# USB Music Album Art



## cnsf01 (Aug 13, 2019)

Since 2020.44, my USB Album Art has disappeared and USB music no longer shows up in Recents.

Does anyone else have the same problem? I am now on 2020.48.35.5 and still no album art or recents. 

I also find that when playing 176,400/24bit flacs, the audio buffer tends to choke mid-song

Service is my area is terrible, so USB music tends to be the only way I can listen and drive safely. Fumbling with a phone to play audio while driving is not safe.

2018 Tesla Model 3 LR AWD, acceleration boost, HW 2.5.

Another feature I would love to have is multichannel FLAC support. I would think if the speakers are addressable, this would be an easy fix. Many other luxury cars support multichannel hires audio (DVD-A or SACD).

We need some USB music love.


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## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

@sduck has been posting in the firmware threads about this issue. Seems widespread.


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## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

It's not just widespread, it's all album art over usb on all cars since 2020.44. And while i and numerous other people have been reporting it wherever we can (tweet Elon!), there's no indication that tesla is aware of it or will ever fix it. i would love to be wrong about that last part...

edit: I'm not 100% sure about model S and X cars.


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## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

So many months ago I tried the tesla support page chat system - after some 20-30 minutes of waiting I gave up. I had some free time this morning, so thought i'd give it another shot - and got right on with someone this time. Short and sweet -

















I hope they weren't just giving a me a feelgood runaround.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Glad you got through this time!


sduck said:


> I hope they weren't just giving a me a feelgood runaround.


I can't imagine a reason why they would lie about it being a known issue. Is there any benefit to doing that instead of saying "we'll be sure to let the team know"?


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## atca (Dec 23, 2020)

Hello,

so I´ll wait patiently for the next update. But if then after more than 3 months I won´t get the fix, maybe I´ll take the time to write to Tesla Germany headquarters in a real letter on paper and complain that they took me functionality I bought with my car back in February 2020.

I also reported it via Service app to the Cologne service center and they told me that they move it forward to the developpers, but meanwhile I do not only wonder how this could happen and why they "forgot" to add USB-Music as another music source when they worked on 2020.44.

Now I also wonder how it can be so difficult to go back to the previous code which was fine for me since march 2020 when I got my car?!


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## testar (Dec 17, 2020)

cnsf01 said:


> Since 2020.44, my USB Album Art has disappeared and USB music no longer shows up in Recents.
> 
> Does anyone else have the same problem? I am now on 2020.48.35.5 and still no album art or recents.
> 
> ...


Yes, same problem since 2020.44. 2018 Model S. Just installed 2021.4.6 and still no album art. This makes me sad. I love my HD music. It just isn't quite the same without the artwork. I play 24/176 flac files without choking. Maybe need a faster USB drive.


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## testar (Dec 17, 2020)

sduck said:


> It's not just widespread, it's all album art over usb on all cars since 2020.44. And while i and numerous other people have been reporting it wherever we can (tweet Elon!), there's no indication that tesla is aware of it or will ever fix it. i would love to be wrong about that last part...
> 
> edit: I'm not 100% sure about model S and X cars.


I tweet to Elon and Tesla quite a bit on this one.


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## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

I don't think tweeting into the ether to those folks does any good. Maybe it helps you feel better, but that's about it. I do it also, don't get me wrong, but it also feels kind of futile. I'd go with the above route of using their chat system as often as possible - at least that way an actual person gets the message.


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## testar (Dec 17, 2020)

sduck said:


> I don't think tweeting into the ether to those folks does any good. Maybe it helps you feel better, but that's about it. I do it also, don't get me wrong, but it also feels kind of futile. I'd go with the above route of using their chat system as often as possible - at least that way an actual person gets the message.


Where is their chat system?


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## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

testar said:


> Where is their chat system?


https://www.tesla.com/support - at the bottom of the page, fill out a few boxes, then be prepared to wait, but it's been pretty fast for me the last few times. Note that it's only open during CA business hours.


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## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

I've been doing the chat roulette thing with them about once a week about this. Usually I get the same "we are aware of this issue, it will be resolved in a future update" same old same old. Today I got something different - 

"Me:
Album art in USB playback is broken, and has been broken since version 2020.44 came out last November. That's five months - it should have been fixed by now.

Music resuming properly over power cycles has been an issue since day one that I've had the car, which is almost 3 years now. This should have been fixed long ago - in fact it never should have been an issue in the first place - this isn't an issue in ANY other manufacturers cars. 

Gaps between tracks in USB playback still happen - again, this should have been fixed ages ago, and shouldn't have been an issue in the first place. 

