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Welcome to Techsurvivors => Tech => Topic started by: HamptonCaught on July 09, 2013, 07:40:42 AM

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: HamptonCaught on July 09, 2013, 07:40:42 AM

Hi all

I posted this yesterday, but it doesn't seem to have appeared - as I'm a very infrequent visitor, I thought the post might be being checked by a moderator, but now I'm wondering if it just went into a black hole.

Anyway, as an infrequent visitor, I hope you don't mind me posting an issue I'm currently having.

I've been loading my iTunes music library onto an SDHC card to put into my car's system so that my music is always available when I'm on the road.

The music loaded fine, but there were some hidden files on the card that showed up on the car's audio screen ('.DS_Store' - things like that). I found an online tutorial to get rid of these and so played around in Terminal.

The next time I put a CD into the drive, it refused to eject. I tried all the usual things - tried to eject from iTunes, Disk Utility, restarted with the option key down and then tried the keyboard eject button, restarted with the mouse button down and even tried Terminal ('drutil tray eject'). No luck. Two hours later, it ejected by holding down the mouse button on start up. Thinking there was a problem with the CD, I put another one in - exactly the same problem. It seems to think that the CD is in use by an application even though there's nothing else open.

When I put the SDHC card back in, I get the same problem with that. The system thinks the card is being used by another application. When I put a memory stick into the USB port last night - exactly the same, I can't eject it. I'm offered a 'Force eject' for both the card and the stick, but when I try that, the device still doesn't unmount. I get loss of data warnings whenever I pull the card or stick out of the machine.

I'm at a bit of a loss to know what to do next. I've run Disk Utility and repaired permissions (more than once).

I'd be really grateful for any suggestions. Is there a Terminal command that resets things back to the default?

No lectures on not messing with Terminal unless you really know what you're doing though - I don't think I could stand that.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Paddy on July 09, 2013, 01:02:00 PM

No worries about being an infrequent visitor - any and all questions are welcome!

When you say you fooled around in Terminal, did you actually remove files on your iMac? If so, that's likely the problem.

If you could provide the link to the site where you found the tips, that might help as well.

You can also run the Terminal command show in this link to find out what your Mac thinks is using the disk in question. Be careful to copy the command EXACTLY, with the name of your drive/media, of course.

http://serverfault.com/questions/159422/os...enting-ejection

I don't think there is some magic command to put things back that you've removed - depending on how bad it is, it may require a system reinstall. Or...better yet, do you have a recent (working) cloned backup? Or, Time Machine backup that could be used?

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: HamptonCaught on July 09, 2013, 03:30:42 PM

Hi Paddy

Many thanks for your reply. I followed your links and tried the Terminal commands given, but to no avail. There are programs shown as being 'open', but far too many to go through and nothing very obvious. I also downloaded the 'What's Keeping Me?' app from your link, but that's showing the same - hundreds of open files, but no major software applications.

This is where I first found the information on removing the .files from the SDHC card;

http://www.haydnwilliams.com/blog/vw-golf-...s-and-album-art

I'm not aware that I've removed any files from the Mac, but I've clearly done something. I'm starting to think that a system reinstall may be the only way forward. No cloned back up or Time Machine here, I'm afraid.

Thanks again,

Paul

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: rgray on July 09, 2013, 03:30:46 PM

QUOTE(Paddy @ Jul 9 2013, 02:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What would be most helpful would be if you could quote the EXACT COMMAND(S) you used so we see axactly what was done....

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Paddy on July 09, 2013, 06:51:12 PM

Well, given the lack of specificity on the tip site, I suspect that something got deleted from the iMac!!

QUOTE

If you use a Mac, you'll find that it scatters files beginning with a dot in their name across the folders, e.g. .DS_Store The Golf doesn't like this, and so you'll need to get rid of them, otherwise it will just skip over any directory with them in. If you use a Mac then you can use the Terminal to do so – open a new Terminal window or tab, and 'cd' to your SD card. It will be be at /Volumes/[name of card]. Then run a 'find' command to look for all the files:
cd /Volumes/CarMusic
find -type f -iname ".*"
If that looks like a sensible list and you want to delete them, run the find command again but include the '-delete' flag at the end.

