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usb player

2234 Views 12 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  NickD
I have a 2015 Chevy Cruze LT. I have been having trouble getting my Cruze to read the USB drive. I have tried several things to try and get it to work, I think it is the files on the USB drive that won't read but don't know how to determine which files are bad or how to fix them?
I need suggestions on what to do, so I can play music through the USB
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What file system does the USB drive have on it?

This matters if you have ever reformatted it.
First, I'd try a different USB drive. Some are "fancy" and require installing drivers to access them. The Cruze isn't going to go along with that. It's a stereo, not a PC.

A recommended brand is the Sandisk Cruzer. (Just remember Cruzer for the Cruze.) It's simple, fairly cheap and tends to work well with the MyLink system.

I've played MP3 and M4A that do not have DRM with no problems.
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I will second the Sandisk Cruzer recommendation.

I had issues with another major brand USB drive (forget the name at the moment) but I had three new ones fail and become corrupt in little over a month of use each. Was convinced it was the the audio system at fault until I tried one last time with a Sandisk Cruzer. Many months now and no problems at all.

Why it mattered so much...no idea...but it did.
Just picked up a 128 GB SanDisk Ultra Fit and it works great. Didn't have to format it. Just loaded MP3s on it and it was up and run. It's really small too which keeps it from getting in the way.
I have tried a sandisk and it originally worked. I than bought a Duracell USB and put all my music on it and the Duracell has never worked. I than transferred part of the songs onto the sandisk and now the sandisk does not work either. As far as I know I have never reformatted the USB drive. And I do not know how to tell what file system the USB drive has...
I think they are all FAT32 from the factory...but if you ever reformat it I think windows (at least mine did) defaults to something else the car can't read depending on the version of windows you have. My old Win7 machine defaulted to NTFS, and the 8.1 and 10 machines another newer one. You would have to manually select it to set it right afterwards.
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I would check the file format system on the USB to see how it is formatted. It's quick and easy to check to determine whether or not to rule it out. I had bought an SDXC card for my other Chevy and it was formatted in some odd system and my car would not recognize it. After reformatting it in FAT32 it worked fine. I do know that the new USB sandisk I installed today was FAT32 and it worked fine. If you don't know how to check the format, let us know and we can walk you through it.
I always do a hard format of any USB drive for use in a car. Many of them have firmware in the root directory to make them look like a regular hard drive to PCs. Most car audio systems will barf on that set up. I have nearly a dozen SanDisk Cruzers that work flawlessly. I suspect your Duracell drive had firmware or a rootkit and it infected your other USB drive. Hard format both of them. I also use CCleaner to do a drive wipe of new flash drives to make sure they are really clean.
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I googled how to format the drive and it does say it is FAT32...
My USB port in my 2014 Cruze stopped working a few months ago. Took it in and they replaced a Multimedia module which fixed the problem. Is it reading the drive at all? Does it switch to it when you plug your flash drive in?
I googled how to format the drive and it does say it is FAT32...
Did the drive come with software and folders already installed on it as Jim noted above? Also, have you tried the sandisk again to confirm that it's still working to rule out the possibility that something downstream of the drive isn't working correctly?
The problem with my then brand new 2012 2LT, someone forgot to plug in the USB cable to the rear end of the radio. With the radio on, should be able to read 5 volts on pins 1 and 4, just took an old USB cable, seem to have tons of these, and cut of the ends of one so I could measure it.

Then a trip to my dealers. They did let me watch this, so I could make sure everything was installed properly, had all the test equipment brand new in the box to test this.

For all you know, your radio is shot.
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