Question for the IT crowd.

As a techo-impaired old guy the modern marvels are way beyond me. I bought a new truck, 2020 Silverado- felt like a special order at the dealership, but I got an 8 foot bed and crank windows. What I DIDN'T get was a CD player, haven't put them in trucks since 2014! Holy Cow! So I've been learning to burn CD's onto the computer and then transfer to a "thumb drive" so that I can play them in the truck.

Now it gets complicated. I loaded a bunch on the a 32gb drive and they play fine. Put some on a 128gb drive and they won't play at all. I've read that the radio won't read anything larger then a 32gb. I've read that there should be another "format".

If I had the slighted idea how this stuff worked I might know the terminology to ask a coherent question. Any suggestions?????

Yer lucky! My 2017 Hyundai Elantra doesn't like anything bigger than an 8GB thumbdrive. Just exactly how much music do you think you can listen to in your truck? 8,000 songs not enough for you? You might try a 64GB thumbdrive. They've gotten pretty cheap since there are now 500GB and 1TB thumbdrives out there.

Oh, and my 1998 Chevy still has a radio/cassette deck, and CD player. Security feature in the radio makes me think if I take it out, I may not be able to drive the truck at all. Sound like fun?

8,000 songs not enough for you?
Laughing.. variety is the spice of life!

The truck computer operating system is unable to read a drive larger than 32gb. It is the way the code was written. There may be an update to allow larger drives but it would be just as easy to have 3-4 tossed int he center console or in a cup holder... they are so dirt cheap now that if one is lost no big deal!

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Originally Posted by beezapilot

8,000 songs not enough for you?
Laughing.. variety is the spice of life!

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Beezapilot sent you a PM

The kids at work said I have eclectic music tastes LOL. I can easily fill a 32GB drive. I looked on line a bit and couldn't find any good answers.

It might be a formatting issue on the thumb drives.

Go to a pawn shop buy a cheap used ipod put all your music on it and leave it connected through the USB in the center console. The radio is programed to work with it and you can have everything you want in one spot. You then can buy a bluetooth speaker and if you are out and want to listen to your music you can take it all with you. I have a speaker that fits in my cup holder and it goes with me to the lake so I can have some background music while the bobber floats. If the fish would stop biting it would be a super relaxing day.

so the problem is the format standard for different capacities.

your 32gb drive will default format to FAT32

your 128gb drive will default format to NTFS

your 'player' only wants FAT16 or FAT32 MAYBE EXFAT

yeah, i know, how does that help me?

short answer, find someone that will format your 128gb drive to FAT32 for you.
(newer versions of windows are very stubborn about formatting other than defaults so it helps to ask someone who understands to do it)

then, if you don't format again, (simply delete files/add files/etc) you can use the drive like you've used the 32gb drive.

good luck!

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Originally Posted by beezapilot

As a techo-impaired old guy the modern marvels are way beyond me. I bought a new truck, 2020 Silverado- felt like a special order at the dealership, but I got an 8 foot bed and crank windows. What I DIDN'T get was a CD player, haven't put them in trucks since 2014! Holy Cow! So I've been learning to burn CD's onto the computer and then transfer to a "thumb drive" so that I can play them in the truck.

Now it gets complicated. I loaded a bunch on the a 32gb drive and they play fine. Put some on a 128gb drive and they won't play at all. I've read that the radio won't read anything larger then a 32gb. I've read that there should be another "format".

If I had the slighted idea how this stuff worked I might know the terminology to ask a coherent question. Any suggestions?????

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If the truck has a headphone jack, you can take another media player (Ipod/Phone) and simply play the music from that device to your vehicle.

I don't think playing music from that source of audio would have the same storage issues, so the host device could be as large as you want it.

Even though most of the vehicles I drive are Bluetooth Capable (since upgrades) I still use a male-to-male headphone adapter to plug my phone in from there and play those tunes.

Thank you gentlemen! I didn't know how to ask the question- but the answer seems to be a 5 pack of 32gb thumb drives from Amazon. The capacity programing of the system and the format are the culprit and limitation.

My touch screen player will play mp3s but not flac or wav files from usb drive. Bummer.. It also doesn't like long filenames, and only wants FAT32 and half the time if I browse the thumb drive with it's file manager it won't see folders that I KNOW are on there, but it will play the songs in those folders it can't or won't "see" if they come up in the normal play order. Then it might see the folders in the file manager. Go figure.

GM uses Fat32

Fat32 is the old dos standard that Win xp will let you format to. I still use xp on a couple of computers but it takes some time to format 128 gigs to fat32.

I have a Ram (don't hate) and I can plug my 2 tb hard drive into it and it reads it :D

Wow so I guess I’ve got no chance of getting a new truck with an 8 track tape deck! What should I do with all these tapes I’ve got? LOL

I have a 2020 Acadia and I have to use the correct file format to play a thumb drive which are.

MP3, OGG, AAC, 3GP, & FLAC.

I had a hard time finding this info, my dealer had no Idea.

I think the folks pointing you towards FAT32 VS NTFS are on the right track.

Have you considered simply playing from your phone via Bluetooth? My car is closing in on 20 years old and adding Bluetooth is the best thing I have ever changed in a vehicle.

I play them from my phone and connect to my truck with bluetooth.

The vehicle should be capable of Carplay or Andoidplay when connected with a USB cable even with the base audio system that I assume this truck probably has based on the build options stated earlier.

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Originally Posted by poppy42

Wow so I guess I’ve got no chance of getting a new truck with an 8 track tape deck! What should I do with all these tapes I’ve got? LOL

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Darn. I was hoping to use the radio from my '56 Chevy Belair. Think the tubes still work. Yup tubes.

I thought I could help you ... I graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University with a degree in IT .
But in 1968 ...IT stood for Industrial Technology !!!
I don't know Diddly-Squat about computers ... I at least tried !

I still have a box of 8 tracks and a box of cassett tapes ... just in case I can find a replacement tape player for my 1968 Chevelle Malibu two-door sport coupe w/ dual 4 barrel carburaters .
Gary

Even is you format a 128gb to fat32 the car may not recognize it... some OS's limit drive size

It doesn't matter how I try to load it, I just cannot get that 8-track tape to fit the USB port in my car.

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Originally Posted by bakerjw

I play them from my phone and connect to my truck with bluetooth.

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I do the same thing, your phone will be handier then a thumb drive.
Rip them from your cd's on a computer and sync them on your phone, blue tooth connects automatically with the truck after the first time and your good to go.
My phone shows up on my audio choices screen on my ford.

Laughing... my phone is a flip phone- all I ever do is make & take calls on it, sooner or later I'm gonna need to upgrade that too. A while back I got notification on my phone that my "Photo Memory" was full. Thought the phone had gone haywire as I don't use it to take pictures, but I fooled around with it and got into "My Stuff" and "My Photos" and sure enough- had a boatload of photos of my shoes. All those phone calls I couldn't answer and just kept pushing the button... oh, yeah.....

When I retired I only wanted a flip phone. No need for a smart phone since I prefer my iPad or, even better, my real computer. Hardly a Luddite, I spent 25 years in corporate IT. Just didn’t need a smart phone. It turned out that the monthly service charge was the same for a flip phone or a smart phone.

Good luck with the truck sound system.