ok, used winamp to make m3u's on my micro usb drive with all my music on it, and the headunit isn't showing me anything other than all the folders
is there a way to create playlists to use in usb mode?

 

I haven't found any way on the standard unit. In essence, I use the folders as playlists. (With the cost and capacity of a USB stick it's not that hard to have songs on there multiple times and still not run out of room, after all.)

 

i seem to be finding more and more shortcomings in the software, not supporting playlists on usb but supporting iCrap devices playlists is a big oversight

and i only have 4g of music but i could easily see it exceeding the 16g capacity of my drive if i remake my playlists as folders with multiple copies of songs

 

When I attach my phone to the USB I see one folder (forgot which one) but it isn't the one with music. I would of thought I'd be able to browse to other folders but I can't. Luckily the bluetooth connection streams my phones music. The problem with bluetooth and FM is for some reason Bose choose not to use the Centerpoint Surround when using those formats.

 

No playlists on USB. We have a bunch of different-looking $10 USB keys with different mixes. Typically we just shuffle across all folders (which are named "Artist-Album" using MediaMonkey), but you can stop at an album anytime by just tapping the shuffle button (or browse albums via menu). USB's are a fantastic replacement for Sirius music, one USB has just a thousand Grateful Dead songs. Figure our savings are $1,000 over expected use of vehicle.

 

Just bought a 2013 Mazda 3. Love it.

Don't love the USB interface so far... I had a 16GB USB, but the unit would freeze up when reading from it. So I deleted all but 4GB. Now it will read... but only the first 255 songs... workable, yes, but far from ideal.

Any ideas?

 

Read through the manual on my MP3 player... found out I can change some settings to change the way it acts when it is connected to a USB port. I forced my MP3 player (non-iPod) into MSC (M*** Storage Card) mode and was able to connect it successfully to the head unit in my new Mazda 3. One thing to remember, if you do this, you have to drag & drop your MP3's instead of using some kind of media file manager (Windows Media Player and the likes) to sync. If you "sync" with some kind of software, the car stereo will not see those files.

Still no luck with just the USB stick, though.

 

Apparently m3uext format works for USB playlists according to others on another forum. I will be trying soon.

 

I'm not certain but I think that might be a 2014 only feature.

 

I've had same issues. bottom line is Mazda didn't think think software out well enough