If you ripped the tracks with iTunes, change the names in iTunes.

 

I used a different software than iTunes, but I DID edit the ID3 tags of my MP3 files.

The issue is that the head unit is overriding my own tags with what appears to be Gracenote data. I am looking for a way for the HU not to do that.

 

Thanks dwasifar,
This was helpful.

I think I figured out how our HU handles USB media after experimenting a bit.

Short answer: Looks like a gracenote database is built in the HU and it tries to identify songs and pull related metadata, overriding the tag info!

Long answer:
I use an application called Metadics on mac to edit audio tags.

1) I deleted all tags from all songs, and inserted the USB drive in the HU. --> No metadata was listed (everything was "unknown")
2) I manually created a single tag for a single song (ID3v1), with only the name of the track and the artist. --> the HU managed to identify the genre of that particular track only..
3) After manually re-tagging MP3s with track name and artist --> the HU managed to identify the songs, and even in some cases was displaying an album artwork (different from what I originally has in my tags).

Note: When I initially inserted the newly-updated USB drive, there was a discrete message (bottom left) "powered by gracenote" and another message (top left) "updating".

 

Thanks dwasifar,
This was helpful.

I think I figured out how our HU handles USB media after experimenting a bit.

Short answer: Looks like a gracenote database is built in the HU and it tries to identify songs and pull related metadata, overriding the tag info!

Long answer:
I use an application called Metadics on mac to edit audio tags.

1) I deleted all tags from all songs, and inserted the USB drive in the HU. --> No metadata was listed (everything was "unknown")
2) I manually created a single tag for a single song (ID3v1), with only the name of the track and the artist. --> the HU managed to identify the genre of that particular track only..
3) After manually re-tagging MP3s with track name and artist --> the HU managed to identify the songs, and even in some cases was displaying an album artwork (different from what I originally has in my tags).

Note: When I initially inserted the newly-updated USB drive, there was a discrete message (bottom left) "powered by gracenote" and another message (top left) "updating".

I believe it is:
Metadatics 4+
Audio Metadata Editor

 

I'm not sure whether you've solved your problem or not. But I'm glad I could be of some help.

 

So decibel, have you been able through this work to get playback from an USB drive to adhere to original album order of tracks? That's the holy grail as far as I'm concerned.

 

dwasifar, my problem is not solved, but at least there is a rational explanation for it. Unfortunately, there is no option to disable the Gracenote x-referencing, so I will use the Folders to navigate through my mp3s.

We have a 2019, so it looks like the playback is organized alphabetically... I know what you're talking about, on my Acura, I have to reorganize the files on a USB device using a small utility ("foldersort.exe") on windows. Otherwise, the play order is the order the files were written to the drive!

 

I am rather surprised that it would do that. I wonder how the Gracenote database is kept updated? What trim line do you have, and what Starlink services are enabled, if any?

I wrote a Linux shell script that will write files to a USB drive such that they play in the expected order, sort of like what foldersort.exe does. It may work on your Mac with small alterations. If you're interested, PM me and I'll send it along. Basically what it does is first create the folder structure; sync the write; then write each file sequentially as the folder structure would require, syncing the write after each file.

Pheral: The reason this is necessary is that modern OSes don't necessarily copy the files in the order you see them listed. USB drives order natively by the datetimestamp the file write was closed. To get them to behave properly, you have to write the files in the desired order, and sync each write to close the file before proceeding to the next one.

 

So does this mean that, theoretically, I could copy the files from, say, Abbey Road, each one at a time before moving on to the next, and that they should then play in the correct order?

 

I am also surprised that the tags associated with a particular MP3 file do not take priority over the Gracenote database.

I have a 2019 Canadian Sport with Eyesight, no starlink services (not sure starlink works in Canada but in any case, I told the dealer not to activate it even if it did).

The HU is the Gen 3.1 8-inch version. XM radio is active, so I am suspecting that's how the database is loaded / updated.

Will send you a PM, many thanks!

 

I don't doubt what you're saying and get your train of thought (I"m fairly tech-savvy), but I"m going to bet that when I try this, it will still want to play Abbey Road in alphabetical order. I'll report back.

 

Alphabetical order by filename? Or by metadata?

If it's filename, just start the filename with the track number:

 

I've tried that (as have others) - the HU seems to ignore any numbers at the head of the file name, and actually, the copy of the album that I tried, in addition to having copied the files over in sequence, had track numbers appended to their file name.

 

In that case, either the files are coming off the flash drive in native order, or else the head unit is ordering them by tag. What happens if you remove the tags?

 

More experimenting.

I've determined that the subfolder solution does not work either. This thing is dumber than I thought. It indexes everything on the drive, regardless of folder structure, and plays them all alphabetically.

So it looks like the only solution to preserve sort order is to prepend a sequential number onto the ID3v2 TIT2 tag frame. I added that to my USB-writing script. It works. It's annoying, because the numbers leave less room on the display for the actual title, but it does successfully preserve the desired sort order.

I also created a version that uses alphabetic characters to save space, because with just two added characters you can index 676 tracks (26²). This also works, and shows more of the title, but the drawback is that the two characters sometimes happen to spell a word, which is a little bit distracting.