Good grief! "Sensible"??? What kind of a suggestion is that? Sensible in whose estimation? Yikes.

And it would be easy to delete files from your Mac if you got the directory wrong...

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Xairbusdriver on July 09, 2013, 08:04:56 PM

.DS_Store files are impossible to keep removed. The OS creates them (if they've been removed by force) as soon as the machine is restarted, actually, I think they are created simply by opening the directory that once had them. The file is simply a list of the positions of the icons for anything in the folder. It tells the OS how to display the contents of that folder the next time it is opened. It records where things are positioned whenever the folder is closed (normally or on Shut Down). I think suggesting that they should be removed is not only silly but downright dangerous since the person suggesting it obviously doesn't know what he is talking about! Who knows what else he might suggest?! Close his site immediately, delete any bookmark to it and then erase the browser cache.

Any file name starting with a period "." is, by default, not displayed by Finder (or any other app, normally). They are 'hidden' for the exact purpose of preventing people from deleting them accidentally. They are a major part of any unix system for required System files. They should absolutely never be deleted unless you know exactly what you are doing and have already triple-checked to be sure that they are not needed. Terminal is an extremely powerful tool with almost no protection from being abused. It does exactly what you tell it to do without question, normally. If you tell it to erase the boot drive, it will kill itself while performing the act. OK, maybe Terminal won't try to kill it's own System, but I'm not sure and I'm not going to test my theory to find out!

<Wikipedia info on .DS_Store files with links to Apple Support>

If you absolutely insist on deleting a .DS_Store file (maybe because you think it is corrupted), there is absolutely no need to open Terminal. Simply open Finder->Preferences->Advanced and check the "Show all file name extensions" checkbox. You can now see all those other 'hidden' files and even delete the .DS_Store file in any folder. Simple, Safe, Easy.

Close the window, open it again, there's a new .DS_Store file, hopefully un-corrupted.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Paddy on July 09, 2013, 09:09:33 PM

Further to Jim's remarks, I'm not sure what you did originally, but the easiest way to get music onto the card would be to make a playlist in iTunes (making sure they're all MP3s or converting those tracks that are in other formats first) and then selecting all the tracks in the playlist and dragging that playlist to the card. Done. No funny extraneous files, invisible or otherwise. How did you copy these files to the card to begin with?

Anyway, do you have the 10.6.x install disk handy? If so, I'd reinstall the OS and update from there. A good set of instructions here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/447866...=0&tstart=0

BUT...PLEASE...before you do ANYTHING, go and get yourself an external backup drive, and make a bootable backup. Or, since you have a Mac Pro, just get yourself another SATA drive, and pop that in and make a bootable backup, using SuperDuper. If you get the paid version, you can schedule automatic backups, so you don't even have to think about it.

Once you've reinstalled the OS, and done all the updates and made sure that everything is working ok, THEN run SuperDuper again and update your backup, so you will now have a backup of a fully working system. Then continue with automated backups. I backup every night, and once a week to a different drive. Redundancy is good.

I can't stress this enough. Drives fail. Files get corrupted. Things get erased by mistake... Backups are essential, unless you really don't care about your data/your time/your sanity.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: HamptonCaught on July 10, 2013, 05:28:29 AM

Many thanks for all of your replies.

Paddy - I spent some time initially sorting out my iTunes library - many of the CDs I'd ripped were in Mp4 format, so I converted everything to Mp3. Most of the music is fine, but some folders seem to contain duplicates of songs that are clearly hidden files. They don't show on the Mac but once the SDHC card is plugged into the car, they show up on the screen. They have the same name as the correct song file, but are proceeded with a ._. There is also a .Trashes file on the card that I'd like to get rid of.

I dragged the music folders onto the card (outside of iTunes) to load, but if you think I'm better off creating a playlist and then dragging that to the card, I'll try that. I can easily wipe the card and reload all of the music (although I'll get the problem with the card not ejecting and warnings about data loss when I pull it out). I'll try that.

