# Why do MP3s degrade on a USB stick in a car? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2018, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mp3s-degrade-on-a-usb-stick-in-a-car/811192 "2018-03-26T09:49:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mp3s-degrade-on-a-usb-stick-in-a-car/811192/21 "2018-03-27T06:04:18Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > \*Automatic \*Cloud backup plus an \*automatic \*incremental backup to an HDD that is \*internal \*to the computer plus source code repository. > > Well, that’s what I do, but hear me out : > > a. A backup you didn’t make is useless, so it needs to be automatic > b. Since it’s automatic, you shouldn’t have to plug something in to your computer, so I use a 4 TB internal drive for backups. Tougher if you have a laptop though some have the room inside for 2 drives. > c. The main drive can fail at any time. So you should store a recovery image of the drive, made automatically. > d. Something can happen to physically destroy your computer at any time. Or even your whole house. So you should store a copy to the cloud of your data, automatically. > e. Software source code, if you’re a developer, is worth way more than everything else, so you should use repositories and then push milestones to github or an internal server network if you work for a large company. Pretty good basic advice, I’d say; I arrived at a similar set of conclusions by a not-dissimilar list of challenges: People forget - backups don’t get made People make mistakes - files get overwritten or destroyed Computers break down or get stolen - files become inaccessible Buildings burn - files are destroyed Companies go out of business - backups become inaccessible Any one of those things can happen at any time. Two of those things happening simultaneously is unlikely. And if you have a set of solutions against each of the above, three simultaneous failures are not worth guarding against (in that very unlikely event, start over or go and live as a hermit). ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mp3s-degrade-on-a-usb-stick-in-a-car/811192/22 "2018-03-27T06:31:22Z")
Oh, one thing I can add. I have a friend who uses a laptop as his main work machine. What he does is attach the backup drive to a dock, so that whenever his laptop is plugged into the dock, the drive is available. I _think_ windows automatic backup is smart enough to work with this. (where the destination drive isn’t always present) I know Backblaze is. You can set backblaze to save all your data folders on your main HDD, and your incrementals and system images on your backup drive, to their data center. If your laptop is doing it’s backblaze run and doesn’t happen to have that external drive plugged in, it’ll just backup the other stuff until the drive shows up again. Apple offers a “time machine” product that makes all this seamless, of course. ---
**Author:** ![AlonzoSWhitebeard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71c47a/32.png) [@AlonzoSWhitebeard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlonzoSWhitebeard)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mp3s-degrade-on-a-usb-stick-in-a-car/811192/23 "2018-03-27T08:15:22Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > What exactly do you mean when you say the files are saved as entire albums? One huge .mp3 for each album? Or do you mean each album has its own folder with separate .mp3 files? Or, though unlikely, are you using an .m3u playlist file? > > I’m guessing one huge .mp3 for each album. That could be problematic on some media players, as could whatever method you originally used to create those huge .mp3 files. You should try [checking your .mp3 files for errors, it’s easy.](https://www.lifewire.com/check-mp3-files-for-errors-2438831) > > But I’m not clear on one other important detail: Were all these albums that eventually have problems previously playing perfectly in the car and only degraded over time through repeated plays, or are you saying the albums each degrade at the same point every time you’ve played them in the car? Yes, one huge MP3 for each album. I’ll try that utility, thanks. Originally, each file played perfectly. Degradation does seem to have correlated to repeated plays, although once degradation has occurred, it is always audible at the same point. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mp3s-degrade-on-a-usb-stick-in-a-car/811192/24 "2018-03-27T10:48:49Z")
I’m wondering if the device playing the files might be somehow altering them - it would be very unusual for a ‘player’ type device to try to do that, and not much of a rationale for it either, but there’s no technical reason preventing it in general ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mp3s-degrade-on-a-usb-stick-in-a-car/811192/25 "2018-03-27T13:41:51Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I use a USB flash drive for music in the car, and I haven’t had trouble with it for years. I do, sometimes. Out of maybe 700 songs on my USB stick, a small handful cut out halfway through (they previously didn’t) or won’t play entirely and just immediately skip to the next track. Not many, maybe 10-15 songs total. The USB wasn’t “convention swag” crap quality but was still maybe $16 or so so not high end stuff either. Also it’s a low profile stick so maybe some quality corners get cut to make it stubby. Anyway, it’s not a huge deal for me since I tend to wipe everything off and replace it once every 8-12 months just to freshen my music selection and dump tracks I’m tired of hearing. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mp3s-degrade-on-a-usb-stick-in-a-car/811192/26 "2018-03-28T04:10:04Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > In my role as tech support, I’ve often reminded people that USB drives are volatile and will eventually fail when I discover that they are using them as their sole backup source. People tend to put a lot more faith in them than they deserve. Still, once I inadvertently ran a USB drive through a washing machine, and itsm suffered no damage or data loss whatsoever. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-mp3s-degrade-on-a-usb-stick-in-a-car/811192.md?page=1)