Help with Pono?


Can anyone help me get my Pono to load music onto the SD card? I've written to the Pono Help folks 4 times now and the problem still isn't solved (they seem pretty clueless). Maybe I just don't understand how to do this. The tutorial video seems to imply that when loading music, I can drag files to the SD card, but the SD card isn't showing up near the place on the lower left of the screen where I drag and drop files to the Pono itself, which has worked find.

FWIW, I'm pretty impressed with this thing otherwise. Sounds a lot better than my old iPod or newer iPhone. I'm really surprise so many people haven been negative about this thing. Although I definitely think their communication with customers and instructions for how to get the most out of it need to be improved.
128x128tpy
Here's a few things you can try. First, make sure whatever file system that Pono uses is compatible with your OS. Also, keep the power on when you connect to a computer. Another option would be to put music on the SD card first.
Thanks. I know that Pono is compatible with my operating system. I tried connecting the Pono while it was on and that didn't do anything different. I like the idea of putting music on the SD card independent of Pono by transferring files to it, but it's a micro SD card and my iMac doesn't have an interface to plug one that small into. I would imagine there must be an adapter of some sort I could use. Could I put it into my printer and get it to read that way?

My understanding is that there is supposed to be a some sort of symbol for the SD card at the lower left part of the screen, where there's a box with Pono written and a downward pointing arrow (for downloads) which is where I drop files to load them onto the player itself. But I don't see anything. But it may be that I'm not understanding how it ought to work.

Many thanks for your suggestions!
"04-19-15: Tpy
Thanks. I know that Pono is compatible with my operating system."

Even though its compatible with your OS, you still may need to install a file system. For example, Pono may use a file system called ext4. Your Mac doesn't support that system from the factory. You need to download and install it.

"The tutorial video seems to imply that when loading music, I can drag files to the SD card, but the SD card isn't showing up near the place on the lower left of the screen where I drag and drop files to the Pono itself, which has worked find."

You may have to use the file system to do that. Look there and see if the SD card comes up as a drive or partition. If it does, you drag and drop into that location.

"I like the idea of putting music on the SD card independent of Pono by transferring files to it, but it's a micro SD card and my iMac doesn't have an interface to plug one that small into. I would imagine there must be an adapter of some sort I could use."

There is. They usually include the adapter when you buy a micro sd card. Its not expensive. If you don't have the adapter, just buy a cheap micro sd card and use that. If you don't have an sd card reader on you computer, you can buy another adapter that goes from sd to usb.
I'm pretty unsophisticated about computers and am not sure what you mean by a file system, or ext4, or how I would install that. Do you mean I would install it onto the micro SD card, or onto the Pono unit itself?
To start off with, I assume that when you say you're trying to drag and drop files to your sd card, you're doing so while the sd card is in the Pono player. If that's the case, it would probably be easier to just remove the sd card from Pono, and connect it to your computer directly. You would then put whatever files you want on it, remove it, and put it back in the Pono player. But to do this, you'll have to get a micro sd to sd adapter, like I mentioned in my last post. Also, if you don't have a regular sd card slot on your computer, you'll also need to get an sd to usb adapter. Both of those pieces are very cheap and you should be able to get them at a place like Best Buy or Walmart.

I have the exact same setup with a tablet that has a micro sd card. Its a pain to transfer files to the sc card while its in the tablet, so I just pull it out and plug it into the computer directly. I know it may sound complicated, but after you do it once, you'll see that its a fairly simple process. Keep in mind, that the sd card is just another disk drive. It works just like a hard drive or a usb drive.
all you need to do is put the card in the pono and hook the pono to your puter with the provided usb cable. You will see two drives...the Pono internal and the card drive. EZ. this is the easiest way.
Is your SD card real or a bootleg? If you bought it off ebay at a rock bottom price chances are it is a bootleg SD micro card and basically good for nothing. If you bought it at your local computer or electronics store it should be fine.
Question:
If I don't own a Pono, is it still possible to download some of the High Rez Neil Young selections from the Pono site?
I tried it, but it seemed to be looking for my Pono player.
Thanks to all for your suggestions. I was able to make it work by transferring from my music NAS to the pono disk without using the pono softward, as Cerrot suggested. Now all is fine.

Ozzy, buying music from the Pono site doesn't require a pono player. You can buy just as from any site, but you do need to install the Pono software to download the music -- and then transfer to whatever folders you use for your music library. It's pretty intuitive, even I was able to figure it out. There may be other ways to download, but I'm pretty sure you need the Pono software, which if free.

fwiw, Neil's high rez albums are consistently very good, nice improvements over CD.
"04-21-15: Tpy
Thanks to all for your suggestions. I was able to make it work by transferring from my music NAS to the pono disk without using the pono softward, as Cerrot suggested. Now all is fine."

Good job Cerrot. You see, its not always necessary to chop everything up into little pieces. Other solutions do exist.
If you really want to hear what the Pono can do...shot gun it (balanced mode).
Thats the idea, Tpy. Thats the way you will get the most out of it. You need a balanced cable and phones that can handle it. I got the surf balanced headphone cable ($80) for my Sennheiser 650s. SUPER SWEET!
"04-25-15: Tpy
Can you do that with headphones? I don't think my phones would work for that."

Go to headphone.com. Its a very good resource.