Yes, I have the original discs so can reinstall the OS and I've got the message on the back-ups. It's my home computer, so it's not full of work or anything (my work machines are backed up daily), but there are photographs and music that I'd hate to lose.

Thanks again for all of your help. If I've learnt one thing from this, it's 'Don't mess around with Terminal unless you're absolutely sure what you're doing'! It's now one of my mantras for life.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: rgray on July 10, 2013, 05:53:00 AM

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Jul 9 2013, 09:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you absolutely insist on deleting a .DS_Store file (maybe because you think it is corrupted), there is absolutely no need to open Terminal. Simply open Finder->Preferences->Advanced and check theç checkbox. You can now see all those other 'hidden' files and even delete the .DS_Store file in any folder.

This does not work on my 10.8.4 set up!!!

I have that option checked in order to keep track if .doc files and their .pages conversions.

This option does not reveal .DS_Store files.

EDIT: The reason method does not work is because the name "DS_Store" is not an extension.

The method described in the post below this one by HamptonCaught works in my own testing and is written up in an OSXDaily post here with nice illustrations of just what to expect.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: HamptonCaught on July 10, 2013, 06:11:24 AM

Once I reinstall the OS, I've found a simple, safe (relatively) method of viewing all hidden files.

In Terminal, type:

defaults write.com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder

I should then be able to drag any unwanted files to the trash. I haven't tried this on the SDHC card yet, but it seems to work on the system.

Once finished, I enter;

defaults write.com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder

To get back to having hidden files hidden again.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: rgray on July 10, 2013, 07:28:13 AM

QUOTE(HamptonCaught @ Jul 10 2013, 07:11 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have tested this method. It works and is written up in an OSXDaily post here with nice illustrations of just what to expect.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Xairbusdriver on July 10, 2013, 07:37:12 AM

That short script works fine. And it is built-in by Apple. It simply writes to the .plist file (that's a type of file that stores the preferences you might change/edit. The contents of that file is what you see when you open any app's Preferences. However, there are often other things in it that you may not normally see. the "defaults write." method is the second safest way to make preference changes, the first is using the command-comma, normal method.

When you used the ShowAllFiles, did you insert the SDHC card? If you did you would have seen all those file names that your car's display is showing you. On removable volumes/drives, there will be a couple of "._" files and at least one "." file: ._DS_Store, ._Trashes and the infamous .DS_Store. There will also be several other folders/directories starting with ".": of course but also .fseventsd, .Spotlight-V100 (used by, surprise, Spotlight! assuming you haven't told Spotlight to ignore that volume) and .Trashes (guess what's in there!

).

The reason you see these files on the car's display is because it is not using the Mac OS file system. It simply displays whatever it 'sees' on the card. I don't have such a modern system on my car, I have to burn a CD for this kind of thing. But that is done by creating a Playlist in iTunes (as Paddy explains) and then burning the CD. When that method is used, the CD is recognized as an audio CD and the car's system 'knows' what needs to be displayed. I assume that the same method will work on the SDHC drive. Sounds like Paddy may have a 'smarter' car! I know she has a smarter brain! ;-)

When you simply drag and drop songs/files to the card (or even a CD) you are actually just moving the 'data' to that drive/card. Your car's system seems 'smart' enough to still be able to play the music files.

BTW, when you 'burn' the Playlist to the SDHC, notice that iTunes has a "Include CD text" (or similar text) on the first dialog you will see. If your car is as new ('smart') as I think it is, it will also write some other info on the card that may include the artist, genre, etc. My car is so old it can't even display the name of the song!!

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: HamptonCaught on July 10, 2013, 08:37:36 AM

Thanks, Jim - all useful stuff.

I haven't tried the Terminal command with the card inserted yet, but will do so tonight. And yes, I'm getting all of the hidden files that you mention when I use the card in the car.

