Loading MP3 files

My audio files are just in a file at the top level in the card in a folder named audio.

If you do a search, you will find plenty of previous posts saying that it is slow. I don't believe the structure matters, as it searches the entire card. Only the number of files seems to be important. Be aware that there is a maximum of 1000 on mp3 files; add more and they won't all be visible.

You can update the MP3 id3 info and the nuvi will read those info. Then you can play the mp3 based on those info. I just copy all the mp3 in a folder. When I list the mp3 files, I have "All", "Album", "Artist" & "Genre" as options.
Just google 'id3 tag editor' and you should be able to find some freebie id3 tag editor program.

I used to have the same problem before when I was using 4gb HCSD with 250 songs.
Now I use 2gb PRO SD transfer read rate (150x) or 22.5 mb/sec with more than 400songs on it and it is almost instant. I'm very happy with it now.
Only thing is, I paid for 2 gb pro sd card same price as for 4 gb hcsd.

The folder structure is irrelevant, the Garmin (like the iPod), reads .mp3 tags rather than folders. I have all my .mp3's in a structure Music/Artist/Album but that's just a copy from the PC and a convenience for storage there. It could be all one big mish-mash music folder as far as the Garmin is concerned.

The folder structure may be slowing down the card reading but, as suggested above, the basic card speed will have more effect. I load over a 1,000 tracks fairly quickly.

Two of the best tag editors around are:

Tag&Rename (Shareware) - http://www.softpointer.com/

and

MP3Tag (Free) - http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

You might know that if you play your tracks in iTunes then Apple, in it's Big Brother wisdom, will substitute what it thinks the tags should be rather than what you think they should be. If you don't want that to happen then load an iPod using Media Monkey (http://www.mediamonkey.com/) or Foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/) rather than iTunes. The Garmin though will accept that you know what you want your tags to be and leave them alone.

You can edit the tags in iTunes to whatever you want. Apple doesn't force anything. And it is free.

Just to confirm I just did an experiment. I took an album I'd already tagged but not used in iTunes (which I hardly ever use except for artwork), copied it to another directory and then played it in iTunes. After I played it I did a bit for bit compare with the original files (Total Commander is the best file manager on the planet) and - every single one of the tags had been changed!

Thanks Steve, but I'll make up my own mind how I tag my music.

Is it safe to assume that your issue(s) with Apple is/are deeper than iTunes? You say that you already tagged them in another program, and yet you evidently reject the idea of doing that editing within iTunes. As I said, "You can edit the tags in iTunes to whatever you want." Just select any track or group of tracks and right click, choose Get Info, and edit away. Or, you can do it with a number of programs.

BTW, are your preferences in iTunes set to have iTunes "Automatically Retrieve Track Names from the Internet"? And did you try setting the folder to Read Only?

dbl post

My only interface with anything Apple is an iPod and iTunes, but I do find it very dumbed down and far less capable than most of the PC programs I use. Based on what Apple experience I have had they very much seem to take the approach that "Apple knows best" and they won't allow much if anything in the way of user control or preferences that aren't Apple's way of doing things.

I initially tried doing some tag editing in iTunes but find the interface limited, clumsy and inadequate compared to any of Tag&Rename, MP3Tag or Media Monkey. I'm still finding my way around Foobar2000 but it also seems way more capable. My default PC player is usually WinAmp, which has a tiny footprint compared to iTunes.

Given the capabilities of the programs above in mass tagging, playlist creation and general music manipulation I have relegated iTunes to the occasional artwork d/load and do everything else with one of the above.

When I rip and convert my music (EAC to FLAC and then dBPoweramp to Mp3) I use Total Commander to synchronize it to an external drive for backup. The synchronize function does a bit for bit compare from the original to the external ensuring the backup is correct. As soon as any track is touched by iTunes the file structure in the tag section changes, therefore any subsequent synchronize from my main music directory shows errors. I suppose I could assume that any unequal files are just down to Apple tinkering but I don't see why I should have to. I can play any track in any of the above programs and they won't change so I can always verify the integrity of my backups.

Ergo, I don't / won't use iTunes, and that's not even touching things like Apples refusal to support the .lrc lyric function and other "not invented here" improvements that WinAmp, Media Monkey and Foobar all do.

So yeah, I guess you could say I have an issue with Apple, but it doesn't really bother me. I don't use their stuff for much, and I left kindergarten a long time ago.

gpsaccount - I believe the changes being made to the id3 tags can be found in the comments field. You will probably notice a long string of numbers which is inserted automatically by itunes.

I too got fed up with iTunes so I only use it for purchasing songs. MediaMonkey is used for all other purposes.

Just looked at the files I tested and I don't see any of the numbers in the comments field, but I insert my own comments on rip so maybe the additions are hidden. They're changed somewhere but I haven't investigated exactly where, as you said I just gave up on iTunes.

The one area iTunes is useful is artwork, generally their artwork is pretty good. The iTSfv program (http://itsfv.sourceforge.net/) can grab Apple artwork and it can be more convenient than searching Google Images or the other sources of album art.