[Mr.Pringle]

Hey guys!

I had a look though the threads and couldn't find an answer on this. With the iDrive 7 system.

About to pick up my BMW and was wondering about files on a USB. If I arrange files in the following folders: Films, TV shows, Music.

Then sub files for each TV show in the TV shows folded and different albums in the music file will I be able to access each separately or will it mix them up?

Thanks for your help!

[threebabies]

I believe they took the hard drives (music storage) out of the X5's in 2020. The 2019 may still have them. As far as using the iDrive7 as a screen for use, i don't think that's very possible without heavy program modification. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong anyone

[Mr.Pringle]

Thanks for your reply! That's strange as I saw many people on the internet playing videos on their iDrive and read somewhere on the forum that it plays movies files such as .mov and .mp4

[Paladin1]

This might be a useful thread:

https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1570181

[SmartSaves]

I have rear seat entertainment system. I am using one terabyte USB C SSD for videos, it is connected to the USB C port inside the centre armrest. SSD shows up in media menu > select it > scroll down to folders you created.

My setup is for children, videos are hand picked, and saved in separate video folders. So far played all sorts of videos and audio formats, but no pictures.

Video plays well, but there is no on screen soft buttons (Play, Pause, Next etc.) when video is played from the SSD hard drive, you basically select file to play, and play something else (FM, music, ...) or press the power/volume button at the front to stop. Small inconvenience, but works for the kids.

I am also aware of the iDrive 7.0 indexing limitations, I only save music and videos that I am very sure about (no deleting/renaming/changing after saving a file). iDrive can be forced to reindex the hard drive (takes multiple flash drives to be connected one after another).

I don't use this setup to play video at the front screen, but it does play at whatever aspect ratio the video came with (not full screen). I am also PLEX user at home, but didn't want to jailbreak my iPhone to side-install other apps to work within CarPlay.

Hope it helps some what!

[Mr.Pringle]

Great thanks a lot for the help guys!

[Mr.Pringle]

Can't seem to play the videos on the USB just music, any advice?

Plugged the USB in by the cup holders and wireless charger, when I first plugged it in it read the videos.
But when I opened albums it just contains music, can't seem to find the videos anywhere.

[SmartSaves]

Originally Posted by Mr.Pringle

Can't seem to play the videos on the USB just music, any advice?

Plugged the USB in by the cup holders and wireless charger, when I first plugged it in it read the videos.
But when I opened albums it just contains music, can't seem to find the videos anywhere.

It's there. How you get to the folders is not very straight forward, I was scratching my head too the very first time I connected my hard drive. If memory serves me correctly, I think it goes like this Media > USB Drive > Search > By Folders (you need to scroll down to see this menu). Few other related notes:

Connect to the USB C inside the armrest, it provides more power (3 amp).

Here is my folder structure:

Media SSD

Music

Music sub-folder
Audio books
Playlist
...

Video

TV Shows
Movies
Video Books
Kids Video
...

...

[Mr.Pringle]

Originally Posted by SmartSaves

It's there. How you get to the folders is not very straight forward, I was scratching my head too the very first time I connected my hard drive. If memory serves me correctly, I think it goes like this Media > USB Drive > Search > By Folders (you need to scroll down to see this menu). Few other related notes:

Connect to the USB C inside the armrest, it provides more power (3 amp).

Here is my folder structure:

Media SSD

Music

Music sub-folder
Audio books
Playlist
...

Video

TV Shows
Movies
Video Books
Kids Video
...

...

Just tried to arrange them into these files, even bought a USB with a USBC and still no luck, I just get the music albums.

It's not a hard drive it's a USB but surely that doesn't matter, it's 128gb and the videos are .mov and .mp4

[SmartSaves]

Select 'Search' under your BMW USB key/drive, then (on next screen) scroll down until you see 'Browse by folder'.

[Mr.Pringle]

Originally Posted by SmartSaves

Select 'Search' under your BMW USB key/drive, then (on next screen) scroll down until you see 'Browse by folder'.

I can't thank you enough bro!
It's really not obvious how to get to at all!

Was pretty upset thought something was up with the car and couldn't find any answers on the forums!

[Mr.Pringle]

Originally Posted by SmartSaves

Select 'Search' under your BMW USB key/drive, then (on next screen) scroll down until you see 'Browse by folder'.

Do you know what formats are supported?

It doesn't seem to play .mkv files (got a bunch of family guy which it sees but doesn't play)

Seems to play all the .mp4 files no problem. Saw some posts where people say it should play .mkv files as well?

[SmartSaves]

Originally Posted by Mr.Pringle

Do you know what formats are supported?

It doesn't seem to play .mkv files (got a bunch of family guy which it sees but doesn't play)

Seems to play all the .mp4 files no problem. Saw some posts where people say it should play .mkv files as well?

mkv is just a container of the video, the codec inside is what matters here. I played mkv file and I think it was encoded as H.264. So far these are the official supported formats:

MP4, M4V, WMV, XVID, H.264