I guess if I make a single playlist in iTunes (which is what I think Paddy is suggesting), I will then have an extra folder layer on the card. If I call the playlist 'Music' then that will be the first folder, followed by artists' folders, then albums and then album tracks. At the moment, the screen in the car goes straight to artists. Not really a problem either way. I'm much more interested in keeping all of the tags intact (including the album cover artwork, which displays on the car's screen), then in how it all breaks down. I also have to remove some duplicate hidden tracks, but I'm hoping that the Terminal command will do this as well as removing ._Trashes, .fseventsd, etc. etc.

Thanks again - I'll let you know how I get on, though I'm out of the country for the next 10 days so won't be back for a while.

Paul

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: rgray on July 10, 2013, 10:00:25 AM

QUOTE(HamptonCaught @ Jul 10 2013, 09:37 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

1. Be careful that you are only trashing 'dot' files from the card.
2. Be sure to empty the Trash before you eject the card or you will leave a Trash file on it.
3. Good luck with this.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Paddy on July 10, 2013, 10:43:56 AM

Well, my car (a 2004 Toyota Sienna) isn't exactly smart - it's actually rather old and stupid and so I can't test any of my own suggestions on it, since it plays CDs, and DVDs for those in the back, but doesn't do anything more sophisticated than that. It doesn't even have a USB plugin for an iPod - we have to use the cassette adapter, since there are too many radio stations in the GTA to ever get one of those FM transmitters to work.

But let us know how things go, Paul. And enjoy your travels.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Xairbusdriver on July 10, 2013, 11:32:11 AM

I hate to bring up an often touchy topic... but does your car's Owners Manual or a supplemental book covering the audio system have any info on this subject?

I can only assume that whatever kind of device you put your music on it must be recognized as an 'audio' (or video) container. Audio CD's have a fairly specific data structure and not all players can even use any music format except 'aif' Only newer ones can use mp3.

Further, just like a volume/drive on your computer, there is a directory that tells the system where the actual 'music' file are. But if you insert a CD that you simply burned on your Mac with any kind of file type; music, text, word processing, graphics, etc. that directory will simply include all that, also. Since the device is really not made to use all those other file types, it just displays what it sees in the directory and hopes the user has some idea of what it all means!

I'm sure you've heard people say that a computer is a very dumb machine. It is only made 'smart' by having programs that know what to do to keep us humans happy (most of the time). The CD/radio/video player in your car is even dumber than a computer! While it can play all sorts of music and/or video, its computer doesn't really know how to do much of anything else. And it doesn't really need to!

The basic problem, as I see it, is that you made what is actually a 'data' CD (card) instead of a 'audio' CD (card). The car's system did exactly what it 'thought' it should; it displayed what was on the disk/card. Period.

What happened next, back at your computer, is a completely different story.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Xairbusdriver on July 10, 2013, 12:15:44 PM

QUOTE

open Finder->Preferences->Advanced and check the "Show all file name extensions" checkbox. You can now see all those other 'hidden' files and even delete the .DS_Store file in any folder. Simple, Safe, Easy.

QUOTE("gray")

This does not work on my 10.8.4 set up!!!

This option does not reveal .DS_Store files.

EDIT: The reason method does not work is because the name "DS_Store" is not an extension.

You are absolutely correct! My furst miztaik thiz yeer!!!

I also was reminded of the biggest problem with using the "defaults write" method. I often forget I used it!

I'm pretty sure that's how I made the 'invisible' files visible... sometime ago, months? Years?!

But there are many utilities that can do this for you, also: Cocktail, Onyx and Tinkertool. I'm not sure I would remember using them any better than the 'defaults write' method, but at least I could see the settings in those apps if I but looked!

