In this article we explain how to play music from a USB stick in your car.

Plugging a USB drive into a USB port on a head unit is literally a plug-and-play situation. Chances are you can just load some music onto your drive, plug it in, and everything will work. If not, there are a few compatibility issues to watch out for.

The first thing you’ll want to look at is a file format, which refers to the way your music files are encoded. Common digital music file formats include the ubiquitous MP3, Apple’s AAC, and open-source OGG, but there are many more. There are even high-resolution audio formats like FLAC and ALAC, though there’s a limit to how many of these large files you can take with you when you travel.

If your digital music files are encoded in a format that your car stereo doesn’t recognize, it won’t play them. So if you plug a USB stick into your head unit and nothing happens, that’s the first thing to check. The easiest solution is to find the manual for your head unit to see what types of files it can play, and then compare that list to the actual file types on the USB stick. If a manual isn’t readily available, the same information should be available on the manufacturer’s website.