[heyeph]

Is there a way to set a playlist that is stored on a USB media device as a Favorite?

 

[heyeph]

Lots of views, but no response. Wondering -- Is my question unclear or does nobody know?

 

[bruce59]

Lots of views, but no response. Wondering -- Is my question unclear or does nobody know?

It's a good question, and worded clearly. However, I've not been able to find an answer for this as well.

 

[heyeph]

It's a good question, and worded clearly. However, I've not been able to find an answer for this as well.

Thanks. Kinda a shame.

 

[aspomwell]

I was about to ask the same question but figured I'd search first. Was very happy when I saw a hit with replies. Bummed after reading them though. ><

 

[quirkySquirt]

I don't have a USB flash drive handy (cloud everything, baby!), but have you tried formatting as NTFS and making symbolic links in sub folders? Weird hack, and it assumes the MyLink system plays all songs in a folder. NTFS supports symbolic links now. It'll be ugly, but if you're handy with scripts, could be doable.

 

[aspomwell]

I don't have a USB flash drive handy (cloud everything, baby!), but have you tried formatting as NTFS and making symbolic links in sub folders? Weird hack, and it assumes the MyLink system plays all songs in a folder. NTFS supports symbolic links now. It'll be ugly, but if you're handy with scripts, could be doable.

Are you saying that the favorites are stored in a place that we have access to and is formatted NTFS? The only way I know to access them is through the infotatinment console. Is there technical documentation on how it operates? I'd love to look through that.

Putting a symbolic link on the flash drive wouldn't solve anything, it's just another file on the flash drive that we wouldn't be able to add as a favorite.

 

[quirkySquirt]

I misunderstood your question. Sounds like you want to assign a playlist to one of the favorite buttons. This I don't know. I thought you were asking how to create a playlist on USB flash media (I assumed playlists are not supported on MyLink). You'll want to ignore my next post then.

 

[quirkySquirt]

If by chance MyLink does not support creating playlists, this was the convoluted way of making "playlists" but it assumes MyLink supports NTFS symbolic file links.

Assume you have the following songs on your USB drive, which has drive letter F: assigned to it:

f:\AllSongs\song1.mp3
f:\AllSongs\song2.mp3
f:\AllSongs\song3.m4a
f:\AllSongs\song4.aac

To play all those songs in the above order, you would simply play the "AllSongs" folder within MyLink. NOTE: I'm guessing at all this as I don't have a USB drive to test with.

So say you want to play the songs in the order 3, 2, 4, 1? This is where things get tricky. Assuming MyLink plays files in the order of filename, you could try renaming the songs:

f:\AllSongs\01-song3.m4a
f:\AllSongs\02-song2.mp3
f:\AllSongs\03-song4.aac
f:\AllSongs\04-song1.mp3

But then you'd have to rename them all to re-order them incase you change your mind about song order. What I'm suggesting is using the Windows command mklink (Windows 7 and above, similar to *nix command "ln"). So let's create two folders which will act as playlists:

f:\List1\
f:\List2\

But wait, we don't want to waste disk space by copying the same song over and over into each of the above Playlist folders. We use symbolic links which are take up next to nothing in space. The command is simple:

mklink [link] [target]

Where target is the full path to the song file. So say I want to recreate that above playlist into the "List1" playlist/folder using symbolic links rather than renaming files. I'd issue the following commands from an elevated prompt:

f:\>mklink List1\01 AllSongs\song3.m4a
f:\>mklink List1\02 AllSongs\song2.mp3
f:\>mklink List1\03 AllSongs\song4.aac
f:\>mklink List1\04 AllSongs\song1.mp3

So now when you look in the "List1" folder, you get:

f:\List1\01 -> points to f:\AllSongs\song3.m4a
f:\List1\02 -> points to f:\AllSongs\song2.mp3
f:\List1\03 -> points to f:\AllSongs\song4.aac
f:\List1\04 -> points to f:\AllSongs\song1.mp3

I'm guessing in MyLink, you'll see the actual song meta tags vice "01" or "02" or "03".

And when you're done with the playlist/folder "List1", simply delete it and create a new one. Heck you can have nearly limitless playlist/folders of the symbolic file links. Here are 3 playlists/folders of links:

f:\List1\01 -> song3
f:\List1\02 -> song2
f:\List1\03 -> song4
f:\List1\04 -> song1

f:\List2\01 -> song4
f:\List2\02 -> song3
f:\List2\03 -> song2
f:\List2\04 -> song1

f:\List3\01 -> song2
f:\List3\02 -> song2
f:\List3\03 -> song2
f:\List3\04 -> song4

and they all take next to nothing in space! You can even multi-play a single song 3 times in a row as shown in the playlist/folder named "List3"

If the above looks like way too much work, it is. I myself just play all my songs from my phone on shuffle using MD Player which is compatible with Android Auto. I think MD Player supports playlists, but don't quote me on that.

 

[quirkySquirt]

BTW, a quick google search revealed:

http://www.chevymalibuforum.com/for...137-programming-favorites-buttons-mylink.html

It eventually describes how to assign a playlist file to a favorite button. Also, it appears MyLink supports popular playlists formats, so ignore my kludge above! Though I'll leave it cause I feel proud of the kludgeyness of using folders of symbolic links for playlists.

 

[aspomwell]

Holy crap it worked! You (and PC2 from the Malibu forums) are my new best friends! Very convoluted and not at all intuitive but it does work. I'm copying and pasting just in case something happens to the other post on the other forum but all credit goes to PC2 (and quirkySquirt for finding it):

========================================================

How to program playlists on Mylink favorite buttons
NOTE: USB drives have to be ejected safely from your computer or else they can be damaged. Follow your computer's procedure to do this. Also, do not remove USB drive from USB port in your car unless you turn your car off, just to be safe.

I could not find any written instructions on playlists so I finally had to call Mylink directly to get this info, I am passing this on to you:

Now that you've created your mp3 or wav files, copied all the artist folders, song files and your playlists to your USB drive. It’s time to program Mylink.

When you first plug in the USB drive and turn on car, Mylink will scan the drive and enter song info into its memory. It will redo this every time you unplug and re plug your USB drive, so it may not be ready to be programmed for a few minutes depending on how many songs you have.

PROGRAMMING FAVORITE BUTTONS

When Mylink Favorite buttons are ready to be programmed, press plastic Home button (house icon) under LED screen. This will take you to Home screen.

Press Audio button on Home screen. If the USB drive has been recognized it should start to play. Press pause just so you are not distracted by the music.

If Mylink is on any other function than Media, press Media button on Audio screen. Along the bottom of the screen you will see a menu. Click on Browse icon, then click on Playlists icon.

You will now be on Playlists screen. Here is the tricky part, slide your finger up from the bottom of the screen so it will slide between the Genres icon and the More icon on the far right side of menu. This will bring up the Favorite buttons along the bottom of the screen without triggering some other function. Screen real estate is very tight, that is why you slide up between the 2 icons.

Now scroll sideways right or left until you see the Favorite button number you want to program.

Press and hold that button until all menus drop away and you can see only the Playlist screen.

Next scroll up or down to get to playlist you want to program into that Favorite button. Touch that playlist, if you hear a strong beep and the play control menu comes back up again, it should have taken.

There cannot be any delay between holding down Favorite button and choosing playlist or else you will have to do it again.

You can check by swiping up again from the bottom of the screen so Favorite buttons reappear at bottom of screen. If you playlist isn't there, try procedure again.