MP3 Files on SD card

I can only respond to this question using my Nuvi660, I had to select the source button and then I was able to see all the songs that I had installed on my SD drive.. should be a setting to change the path to where your songs reside.
nickjr

I also have a Nuvi 660 w/ a 2GB SD Card. I noticed that when I first turn on the Nuvi it takes some time to load all of the MP3's. At first I though the Nuvi was locking up but I noticed the "lockup" did not occur when the SD card was not inserted. My SD card is maxed out w/ MP3's so I guess that's why there is a lag on bootup. The lag is only about 20 secs and then it's fine afterwards. I don't know if you've run into this but I thought I would mention it just in case.

I dont understand why people download MP3's onto their GPS unit???

Because we can, I guess. The sound quality isn't that good. But the 2 GB card was only 40 USD.

Nuvi Newbie
Garmin Nuvi 660

sonota - I have them in my Mio because when I go geocaching and go on foot I like a little light music while I'm staring at my GPS ...lol...

On my 350, at first I thought it was not reading the mp3s on the SD card. However, if I start it up with the sd card already inserted, it sees all the files. I just put them in the root directory, although I've heard that it will still work if you put them in another folder. I find the songs by opening the mp3 player, and selecting "browse".. all the songs are just in those lists now. It mixes the sample songs in the nuvi's internal memory with all the songs on my sd card.

As far as "why" .. I like to listen to music while I drive, but I sometimes miss the voice commands if my music is too loud (I can tell there WAS a voice command, but I often have to replay it to hear what it said). The sound quality is not great out of its own speakers, but if I connect my nuvi to my car stereo (which has an auxiliary port), and use the equalizer settings on the car stereo, it sounds ok. This way I can hear music and still not miss any of the voice commands while driving (it pauses the music while giving a voice command, and starts it again automatically when it's done). It IS kind of annoying to have the music stop all the time, but if I were going on a long road trip it wouldn't happen that often.

Does anyone know if there is a way to randomize all songs?

Kelly

It was just a question out of curiosity.

I loaded Christmas music onto and SD Card and inserted into my Nuvi 660, but when I play the music it also plays the music that came with the unit. Is there any way to play just the music on the SD card?

Kelly,

When you press play all (for the MP3), and the music begins to play, you will see a double arrow symbol on the bottom of the play screen (as well as an arrow in a quasi circle). Press the double arrow to "randomize" the "play all" command. Then press the other quasi circle arrow and it should "gray out", or be unselected.
This should shuffle all music in a random fashion.

Joel

Welcome Joe,
I see that you and Tracy have something in common:) Have you seen the paintball file that he has made? Here is the page that it is on http://www.poi-factory.com/node/729
Miss Poi

You should be able to delete the music that came with the unit. Using a PC or a Mac, navigate to the folder containing that music and either move the file to your computer (if you don't want to delete it) or delete it from the Nuvii or SD card.

Hey Kelly, my 660 has a randomize button. It is a button with a right arrow over a left arrow. I also play my music over the car sterio so I don't miss the voice command.

I'm having the same problem.
Mp3 I add to Garmin memory plays fine.
mp3 I add to sd card is not under mp3/browse.

when it comes to photos, it asks me if I want to see photos from garmin internal memory OR from memory card.
Maybe the mp3 is missing a file here.

I've tried everything posted here and still no resolution.
thanks for any help.

I have all my MP3 files on an SD card, and they play fine - I made a directory on the card called 'MP3' and placed 'em all in there - some in sub-folders grouped by albums, and a bunch of individual titles - they all play randomly fine as described above.

Well, all I can say is I think you guys are better men than I am.

I have tried everything and cannot get the mp3 files on my sd card to play in my Nuvi 350.

I notice on here that it works for some and not for others... I wonder, do I need to do a firmware up date?

You have to find out what the largest size card that your unit will support(they differ), and make sure your card is smaller than the max. If you are trying to use an 8 gig card you're gonna have trouble. The unit sees MP3 files in both the hard drive and SD card together, and will play them all. If your unit plays MP3s then you have the software you need.

xnman, after you check to make sure that your SD card works with your unit, double check to ensure that your songs are actually MP3s. Other file formats won't work. WMP defaults to WMA and iTunes files won't work unless converted.

Then create a folder on your SD card, copy the MP3s to the folder, and you should be able to play the songs.

Well, I found out another piece of tidbit... or else I finally woke up... uh... I think the first. Ha.

Anyway, I have a SD card that my computer would read... but my Nuvi 350 won't read. I got another SD card and bingo... my MP3 files all showed up.

I re-formatted the first SD card and it works fine now.

See there, just shows to go you....sometimes it really is a technological problem.

The only problem is... I was not smart enough to NOT spend about 2-3 hours trying to get the first SD card to work.

Thanks all

I have had to reformat my flash drive (same concept as a SD card) a few times cause my computer didn't read it.

I use the Garmin MP3 feature when I fly... then when I pick up my car, I use the navigation feature... less mess, and I don't look like a low budget techno geek... Oh, and I don't have to fuss with batteries.

Feeding the Nuvi's audio out to the AUX input of your car stereo is rather cool. The voice quality is drastically better when heard through your car speakers. Even better, the Nuvi automatically pauses the MP3 playback when issuing voice prompts. So you can have your music turned up as loud as you like and not miss any navigation prompts.

Hi johnc,

The Nuvi does pause the .mp3 playback on my 670, however, on my 880 the .mp3 doesn’t pause and continues playing during alerts, at a substantially reduced volume and then, after the alert, the volume returns to the pre-alert level.

Regards,

Tailspin

Nüvi 670 & 880
Mac Pro & OS 10.5.4

Hi, everyone,

The first thing I did after taking my 660 out of the box, was connect it to my computer and copy it's contents to a new folder as a backup. Then I proceded to delete every file I didn't think I needed...like the voice files for languages other than english. I then took my 2gb SD card and created folders "MP3" and "JPEG", then copied my music files and photos to these folders. My SD card also contains all of my custom POI's, loaded with Garmin's POI loader. When I insert the card into my 660 I'm asked if I want to load the data into the 660. I always indicate "NO". My music has always played perfectly, and my photo slide show does too.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Miki

That might be cool. Do you like it that way? There are times when there's a song going that I really like and my 760 is being especially chatty and it can be annoying.

That would be horrible for those who listen to books.

Hi bentbiker,

I’d rather have the Nuvi 880 “pause” the .mp3. If there was only a way I could change that behavior, so that it would “pause” the music, like my Nuvi 670, instead of lowering the volume and having the navigation alerts stomping all over the music...

Regards,

Tailspin

Nüvi 670 & 880
Mac Pro & OS 10.5.4

Have you contacted Garmin to question whether this is designed behavior or a bug? Seems strange that they would change this behavior.

Hi bentbiker,

There was a bug in one of the 6xx firmware updates (can’t remember which one) that caused music .mp3’s to skip to the next song, when an alert was triggered.

So, I replaced all the .mp3 alerts on my 670 with mono .wav files. Using mono .wav files for my alerts, solved that skipping issue.

When I loaded my POI’s on my 880, I didn’t change the alerts back to .mp3’s. I’m still using the mono .wav files for my alerts.

To answer your question, I haven’t talked to Garmin about the behavior on my 880, since it’s not that big an issue for me, and there’s no .mp3 skipping occurring on my 880, just the reduced volume of the continuous music when the alerts play.

Regards,

Tailspin

Nüvi 670 & 880
Mac Pro & OS 10.5.4