GRACENOTE® MUSIC DATABASE VERSION 9 UPDATE

Go directly to:     Disabling Gracenote

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A database update dated June 2018 is available!
NOTE: Version 12 has since been released.  See new article with updated links

When playing music on your Infotainment Center, you may notice the album covers that are displayed corresponding to the current song.  This is one of the features of the Gracenote® database stored in memory.  The initial 2017 Fiat 124 Spiders were shipped with version 5 of this database which dates back to 2015, so songs released since then will not be recognized, so by updating your database, more recent songs will be recognized.

Other benefits of updating your database:

• Because a phonetic database is also included, voice recognition of artist and album names will be improved when searching using the microphone
• Once music is identified by MusicID, Gracenote® algorithms can transform music into killer playlists organized by similar Genres, Moods and Tempos
• Logo and Genre database for all known AM, FM and HD radio stations is also updated

HD Radio station album art example (I tweaked the system to enlarge the album art, display current date, compass, altitude, speed, get rid of the red border around the status bar message & display my preferred background)

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Although more recent 2017 and 2018 vehicles may have come with version 7, rather than version 5, in either case an even newer update – version 9 has recently been released (June 2018) for the Fiat Connect system (and Mazda Connect).  My North American file (280 MB), took close to 15 minutes to update.  Downloads:

European version for Europe (UK, Russia, Germany, France, etc)

North American version for US, Mexico and Canada

ADR version (Australian Design Rules) for Australia, NZ, Taiwan, South America, South Africa, Philippines, Thailand and Oceania

Chinese version is for China, Hong Kong and Macau

Japanese version

Instructions

Using a USB drive, here are the Windows instructions to update (do not use a Mac computer to format the USB drive as files are added that your Infotainment Center doesn’t like*):

1. Insert a FAT 32 formatted USB 2.0 or 3.0 drive into your computer.

2. Download the appropriate gracenotes .up file (from the links above) to the USB drive. Please ensure you have at least 400 megabytes of space remaining and the gracenotes.up file is saved to the top level of file folders on your USB drive.

• Firefox: After selecting the “click here” link on the website and selecting “Save to Disk,” click “OK,” find the gracenotes .up file in your designated download folder, right-click on the file icon, select “Send To,” and select your USB device by name and/or drive letter in the window to transfer the file.
• Chrome: After selecting the “click here” link on the website, click “Show in folder” next to the gracenotes .up file name at the bottom of the window, click “Move this file,” locate your USB device by name and/or drive letter in “My Computer,” and click “Move” to transfer the file.
• IE8/9/10: After selecting the “click here” link on the website, click “Save” in the “File Download” window, select where you will save the gracenotes .up file. It is recommended that you save the gracenotes .up file directly to your USB drive.

3. When the download to the USB drive is complete, safely remove the USB drive from your computer.

4. Make sure your phone is unpaired from the vehicle, especially if you have a lot of contacts, and remove any USB drive(s) with media files, so that you free up enough memory to install the new gracenotes .up file.

5. Insert your update USB drive into your vehicle’s USB port.

6. Select “Settings” on the vehicle’s main display screen.

7. Scroll right and select the “System” tab.

8. Select “Music Database Update”.

9. The system will ask you if you would like to search for an update package for the Music Database on your USB device. Select “Search”.

10. The system shows your current Music Update version and lists updates available on your USB device. Select the newest update.

11. The system displays the version of the Music Update currently installed on your system and asks if you want to install the Music Update version you selected in step 8. Select “Install”.

12. The update may take several (close to 15) moments.

Once completed, the system will display that the update was successful and instruct you to acknowledge a reboot.  If by chance the update is taking longer than 15 minutes, be sure to momentarily step on the brake pedal to insure that the system doesn’t go to sleep as this will corrupt the upgrade.

13. The USB drive can be safely removed from the vehicle port as it’s rebooting.

*     bspielman recommends using Funter to clean up USB drives that were formatted using a Mac.

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Disabling Gracenote

For those that are disappointed in its function, or can’t stand their USB mp3 tags and album artwork getting overridden by Gracenote,

you can intentionally disrupt the upgrade, by hitting the start button twice after the halfway point has been reached in Step 12, as shown in the screenshot above, as well as in this video…

you will have essentially wiped out Gracenote.  Be aware that once Gracenote is disabled, album art will no longer appear for songs playing in radio mode. 

By properly following the upgrade procedure, you can always reinstall/upgrade the database once again, should you wish to reinstate Gracenote. 

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If you find mistakes in the Gracenote database, you are encouraged to submit corrections (using iTunes) that hopefully will be implemented in a future update.