- I have a Tab2 10.1, Model #: GT-P5113; Android version: 4.1.1; 16GB internal memory, expandable to 32GB
- contrary to the specs, I have plugged a 64GB USB flash drive full of movies and my TAB 2 recognized and played all of them.
- I also formatted the USB stick with exFAT instead of FAT32 (which they say is the only format recognized by Tab2)and it works.
- Finally my problem: I have loaded 59GB worth of music on my 64GB USB stick (for a long car trip) and tried to play it with my new tablet. The tablet recognizes the flash drive; it sees all the music files; it plays all the music files as well. However, none of the players allow for continuous playback, and/or shuffling. They do not even activate/show these buttons while a song is playing. Even when I did an experiment and inserted an 8GB USB stick formatted wit FAT32, with only 10 songs on it, the player(s) still would ,not allow continuous playback. I tried my tablet's built-in music player, VLC, Winamp, and Google Play Music.
- Then, on another forum someone suggested the following:
"Also.... Have a look at ES File Explorer File Manager in Google Play
There appears to be a "play" function, and also an "add to playing" function..... that may be of help to you....
"Thank you Wizz. That works. Here's what I did.
-put some music into a directory called MUSIC on the USB stick using my PC
-accessed the USB stick in the ES File Explorer app
-touch Local, touch UsbDriveA, long press the Music directory
-touch the More icon, and select Play
and it works. Not as pretty as the other players because I couldn't get it to display the album art, but it displays a list of songs, and the repeat and shuffle icons are at the bottom.
Steve"
- Based on the suggestions above, I also tried it, and this is what happened to me:
1. connected a 64GB USB stick with almost 32GB of music (to stay within the 32GB expansion limit)---> did not work
2. connected a 16GB USB with almost 16GB of music ---> it did work
3. connected a 64GB USB with almost 16GB of music ---> it did work
- I attempted the above on a FAT32 and exFAT formats, and the above results were the same each time. So it seems that it is not the size of the USB flash drive nor is it the format (i.e FAT32 vs exFAT), but rather the amount of data on the external drive. Also, it seems that this player (ES File Explorer File Manager) cannot handle the maximum allowable 32GB of music files. The other players simply cannot handle continuous playback of even few music files, off of an external drive, at all (tablet's built-in music player, VLC, Winamp, and Google Play Music.)
- Does anyone know of another player or another way that I can get a continuous and shuffled playback of close to 60GB worth of music (or between 32 and 64GB) off of an external USB flash drive?
- contrary to the specs, I have plugged a 64GB USB flash drive full of movies and my TAB 2 recognized and played all of them.
- I also formatted the USB stick with exFAT instead of FAT32 (which they say is the only format recognized by Tab2)and it works.
- Finally my problem: I have loaded 59GB worth of music on my 64GB USB stick (for a long car trip) and tried to play it with my new tablet. The tablet recognizes the flash drive; it sees all the music files; it plays all the music files as well. However, none of the players allow for continuous playback, and/or shuffling. They do not even activate/show these buttons while a song is playing. Even when I did an experiment and inserted an 8GB USB stick formatted wit FAT32, with only 10 songs on it, the player(s) still would ,not allow continuous playback. I tried my tablet's built-in music player, VLC, Winamp, and Google Play Music.
- Then, on another forum someone suggested the following:
"Also.... Have a look at ES File Explorer File Manager in Google Play
There appears to be a "play" function, and also an "add to playing" function..... that may be of help to you....
"Thank you Wizz. That works. Here's what I did.
-put some music into a directory called MUSIC on the USB stick using my PC
-accessed the USB stick in the ES File Explorer app
-touch Local, touch UsbDriveA, long press the Music directory
-touch the More icon, and select Play
and it works. Not as pretty as the other players because I couldn't get it to display the album art, but it displays a list of songs, and the repeat and shuffle icons are at the bottom.
Steve"
- Based on the suggestions above, I also tried it, and this is what happened to me:
1. connected a 64GB USB stick with almost 32GB of music (to stay within the 32GB expansion limit)---> did not work
2. connected a 16GB USB with almost 16GB of music ---> it did work
3. connected a 64GB USB with almost 16GB of music ---> it did work
- I attempted the above on a FAT32 and exFAT formats, and the above results were the same each time. So it seems that it is not the size of the USB flash drive nor is it the format (i.e FAT32 vs exFAT), but rather the amount of data on the external drive. Also, it seems that this player (ES File Explorer File Manager) cannot handle the maximum allowable 32GB of music files. The other players simply cannot handle continuous playback of even few music files, off of an external drive, at all (tablet's built-in music player, VLC, Winamp, and Google Play Music.)
- Does anyone know of another player or another way that I can get a continuous and shuffled playback of close to 60GB worth of music (or between 32 and 64GB) off of an external USB flash drive?
