Google helpfully informs me that people were struggling with this problem (the in-car player ignores both metadata and file names and displays tracks in the album alphabetically sorted by name) in different incarnations of the infotainment system all across the JRL vehicles since at least 2020, but it looks like this problem hasn't been solved yet. Does that sound right, or did I simply miss that only link that offers the working solution?

Lacking that, what's a decent player Android folks use? I saw that Rocket Music Player works and exposes the library browser interface right on the console, but I also saw that there's a problem with ads in it, and that its user data policy rubs me the wrong way. Anything better out there?

PS: and there must be a special circle in hell for whomever decided that turning the music on on start when I explicitly shut it off before turning off the engine is a good idea.

 

My USB sticks are loaded with tracks from my iTunes (Music) as individual songs. In the car they can be played as songs, random songs, albums, artist. Pretty much what my ipod used to do.

 

I posted here about this before, and as far as I can tell it was never solved. All metadata does seem to be ignored, and even the filename ordering was off.

 

I believe the PIVI Music software is from a company called Grace Notes. I've been trying to chase this down for months. Grace Notes don't seem to provide direct support and refer you to the OEM. I actually sent an email to LR Customer Service. It actually bounced back to me. Dead end.

 

Correct - Gracenote basically provides their services to virtually every OEM at this point. However, it only seems to work with SXM, and FM/HD Radio. Makes sense as I'm pretty sure its web-based, and why you wouldn't be getting anything with music downloaded to a USB stick.