All that actually happens is that a new key and value are added to the very beginning of the Finder plist:

CODE

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>ComputerViewSettings</key>
<dict>

SHOW

CODE

That's exactly what the "defaults write" method does. It writes to whatever plist file you tell it and exactly what you tell it to write.

defaults write.com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder

defaults used to access plist files
write. Can also be read. Might be a good idea to do a read first and write down the values you see!
com.apple.Finder is the name of the plist file so there's no need to include the ".plist" part
AppleShowAllFiles the name of the key value
FALSE or TRUE In this case only a Boolean value is possible, in other cases, a numerical or even text value could be entered
; end of the defaults write command
killall Finder needed to relaunch the Finder. A plist is usually only read when an app starts. In order to get Finder to 'see' the new value, it needs to restart.

Notice that no electrons were harmed in this exercise. HOWEVER, even the defaults write method can cause problems! If you ask it to write an invalid value or even a misspelled key word, the app may not work. So judgement should still be used!

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: HamptonCaught on July 24, 2013, 04:35:03 AM

Hi all

As promised, an update. I had hoped it would have a happy ending, but I'm not quite there yet!

First the good news. Reinstalled the system software following Paddy's link above, and all worked perfectly. Went through some huge updates and now all media is ejecting as it should.

Now to try and get the music onto the SDHC card. I can create playlists in iTunes, the problem is I can't get those onto a card. Playlists won't 'drag' and if I go to 'Burn' the system wants a blank disc inserted. Unless I'm missing something, there doesn't appear to be any way to get a playlist onto a card.

In album view in iTunes, I can drag any album to the card and it will then copy over. The only issue there is that all of the tracks copy but they are not contained within a folder. So I then have to manually create two folders - one with the artists's name and one with the album name in order to maintain a structure. Unfortunately, this didn't work particularly well. There are duplicate files (e.g. where I've got 'audio_track_1.mp3', I also get '._audio_track_1.mp3') which is hidden, yet doesn't show using the terminal command shown above. These are obviously resource forks, but I fear I may be stuck with them.

Dragging the music folders directly from my hard drive (i.e. outside of iTunes) gives a mixed bag. Some work perfectly - artist name, album, track name and album cover artwork, while others have duplicate files as described above and/or no album cover artwork.

The Terminal command I listed above works well for deleting hidden files - the only one that I can't get rid of is .Trashes, which I guess I'm stuck with.

It's been suggested that TinkerTool may help so I'm going to have a look at that when I get time.

I'm not giving up on this as I don't like being beaten, but I suspect there are going to have to be some compromises.

Thanks again for all of your help and suggestions. I'll report back when I have something solid!

Paul

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: rgray on July 24, 2013, 06:05:00 AM

Take a look at a resource called Doug's Scripts for iTunes. There are a number of options for file management that may be suitable as is or modifyable for you purposes. It may be worth communicating with Doug as he seems to know a hell of a lot about iTunes.

This script might suit your needs!

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: HamptonCaught on July 24, 2013, 07:37:15 AM

QUOTE(rgray @ Jul 24 2013, 12:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Take a look at a resource called Doug's Scripts for iTunes. There are a number of options for file management that may be suitable asis or modifyable for you purposes. It may be worth communicating with Doug as he seems to know a hell of a lot about iTunes.

This script might suit your needs!

Thanks very much for that - looks interesting and 'ConvExp to Album Folders' could be just what I'm looking for. I'll have a play around and let you know how I get on.

Sometimes I just wish everything worked as it should with no issues or problems, but then I guess we'd all lead very boring lives with nothing much to talk about?

Thanks again.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: kimmer on July 24, 2013, 12:43:43 PM

QUOTE(rgray @ Jul 24 2013, 04:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Take a look at a resource called Doug's Scripts for iTunes.

Great site. Thanks!

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Xairbusdriver on July 24, 2013, 02:41:53 PM

How is that SDHC card formatted? And how did you do it?

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: HamptonCaught on July 25, 2013, 03:56:11 AM

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Jul 24 2013, 08:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How is that SDHC card formatted? And how did you do it?

Actually, I didn't format it at all - it went straight from its Amazon packaging into my computer and showed up on the desktop immediately.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Xairbusdriver on July 25, 2013, 11:12:18 AM

That's what I suspected. Cards/Flash drives/hard disks often come completely without any formatting. Whatever the first use may do the formatting automatically.

