purchased your tracks, you can also archive them in case you need to download them a subsequent time later.
i've been using it for several years and have not had any problems with unauthorized credit card usage.
i also have a premium pandora account that was included gratis with my cell phone plan, so i do a lot of streaming also. but pandora has a 1 device at a time limitation, so usually the wife gets to stream, and i use my usb drive.
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