Run flac files off hard drive?

[pinballmaster]

I have a 2017 Camaro. Is there a way to run a large collection of music/flac files off a portable hard drive through the USB port?

I've tried before and it didn't find the hard drive. Maybe it wasn't formatted in the right format? It's a 5TB drive. Is there a size limit?

I've read it can run MP3's off a flash drive stick, but that would only hold a fraction of my collection. I also don't have an easy way to convert it all.

I'd prefer to just have a CD player, but I guess that's not an option?

Any information would be appreciated.

[NZZL1]

It is not possible with the factory 2017 MyLink specifications as follows.

USB MP3 Player and USB Drives
. The USB MP3 players and USB drives connected must comply with the USB Mass Storage Class specification (USB MSC).
. Hard disk drives are not supported.
. The following restrictions apply for the data stored on a USB

MP3 player or USB device:
‐ Maximum folder structure depth: 11 levels.
‐ Applicable audio extensions are mp3, wma, aac, m4a, and aif.
‐ WMA and Apple lossless files are not supported.
‐ Supported file systems are FAT32 and NTFS.

An average after-market system that can support FLAC, will likely also have system limitations in indexing such a large library.

This is the reason that I have an Android head unit with Plex Player, Wi-Fi connected to a Windows PC and Plex Server with 1TB of FLAC, TOSLINK to Alpine DSP (no DACs in the signal chain), although this architecture does introduce a lot more design challenge and cost.

[Valkyrie14]

You could also get a FIX 86 which converts your signal to 24 bit. I play ALAC from my phone through the USB and sounds great. I know this doesn’t answer your external hard drive question. But for sound quality it allow you to keep the factory head unit. Otherwise I agree with the previous post. Sony’s new head unit plays FLAC and ALAC, not sure about from a hard drive.