Search is broken for USB music. 
Voice commands to play USB tracks is broken. 
USB tracks don't show up in the recently played list, also broken. 

The ipod came out in 2001. While it had some of these and similar issues at first, they were all fixed within a year. Be like apple - fix the things! Please!

Kelly
12:16 PM
I understand your frustration, if you cannot wait for our advanced team to review you can take it into service to have them look over it as well.

Stephen
12:17 PM
Service can't fix these - these are software issues.

Kelly
12:18 PM
Understood, I will escalate this to our advanced support team and have them review. One moment please

Kelly
12:21 PM
OK I have some questions regarding the USB

Stephen
12:21 PM
sure

Kelly
12:22 PM
Q: What brand of USB drive is being used? 

Q: How much capacity does the USB drive have?

Q: Has the USB device been reformatted, and if so when?

Q: Is the USB Device being used for anything else? (e.g. dashcam, sentry mode and USB media)

Q: Has more than one USB device been tried?


Stephen
12:24 PM
It's a crucial m.2 msata ssd in a high end enclosure, 256gb - it's formatted in ext4 - no, only one partition - yes, I've tried numerous, like dozens of different kinds of drives, this one works the best, and resumes playback correctly maybe 90% of the time.

Stephen
12:25 PM
And there's no hub between the drive and the car. There's no buffering apparently, so have to eliminate any extra steps to get things to work passably.

Kelly
12:29 PM
OK Thank you for the details ive submitted everything over to our ATS team, they will review and then follow up. Bear in mind this can take sometime, the ETA I show is 10-12 business days. Was there anything else

Stephen
12:30 PM
No, that's excellent! Thank you!

Kelly
12:30 PM
You are welcome and thank you for contacting Tesla!"

This got submitted to the ATS team! I don't know what an ATS team is, or if they'll actually get back to me, but it's a huge difference from the usual "known issue that will be addressed in a future update".


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## testar (Dec 17, 2020)

Thank you for being persistent with all this. It is sad and surprising with all the brilliant minds at Tesla/SpaceX that these simple issues still persist. You would think these issues would be frustrating to some of the executives there too. Apparently their UI team isn't what it used to be.

My guess is that ATS is actually AST for advanced support team.


sduck said:


> I've been doing the chat roulette thing with them about once a week about this. Usually I get the same "we are aware of this issue, it will be resolved in a future update" same old same old. Today I got something different -
> 
> "Me:
> Album art in USB playback is broken, and has been broken since version 2020.44 came out last November. That's five months - it should have been fixed by now.
> ...


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

@sduck that is some persistence. Will be interesting, however I figure the next change you'll see will be with v11 or whatever the heck we might finally get some day.


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## gppoletti (May 22, 2021)

Updated the hardware last week. Now I'm on version 2021.4.15 and exactly the same problems as before. No art, no recent list...


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## testar (Dec 17, 2020)

cnsf01 said:


> Since 2020.44, my USB Album Art has disappeared and USB music no longer shows up in Recents.
> 
> Does anyone else have the same problem? I am now on 2020.48.35.5 and still no album art or recents.
> 
> ...


I have also had this issue for way too long. Unable to search for USB music either. I use USB because it's the only way I know to play my large selection of HD music at its highest quality. This worked way better when I bought my S in 2018. It wasn't perfect but assumed it would get better over time, not worse! Still broken in 2021.4.18!!


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## testar (Dec 17, 2020)

gppoletti said:


> Updated the hardware last week. Now I'm on version 2021.4.15 and exactly the same problems as before. No art, no recent list...


Still broken in 2021.4.18! Hopefully will be much improved in next os update.


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## TeslaTony310 (Jan 15, 2020)

I actually listen to music EXCLUSIVELY via USB thumb drive, and JUST noticed that the album art is broken....yikes, jaja. Glad there is something to it, though.

On a side note, I do have a tech coming out to visit today, for a sensor issue. I can ask him if there is any tech team that can help with this, or maybe another proper channel to send it to. I'll let you all know what he/she says.


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## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

It's been broken for 6 months, you use it exclusively, and you're just noticing it now? What other stuff are you not seeing while driving around? Just kidding, some of us are more visually oriented to details like this than others, which may or may not be a good thing, or whatever. 

I keep telling myself that it's just a small detail, that the names of the albums/artists are all I really need. But I've gotten so used to my little album art to help me remember things like what year it's from, and other details. Hopefully they'll fix it eventually, but at least it still works otherwise (mostly).


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## TeslaTony310 (Jan 15, 2020)

So update to this: I asked the tech, he was aware of the issue, as he's had owners come in for that issue previously. It's marked for fixing by Tesla, and there isn't really anyone he could refer me to. He stated they'd have to wait until Tesla marks it fixed in a firmware, and then he can bubble it up again.

