Hello all, recent owner of new 2026 CX-5 SE. I asked sales before purchase if I can play music from a USB flash drive. Was shown 2 USB ports inside center console storage area in demo vehicle. Plugged mine in and at first it didn’t show on center display under option for music. Unplugged it, in again and bingo, was able to play my music. I don’t see this referenced anywhere in the manual, which only talks about USB as power/charging connection. Is anyone using these ports to play music?

As a side note, I had the Telemetrics Malfunction on day 1 and had to have service disconnect battery to clear that issue (known problem, no fix yet from Mazda yet). I read online where someone felt a USB adapter may have caused Telemetrics issue. I didn’t use an adapter. Any input would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

There's still a lot of people who use thumb drives to play music. I can't comment on the other issue you had, but I would assume it wasn't directly correlated to having a thumb drive plugged in.

 

Batman88 welcome to the forum

 

I have 2 MUSIC USB's and alternate between them.