Q&A for How to Put Music on a Flash Drive

That depends on the length and format of the files. It's generally somewhere around 4000.

You can get an adapter called an OTG cable to essentially plug a USB drive into your phone or tablet.. However, if your device can use a microSD card, that's a much better option. Some other devices, like some modern televisions, game consoles, and Blu-ray players, have USB ports and are capable of playing music.

Yes, as long as you use the Send To option in Windows or drag from iTunes on a Mac, the original files will stay on your computer and copies will be made on the USB drive.

If your tracks are all one file, then you can cut the space in between using Audacity. You just need to recognize where the actual end of each track is. If there are multiple tracks, there is no way to edit out the pauses, since it is loading the next track. If your music is made up of official rips from CDs, you should be able to find a music player app that can play music files without pausing between tracks. For example, iTunes can do it.

Yes, you can do this with nearly every type of file. If you're using it on another computer, make sure it is able to read the type of files on the USB drive.

The laptop doesn’t matter, the OS does. If your drive is formatted as fat32, ntfs, or exfat, it will work with all major OSes (Windows, MacOS, Linux). If formatted as anything that starts with “Mac OS” it will only work with macOS. If formatted as Ext1, Ext2, Ext3, or Ext4, it will only work with Linux. Reformat your drive as fat32 then copy the music again, as fat32 will work on basically anything (stereos, laptops, TVs, etc.).

Maybe your car stereo is broken, if not don’t place music in folders, don’t use any other file extension other than .mp3 ( .wav, .wma, .mp4 etc may not be supported) and try to use a different USB drive (if you can, go for a USB 2.0 drive to maximize compatibility). If not, just try getting a CD spindle and burner and burn the music to a CD.

If your computer has a CD Slot (common on MacBooks and Macs) just push the CD in. If your computer has a CD tray, push the Eject button (on or near the CD Drive). Then when the tray comes out, take your CD and rest it on the tray. Then press the Eject button again for the tray to close (with your CD inside). Your music CD is successfully inside your computer. Most new computers and some old computers do not come with a CD drive, so buy an external CD drive if yours does not have one / your computer's CD drive is broken.

Format it as fat32, and make sure the files are .mp3, and make sure the files are not in any folder, then copy again.

Because it is a shortcut. Try copying the file again (delete the shortcut before doing this) or try a different file as a shortcut file may not play outside the computer that you copied it with or if the main file is deleted.

Put your CDs in your CD writer in the PC or laptop and then go to the CD folder than press Ctrl + A (or Command + A on a Mac) then go to the USB drive and press Ctrl + V (or Command + V on a Mac).

Make sure your files are .mp3, and make sure your speakers work, and try different music files. If the different files work, your music is likely corrupt.