First timer here (go easy on me)!

Just had an AVIC-8200NEX installed in my car, and reading music from my USB stick is almost completely useless as it takes so long to read USB sticks, and every time I power the unit OFF / ON, it reads the darn USB stick again!

I have some Grace Mondo radios - they take a while to read a 64GB Sandisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive, but after reading the stick the first time, it does not do so again unless you remove the stick.

Even then, I'm not so sure that it has to read the entire stick if you make changes and plug it back in.

Called Pioneer - they told me to reformat the 64GB stick to FAT32 (it was exFAT from Sandisk).

Did so, and still no luck.

I have moved all the way down to a 16GB memory stick trying to speed up / time the system.

With a 16GB stick almost full of music, here's my times:

·   Appears to take approx. 2:30 to read each 10% of stick.

·   15 seconds to start playing – shows 10% Format Read

·   4 min – 20% Format Read

·   5:30 – 30% Format Read

·   8:30 – 40% Format Read

·   11 min – 50% Format Read

·   13:30 – 60% Format Read

·   16:11 – 70% Format Read

·   18:30 – 80% Format Read

·   21 min – 90% Format Read

·   23 min – 100 Format Read

·   Turned radio off, then back on – took 2:30 to start playing music (longer than when originally plugged in stick!)

It takes over 30 minutes to read my entire music collection on a 64GB stick.

Using music on the USB stick is pretty much useless, as every time I restart the car, it takes at least 23 minutes to read 100% of the stick so I'll finally have access to all the music on the stick!

I originally started with a 128GB stick, then a 64GB stick - my entire music collection is just over 48GB in size.

Any help appreciated!

I can't believe I'm the only person having this problem unless I have a defective unit!

My next step (suggested by Pioneer) is to reset the unit.

I was planning on installing an identical unit in my truck, but until I can figure out how to get to my music efficiently / quickly, that ain't gonna happen!

Hmm, I have a 128 GB on USB2 connected to my 8200 NEX. It plays the music quite fast (the last song, which was playing before I turned off the unit). but it takes a long time to read the structure again, which makes my unit almost freezing sometimes. At least using the controls is very 'laggy'.

It appears resetting the unit may have helped (some)?

I was happy to see resetting the unit didn't mean starting from scratch - a lot of settings were retained.

16GB MEMORY STICK (After resetting unit)

·   Started playing almost immediately

·   Took 6 minutes 100% Format Read.

·   Turned radio off, then back on – took 2:30 to start playing music (longer than when originally plugged in stick!)

·   2:31 – 60% Format Read  (was 13:30)

·   3 min – 70% Format Read (was 16:11)

·   4:30 – 80% Format Read (was 18:13)

·   6 min – 90% Format Read (was 21 min)

·   9:50 – 100% Format Read (was 23 min)

·   Appears to take approx. 1:30 to read each 10% of stick BUT last 10% took 3:50 to read (to get to 100%).

Some progress, but I'm still bugged by the fact that it has to read the file structure every darn time you cycle the unit OFF / ON.

This is a serious design flaw in this unit (assuming they all act like mine).

Hopefully a future software / firmware update could correct this problem, but as long as this unit has been out, it must not be a priority with Pioneer.

It's beyond me how they let these units out the door with such a serious shortcoming.

If they can't fix the constant re-reading of the file structure after every ON / OFF cycle, maybe they ought to include the option of allowing you to select some type of low power setting (for X amount of time set by you) which would keep the file structure reading intact.

I did find another thread roughly covering this same subject (file / folder limitations) and have been going thru it.

Still playing with it - I have a 32GB SDHC card in the slot - ordered a 64GB SDXC card today - going to reformat it to FAT32 and see how it works.

I've read way too many back / forth on using SDXC cards - called Sandisk and they say it can be formatted for FAT32 and should not damage the card.

I'm going to hook up my Zune to the unit tomorrow. A PITA to have to use it to play music, but at least my Zune (like my Grace Mondo radios) remembers where everything is instead of having to constantly re-read while you wait for access to your music.

One thing that helped the read time considerably on my 256GB flash drive is going through and eliminating all the unnecessary tags from my music files. You'd be surprised how many can be embedded into each file, and they all have to be read if they're there. Use MP3tag (works for flac files too) and select all files, view extended tags, and delete everything except artist, album, track, etc. Doing this cut my read time at least in half.

Thanks for the info - got MP3tag - will play with it later tonight.

I have been playing with the system, but there appears to be no rhyme or reason AFA how long it takes to read and SD card / USB flash drive. I have seen it take under 3 minutes after cranking the car - I thought it might be "learning" the longer the card was in the unit, but then for whatever reason, it goes thru a cycle where it takes much longer to read the card.

Im going to try an SSD this time!