OS X will always adds the .Trashes and other 'hidden' files if it assumes the device will be used on a Mac. OS X can usually read/write to any widely-used disk format, so it's not a problem on your computer, if it was formatted on a Windows PC. However, whatever OS is used in your car's CD player may expect different OS and fewer files. And I doubt it would expect to see an OS X format.

Again, the only way to know that is from any User Manual that should have come with the vehicle. In all probability, it is a version of Windows. You can format the card (I think) in either MS-DOS (FAT) or EXFAT. That may prevent its use in a camera but you seem to be mainly interested in audio, anyway. And reformatting is simple.

So, first see if there is any info in any User Manual for your vehicle, hopefully, it will specify a format that you can do in DU. It may even be possible to format the card in the CD player!

After getting the correct format, see if iTunes will then 'see' the card as a usable device for placing Playlists.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: HamptonCaught on July 26, 2013, 07:18:00 AM

QUOTE(rgray @ Jul 24 2013, 12:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I downloaded 'Export to Album Folders' last night and having set up a playlist in iTunes, ran the entire playlist through it. It actually does what it does very well, but when I put the card back into the car, there are some albums missing the cover art, some not displaying the track title properly and many that have hidden duplicate (resource forks) files. Some of this I can probably get around manually - I'll just have to work through my iTunes library and check all of the tags, but I'm looking at trying something called 'DriveCleaner' (not the Symantec product of the same name!) to see if I can eliminate the duplicates.

I might also try 'ConvExp to Album Folders' from the DougScripts link you provided, just to see if it handles things any differently.

I'll report back.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: rgray on July 26, 2013, 12:25:58 PM

The feedback is appreciated. Thank you.

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Xairbusdriver on July 26, 2013, 05:28:24 PM

Peaking of Feedback, any info in your owners manual? At least a mention of the card formatting requirements?

As long as you allow OS X to treat it as a Mac volume, it will always put the .Trashes and probably the .DS_Store, .fseventsd and .Spotlight files on there. That what it is designed to do. Period. And the OS for the player obviously has no idea what to do with those. So, if you want to prevent them from being installed, you will probably need to format it as instructed in the manual (at least it should have instructions for that).

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: rgray on July 26, 2013, 09:15:33 PM

An ordinary SD card probably was formatted MSDOS or FAT32 when it came from the manufacture.

I think OSX writes .DS etc files whatever the format it is writing to but I don't have anything to test it on.....

The owners manual or the dealer should be able to clue you on this issue.

I believe you said the car was a Golf??? I did a quick Google search on search on golf sd card format and it looks like the sd card should be format FAT32.

Also I found this by searching golf sd card mac

QUOTE

some more information for you
1. Make sure that all of your music files are .MP3 files
2. If you are using a Macintosh to fill your SD card, there is one additional step you need to take.

Take a look at the music files from on your radio, if there are ones that start with the prefix "._" this means that they are invisible resource files that the Mac uses to keep track of the file's metadata, and they need to be removed prior to using in the Car.

To do that you need to install some system software on your Mac to automatically remove these files. The software is called Blue Harvest.

Once you have this software installed, you can set it that it will automatically clean your SD card every time new music files are copied to it.

Hope this helps

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: Xairbusdriver on July 26, 2013, 09:29:46 PM

Title: All media refusing to eject from iMac
Post by: HamptonCaught on July 27, 2013, 09:36:22 AM

Sorry I didn't get back on the users' manual. Here it is;

'SD and MMC memory cards using FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT 32 or VFAT file system up to max. 2GB, SDHC memory cards up to max. 32GB and SDXC memory cards up to max. 2TB.

I have a 32GB SDHC card and yes, the car is the Mk 7 VW Golf.

I had looked at Blue Harvest and noticed that they do a free trial, so that may be the way to go. If it works, then I'll happily pay for it.

I feel like I'm devoting too much of my life to this right now, but really appreciate your contributions - it feels much easier when there are others willing to offer advice and help.

Thanks again - I'll be back!

Paul