Problem w/ USB.... Any ideas?

Me · Jul 9, 2014

I have several thumb drives that I use to listen to audiobooks. Most of the time they work great. But occasionally, they will stop playing and the HU will show searching USB..... then begin playing the first file in the first folder on the drive.

I have taken back to my dealer to fix. They couldn't find a problem.

BTW this IS the factory USB in the console.

Thanks for ANY help you can give.

Me

avalanchenewbie · Jul 9, 2014

If all your USB devices are similarly formatted (ie. FAT32, not NTFS), and you have already run a chkdsk on all of them, then the only thing I can think of is that there could possibly be a firmware update for the HU. Maybe ask the dealer if there is an update?

Me · Jul 9, 2014

Thanks Troublemaker.

Yeah, all are formatted the same and chkdsk finds no problems. I will check on the firmware update. That sounds good. Appreciate the prompt reply.

Thomcat · Jul 30, 2014

My '13 with the Nav head unit and '12 are quirky with a lot of brands....Centons or SanDisks work OK....could have something to do with the response speed of the chips....like cameras that can process high speed chips faster than the lower cost ones..

redheadedrod · Jul 31, 2014

I would suggest it is a brand issue as well. Not all USB drives are made the same and some are more compatible than others. And just because it is more expensive doesn't mean it will work either. I have some drives that are somewhat intelligent because they have special software on them and they won't run on some devices either.

PC's seem to be more lenient which is how they get away with the cheap ones or others that don't work well in non-pc devices.

marzahld · Aug 1, 2014

also could it be a specific type of media file that is fouling it up? maybe a rare format, or unsupported/corrupted media tag in some of the files?

MLM · Aug 1, 2014

marzahld said:
also could it be a specific type of media file that is fouling it up? maybe a rare format, or unsupported/corrupted media tag in some of the files?

Not necessarily. The HU on my '13 sometimes causes my iPod Touch 4th gen to misbehave. Random music tracks will disappear from the iPod and sometimes it will just stop playing for no apparent reason. When I sync the iPod with iTunes all is well again but I see iTunes restoring tracks that were already on the iPod so I think the HU is messing up the internal directories or something. I am now ejecting the iPod from the HU before shutting off the truck to see if that makes any difference.

naylor99 · Aug 1, 2014

MLM said:
Not necessarily. The HU on my '13 sometimes causes my iPod Touch 4th gen to misbehave. Random music tracks will disappear from the iPod and sometimes it will just stop playing for no apparent reason. When I sync the iPod with iTunes all is well again but I see iTunes restoring tracks that were already on the iPod so I think the HU is messing up the internal directories or something. I am now ejecting the iPod from the HU before shutting off the truck to see if that makes any difference.

I gave up trying to use an older iPod, and bought a new 16GB Nano just for the truck. Works perfectly. There might be something to the older iPods that GM did not account for in their software....just a thought. If you have access to a newer iPod it might be worth a try.

MLM · Aug 1, 2014

naylor99 said:
I gave up trying to use an older iPod, and bought a new 16GB Nano just for the truck. Works perfectly. There might be something to the older iPods that GM did not account for in their software....just a thought. If you have access to a newer iPod it might be worth a try.

I had to get a new Nano for my wife's 2012 Mustang to work with Sync. Even so Sync sometimes needs to be reset by pulling the underdash fuse. I figured the 4G Touch was still in production when my Avalanche was built so it should be compatible. For the most part it is but there is a bug somewhere in all these systems.

Prism · Aug 1, 2014

I use the USB thumb drive in a similar way, with same problems. Here is what i have found out:

the usb thumb drive has to be in FAT32 , the audio in a supported format (MP3 for me)

The other thing that was causing a seek or searching issue for, not only the usb thumb drive but, also the iPod was a loose connection between the USB port and the USB cable , the natural road vibration would cause a quick disconnect between the two and the HU would think it was unplugged and plugged back in. I solved mine by resting the cable end on something so it couldnt vibrate loose.

hope this helps