If you're a Linux user and want the scripts, or an adventurous Mac user who'd like to try to adapt them to your platform, PM me and I'll share them with you.

 

I also created a version that uses alphabetic characters to save space, because with just two added characters you can index 676 tracks (26²). This also works, and shows more of the title, but the drawback is that the two characters sometimes happen to spell a word, which is a little bit distracting.

Yet more experimenting.

It occurred to me that I might be able to use other characters besides alphanumeric in the sorting prefixes. So I did some testing and discovered that the head unit will also accept and sort most ASCII special characters, with the exception of those that are commonly used as control codes. All in all I identified 65 usable characters, including the digits 0 through 9 and the lowercase alphabet. I could also have included the uppercase alphabet, but since the goal here is to save space, I omitted those. Here they are, in the order the car will sort them:

_-,;:!?.'"()[]{}@&#%`^+<=>|~$0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

65 choices means you can index 4225 tracks with just two prefix characters, and the presence of all the special characters means the prefix is far less likely to accidentally form a word.

Unfortunately that sort order bears no relationship to their native ASCII character codes, so I had to build a custom function to increment each one to the next in the series. But the resulting script does work, preserving the sort order while not impinging too much on the displayed title.

Again, ping me if you want it.

 

That's awesome information dwasifar, thanks!

There is one more challenge in getting the unit to work somewhat satisfyingly and am wondering how you have overcome it. You seem to have done lots of testing so I assume you ran into this issue.

It looks like the system keeps an internal database of all the files and stubbornly remembers the previous values of ID3 tags, even when they are modified. The database seems to be using an index made from a portion of the title, artist and album tags. Making changes to the ID3 tags does not necessarily cause the system to think there is a new file so it remembers old, stale, values.

The only way I have found to get it to re-evaluate a file it already knows (so it acknowledges the changes) is by changing the end of the title tag. My title tags end up looking like this:

"10-Wish You Were Her o3o"

Quite ugly, but it seems to work. Everytime I make a change to an MP3, I must also modify that suffix to force the system into thinking this is a new file.

My question is, have you run into the same issue and how did you overcome it? Also, do you know of any method to get it to completely clear the database and re-index every file? Using the "Factory Reset" option erases all settings... except the music database ?.

Thanks

 

Ok, well I kind of answered my own question: going into the dealer settings, you can perform a "Memory Initialization" that will wipe out the HU media song database. Next time you plugin a USB key it will be re-indexed from scratched.

But, just like @decibel I'm now running into the issue that it seems Gracenote metadata is overriding the values present in the ID3 tags. I can confirm as any recent album uses the metadata from the ID3 tags but old ones use the Gracenote metadata, as I assume the Gracenote metadata database is a couple years old.

Sigh...

Has anybody found a way to disable Gracenote? If it is not possible, the only hack I could think of is to update it's database with a blank one.

 

When i first got my 2018 I ran into issues with the MP3 indexing - similar to what's been posted here -
Most items play in alphabetical order, and occasionally one album is fine and play in correct track order.

My music collection is saved in this format:
Music Folder
Artist - Album Name
Track Number - Track Name
Folder.jpg (album art)

98% of all albums and tracks are also complete with correct ID3 tags.

What I noticed about the Head Unit in the Crosstrek I have is that it pulled data from both the ID3 Tags & Windows File name.
When I create a USB stick for use in the car I need to copy all items to my PC and modify the ID3 Tags prior to copying to USB for use in the car.
Note: work on copies of your music for use in the car - not the originals.

Pull all albums into a directory and use your favorite MP3 tag editor to view metadata tags -
If you can view all sub-folder data for your temp music directory vs 1 sub-folder at a time it makes this process faster. Tag & Rename is the Utility I use and it supports this feature.

Highlight all items in the 'Title' field (these are the ID3 Track names) as well as Track # and remove that data for all albums/songs.
Then copy to your USB media for use in the car.

I believe if the ID3 Track names exist these get alphabetized, if they are not present, ID3 track data or Windows file name data (mine all contain track info as well) are used. Either way - the albums play in correct order.

If you have a lot of Soundtrack or Various Artist albums you're on your own - those have inherent challenges not specific to the head unit in question.

 

As an Ambassador I have forwarded items of interest to Ambassador honchos and to dealership owners and managers. What they choose to do with it I never know, but I figure I've done my duty. When I tried to warn them of all of the complaints on the second gen head units they thought I was being overly sensitive.

 

What's it take to be an Ambassador? I have no problem lighting a fire under their @$$.

 

Subaru Ambassador - Sign in

www.subaruambassador.com

 

Any updates on this- I've scoured the internet and nada. I saw a guy with a Mazda figure out how to disable Gracenote via interrupting an update install- I'll try that if it's even a thing. i have a 22' WRX HK system and kind of sick of seeing random artwork show up for my carefully sourced CORRECT tags.

 

Another bump, asking if anyone found a way to disable gracenote? The head unit in my 2023 Crosstrek Limited does this too - ignores the Artist name stored in ID3 tag and instead replaces it with something else that looks similar. So for example, "The Midnight" becomes "Midnight Oil" and "Set the Sun" becomes "As the Sun Sets."

Hate it when our digital overlords think they know better.