USB Drive not detected by infotainment system

I spent allot of time on this in my ’23 Denali and managed to get it working. The term “working” here can have different meanings. While I was initially able to get some songs to show up and play, once I discovered the system supported Playlist, I wanted that to work too.

Read through this first…

https://www.gmtruckclub.com/threads/usb-drive-issue-for-music-gmc-2022-sierra.1480736/

I joined there to post a reply but was never able to because their email verification system failed for me. Here’s what I was going to post…

———

Joined here just to share my experience now that I have it (Playlists) working. I have a 2023 Sierra. While playing via the phone works fine, I wanted the same music on a thumb drive for other reasons – but since the radio supports Playlists, I wanted that to work too. Here are the basic steps I took…

1. Created folders on the USB named for my playlist. While perhaps not necessary, I wanted the music organized this way to make it easier to update the playlist later.

2. From iTunes, selected a playlist and then selected all the songs there. Dragged them to the USB folder.

3. From iTunes, selected the playlist – File/Library/Export Playlist. I chose the .m3u8 format and saved it in the Playlist folder with the songs. For example: Country.m3u8

4. Using a text editor I edited the playlist file, changing names of the media files – because they are now on the thumb drive. Basically I removed all the path information, leaving only the filename. Presumably the radio looks in the same folder that contains the playlist for the media files.

That’s it. I think one thing that confused me initially was my impatience. While the radio will display a message about indexing something, you get no indication that it’s still in progress or done. Lots of trips back and forth between the truck and computer. I took a step back and created a few playlist with only TWO songs in each list – a total of just 6 songs. I still had to wait about 30 seconds but then the playlist appeared WITH their contents. Having established a working method, I started over and built out each playlist FULLY. Another thing I tried that may or may not have helped was switching to a different source (AM/FM…) then back to USB – thinking that might wake up the ‘re-scan’ logic.

Here’s a snippet of Country.m3u8. If you don’t have/use iTunes, you might be able to use other tools to help create the Playlist file. I used .m3u8 because one post I read somewhere else indicated that worked in their GM vehicle. Its the same content in a .m3u file so I just stuck with .m3u8 once it started working.

#EXTM3U

#EXTINF:146,Sounds Like Something I’d Do – Drake Milligan

Sounds Like Something I’d Do.m4a

#EXTINF:173,Amarillo By Morning – George Strait

Amarillo By Morning.mp3

In reading WAY too many posts on this topic today, several indicated that .m4a files might not be playable. In my radio, they play fine – saving me the trouble of converting them to MP3.

Sounds like it might be a bad USB port

Regarding the port, I will add….

* I’m using the USB (not USB-C) port in the center console – under the lid
* I tried the USB port in the rear, that did not work
* I’ve not tried the one at the front of the center console

Are you saying that you copied some MP3’s to the root folder, selected USB on the screen and nothing showed up at all? If I recall that’s what I did initially and everything showed up. When you select USB on the screen, do you ever see a message at the bottom saying something about indexing? It only appears for about a second.

I had this same Problem. I fixed it by disconnecting the battery. Reboot!

(disconnect the ground cable, look in your manual for proper disconnection. It’s different is you have autostop or not).

My usb worked for 4 months then one day it wouldn’t see the device. Tried all the usual stuff, different usb port/device etc. My phone would still connect so I knew the usb ports were working they just wouldn’t read the thumb drivess.

So I decided to try rebooting the system like I do with any computer when it’s not acting right. In the manual it says if you are going to flat tow the truck to disconnect the battery. (only 4×4 with 2 speed transfer case can be flat towed). So I disconnected the battery, waited a couple minutes and reconnected it.

Now usb is working again. Oh, and I didn’t lose any of my presets.