6FL iPod/USB & Smartphone Integration - Best option EVER..

[RedRockin]

Originally Posted by apw2607

Why do you say it's undocumented. The feature is described in the owners manual. Only the USB port in the glovebox can be used for storing music on the idrive hard drive.

Undocumented in that there is no information that definitively informs the shopping buyer for determining what components come with options. Read an X5 brochure, look on-line at BMWUSA, ask any dealer and none will tell you. I wanted a USB port for the simple purpose of downloading music the the car's HD. had I known it would come with my Tech package, I never would have ordered 6FL (have no use for it). I even told my salesman I wanted a USB to download music and he told me I needed 6FL (which we NOW know was incorrect). Is it possible he lied to sell me a $400 feature I did not need? yes, but given the extensive discussion and absence of any "documentation" informing buyers about these features, we are concluding that no one knows - definitively. We have at least 4 or 5 threads, since I joined the BMW forums in January, discussing these points and no one has 100% concrete factual information. So far, it has been speculation and process of elimination (with posts like PasPar2's just above). Paspar2, others and I have been bouncing this around for months.

This is why PasPar2 posted: "for whom ever stumbles upon this old thread: just took delivery on my my 2011 50 with tech and no 6fl and I DO have a usb in the glove...."

The manual may cover the features but it does not tell you which features come standard, which are stand alone options and which features come with other features. For example, no forum members seem to have seen anything that says the glove box USB is a feature component of the navigation system - either Nav stand alone or as part of the Tech package. After much forum bantering around, we are down to posting what we get in our vehicles (relative to these features) based on the options we ordered. Thus --> undocumented

[bimmer_buachaill]

Originally Posted by RedRockin

This is one more little glitch in the system; you cannot add music to an existing download folder as a subsequent download will create another (new) folder and there is no way to combine the two.

Wow, that blows from a usability perspective but interface usability hasn't been BMW's strong suit recently. Hopefully they can build a better file/disk management utility with a software upgrade. Ideally, they'd let a computer mount the 8GB remotely as a drive and just allow us to control the contents via a laptop.

Any chance you can throw in some snapshots of the UI or send a pointer to the 2011 X5 manual? Would be interesting to see the UI ahead of time.

[PasPar2]

the interface is crap. I added songs to my usb stick and imported it and everything doubled. I need to clobber the collection on the internal drive then reimport...

[RedRockin]

bb, I have 2010 but I am sure the 2011 manual is avail on-line. Got mine on-line before ordering. check out bmwusa.com

Also, keep in mind that my comments are based on 2010 model and I have not even seen a 2011. But, while I have not been researching, I haven't seen any indications that the iDrive system has changed between 2010 and 2011. Additionally, while I may be compu-friendly, I am no techie. Please take my comments with THAT into consideration. The system is not really "smart". If you plug a stick into the glove USB port (one used for download), the system does not prompt you to download. You have to go into iDrive options (about 3 menu layers) to find the "Import" option. Each successive "import" creates a new file "USB 1, USB 2, etc" So, after doing something similar PasPar2 (added a few CDs to a blank stick and "imported" - assuming it would just add to the existing folder or at least give me the option of adding or separating) and seeing new file "USB 2", I tried to rename "USB 2" to "USB 1" thinking the files might merge. They didn't, just left me with two separate files "USB 1" Also, as PasPar2 pointed out, the system is not smart enough to compare the HD file to what is on a stick. As PasPar2 pointed out, you get an entire second version.

However, if we choose to look for the silver lining in the cloud, it can be found. While I do prefer to have a music collection that I can hit random play across all songs, and I do, I also have other music that I want completely separate. I had been keeping that separate music on a separate stick and plugging it into the console USB whenever I wanted to listen to it. With these separate HD folders, I have now "imported" it to the HD and have it in a separate file accessible within iDrive. Ultimately, one could create multiple "import" files (and rename each - it DOES allow you to rename each). So you could import audio books, variety of music styles, etc and keep all separate.

As I said in an earlier post, you CAN have basically unlimited music that is all controllable thru the iDrive and steering wheel controls (just use larger sticks and leave the music ON the sticks - iDrive does play directly from sticks with no UI difference other than the chosen source. Huge capacity sticks get pretty pricey but a few 16 GBs should be able to handle more than most people's collections. This way, you can just pull the stick and edit on your computer and then throw it back in the car.