Hope this helps. Sorry it's not better news.


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## TeslaTony310 (Jan 15, 2020)

sduck said:


> It's been broken for 6 months, you use it exclusively, and you're just noticing it now? What other stuff are you not seeing while driving around? Just kidding, some of us are more visually oriented to details like this than others, which may or may not be a good thing, or whatever.
> 
> I keep telling myself that it's just a small detail, that the names of the albums/artists are all I really need. But I've gotten so used to my little album art to help me remember things like what year it's from, and other details. Hopefully they'll fix it eventually, but at least it still works otherwise (mostly).


By exclusively I mean when I actually listen to music, which isn't too often anymore. It's usually podcasts now, or sports radio.

Geez, think I'm getting old :weary:


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## nobleman (Jun 27, 2021)

Also check USB Music - cover art Tesla Motors Club(https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/usb-music-cover-art.211801/page-15) as this forum is also updated with information or lack thereof on this issue. I am not confident that Tesla really has marked this for fixing, but I hope they have.


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## testar (Dec 17, 2020)

Anybody out there with a new Model S Plaid that can report if USB Album Art is showing in the new UI?


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## testar (Dec 17, 2020)

I chatted with Phil today about USB album art via Customer and Product Support | Tesla . His news was not good. I have included the full transcript below.

Basically he said that this is not considered a bug, he called it "expected behavior". He even said that it is a possibility that Tesla may even stop supporting USB music "since vehicles now come with USB-C ports only."

He did tell me about another way to report bugs: "You can submit bug reports using the voice command button on your steering wheel. Press on it and say "bug report" followed with a brief description of the issue."

*Full Transcript:*

Phil
02:43 PM
Thank you William. How may I be of assistance today?
William
02:43 PM
*Ever since version 2020.44 came out in November 2020, USB album art stopped displaying. All we get is a musical note where album art used to be. It had always displayed USB album art ever since I bought my Tesla Model S in early 2018.

Will Tesla be fixing this soon? It is sorely missed by everyone who plays music from USB. Which is also the only way to play CD quality music or higher in a Tesla.*
Phil
02:44 PM
*Please note that this is expected behavior from the car. I cannot say if it is expected to be brought back, but I will make sure to forward your comments to our engineers regarding this.*
William
02:45 PM
Version 2020.44 also broke the ability to do voice searches on USB music, and Recents/Favorites list no longer includes USB music
William
02:46 PM
What do you mean by "expected behavior from the car"?
Phil
02:47 PM
It is normal that this feature was removed after the 2020.44 update.
Phil
02:47 PM
That is what I meant.
William
02:47 PM
WHY??
William
02:48 PM
How is this normal?
Phil
02:50 PM
What I meant by normal is that the feature was removed after this update. We have not received a specific reason why it was removed, but by submitting this kind of feedback is the best way to pressure our engineers to bring it back.
William
02:54 PM
It sounds more like a bug. Why remove a feature like that? How is that an upgrade? How is that an improvement? It worked before, why break it?
Phil
02:54 PM
We never said it was an upgrade or an improvement.
Phil
02:54 PM
*Again, it is not a bug and it is expected behavior.* If you feel like this might be a bug, you can schedule a service appointment.
Phil
02:55 PM
They will be able to confirm this with yoy.
Phil
02:55 PM
you*
William
02:56 PM
*Does this indicate that Tesla will no longer be supporting USB music in future updates?*
Phil
02:57 PM
*It is a possibility, since vehicles now come with USB-C ports only.*
William
02:58 PM
USB drives are not dependent on USB-A ports
Phil
02:58 PM
I know that. However, most people only use USB-A drives.
Phil
02:58 PM
Again, as I said, it is a possibility.
William
03:00 PM
Can you confirm any of this? With the engineers? How can we contact them directly?
Phil
03:01 PM
That is not something that can be confirmed and this would be confidential information. It is not possible to contact the engineers directly.
Phil
03:01 PM
I will go ahead and forward your feedback to them. Is there anything else I may assist you with today?
William
03:03 PM
It this the only way to give feedback or to report bugs to Tesla? Is there an email we can send this info to?
Phil
03:03 PM
*You can submit bug reports using the voice command button on your steering wheel. Press on it and say "bug report" followed with a brief description of the issue.*
William
03:04 PM
Interesting. I didn't know about that. Where does that info go?
Phil
03:04 PM
It is sent directly to the engineers for review
William
03:05 PM
Excellent. Thank you.
Phil
03:06 PM
No problem, William!
William
03:06 PM
Any email address for the engineering team to give more details?
Phil
03:07 PM
They do not have a direct email address. Bug reports and feedback through our customer support team is the only way to submit feedback as of now.
William
03:09 PM
I hope they make it easier in the future for Tesla owners to report bugs and suggest features.
Phil
03:09 PM
I understand where you're coming from and will make sure to include this in the feedback provided.
Phil
03:10 PM
Is there anything else I may assist you with?
William
03:10 PM
Yes, Thank you for passing all this on to the engineers.
William
03:12 PM
That is all for now. Thank you for your time Phil.
Phil
03:12 PM
My pleasure. Have a good rest of your day and do not hesitate to reach out if you have other questions.


