[WJM]

This “How To” describes how to export music and playlists from iTunes on OSX to an SD card or flash drive that the UConnnect 8.4 radio can play. A handy utility called “PlayList Export” does the heavy lifting for us, available from the Mac App Store for $4.99. And there is some cleanup of miscellaneous OSX hidden files that need to be removed because they seem to confuse the radio. As usual, your mileage may very; no warranty expressed or implied; not responsible for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages; void where prohibited; and not a flying toy.

Now first, the requirements:

• A Mac running OSX (version 10.9.1 is known to work, others may)
• iTunes (version 11.1.3 is known to work, other may)
• “PlayList Export” available from the Mac App Store for $4.99 ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/playlist-export/id434426826?mt=12&ls=1 )
• A FAT32 formatted empty SD card or flash drive (32 GB SDHC class 4 is known to work, others may)
• A UConnect 8.4 radio.
• Patience.

Preparation:
We will need to create a reusable OSX shell script to clean up some hidden OSX system files such as “.Trashes” on the SD card or flash drive that may confuse the radio.

1. In OSX Finder, name your SD card or flash drive by right clicking it under Devices and selecting “Rename…”. Use a unique name without spaces.
2. Open the OSX TextEdit app.
3. In TextEdit, select “Format | Make Plain Text”.
4. Precisely enter this text, replacing TRAILHAWK with the name of your SD card chosen in step 1. (My scripting skills are rusty, experienced OSX shell users will undoubtedly cringe, my apologies):
   #!/bin/sh
   echo Removing unwanted OSX folders…
   dot_clean /Volumes/TRAILHAWK -m
   rm -rf /Volumes/TRAILHAWK/.Spotlight-V100
   rm -rf /Volumes/TRAILHAWK/.TemporaryItems
   rm -rf /Volumes/TRAILHAWK/.fseventsd
   rm -rf /Volumes/TRAILHAWK/.vbt5
   rm -rf /Volumes/TRAILHAWK/.Trashes
   ls -la /Volumes/TRAILHAWK/*
   diskutil unmount force TRAILHAWK
5. In TextEdit, select “File | Save” and select you SD card or flash drive from the Devices.
6. In the “Save As” field enter “cleanup.command”. The filename must end with ”.command”. Case matters.
7. Press “Save” and quit TextEditor.
8. In Finder, open Applications, then Utilities, the start the Terminal app.
9. In Terminal, type “cd /Volumes/TRAILHAWK” replacing TRAILHAWK with the name of your SD card or flash drive, and press enter. Again case matters.
10. In Terminal, type “cd “ and the name of your SD card or flash drive. Case matters. Ex: cd TRAILHAWK
11. Now type “chmod u+x cleanup.command” and press enter.
12. Close Terminal.

On to the export procedure:
If any error messages appear, please check your work and Google any error messages to help you correct them.

1. In iTunes, create a playlist called “All Music” and add all the desired music that you want on your radio to that playlist. This will represent all the music files you want Playlist Export to put on the SD or flash drive.
2. Optionally, in iTunes, create any special playlists of music that you may desire.
3. Close iTunes and start “Playlist Export”.
4. Select the “All Music” playlist and any others you may want.
5. For “Output Directory” select the SD card or flash drive.
6. For “Format” select “m3u” and “Copy to Artist/Album folders”. The latter will prevent wasting space on duplicate music files.
7. Select “Export” and patiently wait.
8. If you have a large playlist, patiently wait some more.
9. When completed, exit “Playlist Export”
10. In OSX, empty the “Trash” bin. Really. We don’t want any trashed/deleted files taking up space on the SD card or flash drive, because it will confuse the radio.
11. In Finder, select your SD card or flash drive under Devices.
12. Double click “cleanup.command”. Your SD card or flash drive will be unmounted, remove it from your Mac. We’re done.

Finally, insert your SD card or flash drive into the radio and patiently wait for it recognize the media. If playlists don’t have contents, wait a minute and try again. Apparently it can take a little while for it to read everything. Repeat the procedure when adding or removing music, its easiest to to delete all the playlists and music from the media (but leave cleanup.command).

 

[WJM]

One more thing. You will know the script is done when a file listing streams by.


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[dawhitesTH]

Very nice. Even though I don't use my SD card, mods should sticky this thread. Great write up and very detailed walk through.

 

[Mudster]

Agreed very nice. Thanks. Hopefully a windows user can post the same. I did simple drag a drop. But don't have my playlists.


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[jkolker]

A quick and dirty way to get "playlists" is to create a folder for each playlist you want on your SD or USB device. Copy the appropriate songs to the appropriate folder. Using a program such as MP3Tag select all your songs in that folder and rename the album to your playlist title. You can then select, play and shuffle by album title.

Not the best solution, but if you want something in a hurry, this works.

 

[renegade86]

A quick and dirty way to get "playlists" is to create a folder for each playlist you want on your SD or USB device. Copy the appropriate songs to the appropriate folder. Using a program such as MP3Tag select all your songs in that folder and rename the album to your playlist title. You can then select, play and shuffle by album title.

Not the best solution, but if you want something in a hurry, this works.

That is EXACTLY what I was looking for and just didn't think to organize the files this way. Good quick trick to test out different playlists in the UC system. Thanks!

 

[codywater]

This “How To” describes how to export music and playlists from iTunes on OSX to an SD card or flash drive that the UConnnect 8.4 radio can play.

