Car stereo will not see folders on USB

[sixor8]

I bought a car recently with a Sony DSX-A60BT stereo. There is no CD player but it will play music from a USB stick but it is frustrating me.

If I just add loads of MP3 files, it will play them (of course in random order unless I rename with number prefixes ) but if I load only albums on, I get the error message 'No Music.' I have customised the properties of the folders to be optimized for music but still no go! I don't particularly want hundreds of songs in one root folder but where am I going wrong?

I've searched the web for a long time and can only find stuff about format (it's correct, FAT32). Sony has a good help site but I can't find a solution.

If the USB has a mixture of mp3 files and folders containing mp3 files, it does not see the album folders.

[jj.]

I know something about this. My Alpine UTE204 (new 2 years ago) did similar.

I think from memory it was something to do with the format of the USB. I had to use another computer in the end, to either get a new way or an old way to format. Something to do with the FAT32.

Do some research on usb format for car stereo's and I'm sure you'll find it.

Once I did the correct USB Format, my Alpine picked up all the folders/sub folders etc... As I expected.
jj

[sixor8]

Thanks. Although it says it's FAT32 in the properties, I think I'll have to reformat the USB drive and try again.

I sussed out the random play order, a bit of reading revealed it plays them in the order the files are created on the drive. So if I copy the mp3 files onto the drive in album track order, one at a time, it will play them in the right order. Copy pasting entire albums in one go doesn't do this.

[TEKNOPUG]

I know when creating MP3 CDs, the naming convention of the file determined the folder structure (ISO format with / prefix determining folder etc).

Can't remember if that needed for USB/SD cards though.