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## Long Ranger (Jun 1, 2018)

testar said:


> Phil
> 03:03 PM
> *You can submit bug reports using the voice command button on your steering wheel. Press on it and say "bug report" followed with a brief description of the issue.*
> William
> ...


That's funny. A number of us used to file bug reports this way all the time, until we were told by Tesla Service that the bug report doesn't go anywhere. It just puts a time stamp in the logs and logs some data. A service tech has to retrieve it from the car.

Hopefully Phil's info on USB music is just as reliable as his bug report info. Then again, with Tesla, maybe Phil is actually the only one who knows what's going on!


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

testar said:


> He did tell me about another way to report bugs: "You can submit bug reports using the voice command button on your steering wheel. Press on it and say "bug report" followed with a brief description of the issue."


Sorry, but Phil either doesn't know what he's talking about, or didn't explain what it does very well. Nobody reads those reports by default.

See this post for details:

https://teslaownersonline.com/threa...ure-probably-doesnt-do-what-you-expect.18431/


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

There might be hope yet for the album art. Tesla appears to have fixed the index.


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## TeslaTony310 (Jan 15, 2020)

francoisp said:


> There might be hope yet for the album art. Tesla appears to have fixed the index.


What index??


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## Streetie (Oct 14, 2021)

2021.36 and the album art is still not working... (Tesla Model S - 2018)


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## PaulMD (Nov 30, 2021)

2021.40.6 and its back!


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## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

Wow. It was broken for more than a year before they finally fixed it. And this was with constant complaints to them about it. I don't want to be that guy (but I will anyway), but this was one of my top reasons why I sold my tesla and probably won't buy another one - complete lack of respect for the users of the product. Fortunately for them they have a ready supply of idiots customers who will buy them, so they don't need to cater to their customers once the sale is made.


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## TeslaTony310 (Jan 15, 2020)

sduck said:


> Wow. It was broken for more than a year before they finally fixed it. And this was with constant complaints to them about it. I don't want to be that guy (but I will anyway), but this was one of my top reasons why I sold my tesla and probably won't buy another one - complete lack of respect for the users of the product. Fortunately for them they have a ready supply of idiots customers who will buy them, so they don't need to cater to their customers once the sale is made.


You sold your car over a top reason being a "trivial" thing like album art?? Man, talk about pedantic impulses....


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## grey goose (10 mo ago)

PaulMD said:


> 2021.40.6 and its back!
> 
> View attachment 40570


How did you get it to work. I have put album art in the folders, but still nothing.


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## TeslaTony310 (Jan 15, 2020)

grey goose said:


> How did you get it to work. I have put album art in the folders, but still nothing.


Just worked for me 🤷‍♂️


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## grey goose (10 mo ago)

TeslaTony310 said:


> Just worked for me 🤷‍♂️


I finally got it working but not due to any advice given by anyone here. What I found is this:
1. Album art must be embedded in the audio file as a tag. I use Kid3 to embed the jpeg file within the music
2. Artwork in folders does not work.
3. Album art must be limited to 200x200 pixels. I use ImageMagic to reduce the size and/or convert format types.

Hope this helps somebody. I have struggled with this for a long time.


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## Madmolecule (Oct 8, 2018)

I have used a program called Helium in the past to edit all the meta data. Very good at renaming files also.


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## TeslaTony310 (Jan 15, 2020)

grey goose said:


> I finally got it working but not due to any advice given by anyone here. What I found is this:
> 1. Album art must be embedded in the audio file as a tag. I use Kid3 to embed the jpeg file within the music
> 2. Artwork in folders does not work.
> 3. Album art must be limited to 200x200 pixels. I use ImageMagic to reduce the size and/or convert format types.
> ...


Oh, sorry, I thought everyone knew that the album art is supposed to be embedded within the file?? 

I'm not sure how it would work if not?? If you have multiple files in a folder, with different artwork, how would you know which one they correspond to??

I use MP3Tag, works great for seeing the artwork, checking the tag itself, and my favorite, renaming the file names based on the tags you edit.


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