Paulsquestions

Q: How to copy my iTunes on MacBook Pro complete with art work and Lyrics to USB Thumb Drive to play on my new Chevy Truck and display Album art?

How to copy my iTunes on MacBook Pro complete with Album Covers (Art work),  Lyrics and all my play list that I have on the MacBook to USB Thumb Drive. I wish  to play on my new Chevy Truck and display Album Covers (art work) and all the play list Ihave made inside of iTunes?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012)

Posted on Sep 24, 2015 8:03 AM

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Q: How to copy my iTunes on MacBook Pro complete with art work and Lyrics to USB Thumb Drive to play on my new Chevy Truck and displa ... more

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  • by Limnos,Helpful

    Limnos Limnos Sep 24, 2015 10:39 AM in response to Paulsquestions
    Level 9 (54,321 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2015 10:39 AM in response to Paulsquestions

    By "iTunes" do you mean media files?  "iTunes" is an application which runs on a computer.  Media files are, well, media files.

     

    Drag the tracks from the iTunes playlist window to the thumb drive visible in a Finder window or sidebar.  How they end up displaying will depend upon the vehicle's player and each one is different and you will have to tell us the requirements.

     

    Whether or not they will have artwork will depend upon the source of the music.  Media downloaded from the iTunes store has the artwork kept in a separate file. You will need a script from the Dougscripts web site to embed the artwork in the media file (and in doing so increase the size of each file by a bit which can have a cumulative effect on large libraries).

     

    Similarly lyrics will depend upon the file.  I believe in general they are not supplied but if they are then they are embedded in the file itself.

     

    Where do you live and when do you go out on the road?  I don't want to be on the street when you are reading your lyrics and watching your artwork while driving.

  • by richard grant,

    richard grant richard grant Sep 24, 2015 8:40 AM in response to Paulsquestions
    Level 3 (723 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2015 8:40 AM in response to Paulsquestions

    Hey Paul,

     

    Congratulations on the new truck!

     

    Your question is a little tricky because we don't know the details of how the truck's sound system works. You may need to consult the owner's manual for a more complete answer. But here's a general overview of the subject from the iTunes end:

     

    Get help connecting your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with your car stereo - Apple Support

     

    Using a thumb drive wouldn't work as well as the solutions discussed in that article. You can copy song files to the drive just by dragging them from the iTunes window (or the iTunes Media folder) onto the drive. But iTunes has its own way of handling playlists, artwork, etc, and those things depend on having the app itself running. There's also a question of file formats — for example, the truck's sound system may recognize MP3 files but not the m4a files used by default in iTunes. (The owner's manual should tell us more about this.) So I'd suggest starting with the Support article to see if any of those solutions will work for you.

     

    Edit: Sorry, Limnos -- I didn't see your reply when I started typing, and I'm sorry to cut in on you.

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Sep 24, 2015 9:12 AM in response to richard grant
    Level 9 (54,321 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2015 9:12 AM in response to richard grant

    No problem.   That article is a good angle on something I didn't mention in trying to actually connect an i-device (if the person has one) to the vehicle's media player.  Apparently newer vehicles may have this capability though I would hate to have to depend upon the manufacturer, and particularly Apple, making sure that in 10 years time you can use the newer i-devices with the same player.  USB is so ubiquitous that even if they decided tomorrow it was no longer the connection to use there would still be many things with it a decade from now (take the audio CD).