Droid Bionic as MP3 Player

[cmbcrz]

Not sure if I'm in the right spot but as good as any, my question is has anyone else had problems using their Droid Bionic cell phone as an MP3 player via the USB connection? Every time I connect using the USB I get the "unsupported" message however if I use the aux plug it works but I don't have steering wheel controls to cycle through songs and also no volume control.

If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate the help, also I am using Double Twist as my MP3 player on the phone.

Thanks

[Old School]

I don't have the Bionic, but I do have the Motorola Droid RAZR (very similar) and mine works just fine. I have the Amazon MP3 player installed on it and it streams music from Amazon's cloud service to the car stereo, a very cool feature.

[cmbcrz]

Thanks Old School, I am wondering if it isn't my choice of MP3 players that is the problem, my old iPhone with iTunes works fine and I usually just leave that in the car but the other day the battery was dead and I wanted some music so I plugged in the Bionic and nothing.

Thanks again.

[mikev]

Two types of devices are supported via USB:

1. Apple devices - iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod (Nano, Classic, etc.), iPad
2. USB mass storage devices - USB flash drives, single memory card readers, etc.

Most Android phones do support USB mass storage, however the way it is implemented usually results in two different drives appearing when connected to a computer - one for the phone's memory, and one for the memory card. The CR-Z radio does not support devices with multiple drives, as a result it shows unsupported when you connect your phone via USB.

Also note that when in USB mass storage mode, the stereo will be playing the music files directly from your phone. If you want to use an app like Pandora, Slacker, iheartradio, etc., you will need to use the aux connection. As far as I know, none of the Android phones support audio over USB.

[Old School]

Originally Posted by mikev

Two types of devices are supported via USB:

1. Apple devices - iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod (Nano, Classic, etc.), iPad
2. USB mass storage devices - USB flash drives, single memory card readers, etc.

Most Android phones do support USB mass storage, however the way it is implemented usually results in two different drives appearing when connected to a computer - one for the phone's memory, and one for the memory card. The CR-Z radio does not support devices with multiple drives, as a result it shows unsupported when you connect your phone via USB.

Also note that when in USB mass storage mode, the stereo will be playing the music files directly from your phone. If you want to use an app like Pandora, Slacker, iheartradio, etc., you will need to use the aux connection. As far as I know, none of the Android phones support audio over USB.

This isn't totally correct. Like I said, I am able to stream music from the Amazon cloud with my RAZR using the USB port. I haven't tried any other apps, but I can if there is any interest. I usually just have an old iPod connected to the USB port which I just leave in the car.

[cmbcrz]

Well all I know is the Bionic isn't working via the USB however my Droid X worked with absolutely no problems. Still haven't tried Amazon Cloud but I am using both Pandora and Slacker as mikev stated with no issues through the aux input, my problem is still I cannont use the steering wheel controls via the aux input like you can via USB connection.

Just as an aside mikev, if I put all my music on a flash drive or memory card I can connect that via USB and play my music that way?

Appreciate the input guys!

[mikev]

Again, if it works as USB storage with an Android phone depends on if the phone has built-in memory storage as well as the SD card. Some earlier Android phones didn't have any built-in storage and only used the MicroSD card for USB access. Those earlier phones would probably work without any issues with the USB port on our stereos.

Yes, you should be able to have your music on a USB flash drive. While I have an iPhone, I'm not a fan of navigating the hundreds of albums and artists, and thousands of songs that I have on my phone with that one spin dial. So I have a much smaller subset of my music on a USB flash drive that I use on a daily basis.

[cmbcrz]

Originally Posted by mikev

Again, if it works as USB storage with an Android phone depends on if the phone has built-in memory storage as well as the SD card. Some earlier Android phones didn't have any built-in storage and only used the MicroSD card for USB access. Those earlier phones would probably work without any issues with the USB port on our stereos.

Yes, you should be able to have your music on a USB flash drive. While I have an iPhone, I'm not a fan of navigating the hundreds of albums and artists, and thousands of songs that I have on my phone with that one spin dial. So I have a much smaller subset of my music on a USB flash drive that I use on a daily basis.

Thanks again, appreciate the info.

[dou2]

I need some help.
I use Rhapsody.
I just bought a Sansa clip Zip 4GB MP3 Player
(I don't want to use iTunes anymore)

Now for some reason this is not working in my CRZ.
I put it on AUX. It showed connected, but no song would come up. And on the display in the car it read "No Song," but the player works.

Any suggestions? Do I have to have a special USB cord?
Should I get a flash drive rather than the MP3 player (although I don't know whether I can use that to download from Rhapsody).

Help would be much appreciated. I really want to listen to my music in the car.

Thanks. (I'm not technologically very savvy, just in case you didn't notice)

Dou

[dou2]

I CANNOT use a flash drive and download from Rhapsody.
So, again, I have this Sandis clip zip. Should it be able to work with a CRZ?

Thanks again,

Dou