I tried these instructions twice, but each time when attempting to play from a playlist, they come up empty. All the music is there and very nicely organized in folders, but all of my playlists are empty. Thoughts?

 

[WJM]

I struggle with this too. I've had to add "sudo " in front of the dot_clean and rm commands to make sure they have privileges when this happens. And as mentioned give it a few minutes, I've had no playlist contents initially then after checking a few lists the files will show up. Let me think on it some.


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[thestick]

I did this too. But I wanted the songs in a certain order. I numbered each song with 01, 02, 03 etc. preceding the song title. I dont know if there was an easier way on the pc.

 

[WJM]

I tried these instructions twice, but each time when attempting to play from a playlist, they come up empty. All the music is there and very nicely organized in folders, but all of my playlists are empty. Thoughts?

Could you provide the the listing that is generated when you run the script. If it's long remove some of the music folders but leave at least 20 or at the start. We are looking for any files that start with a "." which caused this on mine.


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[codywater]

I did the whole process again, except I didn't execute the cleanup.command after Playlist Export finished transferring all of the files. Loaded it in the Cherokee and it eventually showed all of the playlists with content, as well as sorted by artist or album or song. I didn't wait this long before, so I'm not sure if it's simply the time that allowed everything to load, or not running the script. I did load about 4,000 songs... Being that you've run the script, I'm sure it's just the waiting period I was too impatient for last attempt. Either way, it works now! Thanks for figuring this all out!

 

[xphoenix6]

Thanks for the write up!

Does anyone happen to know what the filepath in the .m3u playlists for the SD CARD would be?

I have a very organized itunes library, so I should be able to export my playlists and just change the file path in text edit...I think.

So for instance right now my m3u path reads "/Volumes/PMH Archive 1/Car Music/Music/AeroSmith/Aerosmith/01 Dream On.m4a"
Which is pointed to an external HD I have my itunes library to.

So if I changed the "/Volumes/PMH Archive 1/Car Music/" to say just the name of my SD card (which all my music is still inside a music folder) so it would read "/Cherokee/Music/AeroSmith/Aerosmith/01 Dream On.m4a" or would it need to be "/Volumes/Cherokee/Music/AeroSmith/Aerosmith/01 Dream On.m4a"

I'm just not sure how the uconnect system will read the card....anyone have an example of a .m3u list line that works?

 

[richard cypher]

If you have a mac there is in the App Store a $4.99 application titled Playlist Exporter. It is superb, simple to use and it will allow you to configure your SD card with playlists anyway you choose. I frequently update my playlists to include new music purchases and this program has been a true time saver.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/playlist-export/id434426826?mt=12

 

[RojStock]

If you have a mac there is in the App Store a $4.99 application titled Playlist Exporter. It is superb, simple to use and it will allow you to configure your SD card with playlists anyway you choose. I frequently update my playlists to include new music purchases and this program has been a true time saver.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/playlist-export/id434426826?mt=12

Thanks, I'll have to check that out. Was wanting a pretty simple way to manage my Music/Playlists onto SD cards. Maybe this is the answer.

 

[xphoenix6]

If you have a mac there is in the App Store a $4.99 application titled Playlist Exporter. It is superb, simple to use and it will allow you to configure your SD card with playlists anyway you choose. I frequently update my playlists to include new music purchases and this program has been a true time saver.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/playlist-export/id434426826?mt=12

Looks like I'll get this to amend the paths, will be easier than doing a find and replace in text edit (some files are located on different hd's)

should be well worth the $5.00

Thanks!

 

[flexsync605]

help with Ford SYNC and itunes playlist export

Found your early 2014 post about this and the Uconnect radio. I suppose that is the one in Jeeps. I had previously found Playlist Exporter, was working with it, and still had problems, as I'm not good with Terminal , etc. in order to remove the OSX hidden files (I use Mac). I can get the songs onto my SD card, but the organization is still not correct. I'll be trying the steps again, BUT, question is: do you know, or anyone else reading this thread (if it is still active) if the same procedure to remove hidden files would be used in a SYNC system radio/media player in a 2014 Ford Flex as in the Uconnect radio? Thanks

 

[hwstock]

Boy, the Mac sure makes things easy.

 

[geoelectric]

I'm kind of surprised it's this difficult, since iTunes already stores things artist/album/track and the head unit supports AAC (undocumented). I'd assumed I could cp -R the tree and maybe clean up the hidden dirs.

Of course, I had no intention of preserving playlists, so maybe you have to jump through hoops to do that. And I do know the album art is problematic since iTunes is too hi-res.

I asked for a 256gb stick for Xmas to do this, since my iPod has been flaky, so guess I'll experiment then.

 

[Array]

... And I do know the album art is problematic since iTunes is too hi-res.

I solved the album art size issue --> http://jeepcherokeeclub.com/65-electronics-audio-lighting/94025-sd-card-recommendations-uconnect-2.html#post1051865.

Free automation takes out all the pain.

 

[geoelectric]

I solved the album art size issue --> http://jeepcherokeeclub.com/65-elec...d-recommendations-uconnect-2.html#post1051865.



Free automation takes out all the pain.

Unfortunately, won't work on my Mac. Looks like Doug's AppleScript page has a script for "this size or less" for Mac iTunes though. I can combine that with the embed artwork script and it should work ok.